From: "Seymour, Janet I - WHS" <Janet.Seymour@wisconsinhistory.org> Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:06:48 -0500 Subject: RE: museum activities for kids? Message-ID: <488E289A5C909049B0E55F6B651B5B3501421A140596@MEWMAD0PC01G02.accounts.wistate.us>
These are all really good suggestions! Thanks for contributing them.
You might consider working with the librarian to see if there are appropria
te children's' books in the library that link to themes and ideas in your m
useum exhibits. Even general history and biography books might be an option
. Many libraries put together "feature tables" to correspond with a local e
vent or celebration, and this might be a nice opportunity to do that.
You can always borrow ideas from other museums, too. Many have worksheets a
nd online activities - a Google search for museum kids activities gets a lo
t of results. The Smithsonian has some neat ideas at: http://www.si.edu/Kid
s/.
The Wisconsin Historical Society has ideas and resources for teachers and s
tudents at: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/teachers/. The "Thinking Like a
Historian" guidebook is a wonderful tool for anyone working with kids and
history.
Finally, I'm sure there has to be some fun hands-on activity related to Luc
k's fame as the home of the yo-yo! If you are using artifacts for hands-on
use, make sure they are not part of your museum collection, but are from a
hands-on collection. Many times, duplicates, replicas or items in poor cond
ition may be used as hands-on items for these purposes.
Janet
Janet Seymour
Field Services Representative - Northern Region
Wisconsin Historical Society
Voice: 715-836-2250
Collecting, Preserving, and Sharing Stories Since 1846
Review past messages at: http://listserve.uwec.edu/localhistory/
________________________________
From: localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu [ [localhistory-request@listser
ve.uwec.edu] On Behalf Of Monette Bebow-Reinhard [grimm1@bayland.net]
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 11:08 AM
To: localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu
Subject: RE: museum activities for kids?
We have a lot of that at the copper museum, things for kids to do and handl
e. I figure if we can make kids happy, that helps the parents out! Whil
e they’re handling, of course, we’re hoping they’re listening to us t
alk about the archaic people who created these tools.
Monette
From: localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu [mailto:localhistory-request@
listserve.uwec.edu] On Behalf Of Nancy Frank
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 10:15 AM
To: localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu
Subject: Re: museum activities for kids?
How about an area that is the opposite of a "Do Not Touch" area. Things th
at they can handle and learn about. A wash board that they can pretend to
wash clothes on, a collection of arrowheads with a demo of how they were at
tached to arrows, some costumes for them to try on, maybe a button up shoe
with a button hook.
Just some thoughts...
Nancy
Nancy Frank
On Jun 20, 2009, at 8:18 AM, Russell Hanson wrote:
We managed to get a fulltime summer person to keep our museum open during t
he day. The Luck museum shares a new building with the Luck library and we
match their 11-6 hours. We get a spillover of kids coming into the museum
. They are mostly 7-14 age. We would like to encourage them to come in
and need some activities for them to do (that are not very hard for us to
setup!).
Any ideas or things that work for you?
Thanks Russ Hanson Luck Area Historical Society