OSH School Programs

Marechkawick

Grades 3-6, 90 minutes
Indoors

For hundreds of years, the rich lands along the banks of the Gowanus Creek were home to a large settlement of the Lenape people that was called Marechkawick.  The low lying tidal estuary provided a bounty of fish, oysters, tobacco and corn, birds, turtles, beavers and muskrats.

What did the Gowanus look like then?  How has it changed through industrialization?  What actions can we take to help to clean and restore it to its former bounty?

Traditional Medicinals

Grades 1-4, 90 minutes
Outdoors

Oct 1 – Nov 15
Apr 30 – Jun 15

Plants and garden spaces were at the center of daily life for the Lenape people as well as European and African settlers of the 17th and 18th Centuries.

While touring our historic gardens, students learn about plants used in food, fragrance, textile dyes, and medicine. Some are native to the Americas. Others were imported by settlers from far away places.

We learn ways to identify common plants in the gardens through size, shape, and other characteristics. At the end of the program we sample some refreshing herbal tea.

Work and Play in 1699

Grades K-2, 90 minutes
Indoors

Explore daily life from long ago. Try out traditional crafts and toys! After an interactive discussion about food preservation, textile production, and other typical household chores, students rotate through play stations that highlight wool production, weaving, and traditional European and African games.

Household Crafts in 1699

Grades 3-8

An intimate slice of daily life in Brooklyn in the past. How did age, gender, and race inform your role in the home? How did family life differ from our routines in the 21st Century?

Classes divide into small groups, with each group trying their hand at one traditional household craft. Activities include wool production and weaving, sewing, and candle making.