At Home: 1800: Teacher Resources Level One

Level One

Learning Goals and Objectives--Grades 3 - 5

Voices and Choices--Patty Sessions

Note: It is a good idea to print Level One for easy reference.

Voices and Choices

Patty Sessions is a Mormon midwife who is forced to flee her home in Nauvoo along with her husband and hundreds of other Mormons in the dead of winter. She must decide whether to purchase needed household goods with the money she has earned as a midwife or to donate it to the Mormon church.

Themes

These themes can be explored with either a social studies or language arts curriculum. Use these themes to tie in other resources to your class discussion, i.e., other books, other cultures, students' own lives.

Religious Diversity as defined by one's belief system and how one sees the world; one's perception of God and how to worship God
Intolerance and the destructive effect it has upon a community
The importance of community in helping individuals survive the hardships of frontier life

What do you think?

These questions, which come at the end of each story (minus "the answer"), can be used to start class discussions or be assigned as homework.

Why did Patty Sessions and her husband leave Nauvoo, Illinois, for Salt Lake City, Utah?

The Sessions left Nauvoo to avoid persecution. When the Mormons founded Nauvoo, they received permission from the state government to have their own courts and a militia that was independent of sate control. As the Mormon city grew to be the largest in the state, the Mormon vote was powerful enough to sway state elections. Nauvoo's non-Mormon neighbors resented the Mormons' prosperity and questioned their patriotism. This resentment peaked with the mob action of 1844, which resulted in the deaths of the two Mormon leaders, Joseph and Hyrum Smith.

Even after their leaders had been killed the Mormons in Nauvoo continued to work on their temple. What do you think temples and churches symbolize?

Temples and churches are physical manifestations of people's religious beliefs and faith. They are also places where people can assemble as a community. Patty donated her hard-earned money to build these temples, showing her commitment to both the Mormon faith and her fellow Mormons.

Why do you think Patty was called Mother Sessions by her friends and neighbors?

As a midwife, she was a care-giver to all those in her community.

Patty chose to buy a stove, are there other items she might have needed on her journey west? Can you list them?

Look at objects and Clues to the Past to learn more about the types of household goods available to people in the 1800s.

If you had to pick the five most important household objects in your house, what would they be?

Help students define which things have practical importance and which objects have nostalgic importance.

Activities

These are suggested classroom activities and student projects that you may want to use with your students or as models to create your own.

1. Creating a Collage

Create a collage illustrating Patty Session's story

Collaborate on a web diagram to determine the different elements that could be included in a collage--from winter scenes to stoves.

2. Creating a Memory Box

Pretend you are moving to a new city or town and create a Memory Box of objects that will help you to remember the people and places you are leaving behind.

More about

3. Planning a Trip

Patty Sessions travelled from Illinois to Utah. Her journey took almost a year, from 1846 to 1847, and was made mostly on foot.

Plan a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, from your home town. You can travel by car, bus, train, or airplane. Some of the resources you might need are: a road atlas, a train schedule with trainfare information, and flight schedules and ticket prices for different airplane companies.

Below are links to three well-known airplane companies and Yahoo's search engine allowing you to select other airplane companies. Look for headings like "Flight information," "Flights," or "Flight schedules" for information on departure dates:

https://www.americanair.com/

https://www.twa.com/TWA/Airlines/

https://www.ual.com/

https://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/Travel/Airlines/

Write a report of your journey: what route will you take, how long will it take, and how much will it cost to travel to Utah?
When you get to Salt Lake City, where will you stay and what will you do? You might want to consult travel guides and hotel brochures as part of your report.
Decide what you will take on this trip in terms of clothing and gear. Can you find out what the weather will be like in Salt Lake City during the time of your trip?
As a class, compare each other's trips. Put them on a graph to see which journey takes longest, which is the quickest, and which is the most expensive.

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