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Greetings! ,
Let it snow, let is snow, let it snow! With winter digging in, it is important to search out new things to do. Thankfully, we live in a state where museums, nature centers and cultural institutions abound. In this issue of Education e-News learn about things you can check out for your classroom and places that you can visit for work or fun.
Angi Reid
Education and Interpretation Manager, SSNHA
areid@silosandsmokestacks.org
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| Classroom Resources: UNI Museums |
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With 24 educational trunks available, the UNI Museum is a resource wonderland. The trunks, which explore topics such as rocks, dinosaurs, trees and one-room schools, are available to teachers at no charge.
 Each trunk comes with a curriculum binder explaining the contents and lessons that can be utilized in the classroom. For example; the One-Room School Tools trunk contains slates for each student, McGuffey Readers and spelling tests. Trunks are available throughout the year and are available to all teachers within the surrounding area. Along with trunks, the UNI Museum has a variety of field trips for teachers to choose from. Also free of charge, field trips can very in length from 30 minutes to several hours. Topics that can be covered include birds, bugs, travel and culture. Special scavenger hunts can be made for your trip and lunch can be eaten at the museum or at a host of other locations on campus.
To transport your students back in time, check out the Marshall Center School. Museum staff will interpret the school and what it was like to live, learn and work 100 years ago. This is a perfect field trip for the 100th day of school celebration! For more information on the UNI Museum visit: http://www.uni.edu/museum/ or call:319-273-2188 |
| Media Corner |
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http://www.iowater.net/RiverOfWords/ROWlinkpage.htm River of Words® (ROW) conducts an environmental poetry and art contest for youth aged 5 to 19 in grades K-12 every year. The contest is designed to help youth explore the natural and cultural history of their own watershed, and to express what they discover through poetry and art. Each year, eight U.S. winners, one international winner, and a "ROW Teacher of the Year" are selected to be honored during National Poetry Month (April) at an Award Ceremony at The Library of Congress in Washington, DC. This contest is a wonderful way to get youth involved in helping Iowa's watersheds and learning about the importance of land management. In 2008 both poetry and art of students from Iowa was displayed at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art and various other cultural institutions.
 For TeachersThe Iowater website has great curriculum devoted to the teaching of watersheds, water quality and wetland habitats. For more information click on logo above. |
| Field Trip!!
Laura Ingalls Wilder Park & Museum |
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Through the colorful words of Laura Ingalls Wilder, readers young and old have envisioned themselves crossing the tallgrass prairie in a covered wagon. In Burr Oak Iowa, these visions come to life as readers enter the hotel where Ma, Pa and the girls lived and worked in 1876.
Restored to represent the late 1800's, the eleven room hotel allows visitors the opportunity to walk through the kitchen where travelers ate, see clothes Almanzo wore and read letters from Laura.
 For Teachers
The hotel offers a great way to immerse students in history. Docents take classes through each room, explaining where the family may have slept and chores they would have done for their room and board. In addition to the house, the museum offers walking tours of the small town. During the 1870's over 200 wagons a day drove through Burr Oak. Today, many of the original landmarks still remain. Students can walk by a church, school and bank where Pa would have deposited any money he had. For lunch, the museum offers a quiet little park where children can eat and play much the same as Laura did over 125 years ago. For more information visit: http://www.lauraingallswilder.us/ or call: 563-735-5916 |
| ICN Courses Available |
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Be sure to sign up for these ICN sessions presented in part by SSNHA partners in collaboration with IPTV's K-12 Connections. Visit www.k12connections.iptv.org to register.
Growing a Nation
Learn about the history and importance of agriculture in the United States
January 29th
Teacher Development & Training
Choose a Healthy Snack
Iowa Agriculture Awareness Coalition
Dec. 12th
Grades 3-5
The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
Various days in January
Grades 3-6
Traveling Seeds
April 16th
Grades- 2-3
Pioneers of the Prairie
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
Various days in April and May
Grades 3-6 |
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"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant."
-Robert Louis Stevenson
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 Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area is one of 37 federally designated heritage areas in the nation and is an Affiliated Area of the National Park Service. Through the development of network of sites, programs and events, the Heritage Area's mission is to interpret farm life, agribusiness and rural communities - past and present. | |
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