Michigan Time Traveler-Kids' History

The Michigan Time Traveler featured Michigan history topics for kids in a fun and lively newspaper page that appeared monthly in the Lansing State Journal. The Michigan Historical Center produced the Michigan Time Traveler for Lansing Newspapers in Education, Inc.

This page lists the topic and publication date of each Michigan Time Traveler edition in 2002. The newspaper pages and teacher's guides are in PDF format, Adobe Acrobat Reader required.

Teacher's guides include discussion questions and classroom activities. Some online guides include "bonus" resource pages. Guides with full-page images, such as maps and photos, will take longer to download. Note: Newspaper page PDFs are approximately 12" x 22"; click "fit to page" when printing.

• Trains, Brooms and Marionettes. Create a toy or game and an advertisement. Explore your interests to find your potential vocation or avocation. (December 11, 2002)
  • December newspaper page
  • December teacher's guide
• Michigan-Canada Connections. Discover Canada. Make a Michigan-Canada bridges time line. Explore a historical map that shows Michigan as part of New France. (November 13, 2002)
  • November newspaper page
  • November teacher's guide
• Escape with Houdini. Who was Houdini? How did he fight fraud in the world of magic? Getting publicity-design a poster. (October 9, 2002)
  • October newspaper page
  • October teacher's guide
• Archaeology at the Carp River Forge. What is industrial archaeology? What do the artifacts from the forge tell us? Read a historic photo and write a story. Investigate 19th century stampedes to mining wealth. (September 11, 2002)
  • September newspaper page
  • September teacher's guide
• Travel with Father Jacques Marquette. Read about strange animals from Marquette's journal, map his travels down the Mississippi. (August 14, 2002)
  • August newspaper page
  • August teacher's guide
• Apron Strings. What is an apron and does anyone still wear one? Design an apron. Get interested in careers in textiles and fashion. (July 10, 2002)
  • July newspaper page
  • July teacher's guide
• How Did Your Garden Grow? What grew in the Victorian Mann House garden? Design a seed packet and make a landscape plan. (June 12, 2002)
  • June newspaper page
  • June teacher's guide
• Follow the Lights. What's inside a lighthouse? Also, The Lighthouse poem by Longfellow and a 1905 map of lighthouses on Lake Huron. (May 8, 2002)
  • May newspaper page [PDF] or
    online version
  • May teacher's guide
• Michigan Is Rock Solid. Where does the history of Gibson guitars begin? Michigan! Michigan and rock music is the theme. (April 10, 2002)
  • April newspaper page
  • April teacher's guide
• Be a Michigan Reader. Michigan book ideas for "March Is Reading Month." What do Harry Potter and Wizard of Oz books have in common? Make bar charts about books. (March 13, 2002)
  • March newspaper page
  • March teacher's guide
• The Underground Railroad. Neither a railroad, nor underground, what was it? Who were the Crosswhites? What was Ramptown? (February 13, 2002)
  • February online pages (PDF not available)
  • February teacher's guide
• Schooner in the Sand. A shipwrecked schooner buried in the sand on a Lake Michigan beach near Naubinway gives a picture of life and travel in the 1830s-1840s. (January 9, 2002)
  • January online pages (PDF not available)
  • January teacher's guide

Contact the Michigan Historical Center.

Updated 10/29/2010