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The Big Idea Activity

What was life like in the past?

Make a Transportation Invention

  California Standard 1.4 Students compare and contrast everyday life in different times and places around the world and recognize that some aspects of people, places, and things change over time while others stay the same.

Teaching Tips

Tell children that there are lots of inventions that have changed the way we live. Have them check out the history of inventions timeline online.

Additional Links

Visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office's Web pages for kids to learn more about inventors and intellectual property, patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.


Maxine Hong Kingston

  California Standard 1.4 Students compare and contrast everyday life in different times and places around the world and recognize that some aspects of people, places, and things change over time while others stay the same.

Maxinew Kingston

Teaching Tips

Explain to children that writers and poets work hard to create stories and poems.

Additional Links

Visit this Web site for additional information about who Maxine Hong Kingston was and what she did.


You can find funny poetry to read to your class at this Web site.


Well Fargo History Museum

Study transportation methods of earlier days.  California Standard 1.4.2 Study transportation methods of earlier days.

Ghost Town

Teaching Tips

You may want to explain to children that both Wells Fargo and the Pony Express put stamps on the mail they delivered. Tell children that stamp collecting is a hobby. Use this web site to learn more about stamp collecting.

Additional Links

Tell children that the Pony Express mission was to deliver mail and news between St. Joseph, Missouri and San Francisco, California. The Pony Express was in service from April 1860 to November 1861 in the American West. Visit this site to learn more about the Pony Express.

Learn about how Wells Fargo began banking and mail services in the mining camps in California.