Last updated: October 12, 2021
Lesson Plan
1st Kansas Colored Infantry, 3rd & 4th Grade
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 30 Minutes
- State Standards:
- Missouri: #3aKnowledge: Concept B - Examine cultural interactions and conflicts among Native Americans, European immigrants and enslaved and free African-Americans in Missouri.
Kansas: History (H) People/Roles: civic, political, cultural leaders, - Additional Standards:
- settlers & entrepreneurs to your community.
Oklahoma: 4.3.2 Examine the characteristics of culture, including the distribution and complexity of the regions of the U.S. 3.3.1Creation of basic timelines. - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Creating: Bring together parts (elements, compounds) of knowledge to form a whole and build relationships for NEW situations. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.
Essential Question
How did African Americans participate in the Union Army during the Civil War and how do you make certain all people can access opportunities previously denied?
Objective
Students will become familiar with the participation of African Americans in the Union Army during the Civil War, how they were treated, where specifically the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry fought, and what they accomplished. Students will also become familiar with using primary sources
Background
Discuss teaching elementary how to work with primary sources: Four steps. Download worksheets that walk elementary students through the exact steps to analyze various types of primary sources of the following types : document, photograph, artifact or object, map, poster, artwork, cartoon, sound recording, video.
You may find many primary sources to choose from on DocsTeach.org (an online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives).
Read background information about the 1st Kansas Colored in article from American Heritage magazine, 1992, Vol. 43, Issue 1.
Preparation
Fort Scott National Historic Site video: 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 4:23.
Discuss teaching elementary how to work with primary sources: Four steps. Download worksheets that walk elementary students through the exact steps to analyze various types of primary sources of the following types : document, photograph, artifact or object, map, poster, artwork, cartoon, sound recording, video.
You may find many primary sources to choose from on DocsTeach.org (an online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives).
Read background information about the 1st Kansas Colored in article from American Heritage magazine, 1992, Volume 43, Issue 1.
Materials
Lesson Hook/Preview
Share a picture of your pet or vacation. Then draw a picture of your pet or vacation. Ask students to compare the two pictures. Which is more detailed? Which shows more evidence of what the life of the person who took/made the photo was like? This will be the natural segue into explaining what a primary source is and what it is not.
Procedure
You may use this link to teach elementary students how to work with primary sources using these Four Steps: 1) Meet the Document 2)Observe its parts 3)Try to make sense of it 4)Use it as historical evidence.
You can find downloadable worksheets that walk elementary students through these exact steps to analyze various types of primary sources at Worksheets are available for the following primary sources types : document, photograph, artifact or object, map, poster, artwork, cartoon, sound recording, video.
You will find many primary sources to choose from on - the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives.
Show the Fort Scott National Historic Site video: First to Serve - 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment, 4:23, NPS/FOCS
Students can either individually or as a class create a timeline using the events and dates listed below:
*Kansas becomes a state, January 29, 1861
*Civil War begins, April 12, 1861
*First official authorization to use black men in the military-but not as armed soldiers (Second Confiscation and Militia Act), July 17, 1862
*Emancipation Proclamation (freeing slaves and authorizing use of black men as soldiers), January 1, 1863
*U.S. bureau of Colored Troops established, March 22, 1863
*First regiment of U.S. Colored Troops mustered into service, June 30, 1863
*Equal pay granted for black soldiers who had been free before the war began, June 22, 1864
*Equal pay for all black soldiers, March 8, 1865
*Robert E. Lee surrenders to U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the Civil War, April 9, 1865.
*Last U.S.C.T. regiment mustered out of service, December, 1867
Looking at the picture in the link below, what is the significance of the names added to the flag?
What is depicted in the pictures shown in the following link?
Battle History of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment
a. Island Mound, near Butler, Missouri (October 28, 1862)
b. Reeder Farm, near Sherwood, Missouri (May 18, 1863)
c. Cabin Creek, Indian Territory (July 1-2, 1863)
d. Honey Springs, Indian Territory (July 17, 1863)
e. Poison Springs, Arkansas (April 18, 1864)
f. Flat Rock Creek, Indian Territory (September 16, 1864)
g. Timer Hills, Indian Territory (November 19, 1864)
Discuss: What was the importance of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment to the success of the four-state regional part of the Civil War? How did the battle success of the Regiment affect their status in society?
7 pages,American Heritage magazine, 1992, Volume 43, Issue 1
Concluding discussion, teacher led: How do primary sources show what life was like throughout history? What makes a primary source accurate? (What pieces should it have?)
Vocabulary
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as a nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
Supports for Struggling Learners
Reduce the amount of battles to examine and focus on one element to evaluate: physical description of people, places, or things.
Enrichment Activities
Have students create hero profiles of members of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment
*Name of a service member
*Dates served
*Places traveled/battles fought
*Why they think they joined and served