Hands-on materials available from the South Dakota State Historical Society

Are you looking for hands-on materials – buffalo hide, dip pens, butter churn – to use in your classroom? Consider renting an education kit from the South Dakota State Historical Society.

Kits on 14 different topics are available. At the heart of all the kits are hands-on objects. A teacher’s guide with topic information, photographs, worksheets, and activities with lesson plans are a part of each kit. Lesson plans list the South Dakota standards each activity helps meet. Teacher’s manuals can be found on the web at www.history.sd.gov.

The kits are: • Buffalo and the Plains Indians
• Mining in South Dakota
• South Dakota Environments
• South Dakota Immigrants
• Fur Trade: Bridging Two Worlds
• Dakota, Nakota, Lakota Life
• Cowboys & Ranch Life
• South Dakota Places
• Homesteading
• One-Room Schoolhouse Learning
• Lewis & Clark in South Dakota
• Trading Posts & General Stores
• Archaeology in South Dakota
• South Dakota Transportation

Kits rent for a two-week period for $23 ($13 if the kit is picked up and returned to the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre). The borrower is responsible for return mailing costs, about $20 per kit. For more information or to schedule a kit, contact Ronette Rumpca at (605) 773-6011.