On-site visits to the historic schoolhouse will resume in February 2023. Teachers can book in-person and virtual programming through our homepage on the BWW. Virtual Program descriptions as well as a plethora of curriculum based resources are also available through our Google Classroom! Please contact us at museum@yrdsb.ca for access and more information.
Grade 3
Students will be welcomed to the 1872 One-Room Schoolhouse in Markham and introduced to the historical time period of 1850. We will begin in a good way with a Land Acknowledgement and speak to the land and Indigenous peoples of Canada and their relationships with the early settlers, as well as their many contributions to life in Canada West, and up until today.
This program also includes reflections and discussions that cover schooling in what is now called York Region through exploring life as a child in 1850 and comparing that to today using primary source artifacts, documents, maps and photographs. What do you think life was like for pupils here in 1850? Through an inquiry lens, students will practice some curriculum from the time period including reading, writing and arithmetic.
Curriculum Connections: Social Studies Grade 3 Strand A. Heritage and Identity: Communities in Canada, 1780–1850.
Grade 7/8
Programming will be centered around the place and space that we now call York Region, and the historical thinking concept of Continuity and Change while covering topics such as settlement history, segregated schooling, and what daily life was like for students. Students will spend the morning engaged in inquiry based learning, and examine artifacts and primary sources. The afternoon will be spent exploring pen and ink (cursive writing) as well as other curriculum based subjects that pupils from c.1900 would have studied, including mapping, geography and arithmetic.
Curriculum Connections: Grade 7 History Strand B. Canada, 1800-1850: Conflict and Challenges; Grade 8 History Strand A. Creating Canada, 1850-1890. Grade 8 History Strand B. Canada, 1890-1914: A Changing Society.