School Programs
The Stratford Perth Museum has many exciting programs for school groups. Choose from a variety of exciting curriculum-connected in-classroom or remote learning programs. It is our mission to deliver local history in fun, creative and safe ways. Our Education & Programs department fuses academic learning with captivating content that inspires intrigue, wonder, and engagement. Ranging from Hands On Workshops to Justin Bieber VIP Tours, our compelling ‘edutainment’ formula appeals to diverse demographics drawing both tourists and routine visitors.
School Tour Layout:
Educators are invited to select 2-4 stations from the list below related to their curriculum or interest. Guests are split into groups upon arrival and rotate between stations with museum leaders accompanied by teachers and guardians. Stations include themes like pioneer life, diverse cultures, environmental science, Indigenous communities, and hands on oriented projects.
We are able to host a maximum of 60 youth on a single tour. Visits last 2.5 hours that are slotted for 9:30 am – 12:00 pm and 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm timed sessions (times can be adjusted upon request).
Visits of 25 or more students cost $6.00 per student plus tax, but some stations are an additional cost, as indicated. We only charge for the youth that attend and not the amount that are booked. Teachers, guardians, adult leaders, and bus drivers get in FREE.
Check out our HANDS ON activities offered with each themed station that combine artisanal and occupational storytelling.
Ontario Curriculum: Check out the links to Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Expectations within each station listing below
We also offer guided and self-guided tours of the museum, as well as our walking trails.
School groups also have the option of snowshoeing on our walking trails during the winter months.
Didn’t see the program or activities you were looking for? Please call 519-393-5315 or email Manager of Education & Exhibits Lead Megan Patterson to discuss creating a new or customized program to fit your needs!
School Tour Stations and Educational Programs
Shake it out with this fan favourite station as we ‘moove’ through the history of farming and food processing in the region. Guests get to eat butter they created through a ‘herd’ challenge on crackers/biscuits and/or take home their creamy treat to enjoy with family!
- Identify various bovine breeds and their significance to pioneer life and today
- Discuss the role the dairy industry has within Perth County
- Learn the science behind transforming milk into butter
- Partake in a buttermaking, team building challenge
- Sample freshly made butter
- For Curriculum Components and Learning Outcomes for this Station
Click on the Link Below - A Butter Life Learning Goals and Curriculum Expectations
Program Grades: Targeting 1-6
Program Duration: 45 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Science and Technology, Social Studies, History and Nutrition.
This station can be offered offsite upon request.
Cost for station is an additional $1.00 extra per child.
For more information or to book a program, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Public Programs, at 519-393-5315, or email.
In this buzzing station, students discover the important role honey bees and other pollinators play in native ecosystems and managed apiculture across history. Using the museum’s grounds as a starting point, students:
- Identify pollinator plants
- Discuss the honey bees’ daily mission and potential threats to the honey bee population
- Handle bee keeping tools of old
- Sample local apiary honey harvest or honeycomb
- Create a beeswax candle
- For Curriculum Components and Learning Outcomes for this Station
Click on the Link Below - Beesy Hands Learning Goals and Curriculum Expectations
This action-packed program increases collective knowledge of natural history, land preservation and global action.
Program Grades: Targeting 1-6
Program Duration: 45 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Mathematics, Science and Technology, Social Studies, History and Geography and the Arts.
This station can be offered offsite upon request.
Cost for station is an additional $1.00 extra per child.
For more information or to book a program, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Public Programs, at 519-393-5315, or email.
Take a peek behind the lens and discover our tiny worlds that exist around us. Using handheld microscopes students explore fossils, flora, and fauna from our County and journey outdoors to collect samples of our natural wonders on our Heritage Trails.
- Inspect and identify local fossils, plants, and animals using a handheld microscope
- Discuss ecosystems and biomes
- Review invasive species in our area and the danger they pose to our environment
- Learn how to use a microscope and the history of the technology
- Consider how fossils are formed
- For Curriculum Components and Learning Outcomes for this Station
Click on the Link Below - Micro Buffs Learning Goals and Curriculum Expectations
Program Grades: 1-8
Program Duration: 45 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Biology, Paleontology Social Studies, History and Geography.
This station can be offered offsite upon request.
For more information or to book a program, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Public Programs, at 519-393-5315, or email.
No matter what era you are investigating, early settlers prioritized ways they could entertain themselves and have fun at home. Pioneers were brilliant at creating their own pass-time activities and toys to keep everyone busy! One craft that was widely hand-made in Perth County were stuffed animals and teddy bears. In this station activity students will get to make their own take-home sock teddies, monsters or bunnies.
- Examine the early lifestyles of settlers that lived in Perth County
- Classify various artifacts hand-made by pioneers
- Distinguish what games and challenges pioneers played that still exist today
- For Curriculum Components and Learning Outcomes for this Station
Click on the Link Below - Toymakers and Shakers Learning Goals and Curriculum Expectations
Program Grades: Kindergarten to grade 8
Program Duration: 45 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Language, Social Studies, History of the Arts.
This station can be offered offsite upon request.
Please Be Advised: This station costs an additional $1.00 plus tax per student to cover supply expenses
For more information or to book a program, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Public Programs, at 519-393-5315, or email.
Pioneers were anything but sheepish, using every available asset to make their own tools and supplies. This station weaves through the resourceful methods of pioneers that made many of their necessities at home. The activity includes Wool Carding, Weaving, and Spinning.
- Examine the early lifestyles of Indigenous Nations and settlers that lived in Perth County
- Classify various animals and wools used by pioneers
- Distinguish the tools used in textile arts
- Participate in weaving, carding, and spinning
- For Curriculum Components and Learning Outcomes for this Station
Click on the Link Below - Woolly Big Skills Learning Goals and Currciulum Expectations
Program Grades: 1-8
Program Duration: 45 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Language, Mechanics, Social Studies, History the Arts.
This station can be offered offsite upon request.
For more information or to book a program, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Public Programs, at 519-393-5315, or email.
Farming has always played a significant role in our community and remains amongst the largest industries to date. Perth County, both past and present, has often been referred to as “Ontario’s food basket” as it is one of the region’s main producers of pork, beef, poultry, dairy products, cash crops and organic produce. This station will incorporate historical and modern agricultural practices that bring our food to the table.
- Discuss food processing and past/contemporary risks to our crops
- Classify various livestock
- Compare past and modern day agricultural tools in our collection
- Participate in hand threshing and winnowing
- For Curriculum Components and Learning Outcomes for this Station
Click on the Link Below - Farm to Table Learning Goals and Curriculum Expectations
Program Grades: Kindergarten -8
Program Duration: 45 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Language, Mechanics, Agriscience, Social Studies, History the Arts.
This station can be offered offsite upon request.
For more information or to book a program, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Exhibits Lead, at 519-393-5315, or email.
Agriculture, lumber, furniture making, knitting mills, and ropemaking were just a few of the industries that made Perth County one of Canada’s most prosperous regions. Many local businesses were manufacturing products that sold widely across our county and would eventually become burgeoning provincial, national or international companies. This station reviews a number of businesses and some ‘simple’ innovations that help put Stratford on the map.
- Delve into the industrious stories of Perth County settlers
- Observe artifacts from various local businesses
- Decipher tools used in manufacturing and patented products
- Participate in ropemaking
- For Curriculum Components and Learning Outcomes for this Station
Click on the Link Below - Taking Care of Business
Program Grades: Grade 1 – 8
Program Duration: 45 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Language, Mechanics, Social Studies, History the Arts.
This station can be offered offsite upon request.
For more information or to book a program, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Exhibit Lead, at 519-393-5315, or email.
What did it mean to be a medical professional 150 years ago vs a patient? The world of health in the 1800s was often flooded with misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation to the detriment of the patient, but many leaders within our community advanced medical practices to improve the lives of Perth County residents. In this station, students will learn the conventional and unconventional practices of early doctors, dentists and nurses in Stratford and Perth County and some of the professionals that made a profound difference in the field of medicine.
- Examine the devices that Medical Professionals used over 100 years ago in our county
- Hear from some of the local patients and doctors through their journaled accounts
- Learn about some traditional Indigenous treatments and remedies used in our community
- Participate in a fake-teeth cleaning activity using natural and man-made tools
- For Curriculum Components and Learning Outcomes for this Station
Click on the Link Below - Healthy Hands Learning Goals and Curriculum Expectations
Program Grades: Grade 1 – 8
Program Duration: 45 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Language, Mechanics, Science, Social Studies, History the Arts.
For more information or to book a program, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Exhibit Lead, at 519-393-5315, or email.
Students explore the history of maps and how we use maps in our daily lives today. Interactive games will teach students how to read and examine a variety of maps, and discuss map elements and compass techniques. Finally, students put these new skills to use by following a map, compass and clues around the museum’s walking trails. This program works best as an outdoor program, but indoor variations are available.
- Observe and engage with various surveying and mapping artifacts
- Learn about the Canada Company and early treaties with local Indigenous Nations
- Listen to some of the early settler stories from travellers and surveyors that visited local inns and taverns
- Participate in an indoor or outdoor mapping challenge on our Heritage Trails
- For Curriculum Components and Learning Outcomes for this Station
Click on the Link Below - Mapping and Orienteering Learning Goals and Curriculum Expectations
Program Grades: 1-8
Program Duration: 90 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: History and Geography and the Arts.
Come “meet” some of the early founders of our community that launched settlement in Perth County and the Huron Tract. These trailblazers and their families attributed a lasting impact on the foundations of our region’s settlement through industrious economic acumen, while nurturing social resiliency for our diverse communities.
Please Note: This exhibit contains offensive language, racial slurs, derogatory terms, and adult themes that some may find distressing and triggering. This information has been shared to offer insight into our communities for academic research and to authentically illustrate context of the 19th and 20th centuries. By displaying these sources, we hope to invite comprehensive interpretation of historical facts relevant to the crimes and dangers of intolerance, while enhancing our understanding of contemporary issues.
- Acknowledge and review the Underground Railroad, discriminatory policies, and contemporary conditions that led to cultural erasure and genocide
- Use primary sources to uncover unique biographies of local residents
- Handle some 1800s artifacts to examine the lifestyles of early settlers
- Draw or use a pyrography pen to etch traditional or customized pattern onto a leaf to add to our community mosaic tree
- For Curriculum Components and Learning Outcomes for this Station
Click on the Link Below - We’ve Been Here_ Black History in Perth County
Program Grades: Targeting 1-12
Program Duration: 20-45 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Social Studies, History and Geography and the Arts.
This station can be offered offsite upon request.
For more information or to book a program, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Exhibits Lead, at 519-393-5315, or email.
From 1870 to 1964, the Grand Trunk Railway and the succeeding Canadian National Railways employed about 40% of the workforce in the city of Stratford in locomotive repair shops. Through story exchange, role play and interactive activities, students learn how the workers of the railway repair shops impacted the growth and vibrancy of the city and county we reside in today.
- Examine the early lifestyles of settlers that lived in Perth County
- Classify various artifacts related to the railroad
- Study the ‘language’ of trains and ‘Rail Riders’
- Learn about the technology behind the train
- For Curriculum Components and Learning Outcomes for this Station
Click on the Link Below - The CNR Shops Learning Goals and Curriculum Expectations
Program Grades: Kindergarten – grade 8
Program Duration: 45 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Language , Social Studies, History and Geography and the Arts.
This station can be offered offsite upon request.
For more information or to book a program, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Exhibits Lead, at 519-393-5315 or email.
From clay tablets to iPhones, how have our communication methods changed over human history? Learn about the rich history of letterpress and experience this early method of printed communication.
- Review the various methods of communication and media
- Discuss current issues and make a print related to one of these topics of choice (Orange Shirt Day or PRIDE topics)
- Participate by using the printing press and take home a print or bring a T -Shirt or textile to print on
Program Grades: Kindergarten -12
Program Duration: 45 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Language, Mechanics, Social Studies, History, and Studio Arts.
For more information or to book a program, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Exhibits Lead, at 519-393-5315, or email.
A daredevil, a psychic, an inventor…oh boy! In this program, students hear stories of some of Perth County’s most intriguing, historical characters. Through storytelling exchange and object sharing, students gain an understanding of why personal and collective stories are important for preservation, community and social transformation. A storytelling exercise and hands-on activity delve students deeper into their own personal stories as a way to connect with others.
- Identify Fact from Fiction
- Discuss signs of misinformation and disinformation
- Handle or climb into some artifacts that help tell the true stories of our community
- Using a pyrography pen, engrave your name and/or positive commentary in to our Helping Hands Story Collection
Program Grades: Targeting 1-12
Program Duration: 20-45 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Social Studies, History and Geography and the Arts.
This station can be offered offsite upon request.
For more information or to book a program, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Public Programs, at 519-393-5315, or email.
A guided-tour through the exhibition Perth Up: A Retrospective of Duty and Valour highlights not only the soldiers and battles of the Perth Regiment, but also tells the stories of men and women from across Perth County who served as doctors, nurses, war journalists and those who domestically supported the Perth Regiment from the home front. Through historical artifacts, personal stories, artwork, photographs and interactive presentations, students discover Perth County’s rich military history.
Program Grades: 4-8
Program Duration: 90 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Language , Social Studies, History and Geography and the Arts.
In this interactive program, students assume the role as early settler children living in Perth County during the 19th century . Exploring traditional household and farm chores such as fetching water in buckets, washing laundry by hand, carding wool and rope making as well as experiencing a taste of leisure activities, the Homesteader program promotes a deeper level of understanding of past settler life. This program works best as an outdoor program, but indoor variations are available.
Program Grades: 1-6
Program Duration: 90 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Cross-Curricular Connections: Social Studies, History and Geography and the Arts.
Students explore the museum through an interactive, docent-led tour that asks them to think about how people live and interact with their environment and community, both now and in the past.
Walking trail tours can be incorporated into a museum tour, or are offered as an alternative.
Program Grades: All levels of learning
Program Duration: 45-60 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Program Cost: $5 (plus HST) per student
Cross-Curricular Connections: History, Geography, Social Studies and the Language Arts.
Les étudiants profitent d’une visite du musée dirigée par un guide bénévole francophone. En utilisant des objets et des expositions de musée et des questions ouvertes pour amorcer la conversation, les élèves approfondiront leur compréhension de l’histoire locale tout en enrichissant leurs compétences linguistiques en français. Les visites en français peuvent être modifiées selon les habiletés et l’âge des élèves. Donc, ceux et celles inscrits au programme de français cadre bénéficient autant que ceux et celles au programme de français d’immersion. Tous profitent d’une expérience en français. On adapte les visites au musée à votre classe et à vos besoins en matière de curriculum.
Students enjoy a tour of the museum led by a French speaking docent. Using museum objects and exhibits and open-ended questions for a foundation of conversation, students will deepen their understanding of local history while enriching French language skills. Guided tours in French can be modified to accommodate the age and abilities of your students. So those in Core French programs benefit as much as those in French Immersion programs. All students can enjoy a French language experience. We adapt our guided tours to best suit your class and your curriculum needs.
Program Grades: All levels of learning
Program Duration: 45-60 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Program Cost: $5 (plus HST) per student
Cross-Curricular Connections: History, Geography, Social Studies and the Language Arts.
Student groups accompanied by teachers and chaperones are welcome to explore the museum at their own pace. An optional Scavenger Hunt is available to help students explore and discuss the museum’s current exhibits.
Program Grades: All levels of learning
Program Duration: 45-60 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Program Cost: $5 (plus HST) per student
Cross-Curricular Connections: History, Geography, Social Studies and the Language Arts.
Snowshoeing is offered in the winter on our historic walking trails. As students learn or reacquaint themselves with this wonderful winter time physical activity, they also explore Stratford and Perth County’s rich history through visual props and panels. This activity is weather permitting. Please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Public Programs for more information.
Program Grades: All levels of learning
Program Duration: 45-60 minutes (can be customized to suit schedule needs)
Program Cost: $5 (plus HST) per student
Cross-Curricular Connections: History, Geography, Social Studies, Language Arts. Health & Physical Education
No time to come to us? Fear not, we can come right to your classroom!
We’ve hand-picked a collection of our most curious, fabulous and obscure objects. Students in your classroom can handle and engage with the objects to stimulate thinking and to share ideas with others.
Since the items in the case are rather obscure, students don’t have to worry about whether or not they are familiar with the objects. Instead they can share their ideas and guesses in a judgment-free environment.
This fun program ignites thoughtful inquiry, oral story sharing. group learning and often times, roars of laughter! Because after all, learning is fun!
What’s in a Curiosity Case?
Each case contains 5 artifacts/objects that relate a to a unified theme. All artifacts/objects are selected to represent a variety of collections at the museum and to stimulate interest and discussion among participants. Artifacts/objects can be handled by participants.
Curiosity Case Themes:
Railway
Home
Medical
Toys
Fashion
How Does It Work?
A museum educator facilitates the Curiosity Case program on-site in your classroom. The suggested program length is one hour. The program cost is $75 (plus HST)
To reserve/order a Curiosity Case or for more information, please contact Megan Patterson, Manager of Education and Programs.