Facts About Kansas

Fast facts about the State of Kansas, for an overview of Kansas history, geography, and landmarks. Every week in our homeschool, we choose a "state of the week". This lens is a record of what we learned and useful for periodic review. We hope you enjoy learning something new about Kansas!

Comanche was the only living thing that survived the Battle of Little Big Horn. Comanche died in 1890 at Fort Riley. Comanche's meaty remains were buried with honors, then his hide was given to the Kansas Natural History Museum and stuffed. You can see Comanche today in a glass case, wearing in his cavalry blanket and saddle at a Roadside America exhibit in Lawrence, Kasas.

D-maps is my favorite place on the web to get FREE custom outline maps to label!

Choose between borders, counties, cities, roads and/or water.

Learning Games For Kids have a Sunflower State games page that includes word searches, puzzles, unscrambles, memory matches, and nature call quizzes!

On May 25, 1861, the Kansas State Legislature adopted the state's seal with this design:

1. The east is represented by a rising sun in the right-hand corner of the seal.
2. To the left of it, commerce is represented by a river and a steamboat.
3. In the foreground, agriculture is represented as the basis of the future prosperity of the state by a settler's cabin and a man plowing with a pair of horses.
4. Beyond this is a train of ox-wagons going west.
5. In the background is a herd of buffalo, retreating, pursued by two Indians on horseback.
6. Around the top is the motto, "Ad astra per aspera," meaning "To the stars through difficulties".
7. Beneath is a cluster of thirty-four stars that identify Kansas as the 34th state to enter the Union.
8. The circle is surrounded by the words, "Great Seal of the State of Kansas January 29, 1861."

In 1918, the Coast and Geodetic Survey declared this location "the Geographic Center of the United States". A stone monument with a brass plaque
was installed in 1940, before Alaska and Hawaii joined the union.

The plaque is in Osbourne, the official marker is on Meade's Ranch, off the highway.

What a fantastic idea- historical trading cards! Check out these beautifully designed trading cards, then print PDF files of the fronts and backs. Laminate for a sturdy study tool.

Kansas is in Tornado Alley because it has many strong, violent tornadoes.

Kansas Historical Society has many Coloring pages and activities.
Super Coloring Pages has great pages about Kansas
The U.S. Mint has nice state quarter coloring pages. The Kansas State Quarter was minted in 2005. There you can find the Kansas state quarter coloring page.

Check out the free Kansas unit study at DIY Homeschooler.

Formerly "My Western Home."

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,

Where the deer and the antelope play,

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the sky is not clouded all day.

Chorus:

A home, a home where the deer and the antelope play,

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the sky is not clouded all day.

Oh, give me the gale of the Solomon vale,

Where life streams with buoyancy flow,

On the banks of the Beaver, where seldom if ever

Any poisonous herbage doth grow.

Oh, give me the land where the bright diamond sand

Throws its light from the glittering stream

Where glideth along the graceful white swan,

Like a maid in a heavenly dream.

I love the wild flowers in this bright land of ours;

I love too the wild curley's scream,

The bluffs and white rocks and antelope flocks

That graze on the hillsides so green.

How often at night, when the heavens are bright

With the light of the glittering stars,

Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed

If their glory exceeds this of ours.

The air is so pure, the breezes so free,

The zephyrs so balmy and light,

I would not exchange my home here to range

Forever in azure so bright.

Words by Dr. Brewster Higley, music by Dan Kellyin c 1871 or 1872.