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Students on Site > Educators > Lesson Plans > Early Town Settlement

Fourth Grade Lesson:
Early Town Settlement

State Student Outcome(s)
Explain reasons people settled/settle in Michigan; describe and classify physical characteristics of Michigan; explain ways in which people depend on, adapt to, change and use the environment in the state; explain the role and impact of economics on the development of Michigan.
Curriculum Link
Chapter 5, Michigan, The World Around Us
Key Terms
settlement, territory, state, resouces
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
  • 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:
    1. What was daily life like for Lucy Morgan and other early settlers in Ann Arbor?
    2. 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
  • 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.
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