Engage your classroom with historical context and THV presenters! We meet many Michigan Citizenship Collaborative Curriculum (MC3) benchmarks and GLCE’s. We welcome everyone to make use of our facility, and look for ways to accommodate many types of learners. Schedule your field trip for these age-appropriate activities for the most rewarding educational experience. We strongly encourage teachers to match guidelines for grade, number of students and chaperones, and length of program. Homeschool groups of ten or more students are also invited to find and register for programs based on age suggestions.
Grades 1-5 Field Day Three
$8.00 per person. Program is three hours, including lunch period (students bring lunch). Classes rotate through three activities. Designed for 45-90 students — two or three classes. Choose three 45-minute activities that introduce your students to life in 19th and 20th century Michigan:
Pioneer Life (Cabin) Fall / Spring only: Explore the log cabin, comparing with today, and learn about Michigan pioneers in the 1800s. (Teacher provides butter making supplies if desired.)
School 1880: Experience typical lessons in a one-room-school of 1880 through guided role-playing.
Old Time Toys: Learn about the needs and wants of a 19-teens farming community in our general store. Students will make a toy to take home and (time permitting) play with old-time games.
Tin Punch: Listen to a story about the tinsmith and follow a pattern to make a tin punch craft to take home during this staff-led program. (Older elementary students can learn about other smithing occupations also.)
Candle Making: Consider light before electricity. Learn about candle making in early pioneer days and dip a beeswax candle to take home. (Not for Fall 1st graders.)
Grades 3-5 Field Day Four
$9.00 / Choose from the previous Field Day Three options and those following. 4-activity field days are four 45-50 minute sessions with a lunch break. Program duration is 4 hours, therefore not intended for grades 1-2.
Life 1900-1915: Contrast a child’s modern life with that in 1915. Explore typical furnishings and items of a Wilsonian home, while learning about early 20th century American culture before World War I.
Print Shop: Observe how printed materials were mass-produced in the past and make a flyer on the proof press to take home. Children make a letter for a new font and learn printing terms.
Primary Sources: See paper archives and touchable artifacts. Learn differences between source types. Understand how museums preserve collections, and that different materials need unique care. Investigate conservation tools.
20th Century Commerce: Students compare current prices and wages with those of 100 years ago and learn about items for sale in our early 20th Century General Store. Students estimate costs and do some shopping! Use hands-on artifacts to study household economy and opportunity cost.
