Lesson Plan for A Family Apart by Joan Lowery Nixon
Create a booklet on the ABC's of the Orphan Train --- Students use the letters of the alphabet to create
acrostics using words that describe the Orphan Train.
                     EXAMPLE:       Careless children
                                             Hiding
                                             In streets
                                             Lying
                                             Down dirty
                                             Rejected
                                             Endlessly
                                             Numbers going west

Create a diary of Frances Mary, include in your diary different encounters that she may have experienced
on her journey west. Students could also write letters back to the orphanages telling of their experiences in
their new homes.

Create a caricature of Frances or one of the other characters in the book.

Create a Haiku poem that describes the experiences that the children may have felt being abandoned by
their parents and then sent away to a totally different environment.
Vocabulary Words to
Know:                                 
    Adoption
            Orphan
            Orphanage
            Balusters
            Precariously
            Frontier
            Tentatively
            Rebellious
            Abandonment
            Freight
Keywords/Themes:
           Underground Railroad
           Placing-out
           Historical Society
           Children's Aid Society
           Charles Loring Brace
           Missouri River
           St. Joseph, Missouri
           Bounty Hunters
           Shoe-shining Kits