Exploring sessions

These sessions involve observing, understanding, and making deductions from objects and locations on the site, most particularly the Abbey, and the various buildings of the Farmland Museum.

They can also be teacher-led, and may involve fill-in activity sheets. Their aim is to encourage children to use their eyes and their thinking skills to make sense of, and draw conclusions from, objects from the past.

Some examples include:

Denny Abbey - Building patterns
This session is based mainly inside the abbey, though the outside can also be used. It involves the children looking for evidence of change through the shapes and styles of the architecture. We will focus on Materials, Textures, Shapes and Physical Remains. Children are given a list of features to find, and then have to deduce why there are differences within each of these aspects, and what these differences reveal about the history of the abbey. For teacher-led sessions there is a guide sheet, and pupils may use paper and clipboards for recording their findings.

Denny Abbey - Investigating the remains
This session is based mainly outside the abbey, though the inside can also be used. It involves the children looking for evidence of what the abbey might once have looked like, by comparing the visible remains with a plan. Children will look at differences to the outside, focusing on windows, arches, doorways leading nowhere, as well as the outline of remains of buildings in the ground. They will learn more about the skills needed to recreate the building in the mind’s eye, as well as details of life in the abbey. For teacher-led sessions there is a guide sheet, and plans can be provided for children, as well as paper and clipboards.

The village shop
In this session children will explore the village shop, which is recreated to look like a typical store from the first half of the 20th Century. They can look at the goods on display, the way they were sold and the types of packaging which will give them a feel for the period. They can try their hand at measuring using the weights and scales, and there are also some mystery items for them to handle and guess their purpose. Children can be encouraged to compare and contrast what they see with shops today. For teacher-led sessions there is a guide sheet, and pupils may use paper and clipboards for recording their findings.

The farmworker's cottage
The cottage has been restored to a period around 1940, though not much will have changed since Victorian times. The theme of the session is comparison with houses and homes today, focusing on the feel and look of the rooms, the objects contained within them, and clues about the lifestyles of those who lived there. For teacher-led sessions there is a guide sheet, and pupils may use paper and clipboards for recording their findings.

Fenland life
This session focuses on the 6 ‘pigsheds’, each of which has a display on an aspect of Fenland life, and the wheelwright’s workshop. Children will learn about the drainage of the fens, the life of a fenman, and basketmaking, as well as investigating a dairy, blacksmith’s forge and a farm sale. The theme is on what life was like in the area, and how much it has changed over time. For teacher-led sessions there is a guide sheet, and pupils may use paper and clipboards for recording their findings.

Farm machinery
How did machines work before engines? How did the sail reaper cut corn when there were only horses to pull it along? How could a pony walking round in a circle make an upright wheel turn? All these mysteries can be solved by examining the machinery at the museum, together with a simple group session using models of gears that shows in easy stages how bicycles and more complex machinery work.

This is an exciting new session that was successfully trialled last year involving a joint visit to Denny Farmland Museum and Amey Cespa Ltd (previously Donarbon), a waste site just across the road.

The theme is green. At Denny, children will learn how waste was avoided in the past, and how people living on the site attempted a more sustainable lifestyle, while at Amey Cespa they will see how waste is dealt with today. The emphasis of both sessions is to help children think about what waste tells us about ourselves and how we can reduce, reuse, repair and recycle.

Denny sessions
Sessions that we have used at Denny include Time Detectives, in which children employ their detective skills to look at different parts of the site, including the abbey, the cottage, and archaeological remains, to see how waste was dealt with at different times in the past. Dustbin Detectives encourages them not only to use the contents of a modern dustbin to deduce clues about a family's lifestyle, but also to decide which items that we throw away are likely to survive for long periods. Sustainability uses the old shop to look at packaging and materials, and the Abbey to examine the lifestyle of the monks, to see how, or whether, people in the past adopted a sustainable lifestyle. There will be object handling opportunities, to feel and experience different types of materials, and a chance to make a mini rag rug to see how people recycled old clothes.
Children will therefore pick up a range of historical and social skills, and information, as well as looking at the past through the perspective of environmentalism.

Amey Cespa sessions
At Amey Cespa, children will take part in Recycling Champions, a group activity that tests their knowledge of recycling. At the same time they will learn about the MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) plant and explore ways of reusing waste materials. This will be followed by a Guided Sensory Waste Tour to the landfill site so they can observe the processes involved in dealing with waste. They will use all their senses to investigate exactly what happens to the rubbish they throw out. Children will be able to develop practical skills, as well as gaining a fascinating insight into the modern treatment of their waste.

See below...

These sessions are designed to be led either by museum staff, or by teachers.

They each have a guide sheet for the use of teachers, and this will be sent with the confirmation of booking. There will be clipboards and plain paper provided for the children.

Teachers wishing to make a preliminary visit to check out a teacher-led session may do so free of charge. Please give the Education Officer a ring to arrange a time, and he would be happy to talk through the session with you.