Glossary

1) expedition- (noun) an event in which someone(s) searches or explores with an objective: every pot

2) despite- (preposition) even though: editorial

3)pneumonia- (noun) a sometimes fatal disease affecting the lungs:character profile of lewis

4)keen- (adjective) having or marked by intellectual quickness and acuity: character profile of lewis

5)species-(noun) a kind variety or type: letter to Jefferson

6)route-(noun) a pathway: map

7)camas- (noun) a plant in the lily family: letter to Jefferson

8)quamash- (noun) [see camas]: letter to Jefferson

9)Nez Perce- (noun) North American tribe [native americans]: letter to Jefferson

10)extraordinary- (adjective) special or amazing: editorial

11)aspect- (noun) different perspectives: editorial

12)White Philadelpus Lewisii-(noun) a flower named after Lewis: letter to Jefferson

13)Pink Clarkia Puchella- (noun) a flower named after Clark: letter to Jefferson

Character Profle of Meriwether Lewis

Meriwether Lewis was one of the main leaders of the expedition into the western land. He was born on August 18, 1774 in a family of skilled cooks and soldiers. The Lewis family knew the Jefferson family because they had lived near each other in Virginia. Meriwether and Thomas grew up together and became close friends.

Meriwether was brought up in an environment in which he learned about nature and observation. When he later became Jefferson's personal secretary when Jefferson was president; Jefferson made sure he became an even more keen observer and made sure he was prepared for anything before sending him on the expedition. He also learned how to use herbs as medicine just has his aunt did.

When Lewis returned from the expedition he was famous. Thomas Jefferson wanted him to turn his reports from his journey into a book. But it was just too hard for Meriwether, so it wasn't done. He was also made the governor of Louisiana. Very few people realized how stressed Meriwether was with the job.

When traveling to Washington, overcome with the stress, he shot himself. Those who didn't know him had though he was murdered. And then there was those, who ignoring the bullet wound, suspected he died from pneumonia. And just like that, the life of the man who changed the USA was gone forever...

Reflection:

I did this post for mainly the same reason as the crossword puzzle. I had some trouble finding our about Meriwether's family and early life. I think this might have turned out to be ore of a biography than a character profile. I've been having trouble making my character profiles not sound like biographies. But other than that, I think it is a pretty good character profile.

Corssword Puzzle

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ACROSS 2. Sacajawea's Brother 6. The river that was followed 8. Who the land was bought from 9. Objective of the expedition 10. Capturers of Sacajawea

DOWN 1. The buyer of the land 3. The men listed as helpers on the expedition 4. The cost of the land 5. Woman who gave birth during the expedition 7. What wasn't found

Reflection:

I know that I already had one game post in my blog, so when I made this post it was because I neeeded to have ten by a certain date and the two posts I was going to do would have taken to long. I had some trouble coming up with more questions for the crossword puzzle but now thee questions are split up between the puzzle and the quiz so I don't think I need to add more questions to either.

MAP

Here is a map of the expedition. This shows the route that Lewis and Clark took while traveling. Their expedition confirmed the extension of the US into Washington and Oregon. They had taken this route (traveling next to and in the Missouri River) because that's what they were looking for, water going across the US. They had planned the route specifically so that they might find the route they were told was there.



Here is the website I got it from:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.worldbook.com/wb/images/content_spotlight/lewis_and_clark/expeditionmap.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students%3Fcontent_spotlight/lewis_and_clark/expedition&h=294&w=599&sz=53&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=KRs1vKWh3otmjM:&tbnh=66&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dexpedition%2B%2Bof%2Blewis%2Band%2Bclark%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Reflection:
To be honest I did a map for a post because I knew it would be one of the easier things to do. I didn't have much time to come up with another post, so I took the easy way out. I think that if the whole map showed in the post when at the main page it would be a mostly successful map, but for some reason the whole map just doesn't show which is a problem.

A letter to Jefferson

Dear Sir Jefferson,

I am writing to you to inform you of the progress on the expedition. We have came across some interesting species in our travels. We have discovered a new creature that spends its time in the prairie. We have called it the prairie dog. We were truly amazed a gruesome looking bear. Thus, we have called it the grizzly bear. I have been documenting all of the sites we have seen on our journey. I have specific descriptions of every new discovery. I'd love to share with you my discoveries at the moment, but I a quite busy at the moment. So I will just inform you of some more of our discoveries.

There are plants we found new kinds of plant life too! There are many different colored plants just as there are in the north. There is a plant that some Nez Perce eat. It is called camas. Some also call it quamash. I would love for yo to see everything that I have.

Sincerely,
Meriwether Lewis

Here are pictures I found of the discoveries I talked about and some other things:
(obviously Lewis wouldn't have added this part)

grizzly bear

buffalo

this is a picture of a prairie dog
this is something like what
they might have seen

Here are two flowers that Lewis and Clark found. They became named after them. white Philadelphus lewisii and the other flower became called the pink Clarkia pulchella.

Reflection:

I was really happy with the outcome of this letter. It was a lot of fun writing the letter because I got to do some more specific research on what they discovered. I decided to have Meriwether write to Jefferson for the letter because I think it would kind of symbolize how they were closer as friends and as colleagues. Also of course one of the head people of the mission should report back to the president.

1 Act Play

Scene 1-

Narrator: After traveling for many months Meriwether, William, York and Sacajawea had gotten to know each other and become great companions.

Lewis: We have no more food or water. Do you know of any tribes her that can help us?

Sacajawea: No, I do not know this area.

a noise is heard from the forest

Narrator: A large Native American man stepped out from the darkness. Sacajawea lept up.

Sacajawea: Brother!

Scene 2-

Narrator: Sacajawea's brother led the traveling group into the village. Sacajawea told her companions the story about how her and her brother were separated.

Sacajawea: About five years ago, I was captured by the Hidatsa in a raid war. I was their slave for quite a while. I wasn't treated terribly, but I was there against my will doing mostly what the other women did. Eventually they sold me to a man named Toussaint Charbonneau. I was to be his second wife. And then thankfully you came, soon before I had my son (Jean Baptiste).

Lewis: That would explain how you came to be an expert with many languages.

Biography of York

York and William Clark had always been great friends. But when York was about thirteen (and William about fourteen) York became the "personal" slave of Clark, given to Clark by his father.

York's mother's name was Rose and his father's name was Old York. York was taught to always be obedient and good to his master so that he would never be separated from his family. (which the owner could do anytime they wanted).

York was the black slave of William Clark. York had a wife that he had to leave when he departed on the expedition. He had no way to communicate with her while on the expedition. But he was at one point allowed to send her a buffalo robe. She too was a slave, but of the neighbors of Clark. When returning from the expedition York was overjoyed to see her.

On the expedition the traveling group of people were helped by many Indians. They were amazed with York because of his large size and big muscles and especially his dark skin. The Indians thought it was amazing that he was born with such dark skin because the Indians would cover themselves with charcoal sometimes during war to make themselves look more fierce.

When York returned from the expedition he asked to become a free black man because he had helped so much on the expedition. Sadly enough Clark said no. Also when creating a list of those who had helped on the expedition Clark did not include any of the Indians (such as Sacajawea and her child) or York. Those who were included got a large amount of money and land. Even if Clark had included York, unfortunately he wouldn't have received anything since black people weren't allowed to own land or money.

Reflection:

I decided to do a character profile on York, because I thought it would be interesting to learn about the man that wasn't allowed to be counted as part of the journey just for being black. I think that for a slave York had a very interesting life and I enjoyed learning more about him. Also I didn't have trouble to write this character profile, except for when I had to make it sound less like a biography. So instead I just turned turned it into a biography.

!Quiz!

Question #1: What was the name of the woman who traveled with Lewis and Clark?

a) Sacayawatha
b) Jefferson
c) Sacajawea
d) Pocahontas


Question #2: What was Clark's first name?

a)William
b)Joshua
c)Meriwether
d)Fredrick


Question #3: What was the name of the purchase Thomas Jefferson made?

a)The Westward Expansion
b)The Louisiana Purchase
c)Buying the West
d)The western Purchase


Question #4: How long was the expedition to the west?

a) 3 months
b) 3 years
c) it didn't happen
d) 2 years

Question #5: What was the purpose of the expedition?

a) to find what was in the newly purchased land
b) it seemed like a good idea
c) Lewis and Clark were curious people and wanted to see new sites
d) Lewis and Clark wanted to become famous

Question #6: What was the name of Clark's black slave?

a) George
b) York
c) James
d) Nathanial

Question #7: What was Lewis's job before the expedition?

a)President
b)Jefferson's personal secratary
c)explorer
d)carpenter

Reflection:

I decided to do a quiz because it's some kind of a game (like they have on game shows) or something. Also, I think multiple choice is always a good way to learn things, because even if you hadn't previously known the answer you'd know that it was one of the four and you can usually eliminate answers. So no matter what you learn remotely what the answer is.

Editorial

The expedition into the west was led by Lewis and Clark. They were two extraordinary men. It was expected of them to see many things such as woolly mammoths, saber tooth tigers and rarities such as those. But their main goal was to find a water passage through the west that was never found. Was their journey successful despite their "incomplete" mission?

In 1804 the mission began. Building a trust with the Indians (so they could easily remove them later on) was one of many things they did. During the journey the found many new existing life forms, such as undiscovered animals and plant life. And although it was nothing like the woolly mammoths that were expected, the life was new to science.

Traveling next to rivers as they made their way towards the west nearing Oregon and Washington, The two men found no water way going all the way across the states. But does this one unsuccessful aspect of their mission mean the rest doesn't matter?

So it is to be asked once again, were they successful? Well, having discovered most of what was to be seen, and seeing as you can't discover something that doesn't exist, the journey of Lewis and Clark was a renowned journey for a reason. It was a journey of great discovery and an accomplished mission!


Reflection:

This piece started out as an essay. And then by the time I finally finished writing it it had a lot of my opinions in it, so Ms. Sackstein and I both agreed it was more of an editorial. When reading over my editorial, Ms. Sackstein noticed my constant repetition. As I attempted to remove the material I repeated and I read over my work, I thought my editorial sounded a lot more mature in a way. So after all the trouble I had trying to form the expedition into some kind of an essay, I think it turned into quite a successful editorial. Although, I don't know what extra information would fit into this piece.

Bibliography

Adler, David. A Picture Book of Sacagawea. New York: Holiday House, 2000.

"Biography". National Park Service. http://www.lewisclark.net/biography/index.html

Blumberg, Rhoda. York's Adventures with Lewis and Clark. New York: Harper Collins Publishers

"Lewis & Clark". National Geographic. 1996-2008 http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark.

"Meriwether Lewis". <http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/lewisandclark/biddle/biographies_html/lewis.html>.

Mussalman, Joseph. "Discovering Lewis and Clark". 1998 <http://www.lewis-clark.org/>.

Perry, Douglas. "Teaching With Documents:". The National Archives. http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/lewis-clark/.

Sanders, Kristin. "Lewis and Clark Expedition". National Park Service. <http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/lewisandclark/encounters.htm>.


Solomon, Andrew. "Sacajawea's Journey". Newspaper in Education. 2002 <http://www.phillyburbs.com/sacagawea/7.shtml>.

Statement of Process

I was really excited to get started on this project. I wanted to make sure that I did well and had a lot of time to revise and edit, so I made a plan to make one post every day. It was really hard to choose what to make my posts about and in what order, so I decided to put it all on and then if I wanted to change things around I could put it on a Microsoft Word and then copy and paste it into the order of my choosing. (the one post a day didn't turn out so well)

I had a lot of fun making this blog. It reminds me of the first blog project I did. I find it much easier now that I know how to use blogger and much more interesting since I have time to experiment with new things. I was having a lot of trouble with the spacing in my posts for a while that made my posts hard to read. But then Ms.Sackstein showed me how to change the html to add spaces.

I thought it was a good idea for Ms. Sackstein to give us dates that certain parts of the project was due, it kept me on task and I always wanted to be ahead which I felt would help me finish early. Sometimes I had the uneasy felling that I wouldn't finish posts on time or they wouldn't be good enough to be counted as posts. But they did count and only one was a few minutes late. I would always go back to posts and think about them for a really long time thinking about what looked wrong or how I could make things longer. And sometimes, I admit that I would not take Ms. Sackstein's suggestions. But it's not because I didn't want to, it was because I didn't really know how to. So in the end my work suffered, such as the 1 act play.

I had trouble with some posts so I would just skip over those, so I ended up just doing the posts that were easiest for me.

It was really hard for me to write the essay at first. I was confused and didn't know how I was supposed to do it. But then after talking to Ms. Sackstein and thinking about if for about a week, I decided that I should write an essay about if they were successful on their journey. Once I knew that I had something more specific to write about it made it much easier for me to continue. I didn't mean for it to turn into an editorial, but I think it's much better than the essay. It's so much stronger and clearer.

When I heard about the science experiment I was really excited because I knew that even though it would be hard it would be a lot of fun. So I put the post up right away and planned to talk to Ms.Song about how I could incorporate something scientific. I didn't think it would be too hard considering all the science discoveries made on the expedition. But I never got the chance to talk to Ms. Song, s of course my work didn't really get done.

EXTRA EXTRA

The Washington Gazette

President Thomas Jefferson has bought a vast piece of land (900,000 miles) from the French, spending $15,000,000! Is this unconstitutional? Government officials say that according the constitution the country should have the opinions of the representatives of the states. It is thought that the decision should have also included the legislative branch because they are supposed to be in charge of the countries finances. Being unexplored land it is also unknown what the dangers and inhabitants of the land are. Is fertile? Is it deadly? As citizens, what do you think?

Thomas Jefferson has also chosen two men, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to go on an expedition throughout the new land and discover what lies in the uncharted western land. Jefferson also hopes to find some form of water going across the US. Will Lewis and Clark be successful on their journey? It is expected they will not survive, but if they do, then the fertility or fatality of the land shall be discovered!

Written By: Tessa Horn

Reflection:

It was easy for me to write a news article about what was happening at the time. It was also a lot of fun. I am now also more comfortable with writing news and I understand it better. I got more of a feel for what was happening at the time after writing the news article I think, because I had to think as a reporter at that time would so it also gave me a better understanding of what people were thinking.

Intro-Poem

Here is the expedition
Led by Lewis and Clark,
Exploring had been their ambition
Their relationship had begun with a spark.

They traveled through the newly bought land,
Called Louisiana.
With a friend at hand,
Sacajawea, she's the TOP BANANA!

Thomas Jefferson sent them,
Through the land he bought.
The land was a gem.
The expedition confirmed the thought.

Lewis killed himself,
Yes that is true
He was overloaded with stress
But a glorious expedition, he did do!


Reflection:

I wrote this poem because we had just finished our poetry project and I was getting really comfortable with writing poems. I called Sacajawea the "top banana" because I couldn't think of something that rhymed with Louisiana. I decided to make this poem a small outline of what happened because I didn't want to say everything in my first post. I think it came out okay, besides the strange word choice.