Most programs are designed to last 1 hour. Programs can often be tailored to meet your specific time and learning needs. Contact us to find out more!
Experience the Challenge of a Pioneer’s Westward Journey
Students will enter the spirit of pioneer times through this hands-on session of preparing for a journey west from Independence, Missouri in 1858. Using cloth-backed maps, they will determine their routes and then get busy putting together supplies for their journeys. Green beans must be strung up to dry and breakables must be packed in cornmeal.
Real life experiences of settlers from the last century will enhance the students’ understanding as they explore the dynamics of building a new community out West. Examining the contributions of various tradespeople to a growing settlement will encourage the children to draw parallels between America’s past and present.
This experience is available for students in second through fifth grades.
Reading, Recitation, and Arithmetic
Students will feel like pioneer schoolchildren in this session when the schoolmarm lines them up and begins their day with the insistent clanging of the school bell. Children will learn with their bodies as well as their minds as they work arithmetic problems on slates with soapstone pencils. Proper posture and demeanor will be the requirement for the students as they are instructed in recitation, history and geography. When the schoolmarm dismisses the children for a pioneer recess, a variety of games will be enjoyed by all!
This experience is available for students in grades one through five.
Children’s Lives in Colonial America 
As they beg a hot coal for the home-fire they forgot to tend, the students will experience the struggle involved in being children in colonial America. They will help their families by making buttons before they dash off to school where they will huddle together and share slates to work their lessons. The children will tend to many chores when they return home. The floor must be swept, the cows need milking, and more wool must be spun into warm yarn.
This experience is available for students in second through fifth grades.
Baaa, Mooo, Cock-A-Doodle-Doo! 
Experience the realities of farm life! Students will determine why settlers raised certain animals, and they will see how those animals lived and worked. Many aspects of pioneer life will be explored while students are busy with wool-working, butter-making, and egg-testing. They will be encouraged to think of the ways in which pioneers made their livings, as they provided food, clothing, and warmth for their families.
Imaginative role-playing by the students is a fun part of their learning process in this half hour session, which is suitable for students from kindergarten through second grade.
General Washington’s Soldiers 
Hunger and cold are our constant companions as we struggle for liberty in this program, set in 1776. Students will become Revolutionary War soldiers and experience the hardships endured by our Continental Army. Only great loyalty to General Washington and the cause of independence sustains us through endless marches and battles where we are terribly outnumbered. Students will tear cloth bandages and use poultices to care for their wounds, write letters to family, and play dice games to take their minds off their empty bellies.
This experience is available for students in grade five.