American Indian Homes in Kansas
Guided tour—Kaw Mission State Historic Site, Council Grove
Grades—1st
Bring your students to the mission to learn how the Kaw (Kansa) Indians used the environment to build homes. These Indians were uprooted from their native habitat and moved to a reservation. The government provided them with stone huts to live in. Your students will learn the reaction of the Kaws to this housing.
They will compare the size of the Kaw's native bark lodges to the stone huts. They will also compare the housing of other Kansas Indians including the Pawnee, Cheyenne, and Wichita. In addition, the students will use the touch table to study items made from the environment. Part of the tour will be held in the classroom where students will use a large wall map of Kansas to identify the location of these tribes. The rest of the tour will take place in the museum and outside.
This tour addresses grade specific standards and provides pre- and post-visit materials to help teachers fulfill those standards. Each teacher will receive the Read Kansas! lesson P-6 "American Indian Homes in Kansas." Teachers might also be interested in either of these educational resource trunks-"Indian Homes in Kansas" or "People of the Plains: Native Americans in Kansas".
Standards addressed:
History: Benchmark 2, Indicator 4: The student compares types of shelter used by American Indians in Kansas over time (e.g., grass lodge, earth lodge, bark lodge, tipi).
History: Benchmark 4, Indicator 3: The student asks questions, shares information, and discusses ideas about the past using resources such as maps, photographs, books, and people.
Geography: Benchmark 1, Indicator 2: The student finds Kansas on a wall map.
Geography: Benchmark 5, Indicator 2: The student describes how the physical environment impacts humans (e.g., choices of clothing, housing, crops, recreation).
Common Core Reading: RI 1. 10 The student, with prompting and support, will read informational texts appropriately complex for grade 1.
Common Core Mathematics: 1G. 1 The student will distinguish between defining attributes (e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided) versus non-defining attributes (e.g., color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes that possess defining attributes.
Science as Inquiry: Benchmark 1, Indicator 4: The student asks and answers questions about objects, organisms, and events in his/her environment.
Download PDF with tour information
Cost: $2 per student including museum admission. One adult enters free for every 10 students. Additional adults pay the student rate.
Length of tour: approximately one hour.
Number of students in a group: For the best experience, we recommend no more than 30 students per tour. Larger groups can be accommodated by dividing them between guides.
Registration and scheduling: contact the site administrator at 620-767-5410; or e-mail kawmission@khsh.org. Tours must be scheduled at least two weeks in advance.
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