Youth Programs

The museum offers a variety of youth programming throughout the year!

School Programs
      School Tours
      One-Room School Experience
      Log Cabin Experience
Summer Youth Programs
      History Camp
      Agriculture Mini-Camp
      Jr. Historians
      Museum Apprentice Program

School Programs:

Tours:

Tours are available for all age groups, at a cost of $1.00 per student for a basic tour and $2.00 per student for a basic tour plus village experience. Extended experiences in the school and log cabin are available at a cost of $5.00 per student. Teachers and chaperones are free. Please contact the museum at least 2 weeks in advance by phone at 507-332-2121 or by email at rchs@rchistory.org.

Please have the following information ready:

• Contact person - name and phone number
• Desired date and time - Museum hours are: Monday - Friday 9:00AM - 4:00 PM
• Age of students
• Size of group
• Length of time desired
• Type of tour

Basic Tour:

 A basic tour of one hour will consist of time spent in the Museum -- Included is a brief video on the history of Rice County, displays on fir trading, Native Americans, Bishop Whipple, local industries, and a Main Street diorama including a general store, barbershop and jail.

  Village Experience:   
(Includes the above as well as a tour of the log cabin, one-room school, country church, and Harvest and Heritage Hall)  

  ♦  Log Cabin -- What would it have been like living in a cabin like this one?
  ♦  Pleasant Valley School -- Who would have attended a one room school and what would it have been like to have been a student there?
  ♦ Holy Innocents Church -- Why were there so many churches in the county and what did they look like inside?
  ♦ Harvest and Heritage Halls -- Discover how the appliances and machinery have changed over the years.

To view images of the Village (Log Cabin, Pleasant Valley School and Harvest and Heritage Halls), click here.
 

Extended One-Room School Experience at the Pleasant Valley School:

In this program students will experience what it was like to be a student in a one room school house. Activities will include:

• School lessons as they were taught in schools of this period
• Outdoor games from long ago
• Discussion about how schools have changed

If desired students can eat lunch near the school and compare their lunches to what a former student might have eaten. This is a two hour experience and can accommodate one class at a time. The fee is $4.00 per student / $10 cap per family, with no charge for adults.
 

Extended Log Cabin Experience:

Students will step back in time to imagine what life must have been like living in a cabin such as this. By asking questions such as; where would they sleep? What would they eat? What would they wear? Students will come to a broader understanding of what life was like in Early Rice County.

Activities will include:
 ♦  Grinding Wheat
 ♦ Using a table loom
 ♦ Washing clothes by hand
 ♦ Using a "Yankee drill"
 ♦ Working on a rag rug
 ♦ Using a bit and brace
 ♦ Shelling corn
 ♦ Making butter
 ♦ Playing old time games

This is a 75 minute experience and can accommodate one class. The fee is $4.00 per student/$10 cap per family, with no charge for adults.

Summer Youth Programs:

History Camp:  2013 History Camp Application

History Camp is RCHS' summer program for students who have finished grades 3-5.  Camp will run from June 11 -June 15, 2012, 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.*

Each day of camp participants will do hands on activities, play games, and have a light snack around themes in Rice County's history: Monday – Fur Traders and Native Americans, Tuesday– Pioneer Life, Wednesday – One Room School , Thursday – Milling in Rice County (*Field Trip Day runs from 8:30 a.m.- 3:00 p.m.), and Friday – Family History.      $50 members / $60 non-members

To apply, click on the application link, fill it out, print it, and either drop it off or mail it and your payment to us at : RCHS, 1814 NW 2nd Ave., Faribault, MN 55021

Museum Apprentice Program: MAP Application