History Kits
What is a history kit?
History kits are designed to make history more interactive and accessible, helping students better understand and connect with the past. Consider checking out a history kit from one of Vermont's historical societies, libraries, or museums to enhance student learning.
A history kit typically includes a variety of resources and activities to help students engage with a particular historical period or event. History kit components vary, but here are elements that a history kit may include:
- Primary Source Documents: Copies of original documents such as letters, speeches, or official records from the historical period being studied.
- Reproduction Artifacts: Replicas of objects from the era, like coins, tools, or clothing, to give students a tactile sense of the past.
- Educational Materials: Lesson plans, activity guides, and worksheets that align with the historical content, helping teachers facilitate engaging lessons.
- Multimedia Resources: DVDs, digital files, or online access to videos, audio recordings, or interactive media related to the historical topic.
- Maps and Charts: Visual aids that help students understand the geography and major events of the time.
- Books and Literature: Age-appropriate historical fiction or non-fiction that provides context and narrative related to the period.
- Interactive Elements: Games, role-playing scenarios, or simulation activities that allow students to experience historical events in a hands-on way.
- Visual Aids: Posters, timelines, and infographics that summarize key information and make learning visually engaging.
Vermont Historical Society
Students see and touch history as they explore Vermont History Kits.
Each kit contains artifacts and primary sources (reproductions) and includes a teacher's guide and extensive lesson plans.
Bixby Memorial Free Library
Designed with grades 5-12 in mind, each Mobile Museum History Kit explores national themes of American history as experienced by the Bixby’s five-town region of northern Addison County, Vermont. While the stories the kits tell are specific to this area, the themes are universal to the American experience.
Each Mobile Museum Kit includes a teacher’s manual, artifacts, and primary sources selected from the Bixby Library historic collections.
Henry Sheldon Museum
The Henry Sheldon Museum kits are filled with resources on Vermont history including books, artifacts, audio-visual materials, and reproduction items. All kits align with the Vermont Framework of Standards and address a wide variety of learning styles.
American Precision Museum
The American Precision Museum, in collaboration with SparkShop, has developed a series of free kits that give 4th to 6th-grade students a hands-on introduction to Manufacturing, STEM, and Design.
Each curriculum begins with a brief history of local manufacturing before guiding students through small, achievable challenges reinforcing the kit’s central theme.