A Unit Study of the Gold Rush Era

Talk about exciting potential in a unit study! The activities that I've gathered for this unit study can make for an activity packed, very hands-on, fun time. Even if you live in New England or Florida, which are both at opposite ends of the country from the Gold Rush area, you can still have a dynamic unit study on this time period. This can be both a mini-unit to be used with a study of the Wild West or it can be a stand-alone study.

A component that I have not gone into in great depth that could be added is studying the impact of the immigrant on the Gold Rush. There were large numbers of Chinese and Spanish who participated in the gold rush as well as European immigrants who travelled from the East Coast of the US seeking the great American Dream.

Other extensions to this study could be the study of: Californian history, trails west, Native Americans, and the geology of the west.

GENERAL RESOURCES:

Teacher Created Materials (www.teachercreated.com) has several selections in their thematic units series that would work with this unit study. Each book comes with a sample lesson plan that will help you use the book in your own unit study.

Gold Rush (ISBN 1-55734-241-5) which uses three books to frame its study: Treasure in the Stream by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, Chang's Paper Pony by Eleanor Coerr, and By the Great Hornspoon! By Sid Fleischman.

Cowboys (ISBN 1-55734-593-7) which uses Cowboy Eyewitness Book by David H. Murdoch, and Pecos Bill by Steven Kellogg.

Tall Tales (ISBN 1-55734-242-3) which is a compilation of mini units on various fictional people that frequent tall tales of the west.

Wild West Days: American Kids in History by David C. King has interesting activities to add to this unit study.

Jackdaw Publications has a kit entitled California Gold Rush - 1849

If you go to http://catalog.socialstudies.com/ and use their search feature (using keyword: gold rush), check the product or series option, you will be given a descriptive list of approximately 90 books, games, and other resources. While not all are specific to the California gold rush, many are.

PREPARED LESSON PLANS:

http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/goldmountain/

http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/goldrush/

http://students.itec.sfsu.edu/edt628/ouray/index.html

http://www.museumca.org/goldrush/curriculum/4g/42209039.html

http://www.museumca.org/goldrush/curriculum/4g/41110121.html

http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/curklon/main.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/50048/index.htm

http://www.discovery.com/stories/wayback/980323/wayback.html

WEB RESOURCES:

Gold Rush Fever!

http://www.richmond.edu/~pstohrhu/learn/gold.html

The Gold Rush from PBS, sponsored by Wells Fargo

http://www.pbs.org/goldrush/

The American Experience: Gold Fever (another PBS documentary)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/gold/about.html

Women in the Gold Rush

http://www.goldrush.com/~joann/

Going for Gold: A Wagon Train Re-enactment

http://www.goldrushwagontrain.org/

StudyWeb's site on the Gold Rush - this site has several links that are every interesting

http://www.studyweb.com/links/4049.html

Surfing the Net with Kids - Gold Rush links for kids

http://www.snet.net/features/surfing_kids/articles/1998/05010101.shtml

The Gold Rush from Electronic Textbook

http://www.ecsu.ctstateu.edu/depts/edu/textbooks/calgoldrush.html

Gold Rush History Links

http://www.malakoff.com/goldcountry/history.htm

Gold Rush game

http://www.tbc.gov.bc.ca/culture/schoolnet/cariboo/adventur/index.htm

Oakland Museum of the Gold Rush

http://www.museumca.org/goldrush.html

Yahooligan's Websites for the Gold Rush

http://www.yahooligans.com/Around_the_World/U_S__States/California/History/Gold_Rush/

The Land of Glittering Dreams

http://www.glittering.com/home.html

COOKING AND CRAFTS:

Cooking - (1) many Chinese and Spanish influences can be visible in a study of the gold rush. (2) Why not try some new food at a restaurant or some that you cook yourself...eat it in your camp. (3) Try cooking over an open fire, or on a grill, using foods that would have been available to the miners...lots of potatoes, wild or preserves meats, other wild foods. (4) make beef jerky... or buy a sample at the grocery store. (5) Try cooking in a box oven - check a boy scout or girl scout manual for this idea ..... biscuits and brownies are especially good this way.

Create a camp as your reading center - pitch a tent, have a campfire, sit by a stream made by a blue blanket. Just use your, and your child's, imagination to let the area come alive. You could get some white butcher paper or white bulletin board paper and tack it into a corner of a room and let the kids paint their mine or claim.

Environmental impact of mining: study the difficult environment impacts that mining had during the gold rush - panning, windlass and shaft, hydraulic mining, cadle mining, and the long tom.

Camping is a dynamic way to experience some of the feelings of the Gold Rush era. You can pretend camp by setting up camp under the dining room table or by setting up a small two-man tent in an low-traffic area of your home (especially if you have anti-bug kids ). You can do more reality-based activities by pitching your tent outside or creating a lean-to with lumber and a tarp. However you choose to do this, it should prove to be a learning experience for everyone. Extend this by only eating foods that the miners and pan-ers would have had access to.

Mining Town Diorama: Construct a shoebox diorama of a gold town. Include miners' camps, staked-out claims, and various mining techniques.

Make your own gold nuggets or coins: spray small pebbles or stones with metallic gold paint to simulate gold nuggets. OR Mint your own gold coins from clay and then after they dry you can paint them with gold paint or spray paint.

Take a virtual fieldtrip of the California Gold Rush:

http://www.malakoff.com/vcgc.htm

Mapping activities:

map the overland trails men (and women) used to reach the California gold mines.

map the sea routes that were used to reach the California gold mines.

make a topographical model of the state of California and show where the main mining areas were located.

Music: if your local library has a music collection (or cassette or CD) you will probably be able to find some selections on music of the old west or specific to California's history. Use the music to add another dimension to your unit and if you or your children are musically inclined, learn to play or sing some of the songs.

Geology: Study the geology of the gold fields. What geological formations or minerals were present in the gold fields that helped the miners locate gold? How is gold formed?

Discuss the many illnesses suffered by the miners. What were some of the risks that they took with their health? Were men on their own more likely to become ill than a man who brought their family with them?

Simulate panning for gold.

FICTION/NON-FICTION:

Videos: Any good video of a California vacation will probably include at least a small section on mining towns you can visit; several old cowboy movies had the California gold rush as its central plot line; The Gold Rush with Charlie Chaplin (very old and not easy to come by), Pacific Sunset Publishers (http://www.pacificsunset.com/) have some titles available.

By the Great Horn Spoon (juvenile fiction)

For more titles, always check your library card catalog and the various museum sites listed under web resources.

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