Hands on the Past Delaware History Museum Field Trips and Programs 2007-08

General Information

Reservations must be made at least two weeks in advance, but a month's notice is preferred.  Please keep in mind September, October, March, April, and May are the busiest field trip months.  You will have to call in advance to insure an opening during these busy seasons.  When you call to schedule a program, please have the following information ready:

- school calendar and two alternate dates - names of group leaders/key contact - age group/school level

- programs you would like to schedule - number of students you are bringing - what time you would like to start    your program

The Delaware History Museum offers 12 exciting, educational Hands on the Past programs for students in Kindergarten through 6th grade. Each program includes interactive components such as participatory storytelling, role-playing, analyzing and investigating original and reproduction artifacts, dressing in reproduction clothing, meeting real historical characters, and making historically accurate crafts to take home.  By seeing, touching, and doing, students learn about and experience important events in state and national history. 

Our programs, designed to enhance classroom curriculum, are aligned with many Delaware Content and Framework Standards.  Each program aids and reinforces Delaware History standards through the use of concrete visuals, discussions, and hands-on activities.  Many programs focus on additional content standards in Geography, Economics, and Visual Arts.  Please see individual listings for details.

Program Hours	Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturdays available upon request.
Age Groups	Programs are available for K-6, with age-appropriate program activities. Please review individual program listings for exact grade-level suggestions.
Group Size	Up to 75 children.  Large groups require a combination of available programs and flexible scheduling in one trip.
Chaperones	Required at a ratio of 1 for every 8 students.  NOTE: each additional chaperone: $3.00/program.
Cost	$3.00/student/program.  Groups of less than 15 children: $45.00/program.
Lunch	Indoor and outdoor facilities are available.
Parking	See map and directions included in confirmation packet.
Gift Shop	Tours and programs can include a visit to the museum shop, stocked with inexpensive souvenirs appropriate to the students' visit, teacher aids, and Delaware books.  Pre-made goodie bags are also available for students if advance notice is given at the time of the booking. Click here!
Cameras	All children and adults are encouraged to bring cameras to use in classroom. But please note: photography is prohibited in the museum.
Questions	Please fee free to email us at education@hsd.org or call us at (302) 295-2388.
Reservations	Please call us at (302) 295-2388 with this information handy: 1) school calendar and two alternate dates; 2) number of students you would like to bring; 3) what program(s) you would like to do and a start time; 4) key contact person (per visit).

Program Listings

For Reservations at the Delaware History Museum in Wilmington Call: (302) 295-2388

Teachers: After each program summary, we list the curriculum standards that are met in each discipline (Social Studies, English, Mathematics, and Science).

And please...bring your cameras!
(sorry, cameras allowed for our Wilmington hands-on programs only
Please note: no photography allowed in the museum; classroom use only)

Just click on the different colored to get 
back to the table of programs! 

Below is a listing of our hands-on programs.  They range from 
1 to 1 1/2 hour segments, depending on the age of your class.

Distinctively Delaware (tm)

"The programs gave students a plethora of information 
about DE, and connected wonderfully to what we have been studying."
- 2nd grade teacher

What makes Delaware different from other states? Why is Delaware called the First State? Who lives in Delaware? In this program, students will be introduced to many aspects of Delaware’s history, people, and places by a tour through Distinctively Delaware, an engaging exhibit that includes artifacts, photographs, models, films, computer games, and learning stations.

The program begins with a guided tour of the exhibit, starting in the 1600s with Lenni Lenape, Delaware’s first people. It ends in the late 20th century with Delaware’s many industries. Along the way, students gain a deeper understanding of the state through maps, and learn how Delaware’s environment, geography, and transportation networks helped shape its development. They will be introduced to the state’s history of business and industry. Students will meet many Delawares through time, including immigrants and leading citizens, and learn the roles our residents played in state and national politics. They will see how the state’s economy evolved from family firms to modern agribusinesses and multinational corporations.

After the tour students will participate in a scavenger hunt encouraging them to explore the exhibit independently. Students will create a take-home craft based on Distinctively Delaware items they found.

History 1,2,3,4; Geography 1,2,3; Visual Arts 1: C,E

 

Underwater Adventure: Prehistoric Delaware
A Revised and Improved Program!

Grades K-3	1 hour	Cost: $3.00/student
This program has a group size limitation.  Please call for details.

"I loved verething!  I want to be an arceallagist wen I grow up!"
- written by a 2nd grade student

In this interactive, participatory program students discover what Delaware was like 300 million years ago. Our fun and informative story takes students on an underwater adventure where they meet and learn about extinct prehistoric ocean creatures such as belemnites, ammonites, giant megalodon sharks, and plesiosaurs - just to name a few. Students will become these prehistoric creatures in our story. They will have the hands-on experience of digging for fossils in our very own excavation pits! They will then examine and analyze native Delaware fossils to discover what kinds of plants or animals have been preserved. Finally, students pick their favorite prehistoric creature from the story to make a puppet replica to take home. In the end, they will know fun new facts about Delaware’s prehistoric animals!

History 1,2,3,4; Art 1: E

 

Delaware Native Americans

"The hands-on program the children seemed to enjoy most was 'dress-up.'  They had the opportunity to dress up in two activities.  Many also enjoyed the longhouse display where they could handle materials the Indians used.  In my opinion, all the hands-on activities were appropriate and enjoyable." - 2nd grade teacher

Grades K-3	1 hour	Cost: $3.00/student
Grades 4-6	1 1/2 hours	Cost: $3/00/student

This program introduces students to Delaware’s Native Americans and includes an interactive component in the life-sized longhouse in the Distinctively Delaware™ exhibit.  Through analyzing reproduction artifacts, students learn about the foods Delaware’s Native
Americans ate, the crops they grew, and the animals they hunted.  Two students will model deerskin clothes as the class learns about clothing and how it was made.  Students will investigate the types of homes the Native Americans built, what materials they used, how the homes were constructed, and where they were located.  Students will enjoy making an age appropriate craft to take home.

This program enhances Delaware History standards as well as Geography and Visual Arts.  Through the use of maps and discussions of environment, places, and regions, students will learn about the world of Delaware’s Native Americans. Using chronology as a discussion tool, students learn about the Native Americans’ daily life. By analyzing and interpreting the differences between their own daily life and that of Delaware’s Native Americans, students experience and being to understand these diverse cultures.

History 1,2,3,4; Geography 1,3; Visual Arts 1: (C,D,E), 4.

 

The Dutch and the Swedes

To read some reviews of what kids think about this
newly revised program, just click on each of the pictures above 

"The students didn't know what to expect.  I was concerned that I hadn't covered the proper information before our trip.  We were all pleased by the presentation, question/answer session, hands-on activities, and the demonstration of the Swedish early homelife."  -5th grade teacher

Grades 3-6

1 1/2 hours

Cost: $3.00/student

Delaware has a unique multicultural colonial past, and this program introduces students to seventeenth-century Delaware. Students experience this rich and diverse history by learning about the lives of the people who came from Sweden and Holland to claim the land inhabited by the Lenni Lenape Indians.

Through the use of storytelling, role-playing, and hands-on activities, students meet and interact with the family of Tymen Stiddem, the first doctor on the Delaware. They become archaeologists handling and identifying original and reproduction artifacts and primary sources, participate in the daily activities of Swedish and Dutch children, and make a take-home craft based upon a traditional Swedish handicraft.

Students actively participate in a narrative timeline that demonstrates change over time; analyze and interpret artifacts; learn about the lifestyle of the Dutch and Swedes, technologies, and economic choices of actual families; learn about the environments in which they lived in Europe and on the Delaware; and compare and contrast the lives of children in the 1650s with their own time.

History 1,2,3,4; Visual Arts 1: C,D; Geography 1,3.

 

Pirates on the Delaware 

"Many kids said it was their best field trip ever!"
- 2nd grade teacher

Grades K -3

1 hour

Cost: $3.00/student

The Delaware River has not always been the quiet, slow-moving river that we know today. In the 17th and 18th centuries, pirates frequently traversed the waters of Delaware looking for ships to attack and places to sell stolen goods. In this program, students will learn the chronology of piracy in Delaware, and discover what made Delaware an attractive place to these outlaws. They will hear and participate in a pirate story as well as examine pirate illustrations, both created by renowned Delaware artist Howard Pyle. A navigation activity helps familiarize students with common tools and practices used by pirates, and then challenges them to locate buried treasure in the museum. The program concludes with students making their own maps of a likely spot to bury treasure.

History 1,2,3,4; Geography 1,3; Visual Arts C,E; 4:A,B.

Colonials and Continentals:
Delaware and the American Revolution

With Costumed Role Playing!

"American Revolution was excellent." - 5th grade teacher

Grades 3-6

1 1/2 hours

Cost: $3.00/student

It is easy for us to think about the American Revolution as a victory. But when the colonists began protesting against English laws in 1765, fighting the British in 1775, and when they declared independence in 1776, no one knew how things would turn out! It was a frightening
and confusing time, especially for average citizens.

Students will learn about some of Delaware’s patriots and tories. Some students will dress in the costumes of these early Delawareans, and one student will model a reproduction uniform and equipment while the class learns about the brave soldiers in the Delaware Continentals. Students will participate a reenactment of the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge and the British
occupation of Wilmington in 1777. The program includes illustrated and participatory storytelling, dressing in period costume, and a historically appropriate tin-punch craft project.

The program is aligned with Delaware History standards and focuses on chronology, analysis, and interpretation.

History 1,2,3,4; Visual Arts 1: (C,E), 4.

 

Turn of the Century Childhood

Life and Time Components

"The trip gave the students the opportunity to act on what they learned and just get involved." - 2nd grade teacher

Grades K-3	1 hour	Cost: $3.00/student
Grades 4-6	1 1/2 hours	Cost: $3.00/student

Do your students wonder what life was like 100 years ago?  What was it like to grow up in 1900?  This interactive program helps children compare and contrast their lives today with those of children 100 years ago.  They will meet two children who lived in Wilmington, Elizabeth Jones, a white girl,  and Louis Redding, an African-American boy, through illustrated storytelling.  They will handle and identify objects that were as familiar to Louis and Elizabeth as refrigerators and microwaves are to us today.  They will learn about clothing 100 years ago, and the many layers that children wore to go to school.  Some students will model reproduction suits, dresses, baseball jerseys, and bathing suits.

This program enhances student understanding of content, analysis, and interpretation through hands-on activities.

History 1,2,3,4; Visual Arts 1: C,E.

Child Labor in Delaware 

"The hands-on activity kept the kids actively engaged in the program." 
- 4th grade teacher

Grades K-1	1 hour	Cost: $3.00/student
Grades 3-6	1 1/2 hours	Cost: $3.00/student

While they may not always agree, children today are fortunate to be required to attend school.  For much of our history, many children had to work long hours - on the farm, in factories, or on the streets shining shoes, selling produce or newspapers.  In this program, students learn about the history of child labor and its chronology by meeting historic children from different time periods.  Using the photographs taken by Lewis Hine, who traveled throughout the country exposing the terrible conditions of child labor, the program emphasizes conditions in Delaware around 1910.  Students will analyze and interpret these important primary documents.

Students will experience and participate in a mini-assembly line.  They will use their earnings to buy common items such as clothing and food at the prices of the time, encouraging discussion about how hard children worked to help their families.

Finally, because many children were employed in factories handling food products,
students will design and create a canning label based on labels from Sussex County
canneries of the early 1900s..

History 1,2,3,4; Geography 1,3; Visual Arts 1,4.

"Walk a mile in my Shoes":
Delaware's African American Heroes 

"Thank you so much for a special day."

Because of racial segregation, many people in Delaware history have walked down difficult roads.  Yet some of those people overcame insurmountable odds to achieve greatness.  This program introduces students to five remarkable African-Americans from Delaware to chronologically illustrate the struggle for equal rights.  In this program, children learn how individuals can help expand the opportunities for all people.

Some students will dress the part of each hero, as the group considers what it would have been like to “walk in the shoes” of Peter Spencer, William “Judy” Johnson (Negro League baseball player), Louis Redding (civil rights attorney), Edward Loper (artist), and Val Whiting-Raymond. 

Finally, each student will make a set of “trading cards” using art, written descriptions, and, in some cases, statistics to describe the impact each individual had on our state’s history.

History 1,2,3,4; Visual Arts 1: C,E.

 

Grandma's Attic

Pre-K through 3rd	1 hour	$2.00/student
(Note: 22 students or less, $45.00 flat fee)
This program has size limitations, please call for details.

Grandma's Attic is a discovery center for children located in the Delaware History Museum.  The area is a hands-on, interactive play space where children can try on vintage clothing, shop in an old-fashioned corner store, "cook" in a 1940s kitchen, see the evolution of computer technology, and play in the turn of the century "school room."  Filled with historic games and toys, Grandma's Attic is an environment where children learn through play that history is fun, fascinating, and relevant to their lives today.

Perfect for birthday parties, but please note, other rates apply.