Archaeology at The Jewish Museum

On Tuesday, our homeschool group enjoyed a wonderful field trip to the Archaeology Zone at The Jewish Museum. The kids learned about what an artifact is, chose an artifact in the gallery to draw, observe, and write about, and then did a simulated archaeology dig and a bunch of hands on stations designed for kids. After that, they made their own clay pots.





We stayed afterwards to do a more thorough tour of the galleries. Mikro loved the complimentary family audio tour, and we both learned a lot. This museum is one of the best set up, most user friendly museums in New York. I really enjoyed our trip, and we will be going back.

We did mostly the ancient galleries, up to the 1920s. I decided to skip the grimmer Holocaust material for the time being. I think we need to do more prep work beforehand, and I want to have either Kev or I walk through and preview first. There are images that I don't want burned into my 8 year old's head just yet, though we have already discussed things in very general, non-graphic terms... I asked our educator at what age it would be appropriate, and she said 4th grade, so we have a couple years. She also gave me a few book recommendations: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and Hannah's Suitcase by Karen Levine.