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English · Year 3e · Learning Journey 1 · Theme 6 The United States (compulsory) · A2 / B1

Lewis and Clark: crossing a continent

1804: about forty men, a young Shoshone woman and her baby set off west, with no map, all the way to the Pacific. I tell the story of the expedition and choose the right past tenses.

B1past simple · past continuous · past perfecttime linkers
Yellow card · September → October · 6 lessons

Choosing past tenses

Three tenses to tell a story: the past simple for events, the past continuous for the background, the past perfect for what had happened before. Tap the cards.

In May 1804, the Corps of Discovery left Camp Dubois, near St. Louis. President Jefferson had bought the huge Louisiana territory from France the year before. The men were paddling up the Missouri River when they met many Native nations. Sacagawea, who had grown up among the Shoshone, helped them to cross the Rocky Mountains. By the time they reached the Pacific, in November 1805, they had travelled thousands of miles.
past simple
A finished event with a date → past simple.
They reached the Pacific in 1805.
past continuous
An action in progress, the background → was / were + -ing.
They were paddling when they saw a bear.
past perfect
An action before another moment in the past → had + past participle.
Jefferson had bought the land the year before.
by the time
by the time + past simple, then the past perfect in the main clause.
By the time they arrived, they had lost their horses.

My words → tap a card: it turns over and I hear the word

Culture → the Corps of Discovery and the Native American nations

Painting: explorers in a canoe meet Native Americans on a river
Charles Marion Russell, Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia, 1905 · Charles Marion Russell, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson bought the huge territory of Louisiana from Napoleon's France: the size of the United States doubled. He asked Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore this unknown West all the way to the Pacific, to draw maps and to study plants, animals and peoples.

The expedition left in May 1804, went up the Missouri, crossed the Rockies and reached the Pacific in November 1805, before coming back in 1806. Sacagawea, a young Shoshone woman, travelled with her baby: she was an interpreter, and because she was there, the nations they met understood that the group was not a war party.

For the Native American nations, this “discovery” meant above all the arrival of settlers and the loss of their land. Today, people also tell the story of the expedition from their point of view.

Did you know? → tap a card

I listen → the journey west

Listen. Write down two dates, two places and what Sacagawea did. Find one verb in the past perfect.

I watch

Video: “Sacagawea, explorer (Biography)” · channel Biography · watch on YouTube. The video only loads when you tap (youtube-nocookie player).

My mission during the video
  1. Write down three facts about Sacagawea's life.
  2. Write down why she was so useful to the expedition.
  3. Write a sentence with by the time + past perfect.
The lessons in this learning journey (6)
  1. The Louisiana Purchase: a country doubles in size.
  2. The Corps of Discovery: who were they?
  3. Sacagawea: interpreter and guide.
  4. Grammar: telling the story with three past tenses.
  5. Meeting Native nations: encounter or conquest?
  6. Final task: a journal entry from 1805.
Sentence starters → for my final task
  • “On 7 November 1805, we…”
  • “We had been walking for… when…”
  • “While we were…, …”
  • “Our guide…”
  • “Tomorrow, we will…”
For the teacher → goals and official curriculum
  • Theme 6 “The United States” (2025 curriculum, 3e) → topic: the Lewis and Clark expedition. 2020 theme in force: travel and migration; meeting other cultures.
  • Find your way on the map of the United States; understand an exploration story and a biography video.
  • B1 grammar: choose between the past simple, the past continuous and the past perfect; time words (as soon as, after, by the time, in the meantime).
  • Final task: the journal of a member of the Corps of Discovery.

Texts and materials: Charles Marion Russell, Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia (1905); a Biography video about Sacagawea; a map of the Louisiana Purchase.

Theme 6 “The United States”. Source: French national curriculum for modern languages, cycle 4, BO no. 31 of 30 July 2020 (in force in 3e in 2026-2027); matching theme of the English curriculum, BO no. 22 of 29 May 2025, which will apply in 3e from September 2028.

Worksheet to fill in (paper or ENT)

The same learning journey, to print or to put on the ENT. For a PDF, choose “Save as PDF” in the print window.