Kirkleatham Museum partners with seven other local museums to develop educational opportunities for local schools. Recently, each partner was beginning to see a higher level of interest in EYFS workshops from schools, so collectively we focused on this age group.
Each partner worked with a ‘buddy’ teacher from a primary school or setting to help devise a specific EYFS offer. We used the Characteristics of Effective Learning as the basis of our ideas along with loose parts theory, the Reggio philosophy and ‘in the moment planning’. Working closely with our buddy teacher, we developed and piloted a Museum Takeover Workshop– a role-play-based visit to help children understand the jobs that make a museum work. The workshop allows children to develop Understanding the World, while we are encouraging children to be curious about, and confident in, cultural places, thereby building their cultural capital.
Many families don't feel comfortable in visiting cultural venues and believe museums aren't for them. Coming as part of a nursery-organised visit helps overcome some of these barriers, and many schools have chosen to invite parents/carers to take part in the visit. Family adults can interact and chat naturally with their children about the things in our displays. Feedback from parents suggests that they see this as quality time with their children and a real insight into how they learn.
ACTIVITIES
Activities last approximately 20 minutes and include:
- Make a gallery: in our large temporary exhibition space, we discuss the idea of an art gallery and how pictures are displayed before children become ‘artists in residence’. We display their work on boards for their visit and then they can take it back to their setting to create a gallery.
- Make a display: we set out a range of dressing-up costumes and replica items linked to our collection for children to create their own displays. They may put on costumes and become mannequins or arrange artefacts and write labels. Making these choices together encourages children to ask their own questions about what things are, what they are made of and what they are used for. They develop new vocabulary, as well as understanding that all the displays they see in our museum have been made by our staff. DIY in your setting:Why not have a go at creating a toy museum in your setting using this selection of videos from our partner museums: https://teesvalleymuseums.org/make-your-own-toy-museum.
- Welcome visitors: children take on therole of front of house– welcoming visitors, using a role-play till to take money for tickets, and issuing guidebooks. DIY in your setting: For your own play museum, making entry signs is a chance to learn about money (entry costs) and time (opening and closing).
- Security guards: children are given images of some key objects and are asked to make sure they are safely in their cases around the museum. The aim is to spark conversation about the objects.
- Cleaning: our Saxon Jewellery exhibition is made ‘messy’ with torn-up pieces of tissue paper on the floor. We give children role-play cleaning sets and they clean the display cases which house our most treasured Saxon jewellery, getting a good look at what is in the cabinets. This is one of the children's favourite activities, and one which they take very seriously. DIY in your setting: Extend tidying-up activities by thinking about keeping precious things safe. Children could explore packing objects into sturdy boxes, such as shoe boxes. If you have trikes or wheelbarrows outside, you could road-test the packaging.
Kirkleatham Museum, Redcar
Number of visitors: around 90,000 per year
Collection: includes an internationally significant Saxon jewellery hoard, and relates to industrial, maritime and social history of Redcar and Cleveland.
Early years offer: wide-ranging programme for school and families from babies upwards. The museum is set in a woodland trail and playpark.
A virtual 360-degree tour of the museum is available at https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=YypztsdwWJZ
