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Introduction
Introduction
This page is the introduction and an overview. Then, you can check out the other pages for your specific units:
Bulletin Boards!
Bulletin Boards!
Before we get started, and we do those KWL charts, a good way I like to get started is to decorate the classroom!
Student Created:
Use these coloring pages to get the kids going. Print a few copies of each image for kids to pick. Kids color and start to tap into their prior knowledge. Choose the best ones to decorate the classroom with.
California Portraits is also a good way to get the ball, rolling, introduce some influential Californians, or you can just save this for the end of the unit when you need to redecorate the bulletin boards.
Or, you can do the Regions of California and get some animals and natural environments going!
We will be working on the timeline through the unit. It's designed like the image to the right: Pennants to hang around the room. Let each kid color one and drape them around, adding the information as you go along in the unit!
But, if you want more student-centered, this one has more space.
Teacher Displays:
City government and their representatives.
California indigenous people and Franciscan Monks
Fight like ___ California Heroes
Miscellaneous:
Also, print the California Constitution or do a maze of California or print these stickers and make a cute border.
Local Government Display
Mission System Display
California Portraits Display
The Four Regions of California
The Four Regions of California
To introduce the great state of California, and the whole unit, I show this video I made called "Writing Fluency: California Landscapes." Students will be looking at an image, and writing in their notebooks or a blank sheet of paper for the purposes of writing fluency. At the end of the video, there will be a part that asks students to count the number of words. The video is an introduction to California history standards but also a writing lesson!
You can throw in the second video to play some rock and roll and get kids to feel good about California!
Now is also a very good time to make a relief map or a 3D map of California. Kids can use homemade salt dough, some paint... and it kills some time between Halloween and Thanksgiving when behavior is out the window anyway! :)
This is quick slideshow that should LEAD the classroom discussion. What do you notice about the map? Also, there are some prompting questions on the side to get the conversation going. Later on in the year, this will connect to the opinion Writing Unit about water in California
Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous Peoples
Part One: Indigenous Peoples
To learn more about individual tribes, click here. I got a whole page dedicated to their lives, their stories, before colonization.
Objectives:
The writing objective today is to improve handwriting; the reading objective is to read to research, using text features; the history objective is to introduce the indigenous groups of California.
DAY ONE
California Indigenous People 1 Printing Practice
Reading Article: Mooney Park
DAY TWO
California Indigenous People 3 Printing Practice
View Primary Sources and do a quick write of "What do you notice? What do you wonder?" In this section of the lesson, show each photograph for about 2 minutes. During those two minutes, students write anything they observe, anything that comes to mind when viewing it.
The printable fact sheets are a quick easy, low-prep, way to get kids to start researching. Each one is set up with the same structure and it is in an appropriate reading level.
(In my classes, we have a big PBL where we create a website about each tribe, so this is just an introduction. For that whole PBL, click here --> California Indigenous Communities
Also, check this out: Bowers.Org Trust me!
Explorers in California
Explorers in California
Here is a bulletin board set that I made about the major explorers that hit California or contributed to California's development.
California Explorers Posters
Cursive Sheet about Explorers
Here is a bulletin board set that I made about the major chucks of the Gold Rush Years
Summarize Early California
Objectives:
The language objective today is oral language practice. Today's activities also serve to summarize what was learned so far.
(1) Print these hexagons, one for each table group. Then, (2) have students cut them out and (3) sort them by relationship. In other words, if the edges touch, the two things are related to each other. This helps students see the relationships between different things. All together, the sorting part should take about fifteen minutes or so. The next step (4) is to share out, or just have students walk around and see how the other groups saw how things were related. (5) Finally, students copy some notes down in their notebooks, maybe just diagramming the entire hexagonal display, if necessary. Tomorrow, students will turn these hexagonal discussions into paragraphs, a quick write about what they learned.
Watch some videos and Quick Write
Video #1) This video is a 20 minute fast summary of California. (I would skip 11:21-11:36 since it mentions how "indigenous people were enslaved, kidnapped, raped." You can just stop the video at 11:21 because then it goes into civil way stuff anyway.) It is a great summary video of the things we have learned so far.
Video #2) Now, with this video, kids are going to be more independent. "The History of California" is a 25-minute youtube video. I like it because it is very straightforward. Kids take note here Google Doc (but I like to print mine as a hard copy for each kid). I warn them that tomorrow we will be writing about how California's peoples changed from 1700-1900.
When the video is over, and students completed their notes, I have them go back and mark the paragraphs about how the peoples of California changed. If you printed it in black and white, kids have to figure it out for themselves. If you gave them the digital copy, the red letters point them towards the paragraphs!
At the end of the videos, I have kids do a quick-write:
How did Spain’s actions contribute to modern California?
How did Mexico’s actions contribute to modern California?
How did the gold rush contribute to modern California?
How did the building of the railroad contribute to modern California?
Music for California
Music for California
The "Northwest Passage" is a great song, with a great voice. It is about trying to find a route across Canada to the Pacific Ocean. It compares the past travelers with the moderns day narrator's journey. The video here shows lots of historical images, showing how the land "is so wide and savage" and what the heroes crossing it had to do.
With Lyrics
With authentic sounds...
Field Trips and Class Visitor Ideas
Field Trips and Class Visitor Ideas
Modern California
Modern California
By the 1980s, we have a totally different California that 1880, than 1780. This is a great time to view "Why did People Settle in California?" and have kids do a quick write about what they noticed, what they wonder. These primary source photographs show fruit packers from the 1939 Sunkist factory and Korean field workers in Riverside, California. Great way to start a discussion!
California Data This is a great website to gather data on California, such as our current senator, population size, median property value.... all that good stuff!
Maps This website has every map of California that you will ever need!
California Counties Blank Outline Map
California Counties: Completed and Colorized
California Legislation Follow congress and see what bills they are working on
View our current constitution
You scrolled all the way down... this means that you enjoyed my work. Yes, it is free. Yes, there is no obligation... besides telling me if there is a spelling error or something... But, you know, I do like coffee... and I am not going to say no if you want to buy me a cup of coffee via Venmo. I am @AmaraLee-Brenner.
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