Lesson plans
These lesson plans include those developed by the staff of KSHS and other Kansas teachers. All of these lesson plans emphasize the use of primary source materials, most of which are from the collections of the Kansas Historical Society and can be found in Kansas Memory. The Read Kansas! curriculum lessons are also linked from this page.
Submit your own lesson plans
We invite teachers to submit lesson plans that use primary sources from our collections. Use this format to submit your lesson plan for consideration. For further information or to submit your lesson contact education@kshs.org
Elementary lessons
Middle school lessons
Territorial Kansas
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This Guilty Land investigates John Brown's complex personality and controversial actions in Kansas Territory.
- Rights and the Wyandotte Constitution explores the fundamental civil rights granted to Kansans under the state's constitution, the Wyandotte Constitution.
- Dear Wife & Children Every One uses one of John Brown's letters to examine his role in the 1856 Battle of Osawatomie.
- Popular Sovereignty and the Lecompton Constitution examines the debate over the Lecompton Constitution as a way to understand the implementation of popular sovereignty in Kansas Territory.
- The People of Kansas: Where did they come from and why did they come? seeks to understand the origins of emigrants to Kansas and many reasons they settled in the territory. This lesson plan also correlates with People of Kansas: Who are they and why are they here?
- The People of Kansas: Who are they and why are they here? studies the settlement experience through first-hand accounts of pioneers to Kansas Territory. Some of the primary sources used in this lesson are the same as those in "The People of Kansas: Where did they come from and why did they come?"
- Town Development explores town development and how it was affected by the conflict over the extension of slavery into the territory.
- Sectionalism and the Kansas-Nebraska Act examines the impact of popular sovereignty on the creation of Kansas as a state.
- Sectionalism, Popular Sovereignty, and Secession investigates the sequence of national events that resulted in the Civil War.
