How the Country Was Settled
🧭 How did the United States grow from 13 colonies to a vast country stretching coast to coast? This video helps third grade students explore the story of westward expansion, focusing on the pioneers, inventions, and journeys that shaped a growing nation. It brings the people, movement, and innovations of early America to life with clear visuals and thoughtful narration.
🚂 From the Louisiana Purchase to the Transcontinental Railroad
Students will learn about the Louisiana Purchase and the brave Lewis and Clark expedition that followed. They’ll explore how the U.S. gained vast new territories, and how inventions like canals and steam engines helped connect people and places. Later in the video, the spotlight shifts to the Transcontinental Railroad — a groundbreaking achievement that united the country and opened the door for new cities and communities to grow across the American West.
🎥 This how the country was settled video for kids also covers the rise of new cities, the arrival of immigrants, and major population shifts like the Great Migration. Students will see how both opportunity and hardship shaped different communities as settlers moved west and America developed into a more connected nation.
🏆 Perfect for Grade 3 American history, geography, and social studies, this video connects essential themes of innovation, migration, and perseverance. Whether you’re introducing westward expansion or reviewing key historic milestones, this classroom-friendly lesson helps students understand how the U.S. took shape — one journey at a time.
Video Length: 12:00 minutes
Worksheets
Quiz
Frontier Match-up Worksheet
Draw A Scene – Westward Expansion of the U.S.
Journaling Like Lewis and Clark
Obstacles On The Oregon Trail
The Marks They Made
Universal Resources
National Standards
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Topics Covered In This Video
The 13 colonies became crowded and pioneers decided to move west to explore new frontiers
Daniel Boone helped the pioneers get around
President Jefferson bought land from the country of France in the “Louisiana Purchase” to increase the size of the country
He also hired Lewis and Clark to travel through, and map out, the new territory
They established the Oregon Trail, with Sacagawea’s help
The railroad made a huge difference in the dangerous journey westward
Big groups of people were migrating and also immigrating during this time
Technology helped to create jobs for everyone, often in factories
Classroom Ideas
Landforms and Bodies of Water
Identify the landforms and bodies of water across the country that would have made it difficult for pioneers to travel west.
Cloze Practice
A cloze piece has full sentences used in the virtual field trip with blanks where students can write in the information that is missing. This task requires close listening to the trip in order to complete it.
Coral reefs are the _______ type of ecosystem in the world. They’ve been around for over _____ million years.
Answers: oldest; 240
Alternatively, you could have students create 5-10 cloze statements and they could share those with the class.
A third alternative is to distribute the cloze worksheets before watching the video. Students can fill them in as they watch.
Explore Vocabulary
Identify key vocabulary terms while previewing each video. Prompt students to find the meaning of each word as they watch the video. Example: What do the words consumer, budget, and expense mean? Think about the meaning of these words as you watch this video.
Art and Social Studies
Draw a scene from the video.
Visual Learning
Offer videos to struggling learners as another way of creating knowledge and accessing information.
Classroom Ideas for ALL Videos
Dozens and dozens of ideas that you can use in your classroom along with our videos!
Related Videos
Grade 3 - The First Americans
Grade 3 - The Geography of Our Communities
Grade 3 - How Government Helps Our Communities
Grade 2 - Early Americans
Grade 3 - A Country of Cultures
Grade 3 - I Am A Consumer
Grade 3 - Businesses At Work
Grade 1 - Life Long Ago
Video Subscriptions
When you only need one video- Unlimited viewing of 1 video
- Post-trip quiz + resources for 1 video
- Access to Closed Captioned version of 1 video
- Lowest-cost option
Teacher + Class Subscription
Teacher + Students- Unlimited access to the entire video lesson library
- All quizzes + learning resources
- Access for 1 teacher + all students
- Access to all Spanish videos + resources
- Access to all Closed Captioned videos
- Best value option for one teacher
School-wide Site License
All teachers + All students- Unlimited access to the entire video lesson library
- All quizzes + learning resources
- Access for all teachers and all students
- Access to all Spanish videos + resources
- Access to all Closed Captioned videos
- Best for school administrators supporting their teachers & students
- Up to 500 students – $450/year
- 500-1,000 students – $600/year
- 1,000+ students – $1,000/year
