Note
The AAMI is not offering traveling trunks at this time. Learn more about the Museum’s other offerings including traveling exhibits.
Use our classroom resources to help bring relevance to history for your students.
Lesson Plans
As part of a collaboration between educator Liz Callahan from Cedar River Academy at Taylor Elementary, the AAMI is excited to launch a series of lesson plans for third graders. Third grade is when students begin state-mandated units on migration and immigration to better understand how people have come to Iowa. For more about Iowa’s third grade social studies standards, click here. We hope that educators will find these curriculums on slavery, the Great Migration, and segregation at both the national and state level to be useful.
Traveling Trunks
Dig into history with a traveling trunk from the African American Museum of Iowa. You’ll receive a large tote full of artifacts, reading materials, activities and more. Each trunk includes a curriculum guide with lesson plan ideas for classroom and home school teachers.
How do Traveling Trunks Work?
Traveling trunks enhance your classroom or library with a professionally curated, themed collection of learning materials.
Begin by reviewing our list of trunks, then submit a reservation request at least one week in advance. Our educator will contact you to confirm availability and arrange a time for you to pickup the trunk at the museum. You may keep the trunk for one week.
All trunks are free.
Traveling Trunks We Offer
Review our selection of traveling trunks:
Behind The Beat
Behind The Beat
See how enslaved people influenced the development of modern music, beginning with humble work songs and spirituals, and continuing through gospel, blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, funk and hip-hop. This trunk contains:
- Large resource binder with background on each music genre and lesson plans
- Enrichment materials
- Historic music timeline
- Fiction and nonfiction books
- African instruments
- Video
- Flash drive with a PowerPoint presentation and instructions for how to make a talking drum
- Print-out of the PowerPoint presentation slides
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver
Get to know George Washington Carver, a notable botanist, and inventor whose innovations continue to impact our daily lives. Carver was born during the Civil War period in a small Missouri town and attended college in Iowa. This trunk contains:
- Trail Blazer Lesson Section
- Pocketful of Goobers Section
- Research Activity Section
- Graphic Novel Section
- Enrichment activities Section
- Resource Sections with list
Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Great Migration spurred the growth of the Harlem Renaissance. Get a glimpse
of Harlem from the 1920s to the mid-1930s with this trunk. Even in the midst of
racism and economic struggles, African Americans were hopeful. Creativity was
awakened and black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars
were drawn to the neighborhood. This trunk includes:
- 1 Small binder containing:
- Overview
- Background article
- Map about Great Migration
- Lesson plan connected with book James Vander Zee
- Lesson plan for book Man Who Built A Library
- VTS for art activity about Jacob Lawrence
- Art analysis lesson
- Book list
- Background article
- Lesson about the fashion of the period
- 1 large binder containing:
- Pocket w/ flash drive that contains 2 ppt one for grades 3-8
and one for grades 9-HS and a digital concentration game - Set of cards about artists and their works. Use the cards for matching
artwork with artists; also use to prepare for playing digital
concentration game on the flash drive.
And, a laminated copy of Jacob Lawrence painting to use with Visual
Thinking Strategy - A packet that contains sets of pictures to arrange and
use with a lesson on analyzing and interpreting
- Various clothes that reflect period to be used with fashion lesson
- Several books
Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa
Discover the roots and traditions of Kwanzaa, an annual late-December celebration of African heritage in African American culture. This trunk includes:
- Traditional Kwanzaa table setting
- Kwanzaa candelabra
- Kwanzaa video
- Kwanzaa fiction and nonfiction
- Lesson plans
Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
Explore how Iowans contributed to the Underground Railroad by providing shelter, transport, and material to support slaves on the trail to freedom. This trunk contains:
- Two teacher-resource binders with historical background data and lesson plans
- Games and other enrichment materials
- Fiction and nonfiction books
- Flash drive with PowerPoint presentation
- Print-out of PowerPoint presentation slides
Western Africa: Before the Boats
Western Africa: Before the Boats
Discover the varied cultures and geographies of Western Africa. You’ll develop an appreciation of the people who loved their land and family, and enjoyed sharing food, music, art and stories with the community before they were captured and brought to the Americas. This trunk includes:
- African instruments, including a talking drum
- African folk tales
- Books about selected Western Africa countries
- Batik cloth
- Traditional African clothing
- African music CD’s
- African children’s games
- Lesson plans
African American Museum of Iowa
55 12th Avenue SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
(319) 862-2101
(319) 862-2101
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