Life Along the California Trail
What was life along the California Trail like for children and families? Join us to explore the everyday lives of California Trail travelers and the Shoshone people through whose lands the trail traversed. Learn about daily activities – like traveling, getting food, and creating shelter – and compare them to your daily life today.
Field Trip Length and Grade Range
This school field trip is designed for students in grades 2 and 3. The program is 2.5 hours long and can be requested for morning (9:30 am - 12 pm) or afternoon (12:30 - 3 pm). Groups are welcome to extend their visit with a teacher-led picnic lunch or hike.
How to Participate
Visit School Field Trips for program dates and a registration link.
Life Along the California Trail - Teacher's Guide
Overview
This field trip blends exhibit exploration with interactive group activities to help students understand everyday life along the California Trail. Students will investigate scenes in the museum, work together in wagon teams, act out daily activities, and participate in hands‑on stations related to food, chores, and camp life for both pioneers and Indigenous peoples.
What Students will Learn
Students will discover:
- What daily tasks people completed along the California Trail, such as cooking, traveling, gathering water, caring for children, and working with animals.
- How pioneers and Indigenous peoples carried out similar activities in different ways.
- What tools and materials people used historically, where those materials came from, and how those tasks compare to modern life.
- How food, clothing, shelter, and transportation differed across time and cultures – and what stayed the same.
Vocabulary and Concepts Covered
California Trail — A historic route traveled by thousands of people moving west to California.
Pioneer — A person who moves to a new place, especially as part of settlement.
Wagon train — A group of wagons traveling together.
Indigenous peoples — The original peoples of a place and their descendants.
Immigrant — A person who moves to another country to live.
Before the Field Trip
- Assign or read aloud the California Trail Overview student reading.
- Optional: Show this 26-minute overview video, "Preserving Gravelly Ford"
- Ask the students to think about the experience of traveling the California Trail. Have them consider the following questions:
- Chores then and now: Do you have chores at home? How do your chores help your family? Now, imagine your family is leaving tomorrow to travel across the country by wagon. How might your chores change? What tasks would need to be done while traveling? What new ways could you help support your family on the trail?
- Fun without screens: What do you like to do for fun? Now imagine you’re on the California Trail – no phones, no video games, no internet. What do you think you would do for fun instead? What are things that you think would stay the same about how kids like to have fun? What do you think has changed over time?
- Encourage students to think of questions to ask during the field trip.
- Assign wagon teams. Each team will consist of one adult chaperone and six students that will rotate through stations throughout the exhibit area. Carefully consider social dynamics, including whether to assign students to groups for which their guardian is a chaperone.
During the Field Trip
- Materials needed: None! We will provide leader guides with instructions and answers for the adults.
- Teachers and chaperones are responsible for facilitating activities and discussions at the learning stations. This includes fostering engagement with the material and managing student behavior.
- Example Field Trip schedule:
- 9:30: Arrive, use bathrooms, introduction
- 9:45: Station Rotations
- 10:30: Discussion and transition to Hands-on Activities
- 11:45: Conclusion and wrap-up
After the Field Trip
- Email us your questions and feedback. We love hearing ways that we can continue to improve our programs!
- Post-activity suggestions:
- Object Storytelling & Illustration: Have students recall an object that they observed during the field trip and. Instruct them to draw a picture that tells the story of the Oregon Trail from the object’s point of view. Encourage them to consider:
- Why is this object on the trail?
- How was it used at home, and how is it used now?
- What is it like to travel across the country?
- How might it be used in its new home?
- Food & Family Traditions: Ask students to think about a food that is important to them or their family. Have them:
- Interview a family member to learn the recipe and the story behind it.
- Share the recipe and story in class.
- Discuss as a class: How do these recipes compare to one another? How do they differ from the food eaten on the Oregon Trail? What can food tell us about people’s daily lives, both past and present?
- You can ask a similar set of questions if you instruct students to bring in a piece of clothing that is important to them.
- Object Storytelling & Illustration: Have students recall an object that they observed during the field trip and. Instruct them to draw a picture that tells the story of the Oregon Trail from the object’s point of view. Encourage them to consider:
Related Nevada Social Sciences Standards
From Nevada Academic Content Standards for Social Studies
- SS.K.9 – Compare life in the past to life today within the community.
- SS.K.13 – Describe ways in which students and families are alike and different across cultures.
- SS.K.18 – Explain why and how people move from place to place within the community.
- SS.1.2 – With prompting and support, generate supporting questions related to compelling questions.
- SS.1.9 – Compare life in the past to life today for different cultural groups within the community.
- SS.2.14 – Identify and compare cultural practices and traditions in the U.S.
- SS.2.23 – Describe why people made decisions to move in early U.S. history, including cultural, economic, environmental, political, and social factors.