Cattle Industry End of Open Range - American West - GCSE History Edexcel - Lesson 21

Students examine the changes to the cattle industry in the American West during the 1870s to 1890s with a focus on the Winter of 1886/7 and the end of the open range.

The lesson resources include:

• 1 x A4 Workbook Style Fact Sheet (PDF & PPT) – Included in every American West lesson!
• 1 x Main Power Point Lesson

The 19 slide fully resourced lesson contains activities, tasks, practice exam questions, printable resources and all background knowledge:

• Slide 1: Title slide
• Slide 2: Warm Up - Looking at a map, what can students remember about the growth of the cattle industry between 1840-1870s?
• Slide 3-5: Recap - A gap fill activity for students to recap the main events in the growth of the cattle industry so far from the cattle trails to the beef bonanza and cattle barons. Answers and printable resource provided.
• Slide 6: Background information covering the issue of overstocking cattle.
• Slide 7: Background information explaining the issues of extreme weather and overgrazing cattle.
• Slide 8: Background information covering the events of the Great Winter Die Up 1886/7.
• Slide 9: Background information covering the end of the open range.
• Slide 10-11: Task Option 1 - Students complete a flow chart showing the events which led to the end of the open range. Printable resource included.
• Slide 12-13: Task Option 2 - Students complete an interview with a cattle rancher who explains the reasons for the end of the open range. Worksheet with sentence starters provided.
• Slide 14: Challenge questions
• Slide 15-16: Learning Review - Crossword with print out and answers
• Slide 17: Lesson fact sheet/knowledge organiser
• Slide 18: Example exam questions based on the topic.
• Slide 19: More from RA Resources

All images used in this resource are in the public domain and are therefore copyright free. Images which require attribution have been attributed in the notes section of each slide where the image appears. Images labelled as AI are from a website from which I have a subscription and commercial licence to use the images generated and are the property of RA Resources. If you feel any errors have been made, please contact me at raschoolresources@gmail.com in the first instance to resolve any issues. My lessons are completed using PowerPoint and designed on widescreen formatting. Thank you.

This resource is for personal use only unless a school license is purchased and for copyright reasons any slides, worksheets, RA Resources maps or diagrams should not be copied/amended for commercial use.