Traveling Trunks
Did you know we can bring history into your classroom?
Students engage with history through fun, educational activities led by our staff in our eight traveling trunks. Trunks use primary-source materials to share fact-based aspects of history that align with South Carolina state social studies standards for a variety of grade levels and topics. Check below to see which trunks best fit your classroom needs. Then, complete the Traveling Trunk Inquiry form and a member of our Education staff will follow up with you to discuss pricing and availability.
Available Trunks
Reconstruction
This trunk, designed for 4th or 5th grade students, uses interactive activities to teach students about economics and life during the Civil War and Reconstruction, how Reconstruction impacted Southern society and the United States as a whole, and how Reconstruction ended.
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
4.4 | 4.5 | 5.1
Mapping Columbia
This trunk is designed for 3rd grade and 4th grade students. Students will learn the geographic and historical motivations behind the founding and growth of Columbia – South Carolina’s capital city. Students will apply their map skills by studying historical maps, identifying landforms and landmarks, and looking at change over time.
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
3.1.3.PR | 3.2.2.ER | 4.1.CO | 4.1.CX | 4.2.CX
Slavery in the Antebellum Era
This trunk, designed for 4th grade students, uses primary sources to tell the stories of enslaved individuals living in Columbia and throughout South Carolina. Starting in the year 1780 and ending with Emancipation, students will view documents, photographs, memoirs and other primary sources that shed light on slavery in the Antebellum south.
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
4.2.CX | 4.3.CX | 4.4.CX | 4.4.CC | 4.4.E
19th Century Games
This trunk, designed for 4th grade students, focuses on education and games children played during the 19th century. Children may take part in a quill and ink writing activity, look through a stereoscope, and play games like jacks, marbles, ball-and-cup, and more! Through this hands-on experience, they learn about the lives, educational opportunities, and pastimes of different classes living in South Carolina during the Antebellum Period.
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
4.4.CC
(Image courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.)
World War II
This trunk, designed for 5th grade students, focuses on the home front during World War II. Using primary sources such as posters and ration books, students will consider how the lives of South Carolinians were affected by the war. They will also identify World War II aircrafts, as civilian airplane spotters in Columbia would have done at the time. An optional activity on the Holocaust and its connections to South Carolinians is also available.
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
5.2.CO | 5.2.CX | 5.2.CC | 5.3.CO | 5.3.P | 5.3.CE | 5.3.CX | 5.3.CC | 5.3.E | 5.4.P
Civil Rights
This trunk, designed for 5th grade students, focuses on significant achievements and actions accomplished by African Americans in the city of Columbia and throughout South Carolina. Students will learn about important South Carolinians and the push for equal rights in the 19th and 20th centuries. Activities include a hands-on component with objects and learning about the South Carolina legal case Briggs v. Elliott.
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
5.2.CX | 5.2.E | 5.3.E | 5.3.CE | 5.4 CE | 5.4.P | 5.4.CC | 5.4.E | 5.5.CX | 5.5.E
News For All
This trunk, designed for 5th grade and 8th grade students, uses multiple forms of media (newspapers, court transcripts, and video) to study the student protest of March 2, 1961 that took place Columbia leading to the landmark case Edwards vs. South Carolina. Students will use these primary source tools to determine differences in perspective.
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
5.4.CE | 5.4.P | 5.4.CC | 5.4.E
ELA STANDARDS (2023)
ELA.5.AOR.4.1
(Image courtesy Richland Library, Columbia, SC)
Then & Now
This trunk, designed for early elementary students, focuses on differences and similarities between the past and present. Students will compare items used in the past to those used for similar purposes today, look through a stereoscope and participate in activities like creating "calling cards," playing dominoes, dressing up in historic clothes and more!
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS
K.H.1, K.H.2, K.H.3
1.H.1, 1.H.3, 1.E.1, 1.E.2
2.H.1, 2.H.4
