Learning Outcomes:

• Learn about homes long ago, specifically Victorian Homes.
• Identify differences between life in different time periods.
• Changes within living memory.
• The lives of significant individuals in the past.
• Significant historical events, people, and places in their locality.
• Understand British and local history.
• A local history study.

Dependent on class number, you may choose 3 or 4 of the following sessions:

• Object handling: discover and handle old domestic objects from the collections and compare them to their modern-day equivalents. We have objects from pre-Roman times to the present day and can use a range from throughout the ages, or from a specific time period according to your requirements. Our Victorian domestic objects handling collection is particularly comprehensive.
• Washday: Work with our laundry maid to discover what hard and long work washday was. The children will use original Victorian washing equipment and some replicas to wash, scrub, rinse, dry and iron the clothes. They will find out the story of a Victorian washday.
• Kitchen: Work in a Victorian kitchen with our museum learning assistant. Practice lighting the range, making Mrs Beeton’s hard biscuits, making still lemonade and toasting bread on the range.
• Toy Handling: Discover and handle our toys from throughout the ages with our museum learning assistant.
• Growing Up Gallery: Discover the toys in our Family Gallery, complete a short quiz or make a simple card thaumatrope toy. (Self-directed)
• Peg dolls: Make a Victorian peg doll. This is a self-directed session, but we will supply all the instructions and materials. (self-directed)
• Traditional parlour games and outdoor games: Play traditional parlour and outdoor games. (dependent on weather.) Find out about games from the past and draw comparisons with the games we play today. What has changed and what has stayed the same?
• Rag Rugging: This activity requires a degree of dexterity so may be best suited for an older age group. Find out what a rag-rug is and why they were so popular with the lower classes in Victorian times. Have a go at making your own rag-rug coaster to take home.

Discover what life was like from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. What can we tell about ancient people from what they left behind? What were their houses like? How did they survive? What did they eat?

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand that we can learn about the past from the things people leave behind.
• Understand that some materials survive a long time and others do not.
• Significant historical events, people, and places in their locality.
• Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.
• A local history study.

Dependent on your class size, you may choose 3 or 4 of the following activities. However, if you choose to do the indoor archaeological dig, you may only choose a total of 3 activities. This is because the class will be divided into 4 groups, but 2 of the groups take part in the dig at the same time.

• Iron Age indoor archaeological dig: designed and created by renowned archaeologist Julian Richards, the children will use our hands-on realistic indoor archaeology dig to find out what archaeologists do and how they do it. Using AstroTurf and carpet, children peel back the different layers and make deductions about what the finds tell them about the past. They will go down through the layers of time from today until the final layer reveals an Iron Age round house in which they will recreate structure and contents. Includes a ‘What a lot of Rot!’ activity investigating what objects and materials survive under the ground and what they can tell us about the people who lived in the past.
• Object Handling: Handle objects from our archaeology collections including flint tools, pottery and animal bones discovered by archaeologists in East Dorset. Find out what they can tell us about ancient life.
• Wattle and Daub: Make a model of a traditional wattle and daub Iron Age wall. Find out what materials they were made from, the shapes and styles and what really went into making daub! (extra cost)
• Stone Age Boy story: Travel 20,000 years into the past to take part in this Stone Age based story by Satoshi Kitamura. Learn about the way of life, how they made clothes and weapons, what they ate and how they decorated their caves during the Stone Age. Finish with a short picture trail around the museum or garden relating to the story. (Can be self-directed.)
• NEW! Cave Drawings: Listen to the Story of the Stone Age Boy then experiment with oil paints and charcoals to design and create your very own Stone Age cave drawing to take home. (Can be self-directed.)

Discover what the Romans really did for us. What did they eat? What can we tell about the Romans from what they left behind? How do you wear a toga?

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand that we can learn about the past from the things people leave behind.
• Understand that some materials survive a long time and others do not.
• Significant historical events, people and places in their locality.
• Understand about the Roman Empire, its impact on Britain and the legacy of their culture on the present day.
• A local history study.

Dependent on your class size, you may choose 3 or 4 of the following activities. However, if you choose to do the indoor archaeological dig, you may only choose a total of 3 activities. This is because the class will be divided into 4 groups, but 2 of the groups take part in the dig at the same time.

• Roman indoor archaeological dig: Using our hands-on realistic indoor archaeology dig, designed and created by archaeologist Julian Richards, find out what archaeologists do and how they do it. Using AstroTurf and carpet, children peel back the different layers and make deductions about what the finds tell them about the past. They will dig down through the layers of time from today until the final layer reveals a Roman Villa, in which they will recreate structure and contents. Includes a ‘What a lot of Rot!’ activity investigating what objects and materials survive under the ground and what they can tell us about the people who lived in the past.
• Roman food: Make and eat Roman food including a savoury dish, a sweet treat and a spiced drink. (Currently unavailable)
• Object handling: Handle Roman artefacts, including pottery, and animal bones discovered by archaeologists in East Dorset. Find out what they can tell us about Roman life and how life changed for the people who already lived here.
• Groma activity (weather permitting): Find out how Romans made their roads so straight with a hands-on cross section activity, using a replica groma in the garden. (Currently unavailable)
• Roman Mosaics: Try on a toga and become a Roman mosaicist… handle some Roman tesserae and look at pictures of real Roman mosaics to inspire you to design and make your own paper mosaic or follow mosaic patterns provided and construct your own using tiny wooden tiles. If you have time, take a walk up to our Landscape gallery and look at our Roman plaster wall painting. (self-directed)

Use your museum detective skills to discover how we find out about the past through the rich and fascinating history of East Dorset from prehistoric times to today. Who lived here in the ancient past and what did they leave behind? What can old maps and photographs tell us about how the area has changed? What can the history and development of the 16th century Priest’s House building tell us about the past? These sessions develop children’s skills using different sources of evidence to answer the question ‘How do we find out about the past?’

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand that we can learn about the past from the things people leave behind.
• Understand that some materials survive a long time and others do not.
• Significant historical events, people and places in their locality.
• Find out about the history of East Dorset.
• Use maps through the ages and identify local landmarks.

Dependent on your class size, you may choose 3 or 4 of the following activities. If you choose the Indoor Archaeological Dig, then you may only choose 2 other sessions.

• Old maps and photographs: Use old maps and photographs to work out how and why the area has developed over time. Children will use their museum detective skills to uncover the clues, interrogate the evidence and piece together the story of East Dorset.
• Indoor Archaeological Dig: Using our hands-on realistic indoor archaeology dig, designed and created by archaeologist Julian Richards, find out what archaeologists do and how they do it. Using AstroTurf and carpet, children unearth the different layers and make deductions about what their finds tell them about the past. The final layer recreates an Iron Age roundhouse or a Roman Villa, in which they will recreate structure and contents. Includes a ‘What a lot of Rot!’ activity investigating what objects and materials survive under the ground and what they can tell us about the people who lived in the past.
• Mystery Museum Objects: The children will use their detective skills to handle, interrogate, analyse and identify mystery museum objects. Work out what they can tell us about what life was like in the past. (can be self-directed)
• Object Handling: Handle objects from our archaeology collections including flint tools, pottery and animal bones discovered by archaeologists in East Dorset. Find out what they can tell us about ancient life.
• Landscape Gallery: Discover the history of the changing landscape and built environment of East Dorset in our Landscape Gallery. Includes a quiz. (self-directed)
• Traditional Wattle and Daub: Make a model of a traditional wattle and daub wall. Find out what materials they were made from, the shapes and styles and what really went into making daub!
• Roman mosaic craft: Handle some Roman tesserae and look at pictures of real Roman mosaics and our Roman plaster wall paintings to inspire you to design and make your own paper mosaic. (self-directed)
• Become a museum curator: Discover what a museum curator does, how they look after the museum’s collection and how they display them. Have a go at creating your own museum gallery display. (can be self-directed)

Find out what life was like for a child in Victorian times. What sort of jobs would they have to do? Were shops different to the ones we have today? What was it like to be a school child? What did they cook and eat? Were their toys and games the same as ours today?

Learning Outcomes:

• Experience aspects of working-class life in Victorian Times.
• Events beyond living memory that are significant nationally and globally.
• The lives of significant individuals in the past.
• Find out about significant historical events, people and places in their locality.
• A local History study.
• Identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.
• Develop an awareness of the past.
• Discover changes within living memory.
• Practice sharing and taking turns.

Dependent on your class size, you may choose 3 or 4 of the following activities:

• Victorian Kitchen: Work in a Victorian kitchen with our museum learning assistant. Practice lighting the range, making Mrs Beeton’s hard biscuits, making still lemonade and toasting bread on the range. 
• Victorian ironmongers: Work with our museum learning assistant, finding out about the Ironmongers shop that used to be run by the Coles family. Practice stock taking and learning about Victorian money.
• Victorian schoolroom: Take part in a lesson in our Victorian schoolroom, avoiding the cane and dunce’s hat by completing the handwriting sheets and correctly using the slates and pencils. (can be self-directed) This session may not be chosen with the Growing Up Gallery session.
• Victorian washday: Work with our laundry maid to discover what hard and long work a Victorian Washday was. They will use original Victorian washing equipment and some replicas to wash, scrub, rinse, dry and iron the clothes. They will find out the story of a Victorian washday and what they would have been expected to do to help.
• Victorian stationer and tobacconist shop: Discover the unusual story of Mr. Low the shopkeeper, whose shop and stock were left intact and untouched for over 30 years. Work out what sort of stock he kept, look at the nationally important Victorian Valentine and card collection and make a Victorian calling card. (Can be self-directed.)
• Victorian Cleaning: Victorians believed that “Cleanliness was next to Godliness”. Find out how they cleaned their silverware, copper and other domestic objects and have a go yourself.
• Victorian domestic objects handling: Discover and handle Victorian domestic objects from the collections and compare them to their modern-day equivalents.
• Peg dolls: Make a Victorian peg doll. This is a self-directed session, but we will supply all the instructions and materials. (self-directed)
• Traditional parlour games and outdoor games: Play traditional parlour and outdoor games. (dependent on weather.) Find out about games from the past and draw comparisons with the games we play today. What has changed and what has stayed the same?
• Rag Rugging: This activity requires a degree of dexterity so may be best suited for an older age group. Find out what a rag-rug is and why they were so popular with the lower classes in Victorian times. Have a go at making your own rag-rug coaster to take home.
• Growing Up Gallery: Discover aspects of Victorian family life in our Growing Up Gallery, complete a short quiz or make a simple card thaumatrope toy. (Self-directed) This session may not be chosen with the Victorian Schoolroom session.
• NEW! Victorians at the Seaside. We can adapt many of the workshops above to relate to Victorians at the seaside, including making and tasting a traditional Victorian picnic, making traditional lemonade, watching a Punch and Judy show, and seaside entertainment. Wash day will link to traditional Victorian swimwear. (These sessions generally work best in the summer months where we can use our outside space)

These sessions can be chosen in conjunction with any of the above.

• Christmas Kitchen: Make Victorian Christmas biscuits, gingerbread men or traditional spiced lemonade in the kitchen. (extra cost applies)
• Victorian Stationer and Tobacconist’s shop: Discover the unusual story of Mr. Low the shopkeeper, whose shop and stock were left intact and untouched for over 30 years. Look at the beautiful Victorian Christmas cards from our collections that he sold. The children can make and decorate their own Victorian Christmas card. (Can be self-directed)
• Make a Victorian Christmas Decoration: (Self-directed)
• Christmas at the Toy Museum story: Take part in this toy-based story by David Lucas. Finish with a short picture trail around the museum or garden relating to the story. (Can be self-directed.)

Discover what life was like on the Home Front during World War One and uncover some of the real stories of local men who fought in the war.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the impact of WWI on people’s lives.
• Learn about characteristic features of the period.
• Events beyond living memory that are significant nationally and globally.
• Significant historical events, people, and places in their locality.
• A local History study.

Dependent on your class size, you may choose 3 or 4 of the following activities:

• WW1 stories: Research real people’s Home Front & war stories using different sources of evidence including photographs, records & ephemera, family stories and memorials. (Can be self-directed)
• Object Handling: Discover and handle objects from the WW1 period.
• WW1 Kitchen activities: Find out about rationing and make some authentic WW1 recipes. (Currently Unavailable) 
• WW1 childhood: Play games from the period and make a homemade toy.
• WW1 Schoolroom: Take part in a lesson in our WW1 Schoolroom led by your school’s teachers or helpers, avoiding the cane and dunce’s hat by completing the handwriting sheets and correctly using the slates and pencils. (self-directed)
• WW1 Washday: Work with our laundry maid to discover what hard and long work a WW1 Washday was. They will use original washing equipment and some replicas to wash, scrub, rinse, dry and iron the clothes. They will find out the story of a washday and what they would have been expected to do to help.
• Traditional Games: Play traditional games from the period.
• WW1 Craft Activity: Discover the significance of a poppy and make your own. (self-directed)

Find out what life was like for a child during World War Two. What was it like to be an evacuee? What did they cook and eat when everything was rationed? What was it like to be a school child?

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the impact of WWII on people’s lives.
• Learn about characteristic features of the period.
• Events beyond living memory that are significant nationally and globally.
• Significant historical events, people, and places in their locality.
• A local History study.

Dependent on your class size, you may choose 3 or 4 of the following activities:

• WW2 Object Handling: Explore and handle our old World War Two objects from the museum collections with our learning assistant.
• WW2 Kitchen: Work with our World War Two housewife in the kitchen to try some tasty wartime treats and make the rations go further. (Currently Unavailable)
• WW2 Schoolroom: Take part in a lesson in our wartime schoolroom. Try to avoid the cane and dunce’s hat by completing the handwriting sheets.
• WW2 Washday: Work with our busy housewife to discover what hard and long work a World War Two washday They will use original washing equipment and some replicas to wash, scrub, rinse, dry and iron the clothes. They will find out the story of a washday and what they would have been expected to do to help.
• WW2 Games: Play games from the WW2 period.
• WW2 Childhood: Listen to the story of a ‘real-life’ WW2 evacuee. (If a volunteer learning assistant is available.)
• Growing Up Gallery: Discover aspects of family life during WW2 in our Growing Up Gallery, complete a short quiz. (Self-directed) This session may not be chosen with the schoolroom session.

The museum collections can be used across the curriculum to creatively support a range of subjects and topics across all Key Stages. We have worked with schools on a range of cross-curricular sessions, for example Art and design, design and technology, creative writing, and science.

If you have a theme or topic you would like us to support, please contact the Learning Officer to discuss the options.

Costs

£6 per child – accompanying adults are free. Kitchen/cooking sessions will incur an additional £25 charge, as well as some other activities, to cover the cost of ingredients and specialised materials.  There is an £100 minimum charge for learning sessions and a cancellation fee of £50 for short notice cancellations.  

Loans Boxes

Loans boxes can be used to support teaching within the classroom, either as a standalone resource or to complement learning from our workshop sessions. Loans boxes contain handling objects from the collection, some replica items, photographs, pictures, documents, interpretation and suggested learning activities on the following topics:

• Stone Age to Iron Age
• Romans
• Victorian Domestic Life
• World War I – Trench Warfare and Suffragettes.
• World War I – Children and their contribution to the War Effort in East Dorset.
• World War II
• Toys
• Unlocking the Bankes Archive: Local History and Edwardian Childhood.
• 1930s
• Communications Through Time 

The boxes are usually loaned for a period of two weeks and a payment of £20 per loan box, per week is requested. We ask that they be collected and returned during museum opening hours, Monday-Saturdays between 10am-4pm.