Description

Step Behind the Scenes

Discover what really happens inside a museum with the Junior Historians Club: Behind the Scenes Collection!

Part of the Junior Historians Club educational series by Help for Small Museums (HFSM), this ready-to-use curriculum introduces young historians to the fascinating work that happens both in front of the public and behind the scenes at museums. Children explore exhibits, collections, artifacts, museum careers, tours, research, storage, preservation, interpretation, and the many different ways museums care for and share history.

Designed for children ages 6–9, this collection gives children the opportunity to experience the museum world for themselves. Through engaging lessons, hands-on activities, creative projects, games, and museum challenges, young historians learn how museums work and begin developing the same skills used by museum professionals.

Whether you’re leading a museum education program, teaching in a classroom, homeschooling your children, or organizing a history club, this curriculum provides everything you need to take children behind the scenes and introduce them to the work of museums.

A Full Season of Programming

Each Junior Historians Club Collection gives you everything you need to offer a complete season of children’s programming. Museums and organizations can advertise their own Junior Historians Club, register participants for free or charge a program fee, and get started without having to develop a curriculum from scratch. Simply print the appropriate workbook for each child each week and you’re ready to go.

Every collection also includes additional resources, including hands-on craft and activity ideas, book recommendations, and other ways to expand each topic. Use the resources exactly as provided or as inspiration to create a program that works for your museum, organization, classroom, or group.

Discover How Museums Work

Museums are much more than the exhibits visitors see. Behind every gallery are collections, research, storage areas, preservation work, exhibit planning, educational programs, and people working together to care for and share the past.

Throughout the Behind the Scenes Collection, young historians will explore topics such as:

• How museums work
• Different types of museums
• Museum collections and artifacts
• What happens behind the scenes
• Museum storage and collections care
• Researching historical objects
• Permanent and temporary exhibits
• Creating museum exhibits
• Writing exhibit labels
• Guided and self-guided museum tours
• Interpreting objects and telling their stories
• Museum careers and responsibilities
• Sharing history with the public

Children won’t just learn about museums. They’ll have opportunities to think and work like museum professionals, investigating objects, making decisions about exhibits, interpreting history, creating displays, and sharing what they’ve discovered with others.

What’s Included

Every Junior Historians Club collection is designed as a complete educational curriculum and includes:

• A series of 7–10 engaging printable workbooks to shape a full season of programming
• Age-appropriate lessons about museums and museum work
• Hands-on museum activities and challenges
• Artifact and object-based learning
• Exhibit development activities
• Research and interpretation exercises
• Creative projects and crafts
• Writing and drawing activities
• Games, puzzles, and review activities
• Book recommendations to encourage further learning
• Craft and activity supply lists
• Printable completion certificates
• Ideas for extending learning beyond the workbook

Perfect For

• Museums and historic sites
• Homeschool families
• Classrooms
• Libraries
• History clubs
• After-school programs
• Summer camps
• Curious young historians

Recommended Age: 6–9 years

Especially Designed for Museums

The Behind the Scenes Collection gives museums an opportunity to turn their own building, exhibits, and collections into part of the learning experience. Children can explore exhibit galleries, investigate objects, practice giving tours, create labels, design displays, and discover areas of museum work that visitors don’t normally see.

Every museum is different, so activities can be adapted to incorporate your own collections, exhibits, stories, and spaces. The curriculum provides the framework while allowing your museum to make the experience uniquely its own.

Become a Museum Professional

What would you put in an exhibit? How would you explain an artifact to a visitor? What happens to all the objects that aren’t on display? How do museums decide what stories to tell?

The Behind the Scenes Collection encourages children to ask these questions and experience the museum from a completely different perspective. Instead of simply visiting a museum, they begin learning how to research, preserve, interpret, exhibit, and share history themselves.

A Curriculum You’ll Use Again and Again

Unlike a traditional workbook that’s completed once and put away, every Junior Historians Club collection is designed for repeated use. Museums can build successful children’s programs year after year, homeschool families can reuse the curriculum with younger siblings, and educators can easily adapt activities for new groups of learners.

It’s an investment in a flexible educational resource that continues to inspire young historians long after their first lesson.

Part of the Junior Historians Club Series

The Junior Historians Club is HFSM’s signature curriculum series designed to inspire the next generation of historians through hands-on learning and creative exploration.

Build your own history library by collecting additional Junior Historians Club collections, each featuring a unique historical theme and a new educational adventure.

Product Details

Format: Digital Download (Printable PDF)

Age Range: 6–9 years

License: Single Household or Single Organization Use

Publisher: Help for Small Museums (HFSM)

Store Launch Presale

Preorder today and save 20% before our official store launch on October 1. Secure introductory pricing now, and your digital curriculum will be delivered when the HFSM Store officially opens.