At Home Learning

During the extended school breaks, the museum is offering fun, educational packets of activities to do with your families at home. The activities are great for kids of all ages and can be done with supplies found around the house!

Packets are available to download and print through the link below. Enjoy!

Carbon dating is what archaeologists and paleontologists use to date certain artifacts. It can only be used to date those artifacts that were once living because it tests the half-life of the Carbon-14 atoms found in organic materials. The half-life of a Carbon-14 atom is 5,730 years. Testing how many half-life cycles have passed on an artifact can tell scientists how old that item is.

Your kids can do their own half-life experiment using the template below and items found at home such as beans, buttons or beads as "isotopes". Give each child an atom template and 50 "isotopes" to start. Then set a timer for 2 minutes. In the 2 minutes, have the kids remove 1/2 of their "isotopes". Repeat these 2 minute cycles until they are down to one "isotope". Finally, have them count how many cycles they did and multiple it by the half-life of 5,730 to see the age of their "artifact".

From 1867-1891, the Chisholm Trail was one of the largest cattle drives in the United States! Millions of longhorn cattle were guided from south Texas to Abilene, Kansas, by cowboys to be loaded onto trains out East.

Go on their own cattle drive up the Chisholm Trail. Be a cowboy and have your kids pretend to be longhorn cattle on the trail as you guide them through "Texas" to "Kansas" at home. Watch out for snakes, storms, and cattle rustlers!

Morse Code was invented in 1837 by Samuel Morse as a form of quick communication through the telegraph. The code was used to send important coded messages throughout the military troops fighting over seas.

Using the Morse Code alphabet provided below, have your kids make their own secret messages. You can give them a prompt, have them write their names, or have them be creative.

Using supplies found at home, have your kids make a marble maze! The maze should have a distinct start and finish with a good number of twists and turns. Encourage them to make it difficult, but not impossible, for someone else to solve.

Supplies can include toilet paper rolls, straws, construction paper, toothpicks, little cups, paper plates, and of course marbles!

Quilts not only kept you warm at night, but could also tell a family history. Pioneers made quilts for their family members as wedding and birthday presents and these were passed down through generations as special heirlooms.

Using paper, felt or fabric, have your kids make their own family quilts. Encourage them to use traditional quilt patterns and be creative!

Using supplies at home, have kids make their own pop-up storybooks! Encourage them to do multiple pages to tell a full story.

To make their pictures and characters pop-up, they can attach strips of paper to the back of their items and attach those items to the pages or they can cut and fold as seen in the image above.

Paleoindian rock art can be found in many different parts of the world including the Gault Site near Florence right here in Bell County! The site dates to over 16,000 years ago making the petroglyph art found there the oldest in North America. The making of rock art continued throughout time with many Native American tribes making their own pictographs in caves showing important events in their history. Unlike petroglyphs, which are art carved into rock, pictographs are paintings. The paint was made from local flowers and berries.

Make your own rock art using paint, markers, or crayons. Be sure to tell a great story!

Discuss with them how ovens work and what they think is needed to cook using the sun. Then, using supplies found at home, have your kids make a solar oven!

Supplies should include any size boxes, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, and anything else your kids think will be useful.

Be sure to test them out!

Using the template below, have your kids follow the instructions to make their own cootie catchers on World War II history.

Test each other's knowledge!