The Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.
The Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.
Offering both virtual and in-person field trips in 2022!
Field trips at the Concord Museum are designed to make learning memorable. Trained educators engage students of all learning styles while satisfying important curriculum standards. Historical detective work and role playing are combined with problem solving, tactile learning, and critical thinking so that students of all ages have fun and come away with a real sense of history.
We offer programs on the following subjects:
Native American / Archaeology/ Early Colonial Period
Colonial/Revolutionary Period
Nineteenth Century/ Concord Authors
Outreach Programs
Family Trees: A Celebration of Children’s Literature
We want to work together to give you the best possible experience for your students. Our programs involve students working in small groups, and we ask for at least one chaperone to accompany each group to assist museum staff with supervision. We offer free admission to each adult for every 10 students.
Our staff will work with you to tailor programs to your needs or try something new! To learn more or book your group, please contact us at (978) 369-9763, ext. 217 or schoolprograms@concordmuseum.org.
Digging into the Past
2 ½ hours, Grades 3-8, 12-56 students, $13.00 per student
Native people have lived in this area for thousands of years, but what are some ways we can we learn about cultures in the past? What happens when two very different cultures meet for the first time? In this two-part program students are introduced to northeast Native culture through archaeology and explore the critical first encounters between English settlers and Native people in Massachusetts. As amateur archaeologists, students handle 4,000-year-old stone tools, engage in a table-top dig, and share findings from their “site.” Students also explore the reasons for conflict between Native people and the English settlers and the ways cultures work together through hands-on activities and exploration of the Museum’s galleries.
Native History Through Archaeology
2 hours, Grades 3-8, 10-30 students, $13.00 per student
Native people have lived in this area for thousands of years, but how can we learn about a civilization that left no written records? This program introduces students to Native culture through archaeology. As archaeologists for a day, students handle and discuss 4,000-year-old stone tools from the Concord area, engage in a table-top dig of authentic artifacts from the Museum’s teaching collection, and come together to share their findings and consider how we learn about cultures in the past. Students also visit and discuss the Museum’s People of Musketaquid gallery.
Two Worlds Meet
Grades 3-8, 10-60 students, 2 hours, $13.00 per student
What happens when two very different cultures live in the same place? Students explore the critical first encounters between English settlers and Native People in Massachusetts, looking at the reasons for conflict and the ways cultures work together. Students analyze primary source documents, discuss how each culture recorded their history, and try quill writing. Students work in teams to construct dioramas comparing the land use and daily life of each culture. In an object comparison activity students handle artifacts and replicas to think about what kinds of objects, tools, and clothing would have been used by each culture. Students visit and discuss the Museum’s People of Musketaquid gallery and a colonial period room with 16th and 17th century artifacts.
Colonial Sampler I & II
Grades 2-6, $13.00 per student
Colonial Sampler I: 2 hours, 12-60 students
Colonial Sampler II: 2.5 hours, 12-75 students
What was it like to work in colonial times? How did people live and what did they wear? Learn what life held for people in the colonies by exploring their work, possessions, clothing, and homes. Students are apprenticed to a master tinsmith and create pierced tin plates, examine and handle objects of everyday colonial life, and one boy and one girl model reproduction period clothing for each small group. Led by a museum educator students also explore and discuss the Museum’s colonial and revolutionary collection, period rooms, and the famed 1775 Paul Revere lantern.
Colonial Sampler II includes colonial dance
Relive 1775
3 hours, Grades 5-8, 2 classes or 50 students, $13.00 per student
September – November and April – June only
Schools provide transportation for this course
During this exciting program students immerse themselves in the world of Concord families in 1775. While specifically telling the story of April 19, 1775 and the Battle of Concord, this program also gives students a sense of daily life in the Revolutionary period. Using pre-visit materials, classroom teachers assign each student a role as real Concord citizen from the Revolution. In the course of the day the “citizens” visit the Old North Bridge, meet a living history neighbor, explore artifacts from the Revolution (including the 1775 Paul Revere lantern) and debate an important 1775 dilemma in a mock Town Meeting.
Colonial Life and Community
Double program, 4 hours including a lunch break, Grades 3-8, 2 classes or 50 students, $20.00 per student with $20.00 materials fee per class. Winter and early spring.
Colonial Life Session – In a setting evocative of a colonial home, students gather around a cozy fire to discover the many ways colonial families used their hearth. Students participate in colonial chores including working on traditional recipes, chores, and churning butter. Students will preserve food through pickling, make lavender soap to take home, and learn to sew their very own lavender sachet. Students will learn about colonial clothing with one boy and one girl modeling reproduction clothing in each group.
Colonial Community Session- Students learn what life held for people in the colonies by exploring their town, homes, work, and possessions. Students begin by helping to map out the important places in a colonial town. Students are then apprenticed to a master tinsmith to create pierced tin plates to take home and examine and handle objects of everyday colonial life. Additionally, led by a museum educator, students explore and discuss the Museum’s colonial and revolutionary collection, period rooms, and the famed 1775 Paul Revere lantern.
Revolutionary Traveling Trunk
Have the Revolution travel to you! Borrow a trunk filled with reproduction primary source artifacts and documents that travel to your classroom to make your Revolutionary unit come alive. Along with touchable objects, the trunk includes directions to set up stations in your classroom and worksheets for students to use. This trunk allows the richness of the Concord Museum’s collection to come to your classroom as you study the events surrounding April 19, 1775. Pick up at the Museum or shipping available.
Download booking sheet
Traveling Trunk Guidelines
Traveling Trunk Teacher Manual
The Life, Work, and Legacy of Henry D. Thoreau
1-1½ hours, Grades 5-12, 10-45 students, $13.00 per student
Through discussion, guided tour and activities students are challenged to explore the life, ideas and legacy of Henry David Thoreau by interacting with the objects and history at the Concord Museum. Students look closely at the furniture from Walden Pond and discover what they can learn from the desk where Thoreau wrote Walden and Civil Disobedience. Educators pass around 1,000-year-old stone tools to demonstrate Thoreau’s teaching methods and explain how the battle of Concord during the American Revolution inspired writing by both Thoreau and his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Two Worlds Meet*
1½ hours, One classroom at a time, Grades 3-8, $250 for the first class each day, $200 for an additional class
What happens when two very different cultures live in the same place? Students explore the critical first encounters between Colonists and Native Americans in Massachusetts, looking at the reasons for conflict and the ways cultures work together. Students analyze primary source documents, discuss how each culture recorded their history, and try quill writing. Students work in teams to construct two homestead dioramas comparing how each culture built shelters, used rivers, planted crops and used the land. In an object comparison activity students handle artifacts and replicas to think about what kinds of objects, tools, and clothing would have been used by each culture.
Colonial Conversations*
1 – 1½ hours, One classroom at a time, Grades 3-8, $250 for the first class each day, $200 for an additional class
What was it like to work in colonial times? How did people live and what did they wear? Learn what life held for people in the colonies by exploring their work, possessions, clothing, and towns. Students begin by helping to map out the important places in a colonial town, examine and handle objects of everyday colonial life, and one boy and one girl model reproduction period clothing for each small group. For groups interested in living history a resident from colonial concord will join the group to discuss and answer questions about life, family, and the Revolution.
Family Trees Visits
1-2 hours, 12-50 students, Recommended for Ages 3-9, $13.00 per student
Offered mid-November – December 31st each year
Family Trees is a month-long celebration in which the Museum’s galleries are filled with fanciful trees of all shapes and sizes, decorated with original ornaments inspired by acclaimed children’s storybooks and contemporary picture book favorites. Join us to visit the trees, do our scavenger hunt, read some of the books, discuss how stories are turned into decorations, and encourage literacy! Groups can come through for a guided visit or a program that includes a craft inspired by one of the trees.
The Start of the American Revolution – Concord on April 19, 1775
Virtual 45 minute lesson, Grades 3-5, Once class per session, $125 for a session.
Join museum educators from the Concord Museum in a lively virtual program that explores the first battle of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775 in Concord, MA. The lesson starts with the dramatic story of Paul Revere and his midnight ride towards Concord, continues with the skirmish in Lexington and goes through the battle at the North Bridge in Concord. Educators will actively engage students in using their skills of observation and critical thinking over Zoom. During the program students will examine images and objects from the Museum’s collection to learn the exciting story of the beginning of the Revolution and work together to identify a revolutionary mystery object!
People of Musketaquid: Exploring Native History through Archaeology
Virtual 45 minute lesson, Grades 3-5, One class per session, $125 for a session.
Join museum educators from the Concord Museum for a lively virtual program that explores the culture of Native People in Massachusetts through the Museum’s collection of 1,000 – 10,000 year old stone tools. Educators will actively engage students in using their skills of observation and critical thinking over Zoom. During the program students will examine artifacts from Concord Museum’s collection to learn about archaeology and the daily lives of Native People of the past. Students will also make connections to the continuing culture of Native People in Massachusetts today.
To book a program or for questions, please reach out to us at schoolprograms@concordmuseum.org or 978-369-9763 x 217. We look forward to working with you!
Virtual Field Trip Booking Information