Traveling Trunks

The Big Sioux Water Festival provides classroom education trunks as one of the many informal outreach
programs. These trunk sets are effective, low-cost tools that educators will "fit" into their curriculum
(oftentimes tailoring their schedules to accommodate their "trunk" time). They travel from school to
school throughout the year.

Trunk sets that we've developed are shown on this web site. Each set has unique, water-specific items that
are, in many cases, reproducible and in other cases available for purchase. We have striven to bring as
much information to you as possible to help you create your own traveling trunk sets.

Trunk sets contain the following commonalities:
1. South Dakota State Education Standards are considered in creation of all activities;
2. Materials included: audio/visual items such as videos, DVD's, CD-ROM's, music CD's, etc.; fiction and
non-fiction literature; interdisciplinary, hands-on activities; and creative, role-playing presentations
3. All activities are topic-specific;
4. Trunk sets, all activities and research were a collaborative effort between several organizations.

The Big Sioux Water Festival encourages all teachers who attend the Festival event to sign up for a visit of
the trunks to their classes. One trunk set is loaned per teacher per month.

Here is a budget that we've used as a guideline in applying for grant funds to produce a trunk set.

Budget for trunk set

Explanation of item list:
1. Trunks are 3 soft-sided very large hand luggage and sports bag.
2. Fiction and non-fiction literature consists of books, magazines and posters.
3. Audio/visual/games consists of music CD's, CD-ROM's, videos, cassettes, board games, puzzles, brain
teasers, etc.
4. Role-playing presentations are usually a puppet-show complete with puppets, script, costumes and
props or reader's theaters that educators and students create their own costumes and props.
5. Interdisciplinary, hands-on activities can range from experiments (science), math, writing and
journaling, (language arts and reading), map reading and configuring (geography and social studies),
painting and drawing(visual art), composing music, and field studies, game playing and experiments
(physical education).

Match is usually making copies, laminating, etc., plus research and assemblage of activities.