Education Programs Group Programs
Education Programs Group Programs for Pre K – 12
About our programs
Our affordable educator-led programs include hands-on activities tailored to the age and developmental level of your students, challenging and inspiring them to grow as learners and thinkers. Students will discover the state’s unique past and present through handling objects, exploring exhibits and engaging in fun, stimulating activities. Teachers will discover all the interdisciplinary connections to the revised New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards and Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies.
Educators & students will learn together how to analyze photographs, paintings and historical objects and interact with history in a variety of ways, including role play, observation, and group participation. Students will learn to research history and present their ideas and findings through oral presentation, writing and art. NJHS welcomes groups of all ages and abilities. Whenever possible, we’ll even fine-tune our programs to go along with your content and curricular emphases.
Call the NJHS Education department and schedule a trip for your group to The New Jersey Historical Society. Your students will never look at history the same way again!
Preschool programs are offered Tuesday through Friday. $5.00 fee per student; Teachers and chaperones are admitted free. Each program accommodates a group of up to 15 children. One adult to every 5 children is recommended. All programs last 1 hour and consist of a guided gallery experience and an art project. Programs are designed for children ages 3 to 5. Educators tailor activities to meet the age and developmental level of the children.
Amazing Museums Pre-K
What’s a museum? Take a close-up look at all the things we collect and find out why it is important. Visit our exhibition Ebb and Flow: New Jersey and Its Rivers and explore themes such as nature and machines.Group Art Project:Create your own “museum” in a mural.Create an exhibition object for “My Museum” back at school.Development Skills: Language/ Literacy, Mathematics, Creative Arts/ Art, Fine Motor, Visual/ Perceptual motor, Social living.
Objects that Tell a Story Pre-K
What was it like being a kid in the past? Explore our exhibitions and learn about other people who have grown up in the state.Individual/Group Art Project: Quilt of self-portraits or portraits for “My Museum”. Developmental Skills: Language/Literacy, Social Living,Creative Arts/Art, Fine Motor, Visual/Perceptual Motor.
All Preschool Education Programs
- Build various developmental skills
- Are child-centered
- Use multi-sensory approaches and creative teaching techniques
- Are developmentally appropriate
- Contain open-ended activities
- Satisfy many Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten curriculum requirements
Past Profiles Grades K-5
What people make up New Jersey’s past? Through the everyday objects of people who lived in the state, students examine individuals, professions, and conventions across time and culture. Using current exhibitions, students will explore the rich diversity of our state.
Once Upon a Building Grades K-5
How many lives can a building have? Explore the inside and outside of The New Jersey Historical Society”s building, once a businessmen’s club, now a museum and library. From identifying shapes and building elements, to locating pattern and design, to solving an architectural space problem through a hands-on activity, students understand the importance and complexity of architecture and its effect on the people that use the space.
Garden of Industry Grades K-5
From agriculture to textiles, explore how we rely on industry for our everyday needs. In the exhibition Ebb and Flow: New Jersey and its Rivers, students will “read” a photograph and explore historic objects to investigate how industry works and discover how it has changed the lives of people over time.
Past Profiles: 4th and 5th Grades What people make up New Jersey’s past? Through objects, images and documents of people who lived in the state, students examine individuals, professions and conventions across time and culture. Students will learn ways to gain historical information from a variety of primary source materials.
Past Profiles: Life of a Lenape Explore the life for the Lenape in New Jersey through objects and images.
Past Profiles: Everyday Colonial Life in New Jersey Explore daily life in colonial New Jersey by exploring gender roles, community development and available resources.
Past Profiles: A New Jersey Civil War Soldier Explore the people of the Civil War from New Jersey soldiers, their families and young students through letters, images and objects.
New Jersey: A State of Discovery Grades 4 and 5 These educator-led programs include hands-on activities tailored to support New Jersey’s fourth and fifth grade social studies scope and sequence. These programs are only offered during the months indicated and space is limited. Book early!
October and November
Life of the Lenape in New Jersey
Explore how life for the Lenape in NJ was very different than life now and how we share the same basic human needs. Through hands-on activities, students will use critical thinking skills to understand the life of the Lenape in New Jersey. Students will be historical sleuths tracing the path of the Lenni Lenape through downtown Newark using observation skills and historical maps.
December through February
Colonial Life in New Jersey
What was daily life like for colonists in New Jersey? Using primary source materials such as home inventories and drawings, student will explore gender roles, communication practices and the strength of community in colonial New Jersey. Students will be historical sleuths tracing colonial life in Newark using observation skills and primary source materials, including maps, and historic images.
February through April
A Civil War Soldier from New Jersey
What was it like for a Civil War soldier and the families that they left behind? Through hands-on activities and investigating primary sources, such as objects and photographs, students will discover the daily life of a New Jersey Civil War soldier and his family.
History in Progress: The Civil War
Students will search for evidence of the impact of the Civil War on New Jersey in primary sources, employing methods and materials used by historians. As they explore photographs, letters, and newspaper articles from the Historical Society’s archives, students learn how to extract historical information.
May through June
Industrious New Jersey
Explore how we rely on industry for our everyday needs, from agriculture to textiles. Through exploration of primary sources and hands-on activities students examine the different roles of people in New Jersey’s industrial past and present.
A State of Ebb and Flow Grades 4 and 5
Investigate how rivers have been both resources for and obstacles to human endeavor. In the exhibition A State of Ebb and Flow: New Jersey and its Rivers, students will explore New Jersey waterways through artifacts, maps, and other primary sources to discover the impact that rivers and canals have on transportation, settlement, food, and industry within New Jersey. Through a science “lab” students will discover the impact of waterway development on our state, and its natural resources. The exhibition, Ebb and Flow: New Jersey and Its Rivers, has been supported in part with funding from a Special Projects grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of Cultural Affairs in the Department of State; The Charles Emil Thenen Foundation; The Leavens Foundation; and The John Ben Snow Memorial Trust.
Tools of the Historian Grades 6-8
How do we learn about the past? Students search for clues to New Jersey’s history in primary sources, employing methods and materials used by historians. As they explore photographs, letters, and newspaper articles from the Historical Society’s archives, students learn how to extract information about a topic and explore this topic’s impact on New Jersey.
Choose to view primary sources from either the Civil War, Works Progress Administration, Newark’s History, or Mapping New Jersey. Please indicate your preference when scheduling.
FOR TEACHERS: BECOME A MEMBER $25 to Join!
We invite you to become a member of The New Jersey Historical Society at the Educator level. That’s $25 annually ($15 off the regular price)! Design your own program using primary sources for your class. Do research in our world-renowned library for free and partner with a museum educator to teach a program to your class at a convenient scheduled date.
To join, contact our Membership Department: 973.596.8500 Ext 224 The financial support of members makes programs and opportunities possible for you and for future generations. For only $25, you can help your students learn and you can grow professionally through benefits such as:
-Free admission to the museum and library
-Half price field trips for your class
-Specially designed programs for your class(call the Director of Education)
-10% Discount at History Shop and advance notice of holiday sales
-Invitation to exhibition openings and special events
-Advance notification of events and programs
-Free Family Programs for your family
-Teacher’s Workshops,In-Service Workshops and Tours, which are no cost to members.
