Museum Visits

To plan museum visits, learn about visits to your school or for more information contact the Education Coordinator, at (585) 394-4975 or email educator@ochs.org. Our museum is Handicap Accessible.

Home School

Home school groups are welcome. Some education programs can be offered to multiage groups. (ages 5 through 8, ages 11 through 13) The program minimum of $30 applies to home school groups. Please, very young siblings can distract from learning.

Program Fees

Museum Visits – $3 per student with a minimum of $30 per program. There is no charge for teachers and other accompanying adults.
Classroom Visits – $75 (includes any supplies, travel, and time) for school districts within Ontario County. $50 per each additional class within the same school and scheduled on the same day. Charges for schools outside of Ontario County will vary by distance from Canandaigua.
Distance Learning Programs will be treated as Classroom Visits

Program Offerings:

Life on the Farm (In The Open Hearth Kitchen): Colonial or Early Pioneer

Level – Adaptable to Kindergarten – 4th Grade. Duration – 60 minutes at the Museum
Offered throughout the school year at the museum – 1 class per session
Students compare the open hearth kitchen to their own kitchen at home – “now and then.”
Discussion – Where does our food come from today as compared to 200 years ago? Shopping versus growing your own. Students will learn about and participate in kitchen chores – grinding sugar, churning butter, measuring and mixing a 1234 Cake. Discussion of baking in an open hearth fireplace and the technology of the open hearth kitchen. How were the jobs in the kitchen and around the farm accomplished and what tools were used. Discussion of the tradespeople who helped to build early communities and the reasons why colonial or pioneer families would travel to town.
NYS Standards – Social Studies Standard 1, ELA Standard 1
NYS Standards – Social Studies Standard 1, ELA Standard 1, MSTech – Standard 5

Toys and Games (18th and 19th century): Colonial and Pioneer

Level – Adaptable to Pre-K – 4th Grade. Duration – 60 minutes at the Museum or Classroom Visit
Offered throughout the school year at the museum – 1 class per session
This program looks the ways that colonial and pioneer children of the 18th and 19th centuries spent their leisure time when away from the chores of the farm or their school work. Students will be able to test their skills with toys and games while learning about what it was like for children living in colonial or pioneer villages or along the frontier.

Green Corn Festival and Puppet Theater: A Haudenosaunee (Seneca) Thanksgiving

Level – Kindergarten Duration – 40 minutes
Offered in the fall at our site or yours, this program can accommodate 2 classes per session.
Students discuss seasonal change and family celebrations. Students experience traditional Seneca Thanksgiving at the Green Corn Festival. (puppetry) Students participate in social dancing to recorded traditional Seneca music.
NYS Standards – Social Studies Standard 1, ELA Standards 1 and 2

Suggestions

How can this page better help you as a teacher? Contact the Educator at Educator@ochs.org to discuss developing a customized program for a complete school grade, or any comments or suggestions on current program offerings.