Indian Homes in Kansas - Trunk Manual
Lessons and activities in the trunk are directed at a first grade audience, although the information and materials included in the trunk can be adapted for use with other ages. Worksheets, photographs, and other materials needed to teach the lessons are not included in this online version of the manual.
Introduction
Standards
Lesson 1: Indians in Kansas Today (grade 1)
Explore the daily life of a contemporary Indian child living in Kansas through Cassie's Scrapbook, a nonfiction book. Expository text is used to explore aspects of her daily life such as home, hobbies, education, and the preservation of her Indian heritage.
Lesson 2: Building With Natural Resources (grade 1)
Sort objects related to Indian home construction into natural resource groups.
Lesson 3: Building a Grass House (grade 1)
Use photographs, objects and a "sewing" activity to introduce students to one type of housing used long ago by Indians living on the Kansas prairie. Sentence strips with picture clue cards reinforce ten facts about the grass house.
Lesson 4: Building an Earth Lodge (grade 1)
Use photographs, objects and a math estimation activity to introduce students to one type of housing used long ago by Indians living on the Kansas prairie. Sentence strips with picture clue cards reinforce ten facts about the earth lodge.
Lesson 5: Building a Tipi (grade 1)
Use photographs, objects, and a small tipi to introduce students to one type of housing used long ago by Indians living on the Kansas Plains. Sentence strips with picture clue cards reinforce ten facts about the tipi.
Lesson 6: The Kansa: Adapting to the Environment (grade 1)
Explore one way people adapt their homes to fit the environment they live in. Pictures and a map allow students to follow the Kansa as they moved to Kansas and adapted their homes to a new environment. A picture book illustrates many of the different environments on earth and the types of homes found in them. Students build a home from resources provided and then adapt it as their resources change.
Lesson 7: Comparing the Grass House, Earth Lodge and Tipi (grade 1)
Compare the similarities and differences of the tipi, grass house, and earth lodge using a Kansas map, sentence strips, and graphic organizers.
Lesson 8: The Buffalo and Daily Life (grade 7)
Conduct primary source research about the buffalo's place in the daily life of the Plains Indians and American settlers. Primary sources include objects, an ethnography, and the diary of a buffalo hunter. Students use their research to predict how the buffalo's disappearance would affect both groups.
Lesson 9: Read Kansas!: Indian Homes in Kansas (grade 1)
This lesson is part of the Read Kansas! curriculum series. Explore the connection between Indians in Kansas and the environment. Through readings, students learn about the traditional homes of the Wichita, Pawnee, Cheyenne, and Kansa.
