A Note on Links: When reading back posts, please be aware that links have a short half-life. You can find working links to all of the MHS resources on our Educator Resources Page.

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Montana History for Kindergarten

I recently received a request from a kindergarten teacher for ideas for incorporating Montana history in kindergarten. Do you have any resources that you particularly like? If so, I'd love to hear about them. Here is how I responded:

The fact is, we don’t have a ton of material designed specifically for kindergarten, or really K-3. However, other kindergarten teachers have had success adapting our hands-on history footlockers. The lesson plans are designed for fourth grade but the objects are great for all ages. Footlockers are available to Montana educators for two weeks at a time. No rental fee is charged for the use of footlockers. However, schools are responsible for the cost of shipping the footlocker to the next venue.

Many lower grade teachers particularly enjoy Montana Indian Stories Lit Kit - Immerses students in storytelling and the oral tradition with seven class sets of Montana Indian stories collected for the Indian Reading Series (1972) and reprinted by the Montana Historical Society Press. The lit kit includes animal puppets and User Guide. NOTE: Out of respect for the storytelling customs of many Montana Indian people, this kit is available for use in the winter months (November through March.)

The user guides for all the footlockers are online and contain lists of contents and historical narratives as well as lesson plans. 

We also have specific lesson plans for lower grades in our integrating art and history lesson plans. Your school library may have a copy of our Montana’s CharlieRussell packet and The Art of Storytelling packet. We are in the process of reprinting The Art of Storytelling packets and I can mail you one when they are ready (likely in late October) if you’d like. (Put your name on the list.)

OPI's Indian Education Division has a number of K-2 lesson plans listed by subject matter. Many of them are tied to anchor texts. Poking around, I was intrigued by "Rocks are Tools" under Science and Songs from the Indian Reading Series (which would be a great accompaniment to the Indian Stories Lit Kit), under Music.

Finally, here a couple of lesson plans developed by kindergarten teachers who took part in an NEH Landmarks workshop we held back in 2011. I thought they were ingenious.


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