RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS: TRIP OPPORTUNITIES

--> As part of the Cavendish Historical Society’s Carmine Guica Young Historians (CGYH) program, we have compiled a list of sites and places where students can learn more about their town, state and country. These are catalogued by travel time from Cavendish Town Elementary School (CTES) as well as by state. This list will be continually updated with new resources as well as notes about experiences.

CHS can design programs specifically to meet the needs of a particular class or home schooled students. Programming is free for students at CTES and the schools that are part of the Two Rivers Supervisory Union. Fees for trips organized by CHS for CTES will be provided for by CGYH.

Schools not in district will be charged a nominal fee to cover the costs of materials and staff time.

For more information on CHS, to add to the list below, or to arrange for a trip, please call 802-226-7807, e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com or snail mail PO Box 472, Cavendish, VT 05142.

As you go through the list, it is recommended that you check websites for changing exhibits as well as to take advantage of the various videos many sites offer. Some videos will fit in well with curriculum.

Cavendish

• Archeology

• Captive Johnson: The story behind "Calico Captive"

• Composting/recycling: Cavendish Transfer Station

• Community Service opportunities

• Crown Pointe Rd

• Cultures that shaped Cavendish

• Farms

• First peoples

• Fitton Mill

• Gage, Phineas

• Ghost Walk (Proctorsville)

• Lime Kiln

• Manufacturing-Mack Molding

• Municipal Government (includes town meeting)

• One room schoolhouse-Center Rd School

• Revolutionary Cemetery

•  Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr

• Sugaring

The Cavendish Historical Society Museum is open Memorial Day – Columbus Day. We also recommend using the Cavendish Business Directory to learn more about are businesses, including artistes and musicians, many of whom are willing to speak to classes or have you visit them.

HOUR AND UNDER FROM CTES

American Precision Museum

• American Precision Museum (Windsor): Excellent hands on program. Their Apprentice Program allows the students to earn a badge that gives them free admission to the Museum as well as to all their special programming for kids. Website offers a number of videos that no only help to orient students to the Museum but are good educational tools to be used at other times.

• Artisans Park (Windsor): Eight unique Vermont businesses all located in the same park. We are home to the Harpoon Brewery, Simon Pearce, SILO Distillery, Path of Life Sculpture Garden, Great River Outfitters, Artisan Eats, Blake Hill Preserves, and Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company Market. While not all are appropriate for students, this is an opportunity to see glass blowing, see manufacturing as well as experience the difference between a maze and a labyrinth.

• Bennington Monument The tallest structure in Vermont commemorates the Battle of Bennington, a battle that lead to the turning point in the Revolutionary War. Today, visitors may ride an elevator to the top of the Bennington Monument for panoramic views of the valleys and rolling hills of Vermont, Massachusetts and New York.

• Bennington Museum

• Billings Farm and Museum: Woodstock. Note that the type of programming provided by Billings Farm can be found in Cavendish free of charge.

• Black River Academy Museum

• Brattleboro Historical Society 

• Brattleboro Retreat Farm Since 1837, the Retreat Farm has been a source of food and fuel, productive work, nature-inspired restoration, knowledge, recreation, and innovation.

• Brattleboro Museum & Art Center

• Calvin Coolidge  Plymouth Notch, Vermont is the birthplace and boyhood home of Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States.  The Village is virtually unchanged since the early 20th century.  The homes of Calvin Coolidge's family and neighbors, the community church, cheese factory, one room schoolhouse, and general store have been carefully preserved, and many of the buildings have their original furnishings.

• Constitution House:  The Vermont Constitution was far reaching - the first to prohibit slavery, establish universal voting rights for all males, and to authorize a public school system.  The Constitution guided the Republic for 14 years until 1791, when Vermont was admitted to the Union as the 14th state.

• Estey Organ Museum (Brattleboro)

• Eureka Schoolhouse: Springfield. One of the oldest one room schoolhouse in Vermont

• Green Mountain Foliage Train (Chester)

• Hall Art Foundation: Located in Reading, need to know what the exhibits are in advance as some are not appropriate for children.

• King Arthur Flour: Has a baking school for kids.

• Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park Will design specific programs for your class. It’s free of charge and they have a lot to offer.

• Montshire Museum (Norwich)

• Museum of the Creative Process (Manchester) More for adults than kids.

• Nature Museum (Grafton)

• Stellafane: Home of the Springfield Telescope Makers

• Springfield Art & Historical Society

• Vermont Center for Photography (Brattleboro)

• Woodstock Historical Society

New Hampshire

• Enfield Shaker Museum Have programs for students in 4-6^th The 4^th-5^th grade program-History Alive- meets VT History, Civics and Government, Economics; Language Art; Written/Oral Communication standards. The program is from 9-1:30. 

-       History Alive program for 6th-12th grades 

• The Fort No. 4 (Charlestown): Tours are available June, September and October. Experience is dependent on tour guide.

• HoodMuseum of Art (Hanover)

Shaw Memorial St. Gaudens

• Saint- Gaudens National Historical Park

• Sugar River Trail (Claremont/Newport): Amazing old rail trail can walk/bike

HOUR-2 HOURS

• Birds of Vermont Museum

• Chimney Point Historic Site  Chimney Point on Lake Champlain in Vermont is one of the earliest, most intensely settled, and most strategic sites in the Champlain Valley, with human habitation dating back as far as 9,000 years ago.  Exhibits and special events present the story of the three early cultures in the Chimney Point area - Native American, French Colonial and early American.

• Chaffee Art Center (Rutland)

• Chester Arthur In 1881,  Vermonter Chester Alan Arthur was sworn in as the nation's 21st President. The son of an impoverished Baptist minister, Arthur was born in a small temporary parsonage. He became a lawyer who advocated for civil rights and as President, a champion of civil service reform.

• ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain

Ethan Allan Homestead

• Ethan Allen Homestead Museum (Burlington) Includes Abenaki History. Partner with Alnobaiwi, an inter-tribal organization of Abenakis dedicated to revitalizing and celebrating Abenaki culture. Website has good videos. Watch the videos on the Abenaki as they are doing some unique things. The Museum is open May 1 to Oct. 31. Closed for winter

• Fleming Museum of Art at the University of Vermont

• Fort Ethan Allen Museum (Essex): A collection of photos, artifacts, ephemera, uniforms, equipment, etc. From its opening as a Cavalry Post in 1896, to it’s short time as an Air Force Base, to it’s conversion to the private sector, much of the Post remains as it was when first built. The Fort represents an important piece of Vermont and military history.

• Hubbarton Battlefield  Here, on the steamy morning of July 7, 1777, the Green Mountain Boys and others stayed behind as a rear guard to slow the advance of the Redcoats so the main American force would have time to retreat. On these green hills, the Americans made a defiant stand. Though outnumbered, the Americans successfully halted the British, and retreated southward, winning successful battles later that year at Bennington and Saratoga.

• Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (Vergennes)

• Mount Independence: Mount Independence, a National Historic Landmark, is one of the largest and most well preserved Revolutionary War archaeological sites in America.  An exceptional museum houses an exhibit using artifacts and modern technology to chronicle the story of this major defense.

• Middlebury College Museum of Art

• National Museum of the Morgan Horse

• Perkins Museum of Geology

• Rokeby Museum

• SCHEP (Southern ChamplainEcology Project):  Archeological dig opportunity at the Bruckner Preserve. Site visit includes workshops with Elnu Abenaki and the Nature Conservancy. Operates in conjunction with Castleton University. CHS provides volunteers to the dig and lab work. Contact CHS or South Champlain Historical Ecology Projectschep.research@gmail.com Free

• Shelburne Farm

• Shelburne Museum: Have programs for schools.

• Vermont Granite Museum  Located within an authentic turn-of-the-century granite manufacturing plant, the museum’s mission is to create stimulating, interactive environments for learning about the geology, technology, history, and art of Vermont’s unique granite heritage art, industry, capabilities and cultural heritage.

• Vermont Historical Society Museum

• Vermont Marble Museum and Gift Shop (Proctor) 

• Vermont National Guard Museum

• Vermont State House

• West Rutland Art Park

• Wonderfeet Kid’s Museum (Rutland) Offers early childhood STEM kits, a lending library and other resources teachers might find useful.

New Hampshire

Canterbury Shaker Village  Offers a variety of youth programs starting with children as young as 5.

Mt. Kearsage Indian Museum 

New York

Fort Ticonderoga

2 + HOURS

• Boston offers a variety of museums, science center as well as the Freedom Trail. The National Park Service runs a number of free programs that are excellent and appropriate for those studying the Revolutionary period. CHS can work with teachers to outline a program that will best meet the needs of their students, curriculum and budget.

• Erie Canal way National HeritageCorridor

• Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium

• McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center

• Old Sturbridge Village

Pequot Museum

• Pequot Museum & Research Museum Considered to have one of the best museums in the country for Native Americans.

• Plimoth Plantation

• Strawberry Banke Museum (Portsmith, NH) 

• Williams College Museum  of Art

OTHER

• VTAfrican American Heritage Trail

CHS Briefs June 1, 2019

Please also check the Cavendish VT Facebook page for photo albums of various CHS activities.

With the gray chilly weather and the never ending rain-we had six clear days in May-it’s hard to believe the plant sale is behind us and summer is here. 

It’s either feast of famine when it comes to water and the CHS Annual Plant Sale. Last year, the decision was made to move the sale to Memorial Day weekend because the Museum no longer has water and temps can be pretty high around the 4^th of July. The water connection to the Museum was destroyed in 2017 when the adjacent town garage burned.

Pang's Salad Bucket.

Despite the dire forecast the weather was perfect for the plant sale and we did quite well all things considered. Many thanks to Kem and Svetlana Phillips (we would have been lost without the plant book Svetlana has developed to help our customers as well as those of us selling); Pang Ting, who was the brains and brawn behind the “salad in the bucket;” Etienne Ting who helped with planting and hauling soil; Angela Assermely, her bleeding heart and bee balm were big hits, and Pieter van Schaik, who has been involved with the plant sale since its inception back in the 1970s and always has surprisingly new plants. A very special thank you to Joe Vulo for the food grade containers we used for the salad buckets and tomato plants and, without it, our plants wouldn’t look so good, the magical soil from the Tings’ Farm.

ARCHEOLOGY: We’re incredibly excited that Okemo Valley TV has made a film   about the archaeological dig at Jackson Gore in Ludlow, VT in 2007. CHS provided volunteers to the dig-look closely at the film and you'll see some in the footage- and it was the beginning of our understanding of just how long Cavendish has been occupied by humans-probably 12,000 years. It also began CHS’s active involvement in archeology. We are still working with archeologists that we met on this dig and now have an established relationship with the archeology program at Castleton University. On June 12, we will be taking the 5^th and 6^th graders out to Bruckner Preserve as part of the SCHEP  (Southern Champlain Historical Ecology Project)  where they will have a chance to dig, as well as learn from the elders of the Elnu Abenaki tribe and the Nature Conservancy.

BUILDINGS: This summer is all about building repair. While the new doors are on the Museum, they are far from finished. Lots of painting is in order. Bruce McEnaney will be heading up an over haul of the Museum steps in July. We’re waiting for quotes on roof repairs on both the Stone Church and the Museum.

Bruce & George helping a student.

CARMINE GUICA YOUNG HISTORIANS: While the school year is ending, we’re already in the planning stages for the 2019/2020 school year. Before we get ahead of our selves we have a number of projects this month-grave stone cleaning with the 5^th and 6^th grades and as mentioned above a trip to the archeological dig site.

Hollis showing pictures of past classes

In May, the 6^th graders once again placed flags on veterans’ graves, cleaned cemeteries and made poppies for Memorial Day. The 2^nd grade visited the first one room schoolhouse in Cavendish on Center Rd. Thank you to all our volunteers: Pang Ting, George Thomson, Penny Trick, and a special thanks to Hollis Quinn for opening up the school and giving the kids a tour.

We’re now having other schools coming to the Museum for Phineas Gage Walk and Talks. We hosted Black River High School from Ludlow in May and the 5^th & 6^th graders from Lathrop Elementary from Pittsford will be visiting next week.

NEWSLETTER: If you didn’t have a chance to read the spring newsletter, check it out on-line. It not only contains a tribute to Dr. Eugene Bont, who served Cavendish for many years and in many ways, but it includes Part I of the history of Cavendish Schools.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Anyone who would like to volunteer to paint at the Museum and/or the Stone Church, please contact CHS at the numbers below.

If you have questions or wish to volunteer with CHS, please call 802-226-7807, e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com