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Moving West and Making a Home is a free printable Grade 3 to Grade 5 social studies worksheet on how settlers adapted to new land as they moved west, aligned to C3 Framework indicator D2.Geo.4.3-5. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 11 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Moving West and Making a Home

D2.Geo.4.3-5

NameDate

Read each text, then answer the questions.

1.Look at the source, then answer the questions.

The Exodusters

An information text written for this worksheet. Reconstruction ended in 1877, and Black families in the South faced growing violence and unfair treatment. In 1879 about 6,000 Black people from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas moved to Kansas. They called themselves Exodusters. Kansas had entered the Union as a free state, and land could be claimed there under the Homestead Act. Some families had little money when they arrived and lived through hard first winters. Black settlers founded towns such as Nicodemus, Kansas, which still exists today.

  1. 1. What does this text not tell you about Nicodemus?
  2. 2. About how many Black people moved in 1879?
  3. 3. Why did Kansas attract them?
2.Look at the source, then answer the questions.

On the Oregon Trail

An information text written for this worksheet. In the 1840s thousands of families set out from Independence, Missouri, for farmland in the Oregon Country, about 2,000 miles away. The trip took four to six months in wagons pulled by oxen. Families left in spring, so there would be grass for the animals and they could cross the mountains before the snow. Disease, especially cholera, killed more travelers than anything else. The trail crossed the lands of the Lakota, Cheyenne, Shoshone and other nations. Many meetings were for trade, but conflict grew as more wagons came.

  1. 1. How long did the trip take?
  2. 2. Where did many families start the trail?
  3. 3. Why did families make such a long trip?

LessonPrint · D2.Geo.4.3-5 · Set 11 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Moving West and Making a Home

Set 11. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. It does not tell you how many people live in Nicodemus today. 2. About 6,000 Black people. 3. It had entered the Union as a free state, and land could be claimed under the Homestead Act.
  2. 2.1. Four to six months. 2. Independence, Missouri. 3. For farmland in the Oregon Country.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to D2.Geo.4.3-5 of the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards.