School and Youth Groups
Programs at Your School (see information immediately below)
Programs at the Museums
How to Schedule a Program
Programs at Your School
When you can’t make it to the museum, we’ll bring the museum to you! Book a Collections in Hand program, and trained museum staff and volunteers will bring museum artifacts to share with your students in the classroom. From an antique stereoscope to a whaling harpoon, a tin toy rocket ship to a Native American turtle amulet, these hands-on objects allow students to touch a piece of the past. Themed lessons correspond with grade level curriculum and are 45 – 60 minutes in length. All lessons come with a Teacher’s packet and are designed to meet state Curriculum Frameworks. This program is free of 
charge for all Cape & Islands schools.
LESSON DESCRIPTIONS
Pre-K: On the Go
A perfect complement to your transportation unit, this lesson introduces young learners to different ways of travel on land, in the air and on the water. Participatory activities include a “show-and-tell” of seven antique toys, including a locomotive, covered wagon, motorboat and rocket, a feltboard sorting activity and a sing-along and movement session.
Kindergarten: Reading Without Words
This lesson encourages young learners to develop and exercise their observation skills. Participants practice “reading” objects by finding, identifying and interpreting visual clues. Through examination of antique and modern objects such as screwdrivers, ladles, clothespins and dominoes, students discover similarities and differences between living and working now and long ago.
Grade 1: American Children At Play
A selection of antique toys and games from the 1600s to the 1900s such as a stereoscope, a Native American doll and tiddley winks demonstrates a variety of children’s pastimes throughout our country’s history. Modern toys and games help to illustrate similarities and differences between the ways children have played in the past and play today. At the end of the lesson, students are invited to test their skill with reproduction toys.
Grades 2-3: The First Americans
An assortment of artifacts and prints illustrates the similarities and differences between food, clothing and shelter across a wide variety of Native American cultures. Gathered around an oversized map of the different culture areas, students discuss the influence of geography and natural resources on the lives of historic Native Peoples. Students also explore the functions of artifacts such as a goat horn spoon, a blackware pottery vessel and an Ojibwa beaded bag, identifying the materials used in their construction.
Grade 3: Whaling: An Industry At Sea
Why did men spend up to five years at sea chasing after whales? This lesson helps students answer this question as they explore the history of whaling and the uses for the products made from whale oil, bone and baleen. Students role-play the capture of a whale by performing a short play written by a 19th century seaman. They then participate in a sensory activity involving different types of whale oil. The lesson concludes with a hands-on exploration of period whaling products, including an oil lamp, a tin of lubricating oil and corset stays.
Grade 4: The Language of Flowers
This lesson blends botany and history as students examine a variety of historical, contemporary and scientific uses of flowers. In the role of junior scientists, they discover the structure and function of flowers, as well as how plants reproduce through pollination. As historians, they are introduced to the once popular use of flowers as a means of non-verbal communication during the Victorian Age. Connections to today are made when the class brainstorms the many ways we continue to use flowers and plants. Slides of locally growing flowering plants and a hands-on horticultural activity complete the lesson.
Grade 5: Early American Crafts
Transported back in time to the colonial days of George Washington and Betsy Ross, students discover how men and women lived and worked in rural New England. A map activity begins the lesson as students practice their geography skills, identifying the thirteen colonies and available natural resources. After brainstorming a list of colonial occupations, students examine antique tools to learn more about the work of farmers, homemakers, blacksmiths, cobblers and wheelwrights during the 1700s and 1800s. The lesson closes with a comparison of occupations and tools then and now.
Click here to download the Collections in Hand brochure.
Click here to learn how to schedule a program.
Programs at the Museums
Who invented the automobile? What secret soldier disguised herself so that she could fight in the Revolutionary War? Learn the answers to these questions and many more by taking a field trip to Heritage Museums & Gardens. We welcome school groups and have a variety of touring options. Whether exploring on your own or participating in a guided tour, your students are sure to enjoy our three museum buildings and acres of beautiful gardens. Admission to all museums and rides on the carousel included.
TOURING OPTIONS
Self-guided tours
Designed for student groups visiting Heritage without a museum guide. Pre-visit and post-visit materials are provided to help prepare students for their museum 
visit; $3.50 per student
Highlights tours
This two hour guided tour encompasses both indoor and outdoor elements of Heritage. It introduces students to the history and diversity of our museum collections; $4.00 per student
Focus tours
Explore the museums and grounds while focusing on a particular theme. These 90 minute guided tours include hands-on activities with “please touch” objects and are sure to capture your students’ imagination. Specific tour descriptions are listed below; $4.50 per student
Discovery Workshops (formerly Curriculum Intensive Experiences)
These in-depth lessons focus on just one museum collection or topic. They allow students extended hands-on time with museum objects. Specific program descriptions listed below; $5.00 per student
FOCUS TOUR DESCRIPTIONS
Pre-Kindergarten: On the Go
Students will “take-off” on a museum adventure as they search our automobile and art collections for hot air balloons, trains, sailboats and bicycles. Dress-up activities, sing-alongs and flying toys enhance the transportation theme of the tour.
Grades K-2 : Birds and Beasts
Prowling the galleries, children spy birds of flight, beasts of prey and “man’s best friend” as they learn about the museum’s collections. A rabbit, dragon, zebra and ostrich are just a few who join the menagerie. A friendly introduction to our world of animals is created during this safari tour.
Grades 1-2: Mythical Stories and Fantastic Voyages
Mythical stories from antiquity, as well as fantastic voyages from history and the imagination help take students on an adventuresome trip through our museum buildings. Storytelling and language arts skills are developed as students explore the tales behind objects like President Taft’s car, a dragon chariot and a whale’s tooth.
Grades 3-5: Way To Go
Travel to the past through the museum’s antique motorcars and toys of transportation. Explore the inventions, industries and history of travel in America and imagine what the future of transportation might hold. Cars, whaling ships, trains and bicycles facilitate understanding of how people traveled to and fro. Students use map skills to direct the way to go from building to building.
Grades 3-5: All Things Green
Green means many things here at Heritage Museums & Gardens. This environmentally-friendly focus tour brings students back to nature to discover some of our outdoor treasures. We continue the theme inside as we explore the many ways-good and bad- that people have impacted the environment throughout history.
Grades 4-6: Salute to American History
Bring American history to life through the exploration of artifacts and art from our nation’s past, such as steam powered cars, military miniatures, and folk art.
Grades 3-5 and 8-12: New England Art and History
Which state is the Granite State and which is the Constitution State? New England has a rich technological, political and artistic heritage. This grade level appropriate tour will give students an in-depth examination of the whaling, automobile, and weathervane industries. A look at the explorers, leaders and people who helped to create this wonderful region of the United States is included during this tour.
DISCOVERY WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS
Pre-K: Bird Brained
Beautiful carvings provide great examples for a discussion about bird characteristics. Students find their inner “bird” as they move like different types of birds and listen to bird songs. Students will “nest”-le in for a good story before they fly the coop. 45 minute lesson
K-2: Nests and Eggs
Chirp. Tweet. Ca-Caw. Immersed in a flock of detailed bird carvings, students will discover the many ways birds create homes. We will explore “egg”-stroardinary eggs and the lifecycle of birds. In small groups students will use everyday craft supplies to create a bird nest. 60 minute lesson
Grades 3-5: Beaks and Feet
Let’s flock together to explore animal adaptations. Why do birds have different beaks? What can we learn about them by looking closely at their feet? In small groups students will test “beaks” to correlate types of food to diet. Surrounded by the Crowell carvings, students will be inspired to create their own work of art. 60 minute lesson
Grade 3: Scrimshaw and Song
Learn about the people who went whaling and their living conditions aboard ship through the folk art they created and the songs they sang. Students explore shipboard life by examining journal entries written by whalers and have a hands-on experience with authentic pieces of scrimshaw, such as an engraved tooth, a domino and a corset busk. They also explore the role of music on board ship by learning, singing and listening to the songs sung by whalers.
Grade 4: Botanical Bonanza
This botany program utilizes the grounds of Heritage Museums & Gardens to introduce students to botanical concepts, such as flower, plant and tree structures, functions and uses through hands-on experiences. Teachers may select two of the three topics to explore during this 75-minute lesson. (Note: Due to the seasonal nature of this program, it is available May 15-October 30.)
Plants: introduces plant parts and their uses, and includes a sensory investigation with herbs.
Flowers: explores the flower’s role in reproduction through dissection and cataloging activities.
Trees: introduces the structure and the uses of trees and includes a problem-solving adventure.
Grades 4 – 8: Autos & Assembly Lines
Jump back in time and take a job on Henry Ford’s moving assembly line! Students examine models of the six simple machines and look for correlating examples on our 1913 Model T automobile. A brief discussion of Ford’s innovative use of the moving assembly line helps students explore how machines can help people do their work faster and better. The lesson culminates in a Lego challenge—students form teams, become workers on an assembly line and try to beat the clock as they build Lego cars!
Grade 5: Creating A Nation
Following an introduction which sets the stage for the Revolutionary War by examining Boston’s people, businesses and trade, students will take part in two experiences related to this conflict. Exploring the daily life and the uniform of a soldier through journal entries, authentic and reproduction artifacts provides participants with an understanding of the hardships faced by the Continental soldier. Using our collection of Revolutionary War artifacts, students will conduct research and work on observation skills by completing a worksheet and sharing their results.
Click here to download a Museum Programs brochure.
How to Schedule a Program
Please call Amanda Meyer, Manager of School and Youth Programs, at 508.888.3300 x160 with the following information:
Contact name
Contact phone number and best time to call
Name of group/school and mailing address
Name of program you would like to schedule
1st and 2nd choice dates and times
We look forward to your visit!