The Pony Express And You

How much space does your textbook devote to The Pony Express - maybe a couple of paragraphs? This exciting time in U.S. history deserves better than that, and with “The Pony Express And You,” your students will readily identify with the young men who rode for the service and the dangers they faced. The 26-page slide show I’ve created is full of colorful illustrations (more than 100 pictures) and offers students four opportunities to write a journal entry as though they were a rider on The Pony Express in a choose-your-own-adventure format. The slide show is accompanied by a 10-page script with more than 135 bulleted details. The subjects covered in the slide show include:

• How mail was carried before the Pony Express

• Who founded the Pony Express, when and why

• Routes used

• Stations and station keepers

• Pony Express Riders

• Horses and ponies

• Weapons and mail equipment

• Dangers, including Indians, bad weather, wild animals, natural disasters

• Why The Pony Express ended

Also included is a lined-template on which students may write their journal entries.

If you’d like to extend your study of the Pony Express into the visual arts, I’ve also included an art project where students draw a wilderness background of their choice and step-by-step instructions for drawing a Pony Express rider and his horse.

Information in this unit covers 43 pages. All text is available as a PDF and the slide show is available in both Apple Keynote and Microsoft PowerPoint.