Lessons for Pre-K to Grade 6

The Berenstain Bears: Down a Sunny Dirt Road exhibit provides a bustling environment with Mama Bear’s Quilt Shop, Papa Bear’s Woodworking Shop, the Bear Family Restaurant, and Farmer Ben’s Farm. Using Bear Bucks withdrawn from the bank, students role-play the parts of business owners and consumers. This is a fun way for students to apply basic math skills of adding, subtracting, beginning multiplication and recognition of dollar denominations. View Lesson Extension.
1 hour
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$14 per student

Students build knowledge about the butterfly life cycle by observing chrysalises and butterflies in Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden. Students use informational text and science talk (a discussion protocol designed to promote student questioning and speaking scientifically). Working in small groups, students demonstrate what they have learned by illustrating and acting out the butterfly life cycle. View Lesson Extension.
1 1/2 hours
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$15 per student

With a keen eye for design, color, and a splash of curiosity, students enter the fabulous Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden and learning lab. Students become lepidopterists as they visit the garden to observe live butterflies and spend time in the lab closely observing preserved specimens. After playing an interactive game about predators and prey, they make valuable discoveries about butterfly predators and how butterflies protect themselves. View Lesson Extension.
1 1/2 hours
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$15 per student

What do butterflies do when they are hungry? Students explore this and other questions as they observe real butterflies in Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden. Eric Carle’s book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, is the springboard for this imaginative experience. Children focus on the stages of a butterfly’s life cycle through a magical music and movement activity. View Lesson Extension.
1 hour
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$15 per student

Ernie has lost the letter vests he made for his friends, Grover and Cookie Monster. Students help Ernie to find the missing vests by hunting in the Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street exhibit. While searching, they practice letter identification and letter-sound recognition. This lesson can be expanded to include word building and word-play. View Lesson Extension.
1 hour
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$14 per student

Students transform into a character from one of five stories in the dramatic fairy-tale section in Reading Adventureland: Cinderella, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, or Three Billy Goats Gruff. Students become the cast as they select a setting, retell, and reenact one of the above classic tales. View Lesson Extensions.
1 hour
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$14 per student

Working in small groups, students analyze the importance of setting by developing the plot of a short story. All groups will deal with the same main character, conflict and theme, but each group will be assigned a different setting in Reading Adventureland. Groups share their story outlines and discuss how setting can have a major impact on a story, before leaving with new inspiration to continue writing back at school. View Lesson Extensions.  
1 hour
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$14 per student

Students attend the Mystery Mansion School of Artful Sleuthing in Reading Adventureland to learn and practice the skills detectives use to solve mysteries. After exploring the Mansion in small groups to discover what makes a great detective, these groups create their own detective and begin work on a possible mystery that could occur in their own school. Each group shares its ideas, after which all students graduate from Sleuth School with honors! View Lesson Extensions.
1 hour
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$14 per student

A mystery at the Mystery Mansion needs to be solved and your students are the detectives! Through deductive reasoning, prediction, mapping skills, and collaboration, detectives use their clues to crack the code of “Who Dunnit?” in the captivating mystery section of Reading Adventureland. View Lesson Extensions.
1 hour
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$14 per student

What foods do we need every day to be healthy? Meet Francine, a life-size puppet who can’t keep up with the kids at recess and falls asleep during school. What can she do to have more energy? Students take on the challenge of helping Francine become healthy. Using the USDA’s “MyPlate” food guide, students shop in Wegmans Super Kids Market and have fun packing a healthy lunch for Francine. Together, Francine and her new friends learn a “Fit as a Fiddle” cheer to help them remember what it takes to be healthy. View Lesson Extensions.
1 hour
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$14 per student

Students use dramatic play, movement, and math skills to determine what foods keep people healthy and strong. Dressing in the colors of the symbols from the USDA’s “MyPlate” food guide, students discover what each color on the plate reveals about healthy eating. Acting as “Super Shoppers,” students visit Wegmans Super Kids Market to select foods that promote healthy eating. After shopping, students create healthy and balanced snacks by playing an interactive game. View Lesson Extensions.
1 hour
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$14 per student

What did children play with long ago? How have toys and play changed or remained the same over time? During this lesson, students will examine toys featured in the America at Play exhibit and complete a scavenger hunt and timeline activity designed to allow them to uncover the ways toys and play have changed.
1 hour
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$14 per student

What did children play with before the era of plastics, batteries, computers, and videos? Students visit One History Place to learn about early 20th century America. Through examination and discussion of toys from today and long ago, students draw conclusions about how they are alike and how they are different. They continue the experience by playing in and exploring the exhibit. View Lesson Extension.
1 hour
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$14 per student

Ahoy! Drop anchor in Reading Adventureland to work on mapping skills and have an adventure. Students work in small groups to create and follow maps, explore Reading Adventureland, and play a treasure hunt game. Using mapping techniques, students find hidden puzzle pieces to complete a map that will help them solve a mystery. View Lesson Extension.
1 hour
15 student minimum
30 student maximum
$14 per student

1. All group reservations must be submitted online using the Group Visit Request form below.
2. Reservations must be submitted at least two weeks in advance of your visit and are subject to availability. Space fills up quickly so book early!
3. Children with a museum membership attending a lesson must pay the lesson fee.
4. Group reservations are generally processed in 2-3 business days. You will receive an invoice via email confirming your visit.

1. Children must be supervised at all times. The museum requires one adult chaperone for every five paid student/child tickets. These chaperones are included free of charge.
2. Any additional chaperones visiting with your group will pay the regular admission rate.

1. Full payment or purchase order is due two weeks in advance of your visit date. Unpaid reservations will be cancelled.
2. If the billing contact is different from the group reservation contact, include those details in the notes section of the Group Visit Request form.
3. Group reservations are not refundable.

1. A lunch space can be reserved for your group if available. Lunch periods last 30 minutes. We will attempt to schedule your entire group in one lunch period; however, large groups may be scheduled over multiple lunch periods.
2. Groups may bring a bagged lunch or order from the food court. Lunch bags will be stored on labeled carts in the lunchrooms. We cannot refrigerate or reheat any lunches.

1. Buses will drop off at the museum entrance located off Howell Street. Bus Drop Off Map
2. When you arrive, do not leave the bus until a museum staff member instructs you to do so.
3. The museum does not have bus parking onsite. Buses may park offsite in a lot located off Alexander Street. This lot is located about two blocks from the museum. Bus Parking Map
4. Maximum vehicle height for the parking garage is 8’ 2”.

1. An admission discount of $2 off per student is available for Rochester City School District class visits.
2. A transportation rebate of $125 per bus is available to a limited number of classes in Monroe County through the Ruth Donahue Maurer Fund, established in memory of long-time museum volunteer Ruth Donahue Maurer. School is required to pay for transportation. If approved for the rebate, the museum will reimburse the school. Complete the funding request form

1. Make any chaperone-student groupings and review the museum map before arriving at the museum.
2. A museum staff member will give your group a brief museum orientation when you arrive.
3. If you have additional adults and children that need to pay, please do so online before arriving.
4. Ensure you have your bus driver’s phone number.
5. Visit the Accessibility page for social stories and information about accommodations for students with special needs. If a student requires a 1:1 aide, please note that on the group visit request form.
6. Museum security staff are certified in first aid and CPR. If assistance is required, please notify museum staff.