1) The document imagines what life would be like for pioneers settling in Minnesota in the 1800s, describing the clothing, landscape, and process of claiming land and building basic dwellings out of materials available on the frontier like dugouts and sod. 2) Key terms about pioneer life are defined, such as calico fabric, the prairie, Minnesota Territory, thickets, knolls, homesteads, dugouts, sod, lean-tos, and churns. 3) Pioneer children may have used handheld slates for school lessons.