TIMELINE Introduction

Elementary Education Program

TIMELINE is the name given to a series of educational programs on subjects of historical importance in Kanabec County.  Each of the elementary grades has a topic related in some way to the social studies curriculum material being studied that year.  The programs are offered each school year to Kananbec county students through a partnership with Mora School District 332 and Ogilvie School District 333. The classes are held on the Kanabec History Center grounds in the historic Coin School (established in 1895). The schedule is set up each fall by TIMELINE educator Patricia Johnson.

The TIMELINE programs have a dual purpose:  1) to help children understand local history both as it happened in the past and is still happening today, and 2) to show how museums work to preserve and exhibit the record of that history.

Each program, 1 1/2 hours in length, duplicates of museum artifacts, interpretive dramatics, slides (and hands-on activities are used to bring history to life for the students.  Some units also include a project for the students to make and take home.

Discovering connections linking the present to the past are what the TIMELINE concept is all about.  These connections act as a bridge to show the students that they can be active participants in local and world history at any age.

SPONSORED BY THE KANABEC COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
COPYRIGHT 1983

Kindergarten.

An Overview of the Musuem
Kindergarten classes come to Museum for to learn about the current exhibits and museum manners.

 

Grade 1

Pioneer Families
Using a Time Machine, students travel back 100 years to role-play and revive some of the experiences of the early pioneers - - using artifacts, photographs and by making a rag doll.  Modern “pioneers” provide a comparison.  Working together to make a life-size exhibit on pioneer kitchens, students demonstrate how museums use artifacts and other objects to tell the stories of history.

Grade 2

Life on the Farm
Farm chores and early farming practices are actively experienced and compared to those found today.  An examination of artifacts made of wood and iron shows the farmer to be a jack-of-all trades.  The methods of proper record-keeping and preservation of the collection illustrate a major responsibility of the museum.

Grade 3

Woodland Indians
In addition to examining their notions and attitudes about “Indians”, students review the path of Native Americans from prehistory up to the present.  Difficulties in interpreting the fragmentary evidence of prehistory show the advantages of the better documentation we have of historic times.  Past and contemporary uses of Woodland plants illustrate both cultural continuity and change.

Grade 4

Life in the Logging Camp
Lumberjack language and skills, plus a skit tracing the fate of Kanabec County’s once plentiful pines, illustrates the heyday of logging.  Scenes of contemporary wood cutting raise the troublesome question, faced by the museum, of whether or not to collect contemporary artifacts.

Grade 5

The World in Kanabec County
Tracing the ethnic origins of early settlers, as well as their own families, students consider the reasons why people came here and what problems they encountered in moving to  a new culture.  The museum’s role as chronicler of customs, skills and family histories - - not just as collector of artifacts - - is emphasized.

Grade 6

Making History Today
In examination of early census records of Kanabec County, students will assume the identities of actual individuals to make inferences and draw conclusions about the growth and development of this area.  They will also learn to “read” a photograph based solely on its contents with emphasis on the importance of documentation today for the future.