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Beaches, mountains, valleys, farmlands, and deserts are all part of the unique geography of California. Students will learn about each of these regions with this primary source e-book that builds students reading skills and social studies content knowledge. The intriguing primary source maps, letters, documents, and images provide authentic nonfiction reading materials and keep students interested in learning. Text features include a glossary, index, captions, sidebars, and table of contents. This book connects to California state studies standards and the NCSS/C3 Framework and features appropriately leveled text to meet the needs of students reading at different levels. Additional features include Read and Respond and a culminating activity that prompt students to dive deeper into the text for additional reading and learning.

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Beaches, mountains, valleys, farmlands, and deserts are all part of the unique geography of California. Students will learn about each of these regions with this primary source e-book that builds students reading skills and social studies content knowledge. The intriguing primary source maps, letters, documents, and images provide authentic nonfiction reading materials and keep students interested in learning.

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Great informational text on California with information on all regions.

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Geography of California - Social Studies Book for Kids - Great for School Projects and Book Reports (Social Studies: Informational Text)

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Beaches, mountains, valleys, farmlands, and deserts are all part of the unique geography of California. Students will learn about each of these regions with this primary source reader that builds students' reading skills and social studies content knowledge. The intriguing primary source maps, le...

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A timeless, unforgettable riches to rags immigration story and beloved, award-winning modern classic, perfect for fans of Kate DiCamillo and Rita Williams-Garcia.

Esperanza thought she'd always live a privileged life on her family's ranch in Mexico. She'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home filled with servants, and Mama, Papa, and Abuelita to care for her. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard work, financial struggles brought on by the Great Depression, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When Mama gets sick and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances--because Mama's life, and her own, depend on it.

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Esperanza Rising (Scholastic Gold) [Ryan, Pam Muñoz] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Esperanza Rising (Scholastic Gold)

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This is a great resource to learn about the Native People of California and the different regions they inhabited and during specific time periods.

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People have lived in what's now California and Baja California (a part of Mexico) for almost 20,000 years. Because the landscape has so many different habitats-the rainy redwood forests; the snow-capped Sierra Nevada Mountains; the Central Valley farmlands; the Mojave Desert; and the Pacific Ocean coastline-the ancient people who settled here split into hundreds of smaller groups, each developing their own culture and lifestyle.

COOL CULTURE

The more than 500 tribes that lived in this region developed very different cultures from one another. The Pomo (POH-moh) lived along the northern coast and built homes using slabs of redwood tree bark. The mountain-dwelling Miwok (MEE-wuk) made cone-shaped bark houses, and the Maidu (MY-doo), who lived in valleys, created round lodges from earth. In the south, the Chumash (CHOO-mash) built circular frames using wooden poles, covering the structures with grass and marsh plants. In the summer, many tribes camped in temporary brush huts while they moved around to hunt and gather fruits and vegetables.

Tribal crafts differed depending on what natural resources were available. Tribes in the north, like the Tolowa (toh-LAW-wah), built canoes from giant redwood trees; in the south, the Cahuilla (kaw-WEE-ah) made clothing, nets, and sandals out of desert agave plants. In fact, these tribes produced so many different items that they created a huge trading network in which people traveled by foot or river to swap their goods. Some tribes, like the Chumash and Cahuilla, broke off pieces of giant clam shells to use as money.

People of the forest-based Cahto (KAH-toh) and Wintun (win-TOON) tribes ate caterpillars, bees, and grasshoppers. They also gathered acorns that could be ground into flour or made into soup. The desert-dwelling Cahuilla and Chemehuevi (cheh-meh-WAY-vee) snacked on snakes and lizards. Along the coasts, tribes like the Chumash fished and hunted sea lions and whales.

LIFE TODAY

When gold was discovered in 1848 in Coloma, California, thousands of settlers rushed onto tribal lands, pushing out native people. By the late 1800s, the U.S. government had forced the Native Americans to live only on small pieces of land called reservations. Many tribal members still live on reservations today, where they express their heritage while living a modern life.

Elders teach children traditional tribal dances and ceremonies such as the World Renewal Ceremony, in which dancers move and sing to ensure plentiful food and prevent disasters like earthquakes, and the Jumping Dance, meant to remove evil from the world and replace it with good. The Cahto still walk to the coast once a year, following the path their ancestors took to fish and gather seaweed.

Text and photos adapted from the Nat Geo Kids Encyclopedia of American Indian History and Culture.

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People have lived in what's now California and Baja California for almost 20,000 years.

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This is a book about the Native American's who lived in California and the different regions and things they went through during and throughout California's history.

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We Are the Land: A History of Native California

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We Are the Land: A History of Native California [Akins, Damon B., Bauer Jr., William J.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. We Are the Land: A History of Native California

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This is a diverse fictional book based on a little girl who goes to stay with her mom in Oakland in the 1960's. Mom is a Black Panther activist during the time. This is a great book to show diversity and what was going on in California during the Civil Rights Movement.

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One Crazy Summer: A Newbery Honor Award Winner

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One Crazy Summer: A Newbery Honor Award Winner [Williams-Garcia, Rita] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. One Crazy Summer: A Newbery Honor Award Winner

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Literary Collection of Stories written about Central Valley Region

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Literary Collection of Stories written about Central Valley Region

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Here is a book full of different pieces written by different people who wrote about and lived in the Central Valley region.

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The Other California: The Great Central Valley In Life And Letters (Western Literature and Fiction Series)

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An expanded edition of a work originally published in 1990 by Capra Press. It contains 19 essays (six of them new to this collection) on the landscape, literature, and life in the agricultural heartland that is the Central Valley of California. Some of the writings are personal, some regional, ot...

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Attached is a full copy of the book online, in case you don't have physical copies. Great for students to use with technology.

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ISLAND OF BLUE DOLPHINS : DELL : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

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This website you can use to read up on the history of the Island of the Blue Dolphins - about a young American Indian girl who was stranded on the San Nicolas island along California's coastal region.

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Island of the Blue Dolphins is a work of historical fiction based on the life of an American Indian woman who spent 18 years in isolation on San Nicolas Island , one of eight Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California.

In the book she's named Karana. Her birth name is lost to history, but she's often referred to as the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island or as Juana María, the name under which she was baptized before burial at Mission Santa Barbara.

Today, San Nicolas Island is owned by the US Navy. Although it is closed to public visitation, you can experience similar island environments, plants, animals, and history by visiting Channel Islands National Park, which protects five of the eight remarkable Channel Islands.

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Island of the Blue Dolphins (U.S. National Park Service)

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Island of the Blue Dolphins is a work of historical fiction based on the life of an American Indian woman who spent 18 years in isolation on San Nicolas Island , one of eight Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California. In the book she's named Karana.

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Here is a website from a 4th grade teacher that has everything 4th graders need to know about California. Great resources.

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​California is located on the west coast of the United States. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the west. It is bordered on the north by Oregon. Nevada and Arizona are located to the east. Mexico is a country to the south of California.

Read page 19 in your Reflections (blue hardcover) social studies textbook.
​You may not write in this textbook.
​Answer the three questions below.

﻿﻿How many natural regions is CA divided into?
What is a natural region?
What are the regions called?

California is divided into four natural regions. A natural region is made up of places that share similar physical features like landforms, bodies of water, climate and plants.﻿ The regions of California are the Coastal Region, the Mountain Region, the Central Valley Region, and the Desert Region.

Add a map of the four regions of California.

Read page 20 in your social studies textbook.
Use the highlighted sentences to write one paragraph (six or more sentences) about the Coastal Regi on.

Big Idea - Topic Sentence

​The Coastal Region extends for more than miles north and south along the western side of California.

​The Coast Ranges are mountains found in the Coastal Region. In Southern California, the Coast Mountain Range rises east of the plain, an area of land with beautiful sandy beaches along the shoreline. In Northern California, the mountains go right up to the ocean where cliffs plunge into the Pacific. California's Coastal Region has three large harbors - Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco are important for trade. steep

Big Idea - Conclusion

In conclusion, the Coastal Region stretches along the Pacific Ocean in California from the northern part of the state to the coast.﻿​ southern

Add pictures and captions of harbors or ports: Los Angeles, San Diego, and Oakland.

Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles

Read page 21 in your Reflections social studies textbook.
Create a Visme.

Add pictures and captions of California aqueducts and Mt. Whitney below your poster when your Visme is done.

Aqueducts bring water from the Sierra Nevadas to urban and suburban areas.

Read page 22 in your Reflections social studies textbook.
Use the pre-write we generated together to write one paragraph about the Central Valley Region.

Big Idea
​
The Central Valley is a region of low land between the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Coast Ranges.

Details

The Central Valley runs north and south in the middle of the state and is divided into a northern half , called the San Joaquin Valley and a southern half, called the Sacramento Valley . Where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers meet, a wide delta (land built up by soil carried from rivers) has formed with rich soil. The Central Valley is one of the most productive and rich farming areas in the world. Three fifths of California's farms are located in this region. Farmers use irrigation (water transported from somewhere else) to water their fields.

Big Idea - Conclusion

​The Central Valley is the most important farming region in the state.

Add a picture below the text box of the Sacramento Delta. Write a caption for your picture.

Add a YouTube video about the Desert Region.

Read page 23 and 24 in your Reflections social studies textbook.
Write one paragraph (6 sentences) about the Desert Region. Begin with a topic sentence and end with a conclusion.

Big Idea
​
The Desert Region, located in the southeastern part of California, is a hot, dry place.

It is made up of the Mojave (High) Desert and the Colorado (Low) Desert. People who live in the Desert Region use irrigation to get water for farming and their homes. Plants and animals have special adaptations to help them survive in this hostile environment. Death Valley at 282 feet below sea level is one of the hottest and driest places in the USA .

Big Idea - Conclusion

​The Desert Region's harsh environment makes it challenging for living things to survive.

Add a picture and/or a video above your writing and below your title when your writing is done.

Visme 1What is the relationship between elevation and temperature? (key idea)
​Compare the Reflections map on page 27, "California, Physical", to the map on Reflections page 29, "July Temperatures in California".
Use specific evidence from the maps to support your answer by c ontrasting the elevation and temperature in the Mountain and Desert regions.

(two supporting sentences)

Visme 2, to the What do you notice? Which two regions have the greatest population density? Which two regions have the least?
​Compare the map on Reflection page 20, "California's Regions" Reflections map on page 39, "Population Density in California".
Write:
Write one contrasting sentence. Use the contrast word "while in the middle of your sentence.
Example: The ______ Region and the _____ Region have the greatest population density the ______ Region and _______ Region have the lowest population density. , ​while

Visme 3page 20, "California's Regions", with the map on Write one or two sentences:
​Compare the map on Reflections Reflections page 30, "Precipitation in California".

Rank the regions from greatest to least amount of annual precipitation.

What have we learned from analyzing these maps?
​Let's synthesize what we've learned.

Visme 4 - Paraphrase
​ Maps help us understand California by giving us visual information and data about our state in a way that is easy to understand.

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Big Idea﻿ California is a western state in the USA on the continent of North America.

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This song is catchy and helps students remember the different regions of California.

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Here is the full book, "Our California" being read aloud.

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This is a book written by Pam Munoz Ryan, about her home state and features many different areas and regions of California and it's history.

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Re-illustrated and re-designed, OUR CALIFORNIA (previously CALIFORNIA, HERE WE COME!) is a lively tour of award-winning author Pam Muñoz Ryan's home state. Spirited poems celebrate California's major cities and regions. Backmatter includes state symbols and additional information about each ...

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This book is a great source because it talks about the 4 different regions of California and major landmarks during specific times in California's history that are important.

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Dreaming of California (An educational children's picture book about Yosemite, the Redwoods, San Francisco, the gold rush, and more - a great bedtime / good night story for kids)

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Dreaming of California (An educational children's picture book about Yosemite, the Redwoods, San Francisco, the gold rush, and more - a great bedtime / good night story for kids) [Grant Collier, Stephanie Lowman, All Dreaming of... Children's Books, Stephanie Lowman] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers.