Education Programs for Children

Maritime History and Literacy Curriculum

Penobscot Marine Museum's new and unique elementary curriculum, Maritime History and Literacy, is now available for after school programs and for use as part of the school day classroom. This successful and engaging series of 15 units covers a variety of maritime topics related to Maine, and addresses language and literacy skills within this context.

The curriculum incorporates maritime themes, hands-on activities, and language/literacy skill reinforcement. It includes relevant Learning Results, assessment tools, weekly lesson plans, books, specially created games, art projects, and more. Fifteen units, each approximately six weeks long, cover maritime history topics ranging from local geography and town histories through fisheries, shipbuilding, lumber, ice and granite, Native Americans in Maine, Maine and the Oriental Trade, and 19th century life at sea and ashore in maritime communities.

This curriculum is available on a unit-by-unit basis, to After School sites and regular school day classrooms. For more information, contact , Education Director, at 548-2529 x 206.

Download a brochure about the curriculum.


After-School Programs

Since 2008, Penobscot Marine Museum has partnered with the 21st Century After School Program in RSU #20. This program serves six elementary sites and has established programs at Searsport District Middle and High Schools. The After School Program supplied initial funding for Then and Now, an exciting and educational experience incorporating re-photography of historic town scenes, oral histories and essays.

Middle and high school After School students also benefitted from lectures and art projects arranged by PMM, and in the fall of 2010 will participate in field trips to Maine Maritime Academy and sails aboard the schooner Bowdoin. Working with Dick Baldwin of Educational Passages, one group created an unmanned, GPS-equipped, 4 1/2 foot boat which will be launched in the fall. Students will track its journey by computer, learning about winds, tides, currents, and geography.

A major part of PMM's work with RSU #20 After School has been the presentation of weekly educational programs at each of six elementary sites. Our innovative Maritime History and Literacy curriculum is described here.


Interactive Maritime Programs for Children

Penobscot Marine Museum offers educational programming to schools and other institutions. All programs can be tailored for grades 1 through 5. All materials are included, and most require about one hour. Learning Results are provided. Contact , Education Director, for more information and scheduling. Phone: 207-548-2529 x206

NEW program!

Marine Art: Be a Port Painter!

Students begin by painting a background scene showing water and land. Then, while their artwork is drying, the class will learn why we did that first! A Power Point show of images from Penobscot Marine Museum's art collection will illustrate the history of marine art and the different categories within that classification. As we progress, the students will learn about ship portraits and port paintings, and will conclude by finishing their own pictures as a “port painter”.


The First People in Maine

Learn about Native American tribes in Maine, their culture, and where they lived. Read a Native legend, such as A Little Boy Catches a Whale, written in French, English, and MicMac; First Feud; or Thanks to the Animals. Gain an appreciation for current efforts to preserve Native languages. A variety of hands-on projects may be incorporated, including pottery, birch bark canoes, and wigwams. Making bannock -- a traditional wilderness bread made by present day Native Americans -- may be included, along with a contemporary Native story I Can't Have Bannock but the Beaver has a Dam. Native American activities may incorporate the giant map (see below).


Maine and the China Trade

Learn about the role of Maine in the nineteenth century trade with China by viewing artifacts and images brought back by Maine sea captains. Porcelain, textiles and clothing, furniture, lacquerware, paintings, flags, and other items were souvenirs given to captains' families and friends. Maine's role as a premier shipbuilding site that supplied merchants from other cities with large vessels will be explored. Learn about Maine families that were as much at home in Hong Kong as in Maine. Participate in themed activities, including unwinding silk worm cocoons, painting silk cloth, coloring images of Rose Medallion export porcelain, and making your own tea bags. This activity may be accompanied by Chinese legends and stories, historic photography, and some Chinese history.


Dandyfunk Detectives

Where did nineteenth century Maine merchant ships sail? Who was aboard? What jobs did they do? What did they eat? We'll see some photos of ships, their crew members, and the captain and his family, including pets. Then we turn to the subject of food: How do we know what people ate aboard vessels 100 or more years ago? One way might be to see what ship masters purchased from stores before going to sea.  The group will examine copies of store account book pages from the museum's manuscript collection, and look for purchases of dandyfunk ingredients, such as molasses and flour. After we play detective (really beginning research) we will make some dandyfunk of our own!


When is a Ship Not a Ship?

Maine was an important shipbuilding center in the nineteenth century, as it still is today. In the days of merchant sail, when all types of large wooden ships were constructed on the Maine coast, people all knew what made a bark different from a brig, and a ship different from a schooner. We start this lesson with samples of shipbuilding woods for observation and comparison. The group then participates in creating a story about the sequence of building a vessel, matching pictures to story lines read aloud. Together we assemble the hull of a wooden vessel and learn the parts. We will play a game to learn the different types of rigging that made some vessels "ships" and others not. The program concludes with designing and making model vessels to take home-PMM's own "Three Penny Boats."


Sailors' Valentines

Learn about the history of Sailors' Valentines, how they got to Maine, and the trade routes involved. Learn about people's love of natural materials for decor in the 19th century. Practice patterning and design elements as you create your own Sailors' Valentine with a variety of tropical shells on an octagon-shaped base. Use pictures of real captains and their wives as your centerpiece, and learn something about their lives.


The Softer Side of Fishing

Fishing communities depended on whole families, not just the fishermen themselves. See our replica Fishermen's mittens, made by the wife of a smelt fisherman from Winterport, Maine. Make your own felted mittens using fleece and a large mitten shaped cookie cutter. Learn about an award winning quilt made by the Island Fishermen's Wives. Try your hand at duplicating the quilt using wooden pieces and a magnet board. For young groups, we may read The Mitten, by Jan Bret, and play games with wooden replicas of Maine woods animals.


Lobsters!

Lobstering is Maine's most valuable fishery. Learn a little history: did you know that lobsters were the first kind of seafood to be canned in Maine? That lobsters were fished under sail and oar power before the use of power boats? That they were once so inexpensive and common that it was regarded as mistreatment to feed your servants lobster more than a few times a week? We will learn some special lobster vocabulary and assemble our own crustaceans to take home. Lobster Jeopardy anyone?


Fisheries in Maine

Cod, herring, salmon and more are the subjects of this fin fish program. We will talk about boats, gear, and problems with sustainability. A variety of activities may be included, such as making a trawl line full of groundfish, playing a sardine packing game, and constructing a purse seine.


Lighthouses

Learn the locations of lighthouses on the Maine coast and islands. Find out how they helped mariners, and learn basic vocabulary. Learn about the principles of the Fresnel lens and observe a demonstration. Read one of many lighthouse stories, then make model lighthouses to take home. This activity may be done with the giant map (see below) or with small individual maps for older students. We will incorporate passages from an 1886 book, All Among the Lighthouses.


Introduction to the Compass

Learn to use a compass and the names of the cardinal and inter-cardinal points. Discuss the difference between a real compass and a compass rose pictured on a map. Play Simon Says using eight compass points. As a hands-on project create a compass rose to take home.


My! What a Big Map You Have!

The giant map is a 17 foot by 5 foot vinyl schematic map of the Penobscot River up to Old Town and Penobscot Bay down to Matinicus. Because it has no markings, it can support a variety of activities by using different "props." Children participate in creating a story by populating the map while sitting around it on the floor. Examples of Interactive Stories using the Giant Map include:

  • History of the Fisheries in Maine: Using the map and props, children help trace fishing in Maine from the pre-contact times when Native people fished from canoes, through the days of industrial pollution and technology that allowed overfishing. Story props include Native canoes, explorer ships, natural resources (trees, fish, fur), fishing sloops, draggers, factories and more people. We end with a discussion of what people are doing to help.
  • Where are We? What is All Around Us? Using the map, we learn about names of geographic landmarks, fresh and salt water, how rivers flow and create watersheds, the animals of Maine's woods, Maine's mountains, and different kinds of natural resources. Hands-on projects may include making mountains, creating porcupines, making a watershed model, or trying experiments with salt and freshwater.