Explore the 1.5 acres of garden and green space at the Wyckoff House Museum to understand the life systems of different flora and fauna native to NYC. Lesson highlights include: biodiversity and the ecosystems of an urban farm, organic vegetable gardening, soil and compost, and a visit to our beehives and the surrounding native plant area. Students will use observation skills and the five senses to learn about the bounty of life on our farm in this interactive lesson.

This program will run from May 1st-November 1st and takes place outdoors, rain or shine. This does not include a tour of the historic house.

Choose one hands-on activity: Herbal Sachet Making, Seed Planting, Herbal Tea Making, or Natural Dyeing (grades 2+).

Learn how a family of 13 lived in a single-room house through storytelling, inquiry, artifact investigation, images, and hands-on activities. Explore the restored home of Pieter Claesen Wyckoff and bring to life what the daily experience in colonial Nieuw Amersfoort was like.

Choose one hands-on activity: Butter Churning, Herbal Sachet Making, Quill Pen Writing, or Wool Felting

Explore Kings County’s role as a farming community between the 17th and the 20th centuries. What we call “organic” and “sustainable,” was everyday farming to Pieter Claesen and his family. Examine crops and colonial farming practices and get a chance to tour our urban farm (ideal for reservations in May-November).

Choose one hands-on activity: Butter Churning, Herbal Sachet Making, Seed Planting, Wool Felting, Herbal Tea Making (seasonal availability), or Natural Dyeing (seasonal availability, grades 2+).

Sam, Jack, Lidge, and Cato were enslaved people who worked for the Wyckoff family in the early 1800s. Examine their lives, and investigate primary source documents including slave bills of sale and manumission declarations. In conjunction with this tour, students explore multiple perspectives on servitude and the lives of important African-Americans in colonial New York.

Choose one hands-on activity: Butter Churning, Herbal Sachet and Medicine Making, Quill Pen Writing, or Wool Felting

Learn about the colonization of the New World through the tale of Pieter Claesen Wyckoff and his journey from Europe as an indentured farm boy to one of the richest men in Nieuw Amersfoort. Examine traditional Dutch artifacts that would have been reminders of home for the settlers of the New World and learn about the new ways people learned to live and survive here.

Choose one hands-on activity: Butter Churning, Herbal Sachet Making, Quill Pen Writing, or Wool Felting