Moving West and Making a Home is a free printable Grade 3 to Grade 5 social studies worksheet on how settlers adapted to new land as they moved west, aligned to C3 Framework indicator D2.Geo.4.3-5. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.
Set 1 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
An information text written for this worksheet.
Reconstruction ended in 1877, and Black families in the South faced growing violence and unfair treatment.
In 1879 about 6,000 Black people from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas moved to Kansas. They called themselves Exodusters.
Kansas had entered the Union as a free state, and land could be claimed there under the Homestead Act.
Some families had little money when they arrived and lived through hard first winters.
Black settlers founded towns such as Nicodemus, Kansas, which still exists today.
1. About how many Black people moved in 1879?
2. What does this text not tell you about Nicodemus?
3. What made the first years in Kansas difficult?
2.Look at the source, then answer the questions.
A Sod House on the Great Plains
An information text written for this worksheet.
The Homestead Act of 1862 offered families 160 acres of land if they farmed it for five years.
On the Great Plains there were few trees, so homesteaders cut blocks of thick prairie sod and stacked them to make walls.
A sod house stayed cool in summer and warm in winter, but it leaked when it rained and dirt fell from the roof.
With little wood to burn, families burned dried buffalo and cow chips for fuel.
Windmills pumped water from deep underground, and barbed wire, invented in 1874, fenced fields without wood.
1. What does this text not tell you about the land before the homesteaders came?
2. What did families burn for fuel?
3. What did the Homestead Act offer families?
LessonPrint · D2.Geo.4.3-5 · Set 1 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — Moving West and Making a Home
Set 1. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. About 6,000 Black people. 2. It does not tell you how many people live in Nicodemus today. 3. Some families had little money and lived through hard first winters.
2.1. It does not tell you which Native nations lived on the land before the homesteaders. 2. Dried buffalo and cow chips. 3. 160 acres of land if they farmed it for five years.
Questions about Moving West and Making a Home
What does the Moving West and Making a Home worksheet cover?
It practices how settlers adapted to new land as they moved west — 2 questions for Grade 3 to Grade 5, all on C3 Framework D2.Geo.4.3-5: Explain how culture shapes the way people change and adapt to their surroundings. The instruction to students is “Read each text, then answer the questions”, and the answer key follows on the next sheet.
Which C3 Framework indicator does Moving West and Making a Home practice?
D2.Geo.4.3-5, under Geography for Grade 3 to Grade 5. The published indicator reads: “Explain how culture influences the way people modify and adapt to their environments.” The worksheet assesses that indicator rather than a paraphrase of it.
What age or grade is this worksheet for?
Moving West and Making a Home is written for Grade 3 to Grade 5, typically ages 40-41. It is one of the sheets on D2.Geo.4.3-5, so it suits any student working at that standard — including older students revisiting it and younger ones working ahead.
Does Moving West and Making a Home come with an answer key?
Yes. All 2 answers are generated from the same problems as the questions, so the key cannot drift out of step with the sheet. It starts on a fresh sheet of paper, after the questions, so it is not handed out with the class by accident.
How many different versions of Moving West and Making a Home can I print?
25 — one per student, and all 25 ask different questions. Set 1 downloads the whole class as a single PDF. Every version is fixed to its own address, so a sheet printed today holds the same problems when you reopen it next week.
Is Moving West and Making a Home free to print and photocopy?
Yes. Moving West and Making a Home, its answer key and its 25 versions are free to print and photocopy for your own class, with no account, no email capture and no subscription at the download step. Please do not resell them or republish them as your own.
More practice for D2.Geo.4.3-5
Explain how culture shapes the way people change and adapt to their surroundings.