Set up a simulation tank where students pan for gold. Use pyrite, since this mineral was commonly mistaken for gold during the California Gold Rush, earning it the nickname "Fool's Gold" or spray paint rocks gold. Use shallow pans with wire mesh in the bottom like the ones used by miners as they panned for gold in streams. Have students sift through the dirt and put their "gold" into containers, mimicking the miners in 1848.
Students can participate in a virtual field trip online. The Virtual California Mining Country is a website that takes students on an educational tour of each specific mining camp which popped up throughout the mid-1800s. Consider playing a CD with "Old West" themed music for students while they do research in class. Students can highlight maps showing all of the different camps or make a miniature model of a mining camp as a class project.
Divide students into two groups and have them recreate a mining camp in the classroom. They can set up tents or mimic creating shelter between two trees if the outdoors is available for students. Students can make a campfire in the center of the camp by faking one or drawing a picture and duplicate a stream by using a blue blanket as water. Encourage the use of props brought from home or they can be created by hand, such as a stagecoach, miners pan or pick-axe.
Take a shoebox, throw away the lid and paint the bottom of the shoebox blue like the sky. Turn the shoebox on its side, adding trees for landscape if recreating a scene such as panning for gold by a stream. Purchase miniatures of people, plants and other necessities at a toy store, hobby shop or wherever dollhouse accessories are sold. Objects should be larger toward the back of the diorama so the scene is recreated to scale.