History Time

A Newsletter for Kansas Educators

December 2024

Kansas Day Edventure 2025

Join us on January 29, 2025, for another Edventure program! Education staff from the Kansas Museum of History will be participating in Wichita Public School’s Kansas Day Edventure program. Live presentations from a variety of organizations will take place throughout the day. Students and educators across the state are encouraged to participate in this free event. Check back for more details coming soon! Programs from 2024 are available to watch here: bit.ly/3NQQjT6.

Kansas Symbols Kahoot

Kansas has 25 official state symbols. Do you know what they are? Test your knowledge with this new Kahoot created by our education staff! The interactive quiz covers the most well-known symbols plus a few extra to really challenge students. This is a great activity to use for Kansas Day coming up on January 29, 2025.

Traveling Resource Trunks

Kansas Day is fast approaching which means availability for our traveling trunks is limited! Traveling resource trunks provide educators with hands-on materials, primary sources, and complete lesson plans for an engaging and adaptable experience. Seven topics are still available for January including Civil War, Corps of Discovery (Lewis & Clark), Uses of the Buffalo, Santa Fe Trail, Kansas Territory, Indian Homes in Kansas, and Cattle Trail Cowboys. Visit our website for more information about these trunks and the reservation process. Reservations are made on a first come, first serve basis.

Reform in Kansas Episode 5:

Socialism in Kansas

This fifth installment in our series on reform movements in Kansas covers the socialist movement that emerged in Kansas following the end of the People’s Party in the early 20th century. Kansas was home to the largest socialist newspaper in the entire nation, the Appeal to Reason, which at its height of circulation reached around 760,000 people. The owners of the paper, Marcet and Emanuel Haldeman-Julius created affordable Little Blue Books which contained classical, educational, biographical, and other literature. From 1919 until 1951 over 6,000 titles were printed over 500,000,000 times.

Stay tuned for the last and final episode in our Reform in Kansas series, which focuses on the Progressive Movement.

Standards Based Lesson:

Immigrants to Kansas

Following the theme of this month's Reform in Kansas video, this fourth grade lesson introduces students to a variety of immigrant groups that settled Kansas and the reasons for their immigration. One of the highlighted stories is the failed socialist community of Silkville. The lesson encourages cooperative learning by having small groups of students focus on a specific immigrant group. Students will practice expository reading and determine the meaning of words in context. Each group will create a small exhibit or poster and discuss the costs and benefits of immigration.

Don't Forget!

State Historic Sites now have free admission! Look for one in your area. Call ahead as some are only open seasonally.

Read Kansas! lessons are available free of charge for primary, intermediate, middle, and high school students while supplies last.

A variety of virtual tours, videos, and Nearpod lessons are available to use in your classroom. 

Traveling resource trunks are available to borrow. Reserve one now for the school year.

The Kansas Museum of History is closed for renovations. Although the museum is not available for field trips, our staff is here for you.

Zephyr, our newest publication, provides information on events, programs, updates on the museum renovation, and highlights a variety of state historic sites.