Transportation and Travel Today

 

For thousands of years, travelers have recorded their journeys, the people they meet, the land they saw, and the experiences they had.  Because travelers look at their surroundings as both new and different, they are often the best observers.  In the following exercises, students will create their own travel letter or send their own traveling bear on a journey.

 

CREATE YOUR OWN JOURNAL

 

  1. Ask students to imagine that they are visiting Warren County for the first time.  Ask them to spend a day or so pretending they are visitors and looking around.  What do the buildings and people look like?  What is the landscape like?

  2. Have students write a letter to a friend describing their experience "visiting" Warren County.

 

THE TRAVELING BEAR

 

In the following exercise, students will have the opportunity to compare forms of transportation today with the transportation of the past.

 

  1. Purchase or make a teddy bear (or another stuffed animal) and outfit it for traveling.  You could also have students draw a teddy bear with a suitable traveling outfit.

  2. Attach it to a travel log and include a note.

                  Sample Note:

                              Hello! This is a traveling bear, and it is helping to class of ________ learn about travel and different forms of transportation.  Take this bear as far as you are going, fill out the log book, and then pass it on to another friend or stranger who is taking a trip. Please try to send this bear home after _______(date).  Thank you!

  1. The log should have a number of pages with enough space for a name, date, location, observations, and form of transportation.

  2. If your bear is returned, compare its travels with the types of historic transportation you discussed in the Warren County Transportation unit.  Are there types of transportation in the log that surprise you?  What is the most common type of transportation?  What did travelers see and record?  What did people think was important to write about?

 

Courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society