City of Shawnee Town

PURPOSE: Check out a Traveling Trunk from Shawnee Town 1929 Museum to prep your students ahead of their Shawnee Town 1929 Field Trip OR use as a standalone classroom activity!

IMPACT: Students who participate in a traveling trunk activity ahead of their field trip day have markedly deeper engagement with the stories and buildings at the museum. During visit, they often get excited to recognize artifacts from the trunks in their spaces, and start telling the stories they learned!

INCLUDES: Hands-on artifacts, photographs, and lesson plan options

CURRICULUM STANDARDS: The trunk activities are designed to meet both Kansas and Missouri curriculum standards for Grades K-5!

LOCATION: Pickup at 11501 West 57th Street, Shawnee, KS 66203.

Trunks are available to any school, homeschool co-op, or library staff for a 2-week checkout. Call 913.248.2360 to speak with our Curator of Education OR fill out our online request form!

COST: FREE!

Students can be a museum curator for the day! This Traveling Trunk encourages students to think about objects as a story waiting to be discovered – you just have to

play detective! Students will be able to explore and handle real artifacts from 1910 - 1930, such as toys, tools, catalogs, and more. The suitcase also includes magnifying glasses and description forms for students to use in analyzing their objects! Students can work in small groups or older students can work individually to examine their assigned item, research it and present their findings to you and the class. Your teaching binder includes the history of each artifact along with suggested questions, links, and lesson expansion ideas.

Students can dive head-first into the immigrant experience with real objects that would have been in suitcases coming from their homeland to America! This trunk helps your students explore the many ways and reasons people have migrated to this country, and their journey to build a new life. This trunk allows you to engage students with various cultures and feel a personal connection to those that built up the Kansas City region and made our modern nation the true cultural melting pot of the world. The trunk features various hands-on artifacts, photographs, timeline, map, and a binder of suggested activities. Want a deeper dive? Students can speak with their own families to get their personal family stories to connect with the lessons!