Schools at home activities

Description: Our latest project is working with schools to create an online Museum of Kindness. Read more about it here.

Suited to: All Year groups

Description: Preston Park Museum has a fantastic collection of art work from prints, paintings and sculpture to decorative arts and intricate patterns. They all have a story to tell and can be used to spark creativity and curiosity. The website offers arts and craft ideas as well as developing understanding of some of the more decorative collections. These resources are continuously being developed and added to so please do keep checking back for more https://www.prestonparkmuseum.co.uk/museum-at-home/art/

Suited to: All year groups

Description: Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum has an intriguing collection of artwork produced by local artist Stan Binks born in 1924. They tell a story of everyday local life mainly from the 1970s and 1980s. More paintings will be added so do check back for more.

Link: https://ironstonemuseum.co.uk/collections-blog/stan-binks-collection

Suited to: All year groups

Description: Arts Award: A comprehensive set of guidance for families to complete an Arts Award Discover at home. The cost of the official certificate is currently being covered by the Tees Valley Museums partnership, so children can get this Arts Award for free.

https://teesvalleymuseums.org/arts-award-discover-at-home/

Suited to: Mainly KS2, but also possible for KS1

by John Webber
oil on canvas, feigned oval, November 1776
NPG 26
© National Portrait Gallery, London

Description: A downloadable resource pack from the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum filled with ideas for teachers to use in the classroom or for grown-ups to use at home to support children’s school learning. Covers Cook’s early life, his life at sea and the places he visited.

The resource pack can be viewed here  for resource pack

Suited to: Mainly Years 1 and 2

Description: A downloadable resource pack by Middlesbrough based children’s author Gabrielle Kent. This pack sets out seven exciting ways to write creatively about objects that you might find in a museum or around your house. Gabrielle talks us through each idea in a friendly video in each section. https://teesvalleymuseums.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Get-Creativealll-logos.pdf

Suited to: KS2

Description: Get creative Saxon style with this video from Kirkleatham Museum and Elizabeth Baker storyteller, in which she explains how to make up kennings – a way to write creatively with very few words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FylqzP8DqqE

Suited to: Mainly lower KS2

Description: In this video, join Darlington based writer and poet, Lisette Auton as she shares how she makes and uses little books to capture and keep ideas and words. The little books can be made with just paper and scissors.

Suited to: All year groups

Description: Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum has a range of downloadable resources exploring the development of the ironstone industry: the people involved, life at work and home for the ordinary miners, how mines, mining and production changed. There are lots of ideas for teachers to use in the classroom or for grown-ups to use at home to support children’s school learning.

https://ironstonemuseum.co.uk/learn/learning-from-home

Suited to: Mainly Years 3-7, with some materials for KS1

Description: A downloadable activity pack from the Dorman Museum for children to complete at home with their family adults. Each pack focuses on one person’s story, with links to their local neighbourhood.

Find Out more Tom Dresser, World War I medal winner here:

Suited to: Year 2

Description: The Tees Valley has been home to many incredible people who have been at the forefront of industry, exploration, innovation and politics. Be inspired by their stories and discover how Teesside and Stockton have influenced the world.

https://www.prestonparkmuseum.co.uk/museum-at-home/

Suited To: Years 4 – 6

Description: Gertrude Bell was one of Redcar’s most famous residents – an explorer, archeologist and adventurer. Highly unusual for a Victorian woman. Kirkleatham Museum have teamed up with storyteller Elizabeth Baker to tell two tales of Gertrude Bell’s daring adventures. You Can find resources on Gertrude

For further information on Gertrude Bell visit our webpage here or download the Dorman Museum’s amazing Activity Pack here

Suited to: All year groups

The Dorman Museum have also produced this Gertrude Bell activity pack for Year 2 pupils to complete at home with their family adults. Packed with creative writing, geography, history and art and design activities.

Suited to: Year 2

Description: A literacy challenge for children to complete at home, based on Dreamtime stories inspired by Aboriginal myths. With stories to listen to and download, a video to watch and clear instructions for family adults, this challenge from the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum is both creative and practical for home learning.

http://www.dormanmuseum.co.uk/learning/australian-aboriginal-inspired-stories/

Suited to: Year 2

Description: Head of Steam – Darlington Railway Museum have got two resources about railways and the local area that will get children out and about in Darlington. The activity sheets ask you to look for evidence of Darlington’s railway past in the buildings, street names and street furniture around the town centre and Northgate. Look for sheets under: Exploring changes in the Local Area and Railway Heritage Trail.

https://www.head-of-steam.co.uk/learning-zone/learning-resources/

Suited to: Mainly Years 2 – 6

Description: Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum provides a video and resources that explore how the river in the village changes and how flooding has affected people both long ago and in more recent years. Further resources include a coastal trail, guides to pebbles and fossils, plus activities exploring the role of Louis Hunton, pioneer in biostratigraphy and William Smith known as the ‘Father of Geology’.

https://ironstonemuseum.co.uk/learn/learning-from-home

Suited to: KS2 and some resources for KS3

Description: Preston Park Museum have put together a range of resources and activities based on their workshops and the handling resources they normally use with schools. Find out the fascinating story behind the Anglo-Saxon collection on display at the museum and how it helps us learn more about how they lived. These resources were created with KS2 in mind, but are a great way to introduce Anglo-Saxons to other year groups.

https://www.prestonparkmuseum.co.uk/museum-at-home/traders-raiders/

Suited to: Years 4 – 6

Description: Kirkleatham Museum have put together set of engaging videos on a Saxon theme:

Storyteller Elizabeth Baker tells the story of a maid to the Saxon Princess whose beautiful jewellery was unearthed in the most important Anglo Saxon burial found in Northern England and is on display in the museum.

Artist Bethan Laker shows how to make your own Anglo Saxon shield using materials from around the home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WygdwYu3REM

Elizabeth Baker also explains how the Anglo Saxons used kennings to create words that described things they saw around them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FylqzP8DqqE&t=2s

Suited to: Mainly KS2

Image courtesy of Hartlepool Library Service

Description: In this video from Kirkleatham Museum, Elizabeth Baker from TillyToo Tales Storytelling tells the heroic story of Redcar’s lifeboat – the Zetland.

And in this video Elizabeth Baker tells the story of how Saltburn was founded on the vision of one man – Henry Pease.

Suited to: All year groups

Description: Many children have visited Kirkleatham Museum and ‘met’ Henry Pease. This video captures ‘the man himself’ telling his own story of Saltburn.

Suited to: All year groups

Description: Kirkleatham Museum and writer Lisette Auton have teamed up to make a playful video using the sounds of the sea. Children can create their own sea sound poetry using onomatopoeia and then make it into a game.

There’s also a handy PDF version of how to make and play the sea sound game. Please view here

Suited to: EYFS and KS1

Description: In this video, join disabled local writer and poet Lisette Auton as she reads her evocative poem about childhood and growing up.

Suited to: Years 5 and 6 and older

Description: Preston Park Museum have put together a range of resources and activities based on the Victorian workshops they normally do with schools at the museum, and their handling collection. This set of resources offers fun facts, activities and challenges including how to make your own Victorian toys using materials easily available at home.

https://www.prestonparkmuseum.co.uk/museum-at-home/victorians/

Suited to: Reception, Year 1, Year 2

Description: Preston Park Museum have put together a range of resources and activities based on the Victorian workshops we normally do with schools at the museum. These activities and challenges are a great springboard to find out more about the Victorian era, especially strict Victorian Schools and what Preston Hall, and other Victorian homes, would have been like.

https://www.prestonparkmuseum.co.uk/museum-at-home/victorians/

Suited to: All year groups

The Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum has a wide-ranging collection which reflects the growth of the region during Victorian times. Our resources explore everyday life in the area. This includes a walking trail around the village, resources exploring local census information, and simple mapping exercises. These resources will be added to so please check back to see what’s new.

https://ironstonemuseum.co.uk/learn/learning-from-home

Suited to: Mainly Years 3 – 6

Description: Preston Park Museum have put together a range of resources and activities inspired by the outdoor education sessions we normally do with schools and families at the museum. Discover more about the Hall’s park and gardens, find out about urban welly walks and how to hunt minibeasts. With lots of things to make and do, get inspired to find out more about the natural world around us.

https://www.prestonparkmuseum.co.uk/museum-at-home/nature/

Suited to: All year groups but especially good for KS 1 and lower KS 2

Description: Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum is developing a range of resources based on their school programme. These will support teachers and families to explore ancient woodland, sand dunes and rock-pools remotely or investigate, identify and record the species that exist during a visit to the valley.

https://ironstonemuseum.co.uk/learn/learning-from-home

Suited to: All year groups, with some specific resources for KS3 and KS4.