School Programs | Creston Museum, Creston BC

The Creston Museum is here to help as you grapple with all the changes that COVID-19 has brought to your teaching methods and lesson plans!

We have outdoor spaces here, if you’re looking for a change from your own playgrounds, and are always happy to bring presentations to your classroom/outdoor site if possible or offer something virtually (we’re a little new to the virtual world, but we’ve created video presentations for a couple of groups now and we’re getting better at it!). In addition, we have a number of walking tours and some online resources available.

The programs listed below are ones we have already developed. Most of them were created at the request of a local teacher, so if you have something in mind, let's talk! We're always happy to create a new program to meet your needs.

Our staff wear masks and carry hand sanitizer at all times, and have plexiglas barriers available. All materials are sanitized between use or prepared exclusively for your class. We absolutely will adhere to any additional safety guidelines in place for your school or class.

Online resources are available free, though we'd very much appreciate knowing how you're using them and what we can do to improve them! Presentations and tour are available by donation, with a suggested donation of $3 per student.

In-Class or On-Site Presentations

With extensive archival, photograph, and object collections, we can create a presentation that meets your specific needs. It's a great way to bring a very local focus to the Big Ideas you're teaching in Social Studies while encouraging your students to explore primary sources. Many of these can be adapted to virtual presentations as well.

This program is designed to help students in Grades 4 and 5 explore the evolution of Canada and Confederation. It uses historic maps and artifacts as the foundation for group discussions about the entry of the various provinces into Confederation, the resources that the provinces brought to the country, and the role of social values and government policy in shaping the country and our national identity. By examining the symbols representing each province and territory, it also explores the inclusion and diversity within the context of Canada’s nation-building.

This program enables your class to research, design, and install a public exhibit at the Creston Museum. Specific topic, size, and scope are open to discussion: add to one of our existing exhibits, tackle one we’ve got planned, or talk to us about your ideas. We work with you to define the exhibit within the context of your curriculum and key teaching points. Our staff will guide your students through the process of developing the Big Idea and themes of the exhibit, identifying primary audiences and their needs, researching the topic, and building and installing the exhibit. Limit: one class project per school year.

Walking Tours

Downtown tours, cemetery tours, residential tours - We use historic photos, existing buildings, and personal stories of local residents to encourage your students to explore the Social Studies concepts that are all around us. We can tailor routes and content to meet your specific needs. Some of these tours can be adapted to In-Class, On-Site, or Virtual presentations.

Using a question-and-discussion format and relying on historic photos of downtown Creston, this program helps students in Kindergarten to Grade 3 understand the value of sharing our planet. It looks at several definitions of what “sharing our planet” means and presents local evidence of why these kinds of understanding and mutual support are, and have been, important to the community they live in.

This program is designed to help Grade 4-5 students explore the development of communities and understand the factors that shape a community’s growth and evolution. It uses the historic development of Creston’s commercial area as a case study for what communities need to grow and thrive, and how the interaction between a variety of factors can shape the community’s evolution in both the past and the present.

Explore major themes in Canada’s immigration history – Settling the West; Service to Empire; Fleeing Europe; Immigration from the Far East – through a guided tour of Forest Lawn Cemetery. Students will learn individual stories of those who left their homelands and arrived in the Creston Valley and about the challenges people experienced both getting here and living here. Duration: approximately 45-60 minutes.

This program enables students to explore the foundations of a civilization – responses to geographic challenges and opportunities; social and political organization; trade, transportation, and technology; etc) – within the context of the development of a community. Comparing this development with promotional materials from Creston’s early years provides opportunities to assess the credibility of primary sources.

Online Resources

Over the years we've created online versions of several exhibits, and there's lots of other information and activities on our website! we hope you'll find this useful - and please feel free to contact us if there's something specific you're looking for.

This online exhibit lets your students explore the individual stories of men, from Creston Valley and elsewhere across BC, who enlisted in a Forestry battalion that was raised in Creston in 1917. What was the Forestry Corps? What role did it play in the First World War? Who enlisted in it, and why? Photographs, military service records, and other historic documents combine to answer these and other questions. Suggestions for activities, discussion, and further research are included.