We offer educational and engaging experiences for students from preschool through 12th grade. Each session lasts 45-60 minutes and is ideal for a regular class size. Our interactive programs include visual presentations, original artifacts, quality replica items, and opportunities for hands-on learning. All equipment, artifacts, and handouts are supplied by the museum. All programs are aligned with New York State educational standards.
Current Programs:
Civil War Letters
Grades 7 and 11-12
Students will explore the life of Alonzo Bump, a Union soldier from the 77th New York State Volunteer Regiment. They will engage in activities that include analyzing historical letters written by Bump, as well as examining newspapers, photographs, maps, original artifacts, and replica items from the Civil War era. By working with these materials, students will gain expertise in their assigned topics and present their findings to the class, promoting collaboration and critical thinking.
Our Community Now & Then
Kindergarten through Grade 5
This customizable program brings history and textbooks to life. Activities include farm chores like making butter, grinding corn, and hauling ice. Other stations offer old-fashioned toys and games, solving historical puzzles, and experiencing aspects of a one-room schoolhouse. All stations encourage students to compare their modern-day lives with those of the past.
Native New York
Grades 4 and 7
In this hands-on program, students explore the rich history of Saratoga County’s earliest inhabitants, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) People. Activities include a lively discussion on the history of Native People, an analysis of replica and artifact items, and a review of the natural materials used by the Mohawk People.
Saratoga County Water Works
Upper Elementary
Students explore the importance of water through primary and secondary sources, artifacts, maps, storytelling, and science experiments! They will test and compare the pH levels of water from various sources, try hefting a block of ice with ice tongs, discover the history of floating logs down the Hudson River to paper mills, and compare waterwheel and turbine designs. We examine how water was, and continues to be, an important natural resource in Saratoga County agriculture, industry, tourism, and everyday life.
Archeology Digs
Upper Elementary
Brookside brings the excavation to your classroom in this exciting program. Four groups of students are assigned units to measure, excavate, document, and analyze. We will discuss excavation techniques, materials, documentation procedures, and how artifacts are used to deepen our understanding of local history. Students will use primary and secondary sources to analyze the authentic artifacts that they uncover before sharing their findings with the rest of the class.
Programs in Development (please contact for availability):
Sheep to Shawl
Preschool through Lower Elementary
We’ll bring our popular Sheep to Shawl program right into the classroom! Sheep to Shawl encourages students to discover the important role that sheep and agriculture have played in local history as well as in our modern lives. This program offers students an interactive experience that they will remember for years. A variety of new vocabulary terms are introduced, and students actively participate in the many steps of processing wool fiber.
School Days
Grades 1-3
Students will go back in time in this new program. They will discover what life was like in the classroom for students long ago, make their own crafts to take home, and engage in some of the daily chores from the past.
Experiences from WWI
Grades 8 or 11-12
Students will explore the experiences of local men and women during World War I by reviewing their authentic letters and journal entries. They will also investigate the impact of the Spanish flu, the significance of Victory Gardens, the cultural shifts prompted by the war, and how the home front supported the war effort.
Booking Information:
Program Fee: Each in-person history program is $120 per session, plus a round-trip mileage fee at current Federal reimbursement rates to and from 21 Fairground Ave., Ballston Spa, NY.
For more information on our programs or to be added to our mailing list, please e-mail our Education Director, Charlene DuBuque, at education@brooksidemuseum.org.
