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Third Grade Lesson:
Early Ann Arbor Settlement
- State Student Outcome(s)
- Describe, compare, and explain the locations and characteristics of ecosystems, resources, human adaptation, environmental impact, and the interrelationships among them.
- Curriculum Link
- Part 3, Lessons 1 and 2, A History of Ann Arbor
- Key Terms
- settlement, territory, state, resources
- Key Tools/Documents
- Timeline, Large Map #1 (1850s), Lucy Morgan’s letter (1831), Advertisement - Ann Arbor Land Auction (1837).
- Guiding Questions
- What was Ann Arbor life like for its first settlers? Why did early settlers move to Ann Arbor? What specific resources did Ann Arbor offer to its new settlers?
- Activities
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- Add Michigan Becomes a Territory-1805 and Michigan Becomes a State-1837 to class timeline in order to introduce to students the idea of studying how Ann Arbor was first settled and changed during its early years of settlement.
- In small groups students read Lucy Morgan’s letter (1831). Students should think about and write responses to two questions:
- What was daily life like for Lucy Morgan and other early settlers in Ann Arbor?
- Describe Lucy Morgan’s first home in Ann Arbor, according to her letter.
- In large group, students should discuss what Ann Arbor life was like for its first settlers. Use Large Map #1 to show that despite the difficulty of settler life in Ann Arbor, many people did migrate and settle here.
- Use website or distribute copies of Advertisement - Ann Arbor Land Auction (1837) to students to generate discussion on factors and resources that attracted settlers to Ann Arbor: affordable, arable land; the railroad; the university; the county courthouse. Students should also note the date of the advertisement (1837-first year of statehood) and discuss what made the ad effective.
- Supplemental Activities
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- Students brainstorm list of factors or reasons people today might move to Ann Arbor and create an advertisement (with text and visual illustrations) for a current newspaper.
- Students design a poster that would have encouraged people living in the eastern United States in the early 1800s to migrate to and settle in Michigan.
- Students create a map or drawing of a frontier home with a log cabin, a yard, fields in which crops are grown, a nearby water supply, and any other features they think should be included.
- Challenge
- Invite students to use the SOS website to examine Letter-Frederick Schmidt’s native encounter to reflect on the impact of settlement upon native tribes as well as Ann Arbor’s immigrant groups.
