Home Sweet Home session plan

A 1½ hour programme for up to 2 classes led by a facilitator, followed by free time in the museum
Suitable for KS2 children
1:10 adult:pupil ratio requested

Information about the organisation of the visit
The visit is split up into two parts. One is the Home Sweet Home session which is a 1 ½ hour long session led by a museum facilitator. The other part is free time in the museum which is led by the school. Between one session and the next you will have the use of our lunchroom.

Home Sweet Home

Facilitated by museum staff
1½ hour long session for one class at a time

Session Objectives

• To give pupils the chance to explore aspects of home life in Victorian Britain through visual, audio and kinaesthetic means.
• To use a range of resources - objects, photographs, sounds, smells - and themes - washing, food and leisure time - to find out about life in an average Victorian family.
• For pupils to be able to comprehend how different our lives are today.
• For pupils to have the opportunity to handle objects from the Victorian period.

Introduction

Pupils are introduced to types of evidence and what they can tell us. What clues are there that historians can use to find out about the past? We will look at pictures and plans of different types of Victorian housing with examples of rich and poor people's homes discussing how we could interpret these pictures to give us information.

The class then splits into three groups and they rotate around three different discovery boxes, as outlined below. Each group needs an adult allocated to it. The adult leading each group will have an instruction card to support them in working with their group. The facilitator moves between the groups, overseeing the session

Family
Pupils explore Victorian toys for Sundays and try a whole-family activity in Victorian times - rag rugging.

Washing Line
Pupils look at a ready-made washing time line which tells the story of washing clothes today. They then put together a washing time line for doing the washing in the Victorian period, using a mixture of printed information, Victorian objects, replica objects, images of objects, recreated smells and sound effects.

Food Glorious Food
Pupils explore three food-related mystery objects with clues and then complete an activity exploring the seasonal availability of foods.

Conclusion
The class comes back together to discuss their findings and the differences between their lives at home and those of people in the Victorian period.

Free time (led by school)
As part of your visit you will have some time free to explore the museum. For this you will need to split the children up into groups, each with an adult helper. You will need to decide how you wish to spend this free time but we have some resources on offer here at the museum which you may wish to use.

Museum trail packs

We can provide you with museum trail packs which consist of a map of Milestones, a series of photos of different parts of the museum and accompanying questions. Each adult helper can have their own pack of these cards. The aim is for the children to select a photo card and use the map to help them find the location of the image on the photo in the museum. Once they have done this, on the back of the photo card is a series of questions which the adult helper can then ask their group about that particular part of the museum. This should help to focus the groups on exploring the museum successfully. If you wish to use these packs, they will be available on arrival.

Dressing up
On the agricultural showground we have a tent containing replica infant, junior and adult sized costumes for pupils and adults to try on over their everyday clothes.

The Viaduct game
We have a large model viaduct for the children to build, promoting team work and cooperation.

Activity sheets
We have a range of activity sheets on our website to view and download which you may wish to use during your free time. We can provide you with clipboards and pencils for use during your visit

Notes for Teachers and Adult Helpers

You will be visiting Milestones - Hampshire's living history museum to support a class of pupils participating in Home Sweet Home, a 1½ hour programme about Victorian Britain.

Milestones is a large, modern building which houses recreated streets and buildings from the Victorian period and the 1930s. You will be visiting the Victorian area.

The teacher organising the visit will give you a timetable for the day, as well a copy of the museum's Guidelines for Education Groups.

A facilitator will meet you on arrival and you will be able to leave your coats and bags somewhere convenient and use the toilets before you begin.

The facilitator will introduce the programme to the whole class together by talking about museums, collections, what they have already studied at school etc. After this introduction, the class will divide into three groups, each with an adult, and rotate around three boxes. The facilitator will still be there, moving from group to group to support the class.

The three boxes contain a mixture of real Victorian objects, sound effects, replica smells and documents. There is a Group Leader's sheet of notes in each box to help the adults and the facilitator will be there supporting all activities.

Food Glorious Food
This box allows pupils to explore some mystery objects and to find out about the seasonal availability of food in the past.

The Washing Line
Pupils will look at a ready-made washing timeline which shows how we wash clothes today. Using a range of resources including objects, replica objects, smells and sounds, they will then make a washing timeline which shows how clothes were washed in the Victorian period.

Family
This box focuses on leisure time for Victorian families, with a look at toys and games for children, and the chance to try a whole family activity in Victorian times - rag rugging.

When all three groups have explored all three sets of resources, the class will come back together and the facilitator will lead a discussion on what they have found out.

Itinerary for the visit
9.45am Arrive at Milestones. You will be met and have the opportunity to hang coats up and use toilets

Class 1		Class 2
10.15am - 11.45am	Led programme - Home Sweet Home	10.15am - 11.45am	Free time
11.45am - 12.30pm	Lunch in the Education Suite lunchroom	11.45am - 12.30pm	Lunch in the Education Suite lunchroom
12.30pm - 2pm	Free time	12.30pm - 2pm	Led programme - Home Sweet Home

If you are only bringing one class, you will be following the times for class 1

Please note: If you arrive significantly early or late we may have to adjust your programme to work around other groups who may be visiting the museum.