In the Museum

It has been said that Concord is a small town with a big history. And nowhere is that important story told more dramatically than at the Concord Museum. From the shot heard round the world, to the literary revolution of Emerson and Thoreau, the Concord Museum brings Concord's remarkable story to life through an inspiring collection of historical, literary and decorative arts including Revere's famous 1775 lantern, Thoreau's Walden desk and Emerson's study. In engaging, well-designed tours and hands-on programs for students of all ages, Concord Museum educators present intriguing ideas relevant to today - concepts of liberty, turning beliefs into action, self-reliance, independent thinking and the preservation of the environment.

Programs

Enrich your classroom curriculum with a framework-friendly, hands-on program at the Concord Museum. An enthusiastic staff of experienced educators provides programs for ten thousand students a year from diverse communities across New England and beyond. The extent of the Museum's collection allows a range of school programming from the Native American, Colonial and nineteenth century periods. All programs, with the exception of Colonial Cooking, expose students to a museum experience appropriate to the time period they are studying. Programs are two to three hours in length and, with the exception of Colonial Cooking and Relive 1775 are available from September to November, and January to June. Museum educators are pleased to work with classroom teachers to provide the museum experience they are looking for.

Native American Programs

Students identify "basic needs" through a discussion of what they would need for a camping trip to the wilderness. In small groups, students investigate how Northeast Woodland Indians met their basic needs. Students will:

• Visit the Establishing Concord Gallery in the Museum
• Participate in a hands-on investigation of 4,000 year old stone tools
• Construct dioramas showing the difference between Native American and Colonial land use
• Use Native American technology to grind corn, cook and taste nokehick and drill a hole to make a shell necklace
  
  
  

Native American games are added to the activities listed for Native American Lifeways I

To begin the booking process, click here for a printable Reservation Form (PDF), School Program General Information (PDF) and a Parent Volunteer Letter (PDF).

How can we learn about a civilization that left no written records? Assuming the role of an archaeologist students divide into small groups to:

• Visit the Establishing Concord Gallery in the Museum
• Participate in a hands on investigation of 4,000 year old Native American stone tools
• Undertake a "shoe-box" dig, finding real Native American stone tools and tabulating and analyzing their finds
• Share their finds with a museum educators and their group

To begin the booking process, click here for a printable Reservation Form (PDF), School Program General Information (PDF) and a Parent Volunteer Letter (PDF).

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Colonial Programs

In a setting evocative of a colonial home, students gather around a roaring fire to:

• Discuss how a colonial family obtained, preserved and prepared food
• Use the technology available to a colonial housewife to prepare gingerbread, applesauce and rose wafers, mull cider and churn butter
• Make herbal sachets to take home
• Taste and discuss the results of their labor

To begin the booking process, click here for a printable Reservation Form (PDF), School Program General Information (PDF) and a Parent Volunteer Letter (PDF).

Students define a community and give examples of communities they belong to. Using a floor map and models they "build" a colonial town, using Concord as an example, and identify communities of importance to the functioning of a colonial town. In small groups, students investigate the role, work and contributions of craftsmen in a colonial community through:

• A hands-on artifact investigation
• A discussion of shop structure from apprentice to journeyman to master craftsman
• Assuming the role of an apprentice to create a pierced tin plate
• Visiting the Museum collection to see the work of colonial craftsmen

To begin the booking process, click here for a printable Reservation Form (PDF), School Program General Information (PDF) and a Parent Volunteer Letter (PDF).

Students identify the "Colonial Period" and share their existing knowledge with a Museum educator. In small groups, students investigate colonial life through:

• Learning about and examining Colonial Clothing. One boy and one girl will try on the clothing and demonstrate the garments for the group.
• Assuming the role of an apprentice to create a pierced tin plate
• Participating in "Object Unwrap," a hands-on artifact activity
• Investigating the Museum's colonial galleries and period rooms
  
  
  

Colonial dance is added to the activities listed in Colonial Sampler I

To begin the booking process, click here for a printable Reservation Form (PDF), School Program General Information (PDF) and a Parent Volunteer Letter (PDF).

Pre-Visit materials are sent out with booking confirmation

Using Pre-Visit materials researched from primary sources, students become members of Concord families involved in the events of April 19, 1775. At the Museum, students:

• Introduce themselves in character
• Use the Museum Collection to familiarize themselves with their town and the issues facing them
• Visit the North Bridge to discover their participation in the events of the day
• Meet a living history interpreter to discuss the impact of the day
• Are presented with a documented 1775 dilemma
• Discuss the dilemma in Town Meeting
• Compare their resolution with that made in 1775

To begin the booking process, click here for a printable Reservation Form (PDF), School Program General Information (PDF) and a Parent Volunteer Letter (PDF).

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Nineteenth-Century Programs

Henry Thoreau is recognized as a writer, poet, naturalist, teacher and philosopher. The largest collection of his belongings is on display in the Thoreau Gallery at the Concord Museum. Young students study his life and legacy as they:

• Use the Museum's Thoreau Gallery and a puzzle activity to investigate the many aspects of his life
• Meet Mrs. Emerson, a friend of Mr. Thoreau, who has many stories of Mr. Thoreau to share
• Visit a model of his Walden house, furnishing it and listening to some journal entries from his stay
• Take a "field trip" through the Museum
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• Use the technology available to Mr. Thoreau to survey and map a piece of land
  
  

To begin the booking process, click here for a printable Reservation Form (PDF), School Program General Information (PDF) and a Parent Volunteer Letter (PDF).

Using objects once owned by Henry D. Thoreau and words written by and about him, students are challenged to explore his life, ideas and legacy as they:

• Make a journal and use it to record their Museum experience
• Share passages from Thoreau's journal
• Visit the Thoreau Gallery to examine his belongings for clues about who he was
• Examine and record the natural world using Thoreau's methods
• Construct a model of the house at Walden Pond
• With Thoreau's desk as a catalyst for discussion, examine Thoreau's impact on the world and use a floor map to chart his influence on the writings of Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
  

To begin the booking process, click here for a printable Reservation Form (PDF), School Program General Information (PDF) and a Parent Volunteer Letter (PDF).

Pre-Visit materials are sent out with booking confirmation

Using Pre-visit materials from the Museum students assume the role of 19th-century Concord residents to:

• Examine how reform movements touched townspeople's lives
• Use maps and visuals to discover the physical changes taking place in town
• Meet Mary Merrick Brooks, president of the Concord Female Anti-Slavery Society
• Participate in a meeting of the Society to discuss their response to the upcoming return of a runaway slave to the South
• Learn the fate of the slave and Concord's response

To begin the booking process, click here for a printable Reservation Form (PDF), School Program General Information (PDF) and a Parent Volunteer Letter (PDF).

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Tours

Enjoy a guided Gateway Tour or let us design an experience to match your student group's interest and grade level. Focused tours explore Colonial Concord, Concord's Role in the American Revolution, The Town of Emerson and Thoreau, Concord's Literary History, and Women in Concord's History. Guided tours are usually one hour in length.

Rates: $5 per student Kindergarten through grade 12; $7 per college/adult student

In addition to a guided experience in the Museum galleries, at an additional fee, tours can include:

• The fourteen-minute Exploring Concord film
• Living history presentations in which costumed interpreters engage and challenge your group in lively conversation
• Hands-on activities related to focus of the tour
• Walking tours into the center of town and/or Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
• Step-on guide service

To find out more about our student group tours, to make a reservation or for itinerary assistance email: grouptours@concordmuseum.org with your contact information, including name, address and phone number and a preferred date, or call the Group Tour Coordinator at (978) 369-9763. The Concord Museum is open year round, is climate controlled and has front door bus parking convenient to Concord Center and major highways.

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