History of California Weekly

At California Weekly Explorer we provide quality history presentations that motivate children’s creativity, intellect, and ethics. We believe in bringing the past to life by educating in an exciting, vibrant way, through active participation and highly effective teaching; all to kindle a love of history in future generations.

About California Weekly, Producers of the Walk Through programs

For over 35 years, California Weekly Explorer has specialized in presenting interactive history programs for fourth, fifth and sixth grade students. The late Rice Don Oliver created California Weekly Explorer for the purpose of enhancing the study of history in California’s schools by developing and providing unique materials and lively presentations.  Our presenters perform thousands of presentations throughout California to over 100,000 students each year!

History of California Weekly Explorer, Inc

California Weekly Explorer was founded in October of 1979 by Rice Don Oliver and wife Betty in Orange County, California. Rice, known as Don by friends and family, had a love and passion for history but too often heard students complain that history was boring. This encouraged Don to take action. He felt that history was better “experienced” than read; it was more than a list of dates in a book.  He started to ask himself how he could bring his love and enjoyment of history to the students of California. If students could relive history they would be able to relate and connect to the people and events of our past. So, he set about developing a plan of making content based history fun for elementary age students.
He began with fourth grade content standards and provided classrooms with fun, educational materials about California history and geography. These weekly Social Studies readers became a unique student newspaper known as “California Weekly Explorer”. Don also hosted workshops to help teachers make California history more interesting. Teachers then began requesting that Don visit their classrooms to teach their student directly.  In 1981 the first “in-school field trip” called “Walk Through California” was presented by Don to fourth grade classes in a few dozen locations throughout Southern California.

This was followed shortly after by the development of a presentation supplementing 5^th grade content standards for history called “Walk Through the West” Subsequent years brought more presentations as well as presenters. These presentations included “Walk Along El Camino Real” for fourth grade classes, “Walk Through the American Revolution” and “Walk With Lewis & Clark” for fifth grade classes and lastly, “Walk Through Israel” and “Walk Through the Ancient World” for sixth graders.

Today, California Weekly Explorer presents three types of Walk Through presentations: Walk Through California for 4^th grade students, Walk Through the American Revolution for 5^th grade students, and Walk Through the Ancient World for 6^th grade students. Due to the quality of these standards based history  presentations conducted by enthusiastic and dedicated presenters, the “Walk Throughs” continue to grow in popularity each year and are thriving throughout both Southern and Northern California school districts.

Our Presenters

California Weekly Explorer employs qualified personnel to present the thousands of presentations scheduled by schools each year. Our presenters are chosen because of their passion and enthusiasm for educating in a fun way. In addition to academic training, they have a wide variety of communication talents that enable them to motivate and educate students in captivating ways. Their backgrounds are varied and include different areas of educational expertise and/or public speaking and performance. Each employee is knowledgeable in the subject areas covered by the presentations and have completed additional company training in presentation skills and student management techniques.

California Weekly Explorer receives regular praise from teachers, parents, and students concerning the dedication, energy and enthusiasm of our presenters.

All employees are cleared through fingerprinting and background checks with the California Department of Justice as required by PC11105 for certification for criminal records check in compliance with AB 1610 and AB 1612.

If you are interested in employment with our company, please visit our employment opportunities page at www.californiaweekly.com and click “About”

Legal Compliance/Insurance

CWE, Inc. complies with all local state and federal laws in employment practices and regulations. All employees are covered by WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION INSURANCE and certification is available upon request. The company is covered by BUSINESS LIABILITY AND MEDICAL INSURANCE. All employee vehicles are additionally insured. All employees are cleared through fingerprinting and background checks with the California Department of Justice as required by PC11105 for certification for criminal records check in compliance with AB 1610 and AB 1612.If your school/district needs to request contracts and/or insurance for scheduled presentations, please email operations@californiaweekly.com