Museum Classroom #1- Yourseum

Welcome to the Peterborough Museum & Archives new blog series - Museum Classroom. A new way for us to connect with you & share Museum resources, activities and more. We miss the hustle and bustle of program life and sharing our galleries with energetic classes, community partners and visitors young and old. To be honest, we are going through program withdrawal and are so excited to welcome you back into our building. This new online space will be a way to bring Museum programming to you. Whether you are learning in a classroom, the kitchen table or the great outdoors please use the resources found here as you see fit. Community is at the heart of all we do at the Museum. We hope this blog will help support and serve our community in some small way during these difficult times.

Our first activity is (drum roll please) Youseum - a museum exhibit created by you!

In this activity, children use items found at home, in class or outside to become curators and create their very own mini exhibits. These mini exhibits can then be used to form their own unique museum - a Youseum! From choosing a theme, to collecting objects and building a display, students will learn the creative process of exhibit making and the role of a curator in museums.  

To learn more about what a curator is, check out the YouTube video below. This video is from our "Ask a Curator" series and features our beloved curator Kim answering all questions related to the Museum's collection and her role as a curator.  

This activity is adaptable for ages 6+ and can be as simple or as detailed as you wish it to be. It can be an individual project where each student designs their own exhibit for their personal museum (as we explained above) or a group effort of turning your classroom into a museum. In this case, the class would choose a theme and name for the museum and each student would create one exhibit that connects to this common theme. Moreover, this could be a great activity for a virtual classroom with the finished product being a virtual exhibit.

See below for a visual step by step instruction guide on how to create your own Youseum! 

 Youseum Instruction Guide 

See below for a student worksheet to assist with the exhibit planning process.

Youseum Student Worksheet

Remember to keep things simple and have fun! If you create a Youseum please share with us on Facebook, Instagram, and/or Twitter using the #PMAYouseum and #PtboMA hashtags!

We can’t wait to see where this blog is going to take us, and we hope you follow along for the journey.

Virtually yours,

Faryn

PMA Educator