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Moving West and Making a Home is a free printable Grade 3 to Grade 5 social studies worksheet on how settlers adapted to new land as they moved west, aligned to C3 Framework indicator D2.Geo.4.3-5. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 10 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Moving West and Making a Home

D2.Geo.4.3-5

NameDate

Read each text, then answer the questions.

1.Look at the source, then answer the questions.

The California Gold Rush

An information text written for this worksheet. In January 1848 gold was found at Sutter's Mill in California. In 1849 alone about 90,000 people arrived, from the eastern United States, Mexico, Chile, China and other places. San Francisco grew from a small town of about 1,000 people to a city of about 25,000 in less than two years. California passed a tax on foreign miners that fell hardest on Mexican and Chinese miners. For California's Native peoples the Gold Rush was a disaster. Disease, hunger and killings cut their number from about 150,000 to about 30,000 by 1870.

  1. 1. About how many people arrived in 1849?
  2. 2. Why did San Francisco grow so fast?
  3. 3. What does this text not tell you about the miners?
2.Look at the source, then answer the questions.

A Sod House on the Great Plains

An information text written for this worksheet. The Homestead Act of 1862 offered families 160 acres of land if they farmed it for five years. On the Great Plains there were few trees, so homesteaders cut blocks of thick prairie sod and stacked them to make walls. A sod house stayed cool in summer and warm in winter, but it leaked when it rained and dirt fell from the roof. With little wood to burn, families burned dried buffalo and cow chips for fuel. Windmills pumped water from deep underground, and barbed wire, invented in 1874, fenced fields without wood.

  1. 1. Why was barbed wire useful on the Plains?
  2. 2. What were the good and bad sides of living in a sod house?
  3. 3. Why did homesteaders build houses out of sod?

LessonPrint · D2.Geo.4.3-5 · Set 10 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Moving West and Making a Home

Set 10. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. About 90,000 people. 2. Gold seekers arrived by the thousands after gold was found. 3. It does not tell you how many miners actually found gold.
  2. 2.1. It fenced fields without wood. 2. It stayed cool in summer and warm in winter, but it leaked and dirt fell from the roof. 3. There were few trees on the Great Plains.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to D2.Geo.4.3-5 of the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards.