The California Gold Rush is a fun time in history to learn about in your homeschool! Not only does this topic relate to several other events in history, but it also involves some science and geography as well!
This unit study is based upon the What Was the Gold Rush? book. It contains pages to take lots of notes about the Gold Rush itself and includes math, writing, geography, and following direction activities as well.
Grab the book, sign-up to receive the FREE printable unit study and then explore the other resources below!
The Book for The Gold Rush
This unit study is based upon the book What Was the Gold Rush?. It can be presented as a read aloud over about 4-5 days. Or a child that reads at the 3rd grade level or higher could read it over several days.
This book covers how the Gold Rush started, how people heard about and traveled to it, and what happened when they arrived. It includes information about gold, how it was mined, the cost of doing business around the Gold Rush, and many of the challenges that were encountered.
The Gold Rush FREE Printable Unit Study
The printable unit study includes the following:
Notebooking pages about the history of the Gold Rush with answer key.
A timeline about how the California Gold Rush started and other gold rushes in American history.
Gold notebooking page to take notes about how to tell if gold is real and why it is so valuable.
Writing prompts to research related history topics and write about them as well as a prompt about whether you would have chosen to be a miner or sold supplies to miners and why.
A Following Direction Activity that helps children learn a little about North and South American geography while learning about how people traveled to the Gold Rush and where other gold rushes took place.
A Vocabulary Matching Activity to match some key words with pictures of them.
A set of Multiplication Story Problems about the cost of items involved in the Gold Rush.
Video about the Gold Rush
Here is a good short introduction about the Gold Rush. (4 min.)
“Visit” California
This video provides a great overview of California including its Native American and Spanish colonization history as well as animals native to the state. (14 min.)
Panning for Gold
See if there is a place near you or on your travels where you can try your hand panning for gold. Here is a short video to show you how it is done (2 min.)
The Chemistry of Gold
This video shows some interesting experiments with gold. (4 min.)
This video was made for older students although younger students that are very interested in gold may enjoy it, too. (6 min.)
Tour a Mine
Take a tour of a mine in Arizona. (Approx. 10 min.)
Other Activities
Get a Golden Nugget Dig Kit and dig for pyrite.
Listen to Oh Susannah, a popular song during the Gold Rush.
Play a choose your own adventure game about a gold rush from the National Museum of Australia.
Take an online quiz about the California Gold Rush over at Ducksters.
Other Related Books
Have you used any other resources to study the Gold Rush? Please share below!
Related Resources
