What is a Museum all about?
Grades K&1
 

Hands-on, minds-on activities help children realize that a museum is a fun place to learn new things.
 
Learning standards will be met as students:
  • Experience the multiple uses of numbers including measurement and estimation
  • Identify tools and simple machines used for a specific purpose
  • Compare and contrast objects from long ago with items used for the same purposes today
ALL PROGRAMS CORRESPOND TO THE MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION CURRICULUM FRAMEWORKS.

Suggested Pre-Visit Activities
  • Review vocabulary students will hear during their visit: collection, object.
  • (Grade K) Draw a picture to show that a collection is a group of items that have something in common. Count the number of items. Draw a picture of another collection with fewer/more items.
  • (Grade 1) Discuss how objects can change over time. Consider examples of things children used in school long ago - chalk and slate to pencil and paper; book strap to backpack.
  • Create a poster, a bulletin board or individual pictures of other examples of how things change over time.
  • Use the template on-line to have students make their own name tag.
 
Suggested Post-Visit Activities
  • Invite students to bring their collections to school and "exhibit" them for their classmates to enjoy.
  • Have students write notes and/or draw pictures to thank the docents (museum volunteers) for showing them around the Museum. Use vocabulary words such as museum, object, and collection.