EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING 

About

The Education Staff at the City of Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park and Cultural Center is excited to provide on-site educational programming for school and community groups.

A field trip to Heritage Park and Cultural Center makes history come to life by providing hands-on learning experiences that serve as extensions of your classroom activities. 

Interactive programs are specially geared for specific age groups and support The Florida Sunshine State Standards and serve to increase historical knowledge while stimulating student interest in social studies, local history and archaeology.

The education Staff looks forward to working with you and your students on their social studies curriculum.  Please feel free to contact us with questions, comments or to make a reservation.

**Please note that October, November, and December are our busiest months for school groups. The dates fill up fast, some a year in advance. Call or email us soon to schedule your visit! 

Educational Resource Guide Booklet

Map and Parking Instructions

Educational Resources Brochure



Indian Temple Mound Museum

Inside The Indian Temple Mound Museum are some of the finest examples of Southeastern Native American ceramics in the United States. 

The exhibits tell 14,000 years of history starting with the pottery, tools and achievements of this area's prehistoric populations and ending with the very early history of the place that we call Fort Walton Beach.  The museum visit is a fun-filled, fact-finding experience!

Students will find areas for hands-on exploration, quiet reflection and personal accomplishment.  There is a great deal to see and do at the Indian Temple Mound Museum!

What will my students learn at the Indian Temple Mound Museum?

The Indian Temple Mound Museum showcases the shell, stone, and ceramic artifacts created by Florida's First People.

Through a presentation and accompanying tour of the gallery as well as the actual Fort Walton Temple Mound, a National Historic Landmark, this program is designed to introduce students to Florida's First People, who migrated and settled in Florida some 14,000 years ago and flourished until the arrival of the Europeans in the 16^thcentury changed their way of life forever. In the older grades an emphasis will be placed on how they lived in pre-Columbian time, with a concentration on the Mississippian Culture that once lived in this region. 

Programming centers on the museum's collection of Southeastern Native American ceramics. 

Additional exhibits tell 14,000 years of history beginning with the achievements of the prehistoric populations and ending with the early history of Fort Walton Beach.

See Actual Prehistoric Native American artifacts; experience cultural diversity, archaeology, social science, ecology, Native Americans, and have a fun time too!

"Indian Tales" for Preschoolers:  This is a discovery visit.  Storytelling engages students and allows them to know the people who made and used the artifacts in the museum.

"See and Do" for Kindergarten:  This introduces students to the museum artifact collection and to Native American culture.

"History is For YOU" for First Graders:  This program uses storytelling to introduce museums and the use of various Native American artifacts.

"The Indian Way at Home and At Play" for Second and Third Graders:  This program helps students explore and discover the life ways of the Native Americans of the past.

"Florida's First People: A Visit to the Indian Temple Mound Museum" for Third to Fifth Graders:  This program  details Native American lifeways with a concentration on the Mississippian Mound Builders. 

Specialized Classes for Subjects of interest to older grades, adult groups, mixed age, and homeschool groups are available upon request.  Please call the museum for more information at least two weeks prior to your requested visit date.   

Tour Objectives

1. Students will be introduced to the Native Americans who first occupied Florida.

2. Students will understand how these Native Americans lived in the local area.

3. Students will explore the gallery and gain an appreciation for the cultural and historic resources Florida has to offer.

4. Students will be able to understand how North America, and specifically Florida, came to be first peopled and how these Native Americans lived prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the 16^th century.

5. Students will gain a broad understanding and appreciation for the cultural and key technological developments of Florida's prehistoric Native Americans.

6. Students will understand how Florida's First People adapted to and shaped their surrounding environment, as well as utilized its local resources to create a sustainable society.

 


Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum

The Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum sits in historic downtown Fort Walton Beach nestled among the trees enticing students to experience schooling as it was in the past.  The two room school is filled with sights, smells and experiences to delight students and adults alike.  Students are encouraged to use their eyes and ears to discover actual objects used in teaching over 90 years ago

What will my students learn at the Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum?

The Camp Walton School is the original one-room facility created by the local community in 1911 and opened for students in 1912.  The high school room was added later making the structure a two-room school. The building has been adaptively restored and now functions as an educational museum whose mission is to preserve, maintain and interpret for exhibition items from the history of Camp Walton, Florida. 

The exhibition collection includes items from the early education of students in Okaloosa County, as well as items from the families that lived the history of Camp Walton.

It is the goal of this museum's educational programming to develop an appreciation of and an interest in the local history of Camp Walton, Florida, especially as it relates to education.  This program will introduce students to a school of the past and allow them to compare and contrast life in the early 1900s with their current school environment.  

The program is one hour in length and will take place inside the museum. The presentation area contains actual and replica artifacts, photographs, and educational teaching aides used to present the lesson materials by a costumed educator. 

Programming centers on the 1900's era school which sits nestled among the trees enticing students to experience schooling from past eras. 

The two room school is filled with sights, smells and experiences to delight visitors. 

• Explore an authentic 98-year old restored two-room school; experience Community Studies, History, and the Three R's.

• "Let's Go To School" for Preschoolers/Kindergarteners:  This is a discovery visit.  Storytelling is used to introduce the learning environment.

• "School Days" for First and Second Graders:  This introduces students to past school activities with emphasis on role playing and imagination.

• "The School House -Then and Now" for Third and Fourth Graders:  This visit is designed to allow comparison and contrast of schools and local community history.

• Specialized Classes for subjects of interest to older grades or adults are available upon request.  Please call the museum at 850-833-9595 to speak with the Education Staff.   

Tour Objectives

1. Students will develop an appreciation of things made and used by people of the past and an understanding that history is about people and events of other places and times.  This will include handling and viewing actual and replica school furnishings, inquiry and discussion directed by the school marm, hearing and discussing vocabulary words associated with the one-room school, and by listening to stories that relate the past through the eyes of teachers and students.
2.  Students will see, discover and learn the importance of a school to a community.  This will include a discussion of how schools started in this community and a comparison / contrast discussion of the Camp Walton School and their own school.
3. Students will participate, by hands-on activities and role playing, in typical school activities in the 1912-1936 time period.   This will include entering and exiting the building in boy/girl lines, sitting in wooden desks, proper classroom behavior, role playing in directed activities with the school marm and by experiencing the rewards and punishments of the period.
4. Students will recognize that schools have changed over time.  This will include comparison and contrast of schoolroom objects then and now, discussion of clothing worn by teachers and students, discussion of the expected chores and duties of children attending the school. 
5. Students will develop an appreciation for historic preservation.   This will include discussion on how, why and who saved the Camp Walton School.  

LESSON PLANS



Florida's First People K-2

Florida's First People 3-5

Camp Walton Schoolhouse K-2

Camp Walton Schoolhouse 3-5

OUTREACH

                                                                                      Hands On History
 

About Our Outreach

The Indian Temple Mound and Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museums
are often to be found on the road at community events.  Many of these
events are open to the public and are a great way to experience Native Americans, archaeology and local history in a very hands-on way.  These are just a few of the places where we are to be seen regularly - often with members of our support group The Friends of the Museums, Inc.:

* Due to the increased costs of travel, the City of Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park and Cultural Center has been forced to add a travel fees for school visits.· The fees are assessed from the physical location of the Indian Temple Mound Museum in Fort Walton Beach.· For schools located 30 or more miles from the Indian Temple Mound Museum, the cost is an additional $.50 per student.· Total program cost would be $2.50 per student.·

Heritage Park Education Grant

Local business partners have agreed to meet the needs of community students by assisting schools in covering costs for outreach programs. Teachers with needs must fill out an application one month in advance of program. Grants are available for programs conducted from January to May each school year. Are awarded on an needs basis, are first come first serve, and as for as long as funds are available. Okaloosa County schools are given priority, but all schools within a reasonable distance are welcome to apply. Grants are designed to help defray outreach expenses and should not be relied upon to replace a field trip to the museums. Please click the following link to download the 1-page application: Grant Application