Other
California State Parks: Paleontology
The California State Parks present an excellent unit to local geology of Borrego Badlands to Salton Trough. Through lessons plans, power point presentations, and a videoconference students will take a closer look into fossils and the...
![Huntington Library: Coming to California [Pdf] Lesson Plan](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Huntington Library: Coming to California [Pdf] Lesson Plan")
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: Coming to California [Pdf]
In this lesson, 4th graders examine entries from Juan Bautista de Anza's diary and other documents to understand the experiences and obstacles he and his companions faced as they traveled from Arizona to California in 1774. Student...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: Land of Golden Dreams: California in the Gold Rush
A rich site on the California gold rush, 1848-1858. An online exhibit traces the gold rush using primary sources, a teacher page gives lesson plans from 4-12 and a kid's page offers further online adventures. Takes a long time to load.
Other
History Course Models for California Teachers
This is an invaluable on-line tool for California Social Studies and History teachers at all levels. Website provides links to resources and lesson plans already aligned with CA state standards as well as a forum for discussion,...
University of California
History Project: Debate Over the California Constitutional Convention, 1878 1879
Lesson on immigration, conflict and nativism in which students examine primary source documents to evaluate public policy and attitudes towards Chinese immigrants in California, 1878-1879.
Other
Schools of California Online Resources for Education
S.C.O.R.E. offers teacher approved and evaluated websites, lesson plans, virtual activities, and more which have been aligned with California standards to aid educators in history and social science.
Other
California State Parks: Redwood Ecology
The California State Parks presents a unit of four lessons plus a videoconference with one of their rangers regarding the ancient redwood forest ecosystem. The videoconference is a virtual tour through one of two redwood forests in...
Other
California State Parks: Redwood Ecology
The California State Parks presents a unit of four lessons plus a videoconference with one of their rangers regarding the ancient redwood forest ecosystem. The videoconference is a virtual tour through one of two redwood forests in...
University of California
University of California, Davis: The History Project
The History Project is a growing collection of lesson plans, teaching tools, digitized images, and documents for the teaching of history. Includes assignments for having students apply analytical skills to primary sources.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Californio to American: A Study in Cultural Change
This site has a lesson about the ranching industry, creation of California towns and the changes over time. Contains information, inquiry question, historical context, maps, readings, and images.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Immigration: Framing Soo Hoo Lem Kong
[Free Registration/Login Required] This resource presents a primary lesson plan that looks at primary sources to learn about Chinese immigration to California.
Vocabulary University
My vocabulary.com: Gold Rush California
This page has a variety of vocabulary puzzles and activities using 19 words pertaining to the Gold Rush in California. It also offers an extensive Vocabulary Word List of 286 words, and ideas for lesson plans on the topic.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1865 1898: The Gold Rush
The 1848 discovery of gold in the territory of California prompted 300,000 hopeful prospectors to flood into the region, altering it forever.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Collection: Anti Asian Racism: Connections in History
This collection of educational resources will help students make sense of anti-Asian racism today by connecting it with history. Americans of Asian descent have lived and contributed to the development of the United States. The first...
University of California
University of California, Los Angeles: Children of the Atomic Bomb
In his own words, an American physician describes the devastating effects of the atomic bomb dropped in Nagasaki during World War II. Included is an online collection of images of the aftermath, videos, lesson plans, oral history...
Varsity Tutors
Varsity Tutors: Web English Teacher: John Steinbeck
This site features lesson plans for several of John Steinbeck's books. Not surprisingly, most resources relate to "The Grapes of Wrath."
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1844 1877: The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 acted as a band-aid over the growing wound of sectional divide.
Library of Congress
Loc: The Grapes of Wrath: Voices From the Great Depression
By examining primary sources, including songs, newspapers, interviews, and photographs of migrant farm workers in California during the Great Depression, students create a scrapbook from the point of view of a migrant worker, providing...
PBS
Pbs News Hour: The California Recall Election (Lesson Plan)
A lesson plan in which learners identify basic facts about the structure and history of recall elections in California, and in which they analyze the pros and cons of a gubernatorial recall election.
US National Archives
Nara: Teaching With Documents: Affidavit and Flyers: Chinese Boycott Case
A lesson plan that includes a history of Chinese labor in America and pertinent historical documents and analysis sheets about the Chinese Boycott Case.
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Journeys West
A series of lessons utilizing primary texts, including narratives, photographs, and maps, through which learners explore the following question: "What motivated thousands of people to journey west during the 1800s?"
University of California
Ucmp: Getting Into the Fossil Record
A learning module where students tour the fossil record to learn what fossils are, how organisms become fossils, the factors that promote fossilization, how paleontologists find fossils, and why some organisms cannot be fossilized....
University of California
Ucmp: Sequencing Time
Lesson plan in which students place events in sequence, comparing their life to the history of the Earth.
Books in the Classroom
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: In Plain Sight
Carol Hurst uses one of her own books, "In Plain Sight," as a basis for this lesson plan on the California gold rush. In addition to discussion questions about the book, Hurst provides ten activities designed to help students explore...