Standard Indicator
The Louisiana Purchase
Purpose
Students will explain the events leading up to and the significance
of the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the expedition of Lewis and Clark
(1803−1806).
Materials
For the teacher: chalk, chalkboard, political wall map of the
United States
For each student: history textbook with section on the Louisiana
Purchase and Lewis and Clark, writing paper, pencil, copy of Black
Line Master (BLM) The Louisiana Purchase
Activity
A. Pre-Activity Discussion
1. Ask students to identify what most Americans did for a living
during the 1800s. Explain that farming was the most common
occupation.
2. Ask: “What must a farmer be able to do with his crops in order
to make money from them?”
3. Have students brainstorm different ways that farmers could get
their crops to market. List their suggestions on the chalkboard.
4. Using the political wall map of the United States, point out the
Mississippi River and New Orleans. Show students the rivers
that flow from different areas to the Mississippi, such as the
Ohio, Missouri, etc., and describe how all those regions needed
the rivers to transport goods.
5. Ask students: “Why would using the rivers be a better means
of transportation than transporting them by wagon?”
6. Explain that if another country controlled the port or the river,
it could refuse to allow American crops on the river or could tax
the goods very heavily. Guide students to consider how those
factors might hurt farmers and explain that these conditions
led in part to the Louisiana Purchase, in which the United
States bought the Mississippi River and land west of it for
precisely these reasons.
meeting
individual
NEEDS
Have students who
need extra exposure
to information about
Lewis and Clark’s
journey or students
who are visual learners
play the National
Geographic Lewis and
Clark game at www.
nationalgeographic.
com/west/main.html.
connecting
across the
curriculum
Mathematics
Have students look
at the map on their
BLMs to estimate
the square mileage
of the Louisiana
Purchase by breaking
the area into basic
geometric shapes.
(continued)
Standards Links
8.1.20, 8.3.10
Standard 1 / Curriculum Framework / Activity 5
Indiana Social Studies Grade 8 Standards Resource, February 2003
page 59
Standard 1
8.1.11
Activity (continued)
Standard 1
B. Independent Reading
1. Plan class time for students to read in their textbooks about
the Louisiana Purchase and the expedition of Lewis and Clark.
2. Make sure each student has writing paper and a pencil and
instruct students to take reading notes as they go.
3. Have students read, and circulate to answer questions as they do.
C. Reading Comprehension
1. Hand out a copy of the BLM The Louisiana Purchase to each
student.
2. Make sure students understand the instructions for the BLM
and give them time to complete it.
3. Allow students to use a separate piece of paper for longer
answers if necessary.
Questions for Review
Basic Concepts and Processes
Ask students questions such as the following after they have
completed their BLMs:
What present-day states were claimed in the Louisiana
Purchase?
What other countries had claims in the area covered
by the Louisiana Purchase?
What might have happened if France didn’t want to sell
the lands?
What was the importance of Lewis and Clark’s expedition?
page 60
Standard 1 / Curriculum Framework / Activity 5
Indiana Social Studies Grade 8 Standards Resource, February 2003
Name:
The Louisiana Purchase
1. What geographical feature forms the eastern border of the Louisiana Purchase? _______________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
2. Why would the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans be important to farmers? __________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
3. In the Purchase, who sold the land to the United States? ___________________________________
4. Why would that country want to sell that land? _______________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
5. What were the advantages of acquiring this land? ____________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
6. What were the disadvantages of acquiring this land? __________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
7. On the map, draw the course that Lewis and Clark took on their journey west.
8. Why was this exploration important? ______________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Standard 1 / Curriculum Framework / Activity 5
Indiana Social Studies Grade 8 Standards Resource, February 2003
Black Line Master 1
page 61
The Louisiana Purchase
Teacher Directions
Plan class time for students to read in their textbooks about the Louisiana Purchase and the
expedition of Lewis and Clark. Make sure each student has writing paper and a pencil and
instruct students to take reading notes as they go. Have students read and circulate to answer
questions as they do.
Hand out a copy of the BLM The Louisiana Purchase to each student. Make sure students
understand the instructions for the BLM and give them time to complete it. Allow students
to use a separate piece of paper for longer answers if necessary.
Answer Key
Any reasonable answers similar to the following:
1. The Mississippi River.
2. They provided a means of transportation for farmers to get their goods to market
and to receive other goods to buy.
3. France.
4. France needed money to fund a war with Britain.
5. Control of the Mississippi River for trade; more lands for pioneers to settle.
6. More land to control; constitutional crisis because there was not authorization
to spend $15 million.
7. (Students should have accurately traced Lewis and Clark’s journey west.)
8. To plot out maps; see what natural resources were available; look for a way
to the Pacific Ocean.
Black Line Master 1
page 62
Standard 1 / Curriculum Framework / Activity 5
Indiana Social Studies Grade 8 Standards Resource, February 2003