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Wagons, Wheels and Wings - Kansas Museum of History

Guided tour — Kansas Museum of History, Topeka

Grades — 2nd

Santa Fe Railroad EngineGet on board this transportation tour! Wagons, Wheels and Wings takes students through the museum gallery to explore different forms of transportation used in our state from 1854 to the present. Students will visit a covered wagon, steamboat, train, car, and airplane. At the end of the tour students will be challenged to create an historically accurate scene for each form of transportation using magnetic images and an activity board.

This tour addresses grade specific history, reading and writing standards and provides pre-and post-visit materials to help teachers fulfill those standards. Included within these materials is the Read Kansas! Kansans on the Move lesson. 

Standards addressed:

History: Benchmark 1, Indicator 1: The student compares various forms of transportation in Kansas past and present (e.g., the horse, steamboat, trains, airplanes, cars).

Geography: Benchmark 2, Indicator 1: The student identifies physical and human changes that have taken place over time in the local region (e.g., physical: tornadoes, drought, Kansas as an inland sea; human: new shopping centers, highways, houses).

1914 Longren biplane

Common Core Reading: RI 2.1: The student will ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

Common Core Writing: W 2. 2: The student will write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.

Download PDF with tour information

Cost per student is $4. One adult enters free for every 10 students.  Additional adults pay the student rate.

Length of tour: approximately one hour and 15 minutes, with a maximum of one tour per hour.

Number of students in a group: for the best experience, we recommend no more than 25 students per tour

Registration and scheduling: register online, or contact Education at 785-272-8681, ext. 414; email education @kshs.org.  Tours must be scheduled at least two weeks in advance.