Grade 3 Lesson at a Glance: Chapter 9, Lesson 3

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
From Sea to Shining Sea

Lesson at a Glance
Chapter 9, Lesson 3: Moving by Rail (pp. 182-186)

The Big Idea
Framework Concept: Interconnectedness Freight and passenger trains help transport people and goods from one place to another.

Ask students to share any experiences they have had riding on trains. Identify trains you ride on as passenger trains. Then turn students' attention to freight trains. Brainstorm about different things that people transport on trains and ask them why they think trains are a good way to move goods from one place to another.

Lesson Outline
Use the Lesson Outline to preview the content of the lesson. You may wish to print it for your students as a guide during reading.

Check for Understanding

Ask students to draw a time line with these dates: 1860, 1880, 1920, 1950, today, and the future. Have them label each date with the kinds of transportation that were used at each time.
Draw a railroad track on butcher paper. Have students fill the track with a train with 15 cars. On the side of each car, have them draw a picture of a product for each freight car that shows what it is transporting.

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