It’s National Prairie Day and I have a popsicle stick wagon craft. Also, look at my Westward Ho unit study and lapbook page.
Since June 3rd is National Prairie Day, it’s the perfect time to bring out a simple craft that celebrates one of the greatest periods of growth in our nation.
Brave families drove covered wagons westward through the prairies looking for adventure, wide open spaces, and new lives.
North American prairies are a wild and beautiful ecosystem that is spread over a dozen American states and throughout several Canadian Provinces.
What once covered 40% of the United States is now reduced to just 1% of that.
It is sobering to think of all the flora and fauna that have been chased away or have completely vanished from their home.
National Prairie Day Facts
First, look at some of these facts about prairies.
- A prairie is a type of habitat that is mostly grass but may also have flowering plants and the occasional shrub or tree.
- Prairies are important because they provide an irreplaceable home for many plant and animal species, and they are made of exceptionally fertile soil we need for agriculture and ranching.
- 60 million bison once grazed on the plains and prairies of North America at the time European explorers first settled there and by 1885 there were less than 600 left.
- Prairie fires were important to the growth of the tallgrass prairie because they kept the prairie from becoming a forest. These fires didn’t completely kill the grasses which grew from the stem up rather than the tip of the blade. So, they grew back quickly.
- North American Prairies are divided into 3 types: short grass, tall grass, and mixed grass.
Here are a few books that you might enjoy adding to your craft as you learn about the American Prairie then and now.
Books about the American Prairie
Resources for Learning About Prairies
Add some of these fun books and resources to your study of the North American prairies.
Learn about the plants and critters that depend upon one of the most endangered ecological systems in the world: the prairie! A beautiful picture book perfect for any young nature enthusiast, classroom, parent, or grandparent, The Prairie That Nature Built is written in cumulative verse and includes educational backmatter.
Mixed media art transports readers to the rolling grasslands of Badlands National Park. Learn about the animals that inhabit this semiarid environment where baby critters and their mothers wallow, run, call, bark, hop, scurry, nod, slither, howl, and jump all day long and all through the night.Count animals from one to ten in the rhyming text modeled after the traditional song "Over in the Meadow" by Olive A. Wadsworth. A guide to prairie flora and fauna is included.
Once covering almost 40 percent of the United States, native prairie is today one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. Plant a Pocket of Prairie teaches children how changes in one part of the system affect every other part: when prairie plants are destroyed, the animals who eat those plants and live on or around them are harmed as well. Root shows what happens when we work to restore the prairies, encouraging readers to “plant a pocket of prairie” in their own backyards.
Out on the South Dakota prairie, the winters are fierce. This storm is the worst one yet: It’s below freezing outside, and the winds are howling. All of the other kids have gone home, but Delores’s family can’t get to her, so she has to stay at the school. Between a fuel shortage and having to boil snow for drinking water, it’s been hard for both Delores and her teacher, Miss Martin. Now Delores is very ill. How will Miss Martin get her to the doctor in all this snow? Prairie School was inspired by letters from children at a real South Dakota prairie school, which Lenski then visited during the severe blizzards of the winter of 1950.
Also, look at more ways to learn about prairies.
You can celebrate National Prairie Day by learning about the many different aspects of the prairie like:
- The 3 types of prairies.
- Prairie Animals.
- Prairie Vegetation.
- Westward Expansion.
- Little House on The Prairie.
- Life on the prairie now.
- Hunting on the Prairie then and now.
More Westward Ho and Prairie Life Resources
Additionally, look at more popsicle wagon crafts and about life on the prairie resources.
- A really cool and comprehensive Old West Wagon By Popsicle Sticks on YouTube.
- Little House on The Prairie Unit Study and Fun Punched Tin Lantern
- US Westward Expansion Lapbook and Hands-on Unit Study Ideas
- No Sew Pioneer Rag Doll For Kids Westward Expansion Activity
- 10 Westward Expansion Hands-on History Activities
- Pioneer Peg Dolls For Kids Westward Expansion Hands On Activities
- 7 Educational Movies for Kids About Westward Expansion
- 10 Westward Expansion History Coloring Pages
- 100 Oregon Trail Homeschool History Resources
Finally, look how to make this fun popsicle stick wagon craft.
How to Make a Popsicle Stick Wagon – Covered Wagon
This is a great opportunity to talk about how hard travel was back when moving west to unsettled lands, where much of the prairie was.
Covered wagons were not comfortable or roomy transportation.
But also imagine the wide-open skies over your campfire at night as you prepare dinner next to your wagon filled with all your worldly possessions.
You will need:
- 2 wooden skewers
- Paper or plastic straw
- 35 jumbo craft sticks
- Hot glue gun/sticks
- White cardstock
- Straight edge blade
- Cardboard
- Mason jar lid
Create a base for your wagon by hot gluing 4 wooden craft sticks into a square like this.
Continue adding sticks across the top to create a solid platform.
Next, we are going to build the “box”. To do this you want to cut some craft sticks slightly longer than the width of 3 sticks.
Attach to either end of 3 sticks, repeat this so that you have 3 sides.
Glue each in place around the sides and back of the wagon.
You will need to trim just a bit of your ends on the back to make it fit.
Run glue along the bottom edge of each piece, press firmly into place, and hold until the glue sets.
For the front of the wagon, you will cut your short sticks the same length but only build the side 2 craft sticks high.
Again, trim the ends of your sticks so they fit inside the two long sides. Glue into place.
Run a bead of hot glue up each corner to secure everything well.
If you wish to add a buckboard to the front, trim two pieces of craft sticks to be as long as the width of two craft sticks.
Trim off the ends of craft sticks so they fit inside the front. To help support the seat, glue a couple of stacked scrap pieces of wood underneath, and then glue the seat into place.
Once all glue has hardened, flip the wagon over. Cut your straw in half and glue it at either end of the wagon to allow the axles to turn.
Put them close to each end, I did wind up pulling mine off and re-gluing further apart to be sure the wheels had plenty of space to turn.
Trim skewers so they just stick out about 1/8” on each side and run them through the straw.
Trace 4 large circles onto cardboard and cut them out. I used a wide-mouth mason jar lid but you can use whatever you have on hand like a large cup or a bowl.
Draw the outline of the wheel and spokes with a brown marker.
Poke a hole through the center large enough for the skewers to fit through.
Place each wagon wheel onto a skewer and secure it on both sides with hot glue, be sure not to glue it to the wagon so that they move freely.
Flip the wagon back over and glue 4 craft sticks upright inside each of the 4 corners of the wagon box.
You can either use white cardstock or fabric to stretch up and over the wagon frame to make your covered wagon top.
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