The Underground Railroad

Below is a list of very helpful resources when plannning a unit on the Underground Railroad for 4th grade students. There are 5 books that are all around a 4th-5th grade reading level and 5 websites. Read the description for the websites to see if they are intended for teacher use of student use.

Books:

1. Allen Jay and the Underground Railroad
This book is about a Quaker boy who meets a slave who is trying to find freedom. The quaker boy helps him to freedom by using the Underground Railroad. This book is also an “on my own” reader suitable for a 3rd to 4th grade reading level.

2. Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky
This book is about two children who are separated and guided by Harriet Tubman through what the life of a slave was like. This is a good book to teach young children the history of slavery and the Underground Railroad. It is also very helpful in introducing important people of that time such as Harriet Tubman. This book is at a 4th grade reading level.

3. Follow the Drinking Gourd
This book is a great way to introduce music into a unit. It is about a white plantation worker who ends up becoming friends with some of the slaves on the plantation. This book is about the song Follow the Drinking Gourd and its actual meaning. This is a great example of how the slaves used song to express themselves and to secretly guide then to freedom. This book is at a 4th grade reading level.

4. Trouble Don’t Last
This book is about a boy who was born as a slave and his experience with the underground rail road and his route to freedom. It is also an award winning history book. It has a reading level of 4th/5th grade.

5. The Underground Railroad for Kids: From Slavery to Freedom
This book is the only nonfiction book that I picked. I think that this is a very good informational book for kids. It may be above some of their reading levels but would be a great book for students and teachers to look at together. The book starts off as a time line and then going into more detail about the things on the time line. There are great facts but also really great pictures for students to look at. There are also activities that children can do within the book.

Websites:
1. www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad.
This was a really great site to visit. Not only was the information from a credible source but it also had a section for teaching kids and ideas for in the classroom. There are many facts, pictures and activities that you can do with children. I liked the interactive journey through the life of a slave.

2. www.teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad
This was a really good site for teachers. There were tons of likes to get to other ideas and activities about the Underground Railroad. This site also had a great interactive journey that the students could even listen to! There is a list of resources of books, slide shows and things that teachers can do to enhance learning about the underground rail road.

3. http://www.pocanticohills.org/tubman/tubman.html
This was a website created by a school and teachers. This site focuses mainly on Harriet Tubman. It was aimed for second graders. There are a lot of good resources on this page including online quizzes, crosswords and extension activities.

4. http://www.42explore2.com/undergrd.htm
This website was a great resource on where to find other information about the Underground Railroad. It was nice how it was separated into sections such as: words to explore, for kids by kids, websites for teachers and be an explorer. This was more of a website for the teacher to get ideas from. It contained a lot of good ideas.

5. http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground
I would use this site for my own purposes. It is not a site that is really kid friendly but is a place where I could go to get information. It does though offer a list of sites that you can visit that where part of the Underground Railroad. This would be great to see where your class may be able to go on a fieldtrip to.