I've found two things to be particularly successful with mixed-age
elementary groups. The first is a touch table - at least one education item
per child attending - where each child in turn can pick up an artifact and
speculate on its purpose and then the group learns its history from the tour
guide. The second is an "I-Spy" type of game. Clues, in verse, are written
on a single sheet of paper for the children to read and try to locate within
the museum space. The dozen or so clues cover items in our tiny museum's two
small rooms. In a larger museum I would limit the "hunting" to one main
room. I added photos of many artifacts around the outer edge of the page
just to make it more visually interesting but that turned out to be a great
alternative activity for participants who are non-readers. The only drawback
is having to update the game when items are removed from exhibit.

Nancy

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