Twins go stay with their grandma and their grandma takes them back in time to visit old relatives and travels with them on the Oregon Trail from start to finish. Till it was time to go home and their parents come to get them.

This book is about two children staying with their grandma while their parents take a trip to Paris. While they are with their grandma they learn a lot about their great-great-great-great grandma who traveled on the Oregon trail. Their grandma should them a trunk full of her old things and they got to take a trip as well. The grandma was telling very in depth stories about the Oregon trail that the kids starting to picture it and feel like they were really there. They got to see and experience the struggling their great-great-great-great grandma faced and what she had to over come. When the parents arrived back the kids had so much to tell them about the journey they went on too. This is a good historical fiction because it has a lot of good detail about the Oregon trail and what it was like for the families traveling. It also had good captions and illustration to go along with the story. ( )

I really loved the storyline and illustrations of this book. It would be a great book for the classroom to read during social studies. The story follows twins who traveled the Oregon Trail, their struggles, sacrifices, and daily life. It was really cool to read, and reminded me of the computer game, The Oregon Trail.
I think this book could also be incorporated during pioneer week, or art class. ( )

This is a great book to use for an older elementary school group maybe a third grade class to teach them about the history of the Oregon trail. This book has a lot of good pictures that show the pioneers had to go through in order to make it to better land that they would be able to own. This book can be used to do some good extension activities in a social studies lesson because of all information that it provides about moving west. You can create a list on the board and have your students create a list in their notebooks as well of all the differences they notice between then and now. For example, they should not that many things have different names now than they did back in the 1800s. This would be good for students to see how technology and things have changed over time to make our lives easier and also to show how the language has changed. You can do an activity with students to see if they would be able to make it through the Oregon trail. Students can each pick items from a list that they would want to bring with them in their wagon. Then as you go through the book and the different obstacles, students will have to get rid of things in order to lighten their wagon. You can guide them through their choices by talking about what they may need as far as cooking and hunting. You will also be able to tell them if they need to lighten their load or not depending on what they chose to bring with them. By the time they make it to the end, you can see what each student was able to keep and how they may have changed their decisions if they were to have to do it again. You can have students compare the choices they made and see how well each student will be able to live with what they were successfully able to bring with them. This will show students some of the difficulties of traveling along the Oregon trail while also keeping them involved in the story. This book also can help you teach the students about the pioneers and the indians and about how they began to fight in the mid 1800s because they started to take over their land. This book can help you connect to many different lessons in history. You can also have students go home and ask their parents what they know about their ancestors so that they can learn a little about where they are from. (This is one of your books)

This book is appropriate for the grades kindergarten through second. The book has slightly long paragraphs which may be a challenge for younger students but also has short dialogue in quotation bubbles. The book is similar to a graphic novel and has simple colorful pictures on each page. The twins Elizabeth and Lenny go to spend two weeks with their Grandma because their parents are going away to Paris. Their Grandma is absorbed in their family history and she introduces it to her grandchildren in an interesting way. In the beginning of the story Grandma asks them which ancestor they want to visit . So Liz picks the ancestor that looks just like her, who also happens to have the same name. Grandma goes to her trunk and has Liz and Lenny put on clothes that are fitting for 1843. Then Grandma puts on her magic hat and they travel through time to the west with their dog Moose. They meet up with Elizabeth and their travels on the Oregon trail begins.
Uses in classroom:
-The book includes a map of the Oregon Trail (before and after) so we can go over reading a map.
- I would bring in a hat that children could use to travel through time. As a class we can all choose a place to travel to. Children can even use their imagination with the hat during playtime.
-I would use this book as an intro to learning about the Oregon Trail.
-Have students find out history about their ancestors. ( )