School ProgramsThe Carver County Historical Society is proud to offer a variety of programs for schools and groups of all ages and sizes. Through the use of
artifacts, maps, historical photos, and other primary sources, students learn how national events affected local history. All of our programs offer a hands-on learning experience
for students.
School Programs/Traveling Programs
These programs are available year-round, and can be booked at the school or at the museum. They are free at the museum if given at the museum. Charges apply to programs given
outside the museum, please call for rates. These programs are also great for Girl and Boy Scout troops, 4-H clubs, home school classes, and other youth group events.
All Grades: One Room Schoolhouse
School sure has changed in the past 150 years! A Carver County teacher from the past will help your students discover what life was like in a pioneer schoolhouse. Students will
learn how going to school has changed over the last century by following 19th-century classroom rules and participating in reading, recitation, handwriting, and arithmetic lessons
similar to those taught in the original one room schools. Grades 1-3: 45 minutes; Grades 4&5: 60 minutes
Northern Lights Chapter 7
Download pre-visit information for One Room Schoolhouse.
Kindergarten: Mysteries in History
Your students will use artifacts and inquiry-based learning to help solve a “mystery in history.” How do we know what we know about the past? Students will explore their
historical curiosities as they engage questioning and reasoning skills to solve artifact mysteries. What is it made from? What does it smell like? Does it look like something we use
today? Is it an ice skate or a vegetable chopper? 30 minutes
Northern Lights Chapter 1
Download pre-visit information for Mysteries in History.
Grade 1: Putting Your Life in a Box
Students will help pack an immigrant trunk. They must choose what items to bring with them to America and what to leave behind – not everything will fit in the trunk! Students
are asked to think about what types of things immigrants would want to bring with them when they move to a new country where they have never been before. This activity is designed
to encourage students to think about what it is like to leave a place you have always called home for a new one in a strange country. 30-45 minutes
Follow-up activity available: Coming to America interactive story
Northern Lights Chapters 7 & 20
Download pre-visit information for Putting Your Life in a Box.
Pre-visit activity: World Map: Where did your family come from?
Follow-up activity: Coming to America interactive story
Post-visit activity: Trunk Diagram: What would you bring?
Grade 2: Down on the Farm
Can you imagine life 150 years ago? Without Wii, without electric toasters, without even an indoor toilet? A CCHS staff member will help your class try their hand at homesteading,
discover aspects of pioneer life (from growing the crops to going to the bathroom), and even churn their own butter! Students will get a chance to handle and use all of the
artifacts. This program is designed to explore the differences between family life today and yesterday, and to let students discover what hard work it was to farm and keep house in
Carver County during the 1880s. 45 minutes
Northern Lights Chapter 10
Download pre-visit information for Down on the Farm.
Grade 3: Ghost Towns
Not all ghost towns are in the Wild West! Whether or not a town survives depends on four main factors: people, transportation, organization, and natural resources. Students will
learn about why some towns survived while others did not, and how civic duty and economic choice played a role in shaping the future of these communities by looking at examples of
lost communities right here in Carver County. 45 minutes
Northern Lights Chapter 11
Download pre-visit information for Ghost Towns.
Grade 4: Exploring the Great Northwest
Students will learn about the fur trade in Minnesota by actually living it! Students will experience Minnesota wilderness firsthand as they pretend to travel with voyageurs of the
18th-century to a small fur trading post just south of Carver, called Little Rapids. Your students will also be introduced to the dynamic of Native American-trader relations and how
Europeans and Indians worked together or conflicted in the industry. This is a fun way to explore Minnesota history through pictures, song, and re-enactment! 45-60
minutes
Northern Lights Chapter 5
Download pre-visit information for Expoloring the Great Northwest.
NEW PROGRAM!
Grade 5: Can You Dig It?
Even though Carver County has only been around for a little over 150 years, the history of the area dates back thousands of years. The stories of these people are woven in the
evidence found in the earth. In this program, students will learn about Native Americans in Carver County by studying bone tools, stone artifacts, and ceramics. Your students will
also get the chance to dig through trash to discover how the archaeological record is made! 60 minutes
Northern Lights Chapter 2
Download pre-visit information for Can You Dig It?
Grade 6: Rosie the Riveter
Explore life in Carver County during World War II as we meet Rosie, a mother and wife of an army infantryman who takes a job in a munitions box factory during the war. Students will
experience her life during the war through words, photos, posters, and objects and will discover the impact WWII had on the homefront. 40-50 minutes
Northern Lights Chapter 16
Download pre-visit information for Rosie the Riveter.
NEW PROGRAM!
Grade 6: Marching Barefoot
Minnesota was still a young state when the Civil War began, but it quickly became embroiled in one of the country’s most contentious and devastating wars. From Fort Snelling
to Carver County, no other state in the Union sent a higher percentage of their male population to war. Students will understand the important role that Minnesota played in the war
by engaging map and reasoning skills and using primary sources (Carver County Civil War diaries) to get a firsthand look at Minnesota life during the 1860. 50 minutes
Northern Lights Chapters 8 & 9
Download pre-visit information for Marching Barefoot.
Please contact Heidi Gould at (952) 442-4234 to check availability or e-mail us at hgould@co.carver.mn.us.
Eco-History School Programs
CCHS is pleased to offer a series of four eco-history school programs for students grades 1-5. These programs can be booked individually and in any order, but if a classroom
completes all five throughout the course of one school year, students are knighted as Eco-History Ambassadors and rewarded with a celebration!
TEACHERS! Click here to download follow up activities, field trip ideas, and classroom extensions.
Grade 1: What Pollutant Am I?
“At the far end of town, where the Grickle-grass grows and the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows and no birds ever sing excepting old crows...is the Street of the Lifted
Lorax.” After reading Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, students will discover the four different types of pollution and will learn to identify and prevent each kind.
Grade 2: Where Does the Garbage Go?
Did you know that each Minnesotan produces about 7 pounds of trash each day? Where does the garbage go? Students will learn how their communities manage the large amount of waste
created by its citizens and easy ways that they can help—by reducing and recycling! This program includes an important lesson on knowing what to throw—and how to get rid
of it when it can’t go in the trash.
Grade 3: Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, & Rot
On average a school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year! Students will learn about the environmental costs of wasting food and packaging
by exploring the route their food took from the field to their mouths. They will also discover the natural recycling process, composting, as they take part in becoming a giant pile
themselves!
Grade 4: From Sheep to Sweater
How many cows are in Carver County? Students will learn about agriculture and sustainable farming in this fun, interactive program. The will explore environmental stewardship and
create connections between the environment and things they use in their home or school each day by identifying the natural origins of common household products.
Grade 5: It's Easy Being Green
Everyone can protect the environment! Students will learn a variety of peer-teaching tools that will help them share what they’ve learned with other students. Students will
learn about activism, select an environmental issue and write about it in a letter to the editor, and create a contribution to the CCHS Community Art Project. All
of our programs are free at the museum. Charges apply for having an educator visit your group, call for pricing.
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