Museum Tour

Grades 1 - 5

Compare and contrast items from the past to items used today. Students tour the museum learning how people in Lowell lived in various eras comparing them to modern life.
This tour can be adapted to meet the specific needs of your class and its curriculum. Please discuss when booking your tour.

Grandma's Trunk

Grade 2
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Using an antique travel trunk filled with historical objects, Grandma’s Trunk is a unique and exciting way of helping students begin to understand our historical past. Using historical objects such as a flat iron, butter churn and a corn planter, the presenters weave a story of the typical Michigan pioneer work-week. Using the belief that children learn best when multiple senses are involved in learning, each child will have the opportunity to handle and manipulate the items from Grandma’s Trunk. An Activity Book provides post visit learning and reinforces the experience.Grandma's Trunk is offered each year in April to Lowell Area Schools. Private groups may schedule for a slot during our Home School Days in April. Group Size is 20 students. Fee based program. Contact the Museum to schedule.
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2-H2.0.4 Changes in local community over time
3-H3.0.1 Questions to examine the past
3-H3.0.5 How settlers adapted to, used and modified their environment
3-H3.0.7 Daily life reenacted

Native American Life

Grade 3
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Native American Lifeways  features a fur trading post with an Odawa encampment nearby. Students learn about the lives of local Odawa in this class. They immerse themselves into the past and learn by doing.Program offered in the fall in collaboration with Heidi's Farmstand.
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3-H3.0.1 Questions to examine the past
3-H3.0.4 Traditional stories of the Odawa
3-H3.0.5How the American Indian adapted to, used and modified their environment     
3-H3.0.6 Interaction between Odawa and explorers and settlers       
3-H3.0.7 Daily life reenacted
3-H3.0.10  Beginning of the timeline of known people in Michigan

Pioneering Farming

Grades 3

Pioneer Farming is taught out of a mobile barn.  Inside, is a wide selection of old  farming tools and additional work stations. Hands on: saw a log, pump water, grind wheat, shell corn, use a pulley. Shows life cycle of wheat from planting to flour. Students experience what life on a farm was like.
Program offered in the fall in collaboration with Heidi's Farmstand.

3-H3.0.1 Questions to examine the past
3-H3.0.5 How settlers adapted to, used and modified their environment
3-H3.0.7 Daily life reenacted
3-G4.0.1 Economic activity factors influencing agriculture
4-H3.0.1 Investigate development of major economic system-agriculture

Fur Trade

Grade 3
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Fur Trade explores the relationship between local Native Americans and European fur trade networks.
Program offered in the fall in collaboration with Heidi's Farmstand.

3-H3.0.1 Questions to examine the past
3-H3.0.5 How settlers adapted to, used and modified their environment
3-H3.0.6   Will describe the interaction between the Native Americans and the traders using a display of trade goods
3-H3.0.8   Will use case studies and stories of local fur traders – Madame LaFramboise and/or Daniel Marsac
3-EI.0.1  How did scarcity, opportunity, and choices affect what the Native American consumed
L.OL.03.42  Classify animals on the basis of observable characteristics:  fur color, pelt size, fur coarseness
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Music of the time – violin and Indian flute

Michigan History Days

Grade 4

Students participate in Michigan History Days topics by exploring in depth Native American and early settler history. A recreated Odawa village allows for a unique exploration of the past.
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Program offered each spring in collaboration with the Wittenbach-Wege Agriscience & Environmental Center

Maple Syrup Days

Grade 2

Maple syrup explores how maple syrup has been traditionally made. Taught at the Wittenbach Nature Center, students learn how Native Americans and early settlers collected sap and turned it into syrup and sugar. This program is available seasonally only. Please call for details.
​Program offered each spring in collaboration with the Wittenbach-Wege Agriscience & Environmental Center

Museum Immersion Program

The Immersion Program is currently offered to all 3rd grade classes in the Lowell Area School District. For additional information contact the museum.

Chronicle Museum Immersion article