Coachella Valley History Museum

EXPLORE offers different opportunities for students to engage with the museum throughout the year. Housed on the historic museum's safe and welcoming campus, children expand their horizons in after-school and summer programs. EXPLORE: Jr. Historians meets on Mondays from 3:30-5:30 p.m., September to April. EXPLORE: Art meets daily for three weeks in June for two hours a day.

Collaboration and teamwork are important and necessary skills that students need today and in the future. EXPLORE provides a positive social-emotional environment where children work together and with their instructors in thoughtful activities that help them develop respect and patience for one another. Children learn empathy, celebrate diversity, and experience partnership while engaging in meaningful activities.

EXPLORE: Jr. Historians

With a focus on participatory, hands-on learning, students in EXPLORE: Jr. Historians learn about the history of the Coachella Valley from the earliest explorers to the contemporary people who have helped shape our community. This in-depth program also includes the visual and performing arts, public speaking skills, and culminates in a Living History Museum where children “become” an important figure and perform for their families. During the program students learn important history skills as they use primary sources to examine how life has changed over time.

EXPLORE: Art

EXPLORE: Art offers a relaxed environment where self-expression is encouraged and celebrated. In drawing class, children use a variety of drawing mediums including colored and charcoal pencils as they learn how to draw animals, portraits, and self-portraits. In painting class, children use acrylic and watercolor paints as they learn primary and secondary colors, brush strokes, create a color wheel, mix colors, and explore painting effects. In ceramics class, students experience the complete process from design and construction to painting glazes as they learn various modeling techniques to develop their pottery.

Contact: Emily Culhan, Program Director

Email: jr.historians@cvhm.org

Junior Historians is an educational program based at the Coachella Valley History Museum. This program provides children in the Coachella Valley with hands-on learning about history on museum campus. Students in the Valley need a safe and cool environment to explore and learn. This program is based on Common Core State Standards and California History-Social Science Curriculum.

Junior Historians is offered twice a year, in the summer and in the winter. Summer is a four-week camp with each week covering a different section in American history, geography, and government. Winter is an eight week after school program focused on local history in the Coachella Valley, such as the Cahuilla Indians. The program implements various methods to teach these themes such as: kinesthetic, touch, sight, and auditory. Some of our exciting methods involve children creating airplanes to understand the process of flight during World War II, and pretending to be local figures like General Patton at our Heritage Festival.

In low-scoring schools, children do not have the time to focus on social studies due to intense concentration on reading, writing and math skills. We aim to bridge the gap in one of the four major subjects, allowing students to appreciate history. The curriculum is designed by Dr. Priscilla Porter author of the Reflection social studies textbook used in many school in Desert Sands Unified School District. The grant from the Anderson Children’s Foundation supports the growth of the program and the amount of children it benefits.