Hands-on Program
Back to School Groups
The Hands-On Program provides schools with the opportunity to experience hands-on pioneer activities. Costumed volunteers will lead students through hands-on activities in various heritage buildings. Students will move through 6 different stations that depict pioneer life; including Migration, Home, Work, School, Food, and Play. The goal is to take them back in time and allow them to experience what Pioneer Mennonite life was like through activities like schnetje baking, milling in the windmill, butter churning, learning how the printing press works, and making nail rings in the blacksmith shop.
Available: May and June
Grades: K-3 and 4-12
Time: Programming runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Cost: $9/student, 72 students maximum
Potential Experiences:
- Visit an underground sod house called a Semlin and hear the story of a Mennonite family’s first winter in Canada
- Try your hand at wool carding in the Choritz Housebarn and learn about the wool manufacturing process
- Experience what a Private Mennonite school was like and have an old-fashioned slate board spelling bee
- Discover Canada’s only fully functioning, wind-powered grist mill
- See a blacksmith hard at work in the blacksmith shop and make a nail ring out of horseshoe nails
- Churn butter the old-fashioned way in the Walheim House
- Learn about the printery and our fully operational printing press and try your hand at stamping your own personalized bookmark
All stations are volunteer-run. Please note that no station is guaranteed until confirmed by MHV staff before your tour date.
Tour Add-on’s:
- Wagon Rides ($2/student, $75 minimum)
- Souvenir Bags ($2/student)
- Livery Barn Restaurant lunch (cost varies, pre-order two weeks in advance)
