Lesson 1 – Time Line

            Today we make a timeline.  I am using a large roll of craft paper and putting it up in my hallway.  Why my hallway?  Because I DON”T want it in my kitchen! Lol  It is the only usable wall space in my house.  You can put this any place that you have a decent amount of space.  This is going to stay up for the school year so pick your place accordingly. J

            Step 1: Measure out your paper according to your wall.  For me, I want to cover 600 years and include California’s early exploration and settlement, Major European and North American events as well as some family genealogy – so I need some space.

            Step 2: BEFORE you put this beautiful piece of art up on your wall you may want to draw your timeline while it is flat on the floor.  Divide it into sixths to mark each century, then into 10^th s or 5^th s (depending on how detailed you want to get) then add your dates.   Keep the dates fairly small.  Use a nice black pen for all of this.

            Step 3: Now in light pencil draw 4 more lines parallel to your timeline.  These will be used to represent California History, European History, North American History and Family History. 

            Step 4: Add in the dates that you know.  I will list some from our previous history lessons here but you should put some in that your child can relate to and understand.  For us I am going to put our family history on the shortest stick down to the first pencil line.  My family came to California in 1970 so I am going to use GREEN to represent our family timeline so I will draw a green line from 1970 down to the first pencil line and write “Papa comes to CA”.   I will use the 2^nd pencil line to represent European History so for Columbus I will draw a BLUE line from 1492 down to the 2^nd line and then write “Columbus discovers New World”.  The third pencil line will represent North American History so say 1776 – I will pick RED and draw a line down to the 3^rd pencil line and write “Declaration of Independence”.  The forth pencil line will be for California’s History.  This one you can mark as you go. 

            This is a big project.  You might want to do some prep work ahead of time and then get your child to help you fill in important dates that they remember from history as well as family dates.  When were they born?  When were you born?  When were grandparent’s born?  Who was the first person from your family to come to CA?  When?  When did your family come to the US? 

Unit 2 – Time Line and Native Tribes

Overview and objectives:

Make timeline - put in hall

             - add east coast and European events.

  - add our family timeline

Native tribes

            - locations

                        - color on map

             - lifestyle

             - field trip

Starting in lesson 2 we will be working on the indigenous people of California.  Here is a great sample curriculum that includes info on the tribal regions.  http://www.splashpublications.com/files/californiahistory.pdf Going from this I made a map using a basic blank map of California and then drew in the areas based off of the map in this book.  My son will then color in each region as we study it.  We will pick one tribe from each region to really learn about.  I will post websites as I find them as well as books that we read from the library. 

Additionally, my son really got into the projects of the topographical map and time line.  Apparently he likes crafts more than I thought!  So, at his request we are also making sample dwellings for each region.  This is completely optional!  We are only doing this because he wants to!  Oh, and as I do it I am having flash backs of building my daughter’s mission.  Ahhh!!!!  Be warned that depending on the skill level of your child, this may become more YOUR project than theirs.  My son is enjoying it and learning, so we will persevere through. 

If you are crazy like me and want to do the buildings here is how we went about it:

1 large piece of foam core

1 box craft sticks

1 box craft tooth picks

Tacky Glue

Salt Clay – see Unit 1:1

There are 6 basic regions for the native tribes so I divided the foam core up into 6 squares.  I then took the salt clay and rolled out a square 7”x7” and put that in my first square.  Put the rest of the clay away for next time.   Now I used craft sticks to make the dwelling.  We glued them onto a support beam then when the wall was dry we put a bead of glue on the clay and pushed the wall into the “dirt”.  Cut and build getting as detailed as you wish.  You will see from my pictures that we just did it and didn’t worry too much about perfection.  Good luck!

Lesson 6 – Composition and Power Point

            Today we start another year long project that I am really excited about.  We are starting a Power Point.  We will be adding to this at the end of each unit so that by the end of the year, my son will have made a power point summarizing California’s history!  Since my son likes working on the computer, this will be much easier than a long essay.  At the end of each unit he will write 1-2 paragraphs summarizing what he has learned followed by pictures that he took on our field trip.  The pictures will all need descriptive captions.  Ready?  Here we go!         

Today is all about lessons learned.  My son will write 1 paragraph about the bioregions of California and one about the one we just visited.  This will be uploaded to the power point.  Then he can upload his favorite pictures from our field trip and label those.  This may take a couple of days to complete -that's ok.  Hooray!  Unit one complete!

 Click here to see my son's power point as an example.

Lesson 5 – Field Trip!!!

            It’s our first field trip!  Go outside today and explore your bioregion or visit another one.  Be sure to take lots of pictures of things unique to your region.  What native plants and animals do you have?  Are there rivers and lakes?  Fresh or salt water?  What is the soil like?  We will be going to Point Lobos http://www.pointlobos.org/, Natural Bridges would be a good one too: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=541 , Mt Madonna: http://www.mountmadonna.org/ or just a walk through the neighborhood.  Since we are in the Coastal Mountain Region we will head to the coast.  Make this as big or as small of a trip as you would like, just HAVE FUN and don't forget the camera!

Lesson 4 – Paint our Map

            Today we will paint our map.  You may choose to paint it according to the bioregions or more realistic.  The choice is yours.  Be sure to add snow to the mountains, important rivers and lakes and any areas that may be important to your family.  This is a great time to discuss again where you live, where you vacation, where you camp, where your extended family and friends live etc. and the bioregions of those areas.  We chose at the last minute to add in Mexico and the our neighboring states.  Make it however you want to.  Have fun with this!

Lessons 2 & 3 - Bioregions

http://gk12calbio.berkeley.edu/lessons/less_bioregions.html has a lesson plan, a power point and a printable map that kids can color to help identify the areas.  We were short on time and did this in one lesson, but two would have been better.  I also pulled my own pictures from our family camping trips to show the different bioregions discussing what he saw there.  I had my son take notes on the different regions as we flipped through the pictures.  We will use these notes in a later lesson.  He also colored the bioregion map.  Below the map he wrote the definition of Bioregion: "the number and variety of living organisms". (definition from website listed above)

Lesson 1

Lesson 1 – Make a topographical Map

How to make a map:

            Salt Clay:

            2 ½ cups flour

            1 cup salt

            1 cup water

            Mix it up and store in an air tight container in the refrigerator.  I wrapped mine up in plastic wrap to keep it moist.

            I went to the craft store and picked up a large piece of foam core. 

            We used a basic clip art of California to go off of and free handed the outline of our state.  (I actually had my husband do that part).  Then my son and I took clay to add mountains, valleys, etc.  Keep in mind where the Sacramento and American rivers are going to come out of the mountains and try to keep a little groove there so it will be easier to paint.

            We had a great time discussing different mountains and places that we have been and where we have camped.

            This will take a few days to dry.  While it is drying we will focus on learning the regons of the state.

Unit 1 - Geography

Unit 1 – Overview
Lessons 1-5  Make a topographical map of CA.
Lesson 6 - Write a summery and start a power point

Goals:

             learn regions of California

              -- Coastal

              -- Mountain

              -- Central Valley

              -- Desert

  - learn geography and natural wonders

     - redwoods, Yosemite, rivers, lakes, desert, mountains, central valley

Resources:

            http://gk12calbio.berkeley.edu/lessons/less_bioregions.html has a lesson plan and a printable map that kids can color to help identify the areas. 

I also looked up topographical maps of CA and talked about the different areas.

Welcome! - Overview of the Year

Welcome to my blog! The purpose of this blog is to keep myself organized as well as to help anyone else out there who is struggling with teaching California's history with out a good curriculum.

I am using the CAVA curriculum and have loved it up until this year. Their History K-3 has been amazing but is lacking in State History for 4th. When my daughter was in 4th grade in school the focus was on "Mission History" and much less on the rich history of our state. I want more than that for my son. I want him to really have a firm understanding of our state and how we came to be here. I want him to have a sense of pride in being a Californian. I don't want the same old boring history and complicated projects that are beyond his grasp. I want this to be a year of exploring and hands on learning. Let's not just read about it - let's go see it! Let's live it! Let's understand it and how it fits into the rest of the world.

I am hoping that this year we will be able to cut down on repetitive busy work and focus on the fun of learning. I am going to try to be diligent in posting our progress here in hopes that it can help others who are going through the same struggle as me in finding a good 4th grade curriculum for California's history. Please feel free to leave comments, suggestions and ideas.

Here is an overview of what I hope to cover this year:

Unit 1 – Geography

Goals:

  - learn geography and natural wonders

  - redwoods, Yosemite, rivers, lakes, desert, mountains, central valley

Field Trip

Unit 2 – Time Line and Native Tribes

Overview and objectives:

Make timeline - put in hall

             - add east coast and European events.

  - add our family timeline

Native tribes

            - locations

                        - color on map

             - lifestyle

             - field trip

Unit 3 – Early Explorers and Settlers

Study British

- put British flag on topographical map

- is there a monument in SF to go see?

Study Spanish explorers

  - who and why

  - add flags

  -forts

       - fort field trip

Study Russians

  -add forts to topographical map with Russian flag.

  - field trip to Fort Ross

Unit 4 - California Missions

  - missions

     - mission field trip

  - add the above to the map

Independence from Mexico and statehood

Unit 5 - Trade

  - what did they trade?

  - how did they trade - using rivers etc

  - boat ride on the Sacramento River

Sutters Fort

Unit 6 - Gold!

Unit 7 - Immigration

  - types of transportation

    - RR

    - wagon train

    - boat - cape horn

Unit 8 - Industries

  - support for minors

  - ranchers

  - farms

  - Hollywood

Unit 9 - John Mure

Unit 10 - Local Settlers

Henry Miller - Mt. Madonna

  - See ruins of his summer home

Unit 11 - History of San Jose

Unit 12 - State government

  - counties

  - Visit State Capitol