#HistoryTime
A Newsletter for Kansas Educators

September 2020
Project Archaeology Interview With Nikki Klarmann
Serve up a side of history.
 
Plains Indians recipes are a fun way to engage your students in history. What American Indians ate provides your students with evidence of whether they were hunters or gardeners, with whom they traded, and what tools they had to prepare and cook their food. 

Help counter your student’s misplaced beliefs about the first Thanksgiving meal by cooking up an adapted Plains Indian dish. Serve up a side of historical thinking questions along with it. 
  • Where did they get their food? 
  • What did they eat?
  • How did they cook without pots and pans?
  • How did they prepare their food?
  • What do these recipes tell you about the Plains Indians?
Curriculum Corner
Exploring art as a primary source

Students can investigate the connection between history and the arts through the works of Fort Scott native Gordon Parks in this Read Kansas! lesson. Parks was a renaissance man, and students will analyze one of his poems, a photograph, and an excerpt from a novel to identify ways his life influenced his work as an artist.

After completing the lesson, students should reflect and discuss similarities and differences with current events surrounding issues of racism today.
From the Collections
Exploring Character Development   

Teenager Hazel Gonzales Gomez attended Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Topeka during World War II. Even at this young age, she was inspired to help others. Hazel organized social events for soldiers based in the area through the Y-Senoritas club, a group sponsored by the YWCA.

Her unselfish efforts earned her the queen’s crown at Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Fiesta in 1943. According to Hazel, “I won primarily because the soldiers sold tickets (votes) for me whenever a dance was held at their bases.”

Now called Fiesta Mexicana, this annual event raises funds to support both the church and school. The fiesta is an opportunity for the Hispanic community to celebrate its rich traditions and share them with others. Each year, the candidate who raises the most money is crowned queen or king of the fiesta. 
Ask a Historian
Students from Edwardsville Elementary asked us "What was it like to be a kid on the Oregon Trail?"

Submit a question and have it answered for next month's #HistoryTime issue.
No Place Like Home
The sixth season of the Museum’s popular Home School Wednesday program is going virtual! No Place Like Home: Remote Learning for Grades 4 through 12 will offer classes using Nearpod. This means our regular home school attendees can still enjoy classes, and students across Kansas in grades 4-12 can also benefit from this opportunity.

Classes are free. They are scheduled for the first Wednesday of each month through May. Each session focuses on topics that both teach Kansas history and connect to students’ lives today. It is a work in progress, but our hope is to offer live online instruction with extended activities for students to complete on their own. The September class explores “Epidemics from Kansas History.”
Add a New Resource to Your Teaching Tools
Ancestry is offering 6-month free subscriptions for up to 10,000 K-12 educators across America. This subscription provides access to billions of historical records—from the 1920 census to WWII draft cards—that can enrich your students’ understanding of events and milestones throughout history.
Shop online at our Museum Store and discover a variety of Kansas made items and historical resources.
Consider becoming a member of the Kansas Historical Society to receive free admission to the Kansas Museum of History and our 16 historic sites.