One of the first museums.
This is a great activity for learning historical skills and heritage processes, which can also support literacy and art. It’s designed to spark creativity and encourage curiosity about the past and the objects held by museums.
Tees Valley Museums have created a “Museum in Your Classroom” toolkit to support schools. It includes inspiration, templates, resources and case studies to spark the imagination.
This activity can focus on a visit to a local museum, or children recalling a museum that they have visited with family. Children can be asked to remember their visit, which objects stood out as their favourites or were memorable, and how they were displayed. Children can take the lead on how to display the museum and on explaining it to others, such as fellow classmates, other classes, or parents. Your local library might also display the museum, meaning parents and the public can visit at any time.
Your museum can include:
- Maps
- Photographs (or copies) put on display
- Artefacts collected from the local community/family
- Actual artefacts or models/pictures of them made by children
- An artefact borrowed from a local museum which inspires the project
- Labels with descriptions, written by the children
- A dressing-up section
- An interactive exhibit, such as a lift and reveal exhibit
- Museum leaflets designed by the children to explain the museum and/or attract visitors
- Students acting as Museum Tour Guides
The image above is Creative Commons, see it here.