Your students learn about daily life in 19th-century Santa Clara Valley by doing and comparing. They bake scones, perform the duties of the butler and laundress, pose for photos in Victorian garments, play parlor games and make a button whizzer. They will discover how women improved the quality of life for Californians and others through their participation in politics, education, business and agriculture. Students will visit an 1890s schoolhouse, explore an exhibit on agriculture and participate in a suffragette protest march. Through a docent-lead discussion and touchable objects, your students discover the daily life of a child during the 1880s.
Objects relate to school, play and daily tasks.
They make an adobe brick, dip a candle, design a brand, rope a steer, card some wool, weave, grind maiz, fry a tortilla, and make yerba buena tea. Once their work is done, they will shoot marbles, spin a top and create a corn husk figure. Your students will be outfitted at the Miner s Supply Shack and pan for precious minerals. They will discover the stories recorded in historic documents such as letters, diaries, legal records and photographs. Students will make their own Gold Rush adventurer journal to take home with their packet full of mined riches.