Glenda Sullivan
Oklahoma Alliance for Geographic Education
All materials may be reproduced for the classroom and presentations only
when proper acknowledgement is given to the author and the Oklahoma
Alliance for Geographic Education.
Lesson Title:
Get Your Kicks on Route 66
Glenda Sullivan, OKAGE TC, Lawton, Oklahoma
Grade Level:
4-12
Purpose/Objective:
Students will understand the impact Route 66 and the sophisticated
highway system had on the landscape and the American way of life.
National Geography Standards from Geography of Life
Geographic Elements & Standards:
The World in Spatial Terms – 1: how to use maps and other
geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process
and report information from a spatial perspective.
Environment and Society – 14: how human actions modify the
physical environment
Environment and Society – 15: how physical systems affect human
systems
Oklahoma Priority Academic Student Skills
Grade 4 Social Studies
2.1 – Interpret geographic information using primary and secondary
sources, atlases, charts, graphs and visual images.
4.2 – Explain how people are influenced by, adapt to, and alter their
environment, including agricultural efforts, housing, occupations,
industry, transportation and communications.
5.2 – Describe major events of Oklahoma’s past, such as settlements
by Native Americans, cattle drives, land runs, statehood, and the
discovery of oil.
Grade 5 Social Studies
7.1 – Identify, evaluate and draw conclusions from different kinds of
maps, graphs, charts, diagrams, and other sources and representations,
such as aerial and shuttle photographs, satellite-produced images, the
geographic information system (GIS), encyclopedias, almanacs,
dictionaries, atlases, and computer-based technologies.
7.2 – Evaluate how the physical environment affects humans and how
humans modify their physical environment.
Grade 6 World Studies
1.2 – Identify, evaluate and draw conclusions from different kinds of
maps, graphs, charts, diagrams, timelines and other representations,
such as photographs and satellite-produced images or computer-based
technologies.
Grade 7 World Geography
5.2 – Evaluate the effects of human modification of and adaptation to
the natural environment.
6.1 – Evaluate and draw conclusions from different kinds of maps,
graphs, charts, diagrams, and other sources and representations (e.g.,
aerial and shuttle photographs, satellite-produced images, the
geographic information system (GIS), atlases, almanacs, and
computer-based technologies).
6.2 – Explain the influence of geographic features on the development
of historic events and movements.
High School World Geography
5.1 – Explain how human actions modify the physical environment.
Geographic Themes:
Location, place, human environment interaction, movement and
region
Objectives:
1. Students will interpret a map of Route 66 from Chicago to Los
Angeles and a map of Route 66 from Miami across Oklahoma to
Texola.
2. Students will discover how physical environments determine
highway routes and how humans change the physical environment
when constructing highways.
3. Students will understand how the American way of life was
changed forever by the building of Route 66.
Materials:
The Chronicles of Oklahoma, “Proud of What it Means”: Route 66,
Oklahoma’s Mother Road by Jim Ross, Vol. LXXIII, Number 3,
1995, pages 260-273
Route 66 Museum and Guide Brochure, Clinton, Oklahoma
www.okatlas.org (Oklahoma Historic Route 66 map)
Get Your Kicks on Route 66 PowerPoint
CD of the song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66”
Oklahoma road maps for each student
Paper, pencils and colored markers or highlighters
The Nystrom Desk Atlas
Time Frame:
2-3 class periods
Procedures:
1. Show “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” PowerPoint slide #3, map of
Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles. Look at the eight states
that it crossed: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New
Mexico, Arizona and California.
2. Point out the 13.2 miles of Kansas Route 66. Ask students to
stipulate why they think Route 66 curved across the southeast
corner of Kansas instead of going from Joplin, Missouri to Miami,
Oklahoma. Look closely at the map to see if there are any other
jogs in the highway to connect towns.
3. Show the Oklahoma Historic Route 66 map on PowerPoint slide
#4. Have students work in pairs to trace Route 66 by highlighting
it on an Oklahoma road map. (Route 66 Museum & Guide map
will be helpful.)
4. What other Oklahoma towns did Route 66 pass through? Route 66
went through cities. Do interstates go through downtown areas of
cities today? Why or why not? (No, it is faster to go around a city
and interstates are multi-lane and too wide to run through a city.)
5. After completing the mapping activity, tell students that the Turner
Turnpike parallels old Route 66 while I-40 west of Oklahoma City
replaces the old route. Why? (An alternate route must be available
when fees are charged on a toll road.)
6. Show the natural vegetation map of Oklahoma on PowerPoint slide
#5. Have students locate the Cross Timbers.
7. Show PowerPoint slides # 6 and 7 while comparing how long it
took to drive from Oklahoma City to various Oklahoma towns in
1925 and then in 1950. Next, discuss driving times, speed limits
and road conditions today compared with 1925 and 1950.
8. Read descriptive passages to students from the attached article
“Proud of What it Means”: Route 66 Oklahoma’s Mother Road by
Jim Ross.
9. Show the remaining PowerPoint slides of Route 66 photographs.
10. Play the song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” and allow students to
sing along. (The words to the song are on the last PowerPoint
slide.) Encourage students to mental map the route from Chicago
to Los Angeles as they sing the song.
Activities:
Divide students into groups of 2-4 and allow each group to choose one
of the following activities to work into a brief class presentation.
1. Red and white signs along Route 66 advertised Burma Shave and
were fun, entertaining, and involved everyone. The ads were short
six-line jingles with each line printed on a different sign and placed
one after the other along the highway. Example:
Cattle crossing (1st sign)
Means go slow (2nd sign)
That old bull (3rd sign)
Is some (4th sign)
Cow’s beau (5th sign)
Burma Shave (6th sign)
Ask students to write Burma Shave ads that would give
geographical information along Route 66. Example:
Cross Timbers (1st sign)
Get rid of (4th sign)
Means post oak (2nd sign)
The underbrush (5th sign)
And such (3rd sign)
Burma Shave (6th sign)
2. Commercial billboards dotting the countryside along Route 66
were charming and exciting with colorful depictions of products
and places of interest. Have students design a colorful, attractive
billboard portraying products or places of interests found in
Oklahoma.
3. Compose an acrostic incorporating the towns and human and
physical characteristics of the regions along Route 66. Example:
Rural communities connect to trade and commerce
Outstanding fast food drive-ins, like Sonic
Unique bill board advertisements
Transportation rout for people fleeing Dust Bowl states
Exciting vacations from Chicago to L.A.
66 became the name for Phillips 66 gasoline
4. Write a cinquain poem integrating the geographic theme of place
in reference to Route 66. (A cinquain is a five line poem with the
1st line stating a one word main idea, the 2nd line is two describing
words, 3rd line is a three word verb phrase, 4th line has four
emotional describing words, 5th line is a word or phrase renaming
the first line.) Example:
Route 66
Two lanes
Replaced dirt roads
Exciting, scenic, adventurous, sensational
Oklahoma’s Mother Road
Assessment:
Group activity and presentation
Resources:
www.okatlas.org (Oklahoma Historic Route 66 and vegetation maps)
http://www.historic66.com/ (Route 66 Trivia game)
http://www.theroadwanderer.net/66Oklahoma/arcadia.htm
(Round Barn in Arcadia, Oklahoma)
The Chronicles of Oklahoma, “Proud of What it Means”: Route 66,
Oklahoma’s Mother Road by Jim Ross, Vol. LXXIII, Number 3,
1995, pages 260-273
Connections:
Language arts, art, music and math
Extensions and Enrichment:
1. Use state road maps from Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas,
New Mexico, Arizona and California to find resort areas, vacation
spots or places of interests that people would now be able to visit
via Route 66.
2. Produce a rap or a song about a journey on Route 66 as you travel
across Oklahoma or any of the other Route 66 states. Include
towns and sights along the way.
3. Play the Route 66 trivia quiz at http://www.historic66.com/.
4. In 1928, an International Transcontinental Foot Race promoted
Route 66. The event was a 3,400 mile trek from Los Angeles to
New York. The route consisted mostly of unpaved roads and
wooden planks over bridges. The winner was Andy Payne from
Claremore, Oklahoma. Using an Oklahoma road map, have
students figure the mileage Andy ran from Texola to Quapaw and
the running time it took him if he averaged 10 minutes per mile.
Notes to accompany some PowerPoint slides:
Slide # 33 – While traveling west on Route 66 in 1946, Bobby Troup
and his wife Cynthia were inspired to write this song. It became a
classic hip tune and the anthem of the highway. They wrote the lyrics
with the help of a road map. They selected names of towns to create a
visual of the route and give it the rhythm of the popular pop/jazz beat.
Nat King Cole saw it as a sure hit and recorded it. Since 1946 more
than four dozen artists have put the tune to music, making it one of the
most recorded songs ever.