California's Resources

While the Spanish claimed to bring civilization to California indigenous peoples, in reality, they also brought violence and forced assimilation to European values. Primary sources, such as the reports of Catholic priests and Europeans...

Bring life to your next California geography lesson with this great project! Learners design a three-dimensional wall relief map of California, painting and decorating regions using a variety of materials and labeling major geographical...

Students discover the people who lived in California before and after the gold rush. They use primary source documents to identify how the finding of gold changed the area. They also discover the discrimation that was present during the...

Take a trip to the Golden State with this informative ESL presentation about California. Slides detail the state bird, state flower, and state tree with pictures and explanations. Some of the information is dated, such as Arnold...

There's gold in them thar hills! A short cartoon introduces middle schoolers to the California Gold Rush of 1849. The video encourages viewers to dig deeper and mine for a lode of information about gold mining, the 49ers, and the...

Students compare contemporary cultural differences with historical differences based on population percentage. In this cross-curriculum Gold Rush/math instructional activity, students analyze aspects of California's Gold Rush population...

It's time to hear about some adventures in travel! The Transcontinental Railroad changed life and travel in the United States during the 1800s. Practicing online research skills, pupils discover the features they would like to visit on...

Explore the Great Depression! Discover the challenges people experienced during the time period. Learners investigate photographs from the Dust Bowl and WWII era and create a story line about the photographs, writing a newspaper article...

The California missions transformed California. A short video discusses the missions, their purpose, how they eventually lost their power, and what happened to Native Americans when the missions closed. 

Fourth graders use what they already have gathered on California missions to create a database. Using the different missions, they brainstorm, organize and categorize what they have gathered. They present their material to the class and...