The Harding Home offers outreach programs in your classroom! Call or email the site to schedule an outreach program, which are great prep sessions for school tours of the Harding Home. Some of the programs also have downloadable materials which you are welcome to reproduce.
Outreach programs are $1 per student.
KIDS RULE! A favorite among third-grade teachers, this program puts kids on the center stage by examining the world of children in 1890s Marion, Ohio (typical of any Ohio town). Pupils study photographs of kids their own age in school classrooms, on the playground and in the fashions of the day. Your students get to try the toys of 1890s in stations set up in the classroom.
GET OUT THE VOTE! This program is a great precursor to a school tour and can be modified for any age group from third grade through adult. Students gain insight about political campaigns in general, and focus on what Warren Harding’s front porch campaign was all about. Your students view lots of original photographs from Harding’s 1920 front porch campaign. If the teacher chooses, the students can make their own campaign ribbons with materials furnished by the Harding Home.
FACES OF OHIO. For students in grades 4-8, this program examines the story of immigration to Ohio. Students work with “mystery boxes” to examine artifacts that could have been associated with immigrant families traveling to Ohio. In an exercise promoting critical thinking, students work in groups to outline the story of an immigrant family in Ohio.
OHIO TOWN. This town engages first- and second-graders as a town in early Ohio physically takes shape before their eyes. The pupils will examine how a community operates and how goods and services revolve around a town. The children then work in groups to load and balance flatboats to prepare for travel down the Ohio River.
HAIL TO THE CHIEF! Perfect for Presidents Day, first- and second-graders compare and contrast the lives of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Warren Harding and Barack Obama. They examine the educations, childhood homes, vocations, pets and families of these presidents from four different times in history. The program wraps up with pupils designing their own presidential seals.