Students investigate who the Kumeyaay are and how they lived in the Mission Trails area by studying how land, water, plants, and animals supported daily life before the Spanish arrived. Through a site visit, shared research, discussion, sketching, partner interviews, and exhibit design, they build background knowledge and use evidence from maps, images, artifacts, and observations to answer the essential questions. The work culminates in a student-made mini museum and family showcase where students communicate their learning clearly through captions, labels, models, and docent-style presentations. Along the way, they practice collaboration, respectful listening, reflection, and revision as they deepen their sense of place and connection to local history.

Students will build understanding of who the Kumeyaay are by reading and discussing maps, images, short texts, artifacts, and site-based observations from Mission Trails, then sorting examples of how land, water, plants, and animals supported food, shelter, tools, and movement before the Spanish arrived. They will strengthen speaking and listening by participating in partner talks, small-group museum check-ins, and recorded interviews that answer the essential question, build on others’ ideas, and explain learning with clear details. Students will develop research and communication skills by taking shared notes, sketching observations at the Grinding Rocks site, and creating complete-sentence captions, labels, and interview responses for a mini museum exhibit and model. They will also practice collaboration, reflection, and revision by using peer and visitor feedback to improve exhibit pieces and present their learning to families and community partners as museum docents.

Students will create shared notes, field sketches, sorting charts, draft captions, labels, and short partner interview recordings as they build understanding of how the Kumeyaay used land, water, plants, and animals to meet daily needs. During the project, they will also produce artifact-style drawings, photo labels in complete sentences, and a hands-on model of the Grinding Rocks site with labeled connections to plants, tools, food, shelter, and movement. By the end, each group will present a student-made mini museum exhibit with captions, sketches, labels, and visual displays that answer the essential question. The final exhibition will also include a rotating gallery of student work and recorded interview responses that visitors can explore during the family museum night.

Open with a “Before the Spanish Arrival Circle” in which students rotate through three short stations: a storytelling corner, a plant-and-artifact table, and a map station focused on Mission Trails and the Kumeyaay. At each station, students talk with partners, make one sketch or oral observation, and add a shared class note about how land, water, plants, or animals supported daily life. End with the class unveiling the essential questions and creating a “What we think we know/What we want to find out” chart to guide the upcoming park visit and museum exhibit work. If possible, include a Mission Trails naturalist or ranger for a brief welcome, photo, or video clip to build excitement and connect the launch to the field experience.

Host a Living with the Land Showcase as a family museum night where the classroom becomes a mini museum of student-made exhibits, Grinding Rocks models, artifact-style drawings, and photo labels. Students serve as docents, guide visitors through displays about how the Kumeyaay used land, water, plants, and animals to meet daily needs, and play short partner interview recordings that answer the essential question. Invite Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation staff or a park ranger to attend, ask questions, and connect student learning back to the field experience. Give guests sticky notes to leave compliments and questions, then use that feedback for one final round of edits to captions, labels, and interview responses.