School Programs

Why Book a School Program With Us?

Student Learning Through Engagement

With our modern museum building, the 1859 schoolhouse, and the 1815 Mennonite family home, the Lincoln Museum and Cultural Centre offers truly unique educational experiences. Here students can discover, learn, and explore.

Education at the Lincoln Museum can take many forms and is tailored to all ages. We ensure that our educational programming is accessible, exciting, and curriculum-connected.

The Lincoln Museum and Cultural Centre has delivered integrated history education programs for nearly 30 years. Our programs are designed to meet the requirements of the Ontario Curriculum at the primary, junior, and intermediate levels. We have a variety of programs that can be booked as a full-day immersive classroom at the museum or in a 100-minute format in your school. They can be adapted to accommodate multi-grade, Montessori, or any accessibility needs.

Get the most out of the museum and fill the bus! While one class engages in the Strict but Nice 1908 classroom, another can enjoy a museum-making experience.

For more information email museum@lincoln.ca 

To book visit our online portal, all inquiries will be responded to within 2 standard business days.

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Experience a 1908 School Day

‘Strict but Nice’

Join us for an unforgettable day of discovery, unique in all of Niagara. Authentically restored to capture the charm of a one-room country school, your class will experience a hands-on early 19th-century school day at S.S. #4. Led by an experienced costumed instructor, children role-play a 1908 school day.

Classes can be adapted to accommodate multi-grade, Montessori, or any accessibility needs.

A full-day Strict but Nice program typically includes the following:

  • An interactive introduction to early-settler life, including Indigenous history.
  • Improvisational and interactive role-playing activities, including:
    • Roll call.
    • Hygiene inspection and posture drills.
    • Historical memory exercise.
    • Arithmetic drills and exercises on slates.
    • Lunchtime games—wooden toys, stilts, and tug-of-war.
    • Manual dexterity craft or pen and ink lesson.
    • Spelling bee.

Book a special Christmas or Valentine’s Day program, complete with seasonal crafts and decorations.

Booking Information
  • Maximum number of students: 36
  • Duration: Approx. 5 hours (9 a.m. - 2 p.m. / 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m., etc.). We can accommodate flexible arrival/departure times and shorten the program to as little as 3 hours.
  • Cost: $12.35/ Student
  • Grades: Available for Primary, Junior, Intermediate, and Adult Learners
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Get Hands-On With History

Museum Making

With a rotating exhibition schedule, there is always something new to experience at the museum. The Museum Making programs take place in the main museum building. This is a one-of-a-kind interactive learning opportunity for your class that combines local history with creativity to bring the curriculum to life. You can expect you class to tour the exhibitions, examine objects, handle artifacts, learn about the region’s history, exercise critical thinking skills, and get creative!

In the morning students become junior archeologists. You can choose either Handbuilding with Clay or Fraktur Folk Art! In the afternoon we get hand's on with history while exploring the exhibitions and the 1815 Fry Family House.

Booking Information
  • Maximum number of students: 30
  • Duration: Duration: Approx. 5 hours (9 a.m. - 2 p.m. / 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m., etc.). We can accommodate flexible arrival/departure times and shorten the program to as little as 3 hours.
  • Cost: $12.35/ Student
  • Grades: Available for Primary, Junior, Intermediate, and Adult Learners
Booking Options:

Students will explore three dimensions, form, line, and texture through a variety of hands-on exercises using air-dry clay. This program focuses on process, history, and fundamental approaches to making art of clay. Students will create two three-dimensional objects using a variety of modelling techniques. Starting with a simple pinch pot while exploring the history of Canadian Indigenous pottery and culminating in a modelled and textured clay animal sculpture.

Take a deep dive to explore Fraktur. Fraktur is an art tradition related to the history of illustrated manuscripts, which thrived in Canada from 1750-1850. Known specimens of Canadian Fraktur are comparatively rare - in all, there may be fewer than 500 examples, 34 of which are in the collection of the Lincoln Museum. Using artist-grade materials, students will practice watercolour techniques, explore colour theory, and observe the reactions between other mediums and watercolour paints. In their final artwork, students will be challenged to be creative using mixed-media methods to create a fraktur-inspired watercolour composition!
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In Your Classroom

Mobile Museum

Bring Museum learning to you with pop-up programs to support learning at your school. This is a one-of-a-kind, interactive, learning opportunity that combines local history with creativity to bring the curriculum to life in your classroom.

Choose from one of our four curriculum connected art workshops. We can visit as many as 6 classes in one day of museum school outreach (3 classes for each program choice with a maximum of two program choices/day).

Booking Information
  • Maximum students per workshop: 26
  • Cost: $10/Student
  • Duration: 100 minutes. You can book one program for up to three classes per day. We can accommodate a total of six classes per day. For six classes, choose two options (ex. Class A/B/C does Handbuilding with Clay, and Class D/E/F does Expressive Self Portraits.
Booking Options:

Using air-dry clay, students will explore fundamental modelling techniques, form, line, and texture, starting with a simple pinch pot while exploring the history of Canadian Indigenous pottery. Then, using these techniques students will design and model a textured clay animal sculpture. Students will have two clay projects to keep. Recommended for learners grades 1+

Using artist-grade materials, students will practice watercolour techniques, explore colour theory, and will observe the reactions between mediums.  Then using mixed-media methods students will be challenged to create their own composition. Recommended for learners in grade 2+

Using traditional tools like ink and brayers, students will create a scratch foam 'master plate' to create prints on colourful paper. Students will discuss the fundamentals of printmaking, focusing on relief print processes and the nature of reproductions. Using elements such as line, shape, composition, and balance, we will explore symbolism and identity to create their own brand or logo. Recommended for learners grades 3+

Inspired by Canadian portrait artists and using artist-grade materials, students will explore how portraiture can express complex ideas about self, identity, and community. We will explore symbolic uses of colour and abstraction while creating a step-by-step self-portraits using oil pastel on paper. They will demonstrate an awareness of symbols encountered in their daily lives and in works of art, and learn about art from diverse communities. Recommended for learners in grade 1+

We’re Here to Help!: Upon booking the program teachers will receive a Teacher’s Manual complete with historical information, suggested pre-visit and post-visit activities, and a practical guide to our facilities. For the Strict But Nice Program, costume sketches and historically accurate lunch recipes are also included to help your class get the most from their role-playing experience.

How to Book:

Visit our online portal, all inquiries will be responded to within 2 standard business days.

  • Visit our online portal to view our availability
  • Select your day and make an account
  • Within 2 business days you will receive a confirmation and invoice

Or book via email at museum@lincoln.ca.

In your email, please include the following information: 

  • School name
  • Grade
  • Number of students in the group
  • Program(s) you would like to book
  • Location of program (in-house, outreach)
  • Preferred date(s) and time(s)
  • Email address for the booking educator

Supervision: Teachers are required to supervise students in the classroom at all times. Teachers and accompanying adults are ‘no-charge', but are strictly limited to 4 in number for in-museum visits.

Payments: Payments can be made in advance online, or on the day of the program with a credit card or debit. Payment can also be mailed via cheque to 3800 Main Street, Jordan, L0R 1S0. Cheques should be made out to the "Town of Lincoln". We will invoice your school after the program is completed based on attendance, payment is due within 30 days of your program date.

Cancellations: Cancellations made less than 10 days prior to a confirmed program are subject to a cancellation charge of half (50%) of the total program cost. Cancellations made 3 or fewer days prior are subject to a full charge (100%) of the total program cost.