Museum Educational Resources

Where’s Wade

Travel around Haldimand County with Wade in our Where’s Wade Adventure!

In each image find Wade to learn more about the location.

Museum Educational School Programming

Edinburgh Square Heritage and Cultural Centre offers the following tours for students:

  • Our Town Hall
    • Students will learn about the founding of Caledonia, stories of early settlement, and explore the development of the community through hands-on activities
    • Grades K – 3
    • Curriculum Connections: Our Community
    • $3.50 per student
  • In-Class Presentations
    • No need for a bus! Let us come to you!  Three different presentations to choose from:
      • The History of Caledonia –  Famous People and Places
      • Black History of Haldimand County – Our Story
      • Using Primary Sources for School Project
      • Flat Rate for 1-1.5hr visit – $50.00
  • Badge Programs
    • Custom programs available.  Call to tailor a program for your group
    • $3.50 per participant.  Leaders are free.

Come explore and learn the stories of our early ancestors.   All programs can be tailored to suite you needs. We use archives, artifacts to offer your student a complete hands on experience. All programs can come to your classroom or you can come to us!  Programs are two hours in length cost is $3.50 per student.  Flat rate of $50.00 for us coming to your classroom.

Elementary School Programs

A TRIP TO THE PAST -Level: Senior Kindergarten and Grade One
Students will learn about an important person in Canada and his family and will develop a sense of the past. They will be able to experience how events in their lives are linked to past experiences. They will also learn how rules and responsibilities help protect the past and influence the future

CELEBRATION OF CHRISTMAS PAST-All Grade Levels (Nov-Dec)
Staff will help transport your class back to a Christmas from yesterday. This program uses family traditions and celebration to enhance your classroom study of Traditions & Celebrations and Pioneer Life.

FAMILY ORIGINS TRADITIONS AND CELEBRATIONS-Level: Grade Two
Students will have the opportunity to trace the origins and discover events in family histories and cultures of families in Haldimand and the surrounding communities

PIONEER LIFE-Level: Grade Three
Students will learn about how and why people settled in this area. What their lifestyles were like and the various roles of individuals in pioneer settlement.

HISTORY AND THE ENVIRONMENT Level: Grade Five and Six
Students will learns ways in which the natural environment shaped the lives of settlement in Haldimand and the surrounding communities along the Grand River

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA Level: Grade Seven
This program focuses on the War of 1812, the relation of the American Revolution to the settlement of United Empire Loyalists and the impact they had on Haldimand and the surrounding communities.

CONFEDERATION Level: Grade 8
Program will focus on the Fenian Raids and the impact the formation of Volunteer Militias had on the community and its contribution to Canada’s Confederation.

CHANGING SOCIETY Level: Grade 8
Students will learn about Haldimand and surrounding community’s involvement in World War I and the impact of the war on the families, the communities and the country. They will learn how society changed from Confederation to 1918 and what lasting effects it had.

Elementary and Secondary School Program

CLASSROOM CURATOR Level: Grade Four thru Twelve
Using the archives and artifacts, your class will work as a team to create exhibits that relate to your history or social studies curriculum.

Secondary School Programs

WWI-Brock’s Rangers Level: Grade 9-10
Students will learn Haldimand and surrounding community’s involvement in World War I. Students will also have an opportunity to learn more about individual soldiers through our archives.

CHANGING ROLES OF WOMEN Level: Grade 10
through artifacts, archives and hands on learning students will learn how the roles of women changed after and before WWI.

HALDIMAND’S EARLY SETTLEMENT Level: Grade 11
Students will learn how the friendship between the Loyalists and Indigenous people help form the settlement of Haldimand

All programs meet the Ontario Curriculum through the following:
Grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6: Heritage and Identity: Our Changing Roles and Responsibilities and the Role of Government and Responsible Citizenship
Grade 7: New France and British North America, 1713-1800
Grade 8: Creating Canada, 1850 –1890
Grade 8, 9 & 10: 1890 –1914: A Changing Society
For more information, call the museum at 905-772-5880 or email: museum.archives@haldimandcounty.on.ca

Elementary School Programs

  • School Days Past
    Wilson MacDonald Memorial School Museum allows students to experience a typical day in a one-room rural school. Costumes, role-playing, lessons and games help modern youngsters learn about their heritage and the history of education. The day-long program, which runs from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., is specially tailored to the 2013 school curriculum. A shortened program, which runs from either 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. or 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., can also be provided for other interested groups. Adults welcome too!
  • Cost: $6.75/student (full day), $3.50/student (half-day), teachers/adult helpers – free.
  • Programs are offered off-site as well. For bookings or more information please contact the museum at (905)776-3319.

School Trip Program brochure

  • Curriculum
    • Grade 1: Social Studies – Roles and Responsibilities
    • Grade 2: Social Studies – Traditions and Celebrations
    • Grade 3: Social Studies – Heritage and Identity
    • Grade 6: Social Studies – Heritage and Identity

The following is a list of educational programs that can be used in combination with our “School Days Past” Pioneer Unit:

  • Prominent People of Haldimand County: Grades 6 to 8
    Students will examine the lives of two prominent figures in Haldimand County: that of David Thompson I, soldier, politician and businessman. He built Ruthven as a symbol of his prosperity and was one of the promoters of the Grand River Navigation Company. He was also responsible for laying out the town of Indiana. Thompson was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1841 and served as the first member for Haldimand until his death in 1851.Lyric poet Wilson Pugsley MacDonald was born in nearby Cheapside and published many works, including “Out of the Wilderness” and “Flagon of Beauty.” Albert Einstein once said of him, “He’s the greatest thing I have found in Canada.”
  • War of 1812
    Haldimand and Norfolk have usually been ignored in accounts of the War of 1812, but a significant skirmish took place in Nanticoke in 1813. Traitors were captured here, mills and buildings were burned, citizens were harassed, a militia officer was killed and a government reward offered for the capture of his murderers. This program taps into local events of the War of 1812 involving role-playing by the students.
  • World War 1 Program will be offered. Please inquire.

Haldimand Connections