The Underground Railroad

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The Underground Railroad

• A Social Studies Unit created for Second grade
• By Amanda Apkarian
• Sienna Schenk
• Lindsey Smith

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Table of Contents

• History
• People in Societies
• Geography
• Economics
• Government
• Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities
• Social Studies Skills and Methods

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Standard History

• Activities
• 1. Students will create a timeline of Harriet
  Tubmans life using research from the internet
  and books they will read about her life.
• 2. Students will create a game called Who said
  this? Each student will write something to
  identify a person from the era of slavery and
  Harriet Tubman, and draw a picture of that person
  or a scene. Students will try to guess the person
  they are describing.
• - Ex. Of people Abe Lincoln, Harriet Tubman,
  abolitionists, Ben Tubman, conductors, Harriets
  brother, John Tubman, masters, Old Rit (Harriets
  Mother), overseers, runaway slaves, slave
  catchers, station masters, Miss Susan, Thomas
  Garrett
• 3. Students will summarize chapters and draw
  illustrations using the book Wanted Dead or
  Alive The True Story of Harriet Tubman. Students
  will work as partners and be assigned to a
  chapter in the book.
• 4. Children will write to the governor of New
  York, where Harriet Tubman moved, lived, and
  died, to convince him and the New York
  legislators to pass a legislation for Harriet
  Tubman Day. They will use facts that they have
  learned about Harriet Tubman, her life, and what
  she did for people, to persuade them.
• 5. Students will make a Vocabulary Quilt using
  words that are important to know about the
  Underground RR and Harriet Tubman.

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Standard History

• Websites
• www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/hfame.html
• www.nationalgeographic.com/features/railroad
• http//dep.disney.go.com/educational/lessons?id16
  9
• http//www.afgen.com/underground_railroad.html
• http//www.cr.nps.gov/aahistory/ugrr/ugrr.htm

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Standard People in Societies

• Activities
• I will explain to students that they will compare
  the life of slavery with the life of freedom
  before and after the Civil War.
• a. I will print out slaves accounts of their
  life of slavery for students to read.
• b. Children will write accounts on their own of
  what that slaves life might have been like after
  the Emancipation Proclamation.
• c. We will talk about the Emancipation
  Proclamation and what it means.
• d. Students will print out resources using the
  internet to research life immediately after the
  civil war, and find the state or region where
  their assigned slave lived.

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Standard People in Societies

• Activities
• 2. Ask students to list qualities of a hero, and
  who there heroes are.
• a. What makes them special? What qualities would
  a worker of the Underground Railroad need or
  possess? List the students responses on the
  board.
• b. Go to the website at www.nationalgeographic.co
  m/features/railroad to give them an idea of what
  it was like for a slave, and list the names of
  the people they encountered. Explain that these
  people all helped slaves on their journey over
  the Underground Railroad.
• c. Have the students write what they would have
  done to help slaves. How would they have made
  themselves heroes for the slaves?

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Standard People in Societies

• Activities
• 3. Students will research and write a report
  about Harriet Tubmans life, and the impact she
  had on slavery and the Underground Railroad.
• 4. Students will research and write about
  Fredrick Douglas and his impact on slavery and
  the Underground Railroad. The student will then
  compare Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas and
  their views/beliefs.
• 5. Students will put on a play of Harriet Tubman
  and the Underground Railroad for the rest of the
  school.

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Standard People in Societies

• Websites
• www.aakulturezone.com/kidz/abc/harriet.html
• http//memory.loc.gov/anmem/snhtml/snhome.html
• http//www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/hfame.h
  tml
• www.nationalgeographic.com/features/railroad
• www.educationworld.com/a-lesson/02/lp252-03.shtml

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Standard Geography

• Activities
• Students will work in groups of two three
  students and map out the route the slaves took
  during their escape on the Underground Railroad.
• Students will examine the route in which slaves
  took in the State of Ohio.
• Students will research the various climates and
  environments the slaves were exposed to from the
  South to the North. They will present their
  findings to the class.
• Students will write several journal letters to
  their loved ones as if they were traveling on the
  Underground Railroad. They will note what they
  see and experience as they take this journey.
• Students will replicate the route the slaves took
  on the Underground Railroad by making a mini
  model. Students will also include the states and
  important bodies of water that are located near
  or around the route, the slaves took.

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Standard Geography

• Websites
• http//www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/1
  364/Constellations.html
• http//www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/map.htm
  l
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad
  
• http//www.dot.state.oh.us/dist6/pdfs/UGRR/RTLFTma
  p.pdf
• http//www.post-gazette.com/pg/05036/451287.stm

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Standard Economics

• Activities
• Students will make a chart comparing how
  production, distribution, and consumption was
  during the 1850s and present day. How do they
  differ? How did people get goods from one place
  to another?
• Students will make food from scratch. This is
  what the slaves did on a daily basis.
• Students will research a latest invention of the
  1850s and present their findings to the class.
• Students will draw all means of transportation
  available during the 1860s.
• Students will sing songs related to the 1850s
  that the slaves sang. This is what was used as
  entertainment during this era. Students will then
  create their own songs.

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Standard Economics

• Websites
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1850
• http//www.crisco.com/recipes/from_scratch/bread_b
  akery.asp
• http//www.bricksandbrass.co.uk/deshist/dates.htm
  
• http//www.assumption.edu/ahc/Daily20Life/WEB20P
  AGES/TRANSPORTATION.html
• http//www.ushistory.com/rrlyric.htm

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Standard Government

• Activities
• Field trip to Springboro Historical Society to
  observe artifacts and tour the sites.
• Students will each decorate a square piece of
  fabric. Their piece of fabric will serve as a
  symbol of the Underground Railroad. The teacher
  can sew together the fabric pieces to make a
  quilt.
• The Compromise of 1850 gave slave owners the
  right to organize a team to capture runaway
  slaves. Ask the students if they agree with this
  law. Each student will create their own law,
  giving rights to slave owners or runaway slaves.
• Take a field trip to, or have a representative
  come from the National Underground Railroad
  Freedom Center.
• Have students research who the President was
  during the time of the Underground Railroad. Did
  the President have slaves? Did he support the
  Underground Railroad? What role did he play?

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Standard Government

• Websites
• http//www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/hfame.h
  tml
• http//education.ucdavis.edu/NEW/STC/lesson/socstu
  d/railroad/SlaveLaw.htm
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html
• http//www.freedomcenter.org/
• http//www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/

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Standard Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities

• Activities
• After researching about the Underground Railroad,
  students will decide whether or not they would
  have helped people, like Harriet Tubman. The
  students must have three solid reasons supporting
  their decision.
• Students will role-play the Underground Railroad.
  Students may make props and dress up.
  Role-playing will recreate the Underground
  Railroad and allow students to act out the
  different opinions from the people during this
  era.
• After researching about the Underground Railroad,
  students will decide whether or not they would
  have opened their houses to the runaway slaves.
  Would they provide money, food and clothing? The
  students must have three solid reasons supporting
  their decision.
• The Underground Railroad required trust and
  cooperation. Ask students questions about the
  supporters of the Underground Railroad. How did
  everyone work together? How did they communicate?
  Did the supporters have code words? How did the
  slaves leave their plantations? How did the
  slaves know where to go? Students may work
  together in pairs to answer these questions.
  Students may have to search books and the
  Internet for these answers. When students are
  finished researching, have a discussion.
• Many people who were involved with the
  Underground Railroad were caught. Ask students to
  research how the people who were caught were
  punished.

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Standard Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities

• Websites
• http//www.history.rochester.edu/class/ugrr/home.h
  tml
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad
• http//www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/under
  groundrailroad.htm
• http//afroamhistory.about.com/od/undergroundrailr
  oad/a/undergroundrr.htm
• http//www2.lhric.org/pocantico/tubman/tubman.html
  

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Standard Social Studies Skills and Methods

• Activities
• Using multiple resources (books, internet,
  videos), students will pair up and find some
  interesting facts about the Underground Railroad.
  Students must find at least three facts. Students
  will write these facts on sentence strips. Staple
  the students sentence strips onto a bulletin
  board titled Fun Facts about the Underground
  Railroad.
• Students will pretend they are slaves traveling
  the Underground Railroad. Each student will
  create a journal of his/her travels. Students
  should be creative and descriptive! Students will
  be able to predict their own outcome based off
  their knowledge of the Underground Railroad.
• Have students map out the trails of the
  Underground Railroad. What problems did the
  slaves face? What were some things that helped
  the slaves?

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Standard Social Studies Skills and Methods

• 4. Have a research party. During this party,
  students will be researching and reading about
  the Underground Railroad. Have a variety of books
  and resources for students to look at. Students
  may want to bring some of their own resources in.
  
• 5. Play What do you do? Spilt the class into
  four groups. Each group will be presented with a
  problem. Students will need to work together to
  solve their problem. Each group of students will
  present their problem and solution to the class.
  This will create some wonderful classroom
  discussions and debates!
• -Problem 1 You are a slave owner and discovered
  all of your slaves ran away. What do you do?
• -Problem 2 You are a runaway slave. You are
  traveling the Underground Railroad when you
  discover that your owner is following you and is
  not far behind. What do you do?
• -Problem 3 You are a supporter of the
  Underground Railroad. You open your house to the
  runaway slaves. The police come to your door to
  search your house. You have three runaway slaves
  in your house. What do you do?
• -Problem 4 You do not support the Underground
  Railroad. Some runaway slaves show up at your
  house and beg you for food and a place to stay.
  What do you do?

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Standard Social Studies Skills and Methods

• Websites
• http//www.nps.gov/undergroundrr/ugsum.htm
• http//messenger.yahooligans.com/reference/encyclo
  pedia/entry/48499
• http//www.whitepinepictures.com/seeds/i/5/sidebar
  .html
• http//library.bhbl.neric.org/webquest/underground
  /stations.htm
• http//www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/explore/magazine/
  sprsum96/UNDERGRR.htm

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The End