Virginia Standards of Learning at the Wayside Foundation Museums

Local resources offer many opportunities for the classroom teacher to satisfy standards-based learning. The Wayside Foundation Museums - Museum of American Presidents, Stonewall Jackson Museum, and Crystal Caverns - offer your students a unique learning experience.

Each of our school programs is keyed to the SOLs and provides age-appropriate activities. All programs partner teaching and modeling of critical and creative thinking skills with the acquisition of accurate historical, cultural, and/or geological information. We are committed to interpreting the SOLs with innovative, interdisciplinary, and interactive programs for your students, who learn best by doing. To this end, we offer activity-based museum experiences and outreach programs that make history come alive!

To book a tour, contact Babs Melton, Director, 33229 Old Valley Pike, Strasburg, VA 22657, 540.465.5884, or Email: wayside@shentel.net.

Listed below are standard school tours we offer for each grade level. A description of each tour, referencing the applicable SOLs, follows. We promise to work with you to achieve your classroom goals, either by providing standard tours or by devising a new tour to your specifications.

• Kindergarten - Flag Tour, Earth Cycles Tour
• Grade 1 - Flag Tour, Earth Cycles Tour
• Grade 2 - Colonial or Civil War Lifeways Tour, Famous Americans Tour, Earth Cycles Tour
• Grade 3 - Famous Americans Tour, Shortages and Substitutes Tour, Earth Cycles Tour
• Grade 4 - Virginia Presidents Tour, Civil War Virginia Tour, Earth Cycles Tour
• Grade 5 - Earth Cycles Tour or Mini Course, Revolutionary America Tour, Causes and Effects Tour
• Grade 6 - 20th Century Presidents Tour
• Grade 7 - Founding Documents Tour, Civil War Economies Tour
• Grade 9 - Earth Science Tour/Mini Course
• Grade 11 - Revolution and Early America Tour, Causes and Effects Tour, 20th Century Presidents Tour
• Grade 12 - Shortages and Substitutes Tour, US Government Tour

Activities at Museum of American Presidents explore the lives of G. Washington and A. Lincoln, including the Cherry Tree story as an example of honesty and courage; the celebration of Independence and Presidents Days; the American flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Star-Spangled Banner; and counting objects numbering 13 to 50 in a given set.

Activities compare contemporary life with everyday Colonial and First American life (at Museum of American Presidents) or Civil War soldier, civilian, and Indian life (at Stonewall Jackson Museum). Both tours explore buildings, jobs, transportation, population, clothing, and toys/games.

Activities at Museum of American Presidents explore the contributions of G. Washington, T. Jefferson, A. Lincoln, H. Keller, S. B. Anthony, J. Robinson, & M.L King.

Appropriate grade level activities at Stonewall Jackson Museum explore Civil War era sectional economic specialization and interdependence; the interaction of supply and demand; and the effects of scarcity and inflation on Civil War Virginia.

Activities at Museum of American Presidents explore causes of the Revolution; Virginia's contributions to the Founding Documents; and the contributions of the 8 Virginia-born presidents.

Activities at Stonewall Jackson Museum explore sectional differences, Jackson's leadership, and the 1862 and 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaigns.

Guided tour of Crystal Caverns surveys grade appropriate topics, including rock cycles and types; earth history and fossil evidence; basic structure of the Earth's interior; plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanic activity; formation of limestone caves, weathering, and erosion processes; human impact and endangered species.

The half-day program includes an in-depth Earth Cycles Tour plus a walking tour of Hupp's Hill karst topography, highlighting natural springs, sinkholes, wild caves, and limestone outcroppings.

Activities at Museum of American Presidents explore issues leading to and philosophies behind the Declaration of Independence; leadership during and causes and results of the Revolution; the Founding Documents; separation of powers; and issues facing the first five Presidents.

Activities at Stonewall Jackson Museum explore sectional differences and events leading to the Civil War; famous leaders; the Valley Campaigns; and life of the common soldier, civilian, and Indian during the war.

Grade appropriate activities at Museum of American Presidents explore presidential leadership during, major events of, and causes & effects of: the Spanish American War, the Progressive era, World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, post-war rebuilding, the Cold War, collapse of Communism, and post 1980 challenges.

Activities at Museum of American Presidents explore foundations of US constitutional government, including the Founding Documents; role of the Electoral College; separation of powers with checks and balances; procedures for amendment, spotlighting the 25th Amendment; and roles & powers of the executive branch.

Activities at Stonewall Jackson Museum explore the economic concepts of supply and demand, scarcity, choices, trade-offs, and inflation by examining production of food, textiles, and armaments in Civil War Virginia.

Guided tour of Crystal Caverns surveys the interactions and dynamics of complex earth systems; how to read and interpret maps and topographic profiles; how to identify &and the use of minerals; three types of rocks and the rock cycle; effects of resource use on Earth systems; environmental costs and benefits; Virginia physiographic provinces; geologic process; tectonics; development of Karst topography; identification of groundwater zones; rivers, springs, and aquifers; fossils & sedimentary rocks; and fossils from many geologic periods and epoch.

The half-day course includes an in-depth Earth Science Tours plus a walking tour of Hupp's Hill karst topography, highlighting limestone outcroppings & overhangs, sinkholes & wild caves, and natural springs & their attendant features.

Activities at Museum of American Presidents explore political philosophies of Hobbes, Locke, & Montesquieu that shaped the Constitution; the doctrine of natural rights expressed in the Declaration of Independence; the role of the Federalist Papers in the ratification of the Constitution; the political expressed in the Preamble of the Constitution; the Presidency as established by Article II; and the amendment process, spotlighting the 25th Amendment.