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Lesson Plans
California Indian Basketry
Native Americans of California, with more than 60 distinct tribes, have a rich tradition of creating baskets for use in their daily lives. The types of baskets and the diversity of their uses seem almost endless. Baskets are used for everything from carrying water to winnowing acorns to preparing an evening meal. This lesson will give students the opportunity to learn more about the baskets of California and the Native Americans who have created them for thousands of years. Students will also learn how to weave their own baskets. Download it here  .
Learners: Grades 2, 3, 4 & 5
Curriculum Connections: History-Social Science, Visual and Performing Arts
Citizenship
What does it mean to be a good citizen? What qualities and values are important in the United States? Are these values important in all democracies? This lesson introduces the concepts of civic values, rights, and responsibilities. Students will discuss and compare the requirements for citizenship in 1896 and today. In small groups students will create their own countries and use written and artistic representations to depict the qualities of a good citizen. Download it here .
Learners: Grades K, 1, 3 & 12
Curriculum Connections: History-Social Science
Classroom Archaeology
Generations of people who have come before us have left clues in the earth about their life and culture. These clues can be found in the remains of the homes, settlements and towns of centuries gone by. Archeology is our way of understanding these clues. Whether in the field or in the lab, an archeologist uses pieces of the past to complete the puzzle of history. Download it here .
Learners: Grades 4 & 5
Curriculum Connections: Science, English-Language Arts, Mathematics
“Foreign” Miners
Between 1848 and 1854, close to 300,000 people from across the world came to the gold fields of California, more than tripling the 1847 population. Although the gold seekers spoke different languages and had various traditions, religions, and political beliefs, they all came with one hope-to strike it rich. Some succeeded and became fabulously wealthy; however, for most the experience was a disappointment at best and an unmitigated disaster at worst. Tempers flared, fights broke out, and cultures clashed in towns aptly named Hangtown and Rough and Ready. The gold rush changed the very face of California, as new economies rose to meet the needs of the miners, large corporations flourished where individual miners failed, and Native populations were decimated. Download it here .
Learners: Grades 3, 4 & 5
Curriculum Connections: History-Social Science, English-Language Arts
Freedom’s Opportunity
Using the life of Ellen Cook as a framework, this lesson looks at the choices freed slaves needed to make at the end of the Civil War. The lesson asks students to reflect upon gaining freedom in a role-playing exercise. Working in small groups, students will be given a fictional nineteenth century identity and will use problem-solving skills in order to make decisions about a fictional situation. Download it here .
Learners: Grades 3, 4 & 8
Curriculum Connections: History-Social Science
The Fur Trade
From the Great Lakes to the Pacific, and from the Great Plains to the desert, the West before 1850 was like a vast marketplace. This lesson accompanies museum galleries that explore the stories of merchants and hunters who met in trading posts and villages across the continent. Traders learned each other’s languages and cultures, and they married into each other’s families. Some people made great profits, and other fell hopelessly in debt. Trade linked individuals, families, and communities in the West, and blended cultures. Download it here .
Learners: Grades 3 & 5
Curriculum Connections: History-Social Science
Iconic Figures of the American West
Over the past four decades, Western-genre films have touched generations of moviegoers. The Imagination Gallery at the Autry National Center’s Museum of the American West features men and women of Wild West show, Western-genre movies, radio shows and televisions series as well as Western paintings and decorative arts of the 20th century. In this humanities-based lesson, students will watch a film, either in the classroom or as a homework assignment. In the culminating project, students will research and prepare presentations focusing on icons of the American West. Download it here .
Learners: Grades 9-12
Curriculum Connections: English-Language Arts, Visual and Performing Arts
The Mini-Museum
Artifacts can be used to tell a story about a person, time, or event. Museums are a great source for artifacts and other primary sources. They help people learn about civilizations, societies, and people through the objects they created and left behind. Download it here .
Learners: Grades 2 & 3
Curriculum Connections: History-Social Science, Visual and Performing Arts
Northwest Coast Indians: Masks
This lesson plan is designed to support learning experiences about the history and culture of Northwest Coast Indians. These materials focus on shared aspects of daily life among Northwest Coast Indian tribal groups (including Chinook, Haida, Kwakiutl, Makah, Nootka, Squamish, Tlingit, and Tsimshian) prior to their first contact with non-Indian peoples in the late 1700s. After learning about the tradition and uses of Kwakiutl transformation masks, students create their own transformation mask, based on Kwakiutl models. Download it here .
Learners: Grades 3, 4 & 5
Curriculum Connections: Visual and Performing Arts, History-Social Science, English-Language Arts
Northwest Coast Indians: Spring and Summer Salmon
This lesson plan is designed to support learning experiences about the history and culture of Northwest Coast Indians. These materials focus on shared aspects of daily life among Northwest Coast Indian tribal groups (including Chinook, Haida, Kwakiutl, Makah, Nootka, Squamish, Tlingit, and Tsimshian) prior to their first contact with non-Indian peoples in the late 1700s. Through an exploration of a story about the Salmon People, this lesson plan focuses on the annual practice of harvesting salmon and the cultural importance of this fish to the mythology of the Northwest Coast Indians. Download it here .
Learners: Grades 3, 4 & 5
Curriculum Connections: Visual and Performing Arts, History-Social Science, English-Language Arts
Northwest Coast Indians: Winter Celebrations Potlatch
This lesson plan is designed to support learning experiences about the history and culture of Northwest Coast Indians. These materials focus on shared aspects of daily life among Northwest Coast Indian tribal groups (including Chinook, Haida, Kwakiutl, Makah, Nootka, Squamish, Tlingit, and Tsimshian) prior to their first contact with non-Indian peoples in the late 1700s. By learning more about the cultural and social importance of the widely practiced potlatch ceremony among Northwest Coast Indians, students plan and give their own potlatch incorporating activities and the creation of gifts. Download it here .
Learners: Grades 3, 4 & 5
Curriculum Connections: Visual and Performing Arts, History-Social Science, English-Language Arts
The See Family
This lesson contains background information about the See Family and suggested classroom activities to help teachers prepare their students for their visit to the Family Discovery Gallery. Download it here .
Learners: Grades K, 1, 2 & 3
Curriculum Connections: History-Social Science
Trade Between East and West
This lesson uses map activities to frame the westward movement by land and by sea. Students are asked to examine the benefits and costs of each form of travel to decide which one they would have preferred. Information about the two types of travel is included in the body of the lesson plan. The lesson also concentrates on trade. Groups needed to trade with one another to receive all of the goods they desired. After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, a trade network developed between Mexico and the United States. Trade is also important in that it affects students’ daily lives and is an important economic concept. Download it here .
Learners: Grades 1 & 2
Curriculum Connections: History-Social Science
Where in the World Am I?
California is part of the American West. But Canadians travel south to reach the American West, people from Central and South American travel north to reach “the west,” and people from Asia travel east to reach “the west.” This lesson reviews relative and absolute locations and a student’s place in the world. Download it here .
Learners: Grades 1 & 2
Curriculum Connections: History-Social Science, Visual and Performing Arts
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