Lesson Plans:
- Create a booklet on the ABC’s of the Orphan Train — Students use the letters of the alphabet to create acrostics using words that describe the Orphan Train.
EXAMPLE: Careless children
Hiding
In streets
Lying
Down dirty
Rejected
Endlessly
Numbers going west - Create a diary of Frances Mary, include in your diary different encounters that she may have experienced on her journey west. Students could also write letters beck to the orphanages telling of their experiences in their new homes.
- Create a caricature of Frances or one of the other characters in the book.
- Create a Haiku poem that describes the experiences that the children may have felt being abandoned by their parents and then sent away to a totally different environment.
- Vocabulary Words to Know:
Adoption
Orphan
Orphanage
Balusters
Precariously
Frontier
Tentatively
Rebellious
Abandonment
Freight - Keywords / Themes:
Underground Railroad
Placing-out
Historical Society
Children’s Aid Society
Charles Loring Brace
Missouri River
St. Joseph, Missouri
Bounty Hunters
Shoe-shining Kits