HISTORY-TO-GO-PROGRAMS

Available for your classroom from September – April

*****No History-to–Go–programs available from May-June*****

Have a field trip experience in your classroom! These History-to-Go programs are designed to be brought to your school. Activities run from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the grade level and nature of the activity. Appropriate for smaller groups and lots of interaction.

History to Go is a set of activities that are delivered in the classroom by a Museum Teacher from the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA). A museum teacher will visit your school with hands-on activities. A list of all available offerings is included below.

Fees and Schedules:

Each teacher participating in the Westfield Teaching American History (WTAH) grant is entitled to up to two (2) hours of free programs. Programs lasting more than two (2) hours are billed at $25 per extra half-hour.

A teacher may opt to have one offering or several, depending on their class schedule. Typically, an offering lasts 30-45 minutes, with a few lasting up to an hour. A Museum Teacher may be scheduled to present in several classes of participating WTAH teachers on the same date at the same school, schedules permitting.

There is no charge to include one non-participating teacher as a collaborator in a grade level curriculum in a History to Go program.

Reservations may be made by calling Lynne Manring, PVMA Youth Programs Director, at 413-774-7476, ext. 20, through March 30, 2006. Starting in April, please call 413-772-0845. You can also email Lynne at any time at: lynne@mtdata.com. Lynne will take basic information and have a Museum Teacher contact you to set the date, schedule, and extra fees if any.

1) Music, Manners & Allemandes Gr. 1-12. 40 minutes-1 hour. Maximum of 60 students if held in gym or cafeteria. One adult per 20 students will be needed to help chaperone. A microphone would be appreciated but is not required. A museum teacher in historic garb leads your class in a “hands-on” workshop that includes old- time dance exercises, bows and curtsies, a historic dance, and a discussion on etiquette.

2) Native American Life Gr. 1-8. 30-45 minutes. Maximum of 20 students. Students will examine a wide variety of touch-its including tools, food, clothing, etc. Might include toys and games, and other aspects of Native American life.

3) Old Time Amusements Gr. K- 6. 45 minutes-1 hour. Supplies needed if constructing a toy or game: scissors, glue and colored pencils or crayons. Maximum of 25 students. A potpourri of activities are sampled including indoor and (if weather or large space permits) outdoor games and old-fashioned toys. Directions for several games are available upon request. Selser Activity

4) A 19^th C. School Lesson Gr. 1-8. 45 minutes-1 hour. Maximum of 25 students. An early 19th century one-room school lesson to include role-play and a historic lesson. Supplies: grades 3-8 students will need scissors and one piece each of 8 1/2 x 11 white paper. Grades 1 & 2 need only the white paper.

5) Dame School Gr. 1-8. 30 minutes. Maximum of 20 students. Students will experience an 18^th C. school lesson. Activities will include role-play, recitation using hornbooks and simple stitchery. Selser Activity

6) Lights All ages. 30-45 minutes. Maximum of 30 students. A room that can be darkened works best. This activity will include a close look at early lighting devices and their fuels. The lighting devices might include spermaceti candles, oil lamps, floating candles and more. COMP Activity

7) Colonial Clothing Gr. K-5. 30 minutes. Maximum of 20 students. Students will have the opportunity to try on reproduction clothing from the 18^th Century.

8) Early American Chores Gr. K-5. 45 minutes-1 hour. Maximum of 25 students. A museum teacher sets up “chore stations” in the classroom for students to cycle through. Chores might include drawing with a quill pen, simple stitchery, churning butter and stringing squash or apples for drying. Including the museum teacher, 4 adults are needed to supervise activities. Selser Activity

9) Nuthatch Gr. 3 - 12. 30 minutes-1 hour. Maximum of 25 students. A museum teacher portrays a Pocumtuck (Native American) woman who left her homeland in the 17^th Century. She discusses the problems her people had with the English settlers and why she chose to leave the area. Issues of land ownership, the beaver trade, and assimilation are included.

10) Underwear Gr. 1-8. 30 minutes. Maximum of 25 students. Find out what people from a long time ago put on first. Students will have an opportunity to examine and try on old-fashioned underwear such as hoops, corsets, and drawers, from a variety of eras.

11) Immigration Gr. 2-12. 45 minutes-1 hour. Maximum of 25 students. How might Eastern European immigrants have sustained their culture in the face of assimilation? Activities might include the reenactment of an arrival exam, exploration of a sampling of belongings, tasting food and sharing immigration stories.

12) The Roaring 20’s (Postwar World War I & the Jazz Age) Gr. 6-12. 45 minutes- 1 hour. Maximum of 25 students. Students will explore the youth culture of this time period and learn how events following the “Great War” led to gangster crime, women’s rights, and the Black Renaissance. Activities might include samplings of period dance music, clothing to try on, learning some slang from the period, and examining artifacts.
Reference sites sent in by Sue Crowthe from the Chicopee Comprehensive presentation:

13) World War II Homefront Gr. 3-12, 45 minutes-1 hour. Maximum of 25 students. Students relive what it may have been like for school children at home during the war. They explore wartime news, music, and food rationing, employing all senses in their learning. The experience is brought “home” through locally-based letters and war memorabilia.

14) The Colonial Carpenter All ages, 45 minutes- 1 hour. Maximum of 25 students. A museum teacher in 18^th C. clothing and in the role of a colonial carpenter visits the class with a variety of tools needed for building houses and furniture. He describes his work, the skills he needs, and demonstrates how the tools are used.

15) Voices from the Past All ages, 30-45 minutes. Maximum of 25 students. A museum teacher in 18^th C. clothing and in role will tell the story of one of the captives from the 1704 raid on Deerfield.

Traveling History Kits are available for loan to schools and educators. These multi-media kits are filled with primary and secondary source materials and reproduction artifacts. Engaging activities are geared toward developing logical thinking and analytical skills. . A list of all available offerings is included below.

Some kits might also be accompanied by a Museum Teacher. If this is the case, that kit then counts as a History to Go.

To reserve a kit and arrange pick-up and return times, please call or email Karen Kappenman or Beth Gilgun:

Captivated: Looking at the 1704 Raid on Deerfield through the Eyes of Children

This kit introduces students and teachers to the 1704 Raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, through the eyes of two children captured during the raid and taken to Canada. The activities in this kit are designed to foster exploration and discussion and help students in grades 3-12 explore this critical event from different perspectives. Students will gain knowledge about the 1704 English, French, and 2 Northeast Woodland cultures.

Lessons include an examination of the book, The Boy Captive of Old Deerfield, comparisons of food, clothing, shelter and cultures, deciphering primary sources, mapping, “The Mathematics of 18^th C. Travel”, exploring a probate inventory and more. Items include clothing, toys, color pictures, a classroom set of The Boy Captive of Old Deerfield, and more.

What defines an 18^th C. gentle person vs. a common person? By examining an 18^th century traveling man’s possessions, students also discover some of the purposes of a tavern. The main themes include money, the postal system, behavior and taverns. This kit includes a list of suggested activities, background information about the major themes, primary sources including excerpts from a travel journal and “Rules of Civility”, and a haversack of reproduction touch-its.

A Dread Reality: The American Civil War: Exploring the Connecticut River Valley Experience

This kit introduces students and teachers to the local impact of the Civil War. The lessons include examining primary sources to find out more about the experiences of 3 different soldiers (including information about a soldier who fought in one of the Black regiments from Mass.), the work of Sanitary Commission volunteers and the life of a young girl in Atlanta during the Atlanta Campaign. The lessons also include a mapping activity, a look at songs from the period, and an activity for younger children to sort the jumbled belongings of a Sanitary Commission worker and a soldier. Kit items include excerpts from the diary of a Deerfield soldier, a reproduction military map and reproduction touch-its typical of what a Sanitary Commission worker might have needed and the contents of a soldier’s haversack.

This kit helps teachers and students understand the effects of World War II on local communities. Both national and local concerns are covered. Companion materials include reproductions such as ration books, popular food and personal care products, air raid directions, and ads, and CDs with web-related newsreel footage and speeches. Topics include civilian defense, employment, local culture, race & religion, rationing & scrap drives, and women & children.

This kit is designed to allow students and teachers to investigate the nature of Eastern European immigration to this area on many levels. Kit materials and activities are grounded by the fictional story of Kaitlyn Jeronski, a modern-day 4^th grader, who is discovering her own heritage. Included are elementary, middle and high school readings and activities, scholarly essays and historical documents, and a basket filled with hands-on items. Activities include “Creating an Immigration Story”, writing letters to fictional relatives in America, writing journal entries, deciding what to bring, answering questions from a sample manifest, and examining a local newspaper for examples of racism and ethnic stereotyping.

This is a collection of models, maps, artifacts, primary sources, children’s literature, and teacher resource guides. A hand-crafted 17^th C. model house, quill pen and inkwell, and table top ninepins are just a few of the manipulatives that transport students to an earlier era in American history. Topics include foodways, play, dress, and Native life.

Through this kit students can examine the colonists’ reaction to taxes imposed upon the colonies by Great Britain prior to the Revolutionary War, learn what was imported and exported to and from the colonies, learn the value of the American tea ceremony, and “take tea” in the classroom. Lessons include figuring tax amounts, creating political cartoons or poems, holding a debate and dividing reproduction items into piles of imports and exports. Kit items include a tea set large enough for a class of 24 to “take tea”, and reproductions of samples of imports and exports.

****Important Note regarding extended programming****

There will be no additional charge for up to four-hours of History-to-Go programs offered to students whose teachers are collaborating in grade level curriculum with TAH colleagues. Programs that run in excess of four hours or that involve more than two PVMA museum educators will be charged at $25 for each additional half hour.