Old and New Homes

A 1½ hour session for one class of KS 1 children

Organisation
During the session you will need to divide into groups. When working in groups the Museum Educator will oversee the session but adult helpers will lead each group.

Objective

• Use a range of resources including museum objects and archive photographs, where applicable, to extend their understanding of artefacts used in homes in the past and the differences from their own.
• Compare new and old artefacts and explore key ideas about home life in the past.

Session Outline

Introduction
Welcome to Red House Museum, introduction to the Museum and to health and safety information.. Deposit coats and bags. Instructions given on how the session will run.

Activities
Each pair of children to be given a domestic artefact dating from Victorian times to about 1940s. Discussion as a class of materials used, how the object would be used and a response about how they feel about it. Give small amounts of information about children’s lives in the past to give context. Reference may be made to the previous use of the building as a workhouse where life would have been very different.

Pupils explore domestic artefacts in the gallery collections using trails appropriate to their level of ability. Children must be in groups of no more than 5 supported by a teacher or helper.  

Pupils explore the collections by matching cards of modern objects with some in the collections.

Conclusion
The class discuss what they have learned. A brief evaluation using post-it notes may be used.