Grade 5
Louisiana Purchase 
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President Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase 
Accompanying Handout

In your social studies text you have read about the Louisiana Purchase. By reading the text, you learned that:

1.       Jefferson wanted to buy part of Louisiana, including the city and port of New Orleans, from France. 4.     Napoleon offered to sell all of Louisiana to the United States. The price was $15,000,000 for more than 800,000 square miles.
2.     In 1802 Jefferson sent two representatives to France to ask the French Leader (Napoleon Bonaparte) to sell that part of Louisiana. 5.     The United States purchased the territory on April 30, 1803. The purchase doubled the size of the United States.
3.     Napoleon Bonaparte needed money for France. France needed money to fight two wars.

6. Jefferson paid a group called the Corps of Discovery to explore the lands of the Louisiana Purchase.

 

View a large version of this map of the Louisiana Purchase.
U.S. and territories in 1810
Source: This map was downloaded from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection of the University of Texas at Austin. This map is Territorial Growth 1810 from the U.S. National Atlas, 1970. It has been cropped by web authors at the James Madison Center of James Madison University. It is online available: http://www.jmu.edu/madison/louispurchase.htm
 

Look at this current US map. 
(Map courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps used with permission)
With a partner, identify the names of the states that were part of the Louisiana Purchase.

 


Was the Louisiana Purchase was a bargain, or was it a wasteful expense?

The cost was 3 cents per acre. Use the Inflation Calculator to determine what the cost would be today.

  ___________ cents per acre

 

Find out more about the Louisiana Purchase. Use your textbook or the LewisAndClarkTrail.com site to find the answers to these questions:

1.      Jefferson was the _________ president of the United States.

a) 1st                b) 2nd               c) 3rd               d) 16th

 

3.      What did Jefferson ask Meriwether Lewis to explore?

a) the moon          b) the lands of the Louisiana Purchase      
c) France

 

4.     Who was Meriwether Lewis’ exploration partner?

a) Mickey Mouse         b) William Clark    c) George Washington

5.      What was Jefferson’s dream?

a)     to expand the borders of the United States from sea to sea, Pacific to Atlantic Ocean

b)     to invent the automobile

c)     to send a man to the moon

 
Using all that you have learned, create a concept map that depicts the Louisiana Purchase and its exploration.
("Concept Mapping Using Inspiration" Instructional Sheets are available -- Click here (Inspiration) or click here (Kidspiration) or see Kathy Verzoni Perry for copies; Kidspiration Louisiana Purchase Template also available. Find it under the Social Studies Category.)

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Last modified on Monday, December 12, 2005