What a history!

Lea ing objective

1. The workshop aims to provide pupils with a positive experience of the museum. The museum is a pleasant and thought-provoking place, and I am happy to have it as part of my life.
2. The aim of the workshop is to provide the first building blocks – historical associations – for a historical worldview that gradually takes shape with age and lea ing.

Working hours

The videos and related tasks work well as three separate teaching units. The three videos are 12 minutes, 9 minutes and 20 minutes long. The suggested discussion topics can be completed in approximately 10–20 minutes. If you also utilise other parts of the workshop, the working time will increase gradually.

Preliminary task

If you have Mauri Kunnas’s picture books Koiramäen talossa (At Koiramäki’s House) and Koiramäen talvi (Winter at Koiramäki’s) within reach, you can browse through them. Look for cats in the books. Are there many cats, and how are they involved in everyday life? This task provides a nice introduction to the themes of the videos.

Films and related tasks

1. Watch the video “Kissala”

• The point of the video: Museums are homes of history. There, you can compare the present day with the past – what has changed?
• Highlights after watching the video:
  • In the old days, there was no water coming out of the tap.
  • In the old days, there were no electrical appliances.
  • In the old days, there were no radiators.
• Suggestion for discussion: What kind of electrical appliances do you have in your kitchen? What kind of electrical appliances do you have at home? If you had to choose only three electrical appliances to use, which ones would you choose? What was life like before electricity and electric lighting?
• Background: Electricity was brought to the Hyrylä area of Tuusula in 1918. The first power plant was established at the head of the Tuusula River, near the rapids. Elsewhere in Tuusula, people still had to wait for electricity to arrive.

2. Watch the video “Antton’s Dream”

• The point of the video: Before children started going to school and before the age of scientific knowledge, people had a vast number of different beliefs and ideas. Many beliefs conce ed luck: how to get more good luck and ward off bad luck.
• Highlights after watching the video: black cat and Easter witch, Easter egg, Easter whips.
• Suggestion for discussion: What kinds of things do you know that bring good luck (four-leaf clovers, horseshoes, rainbows, ladybirds)? Come up with your own, completely new ideas for things that bring good luck. And finally, what kinds of things make you truly happy?
• Background: In Finland, all children have attended school, i.e. lea ed to read and write, for only about one human lifetime. The Compulsory Education Act celebrated its 100th anniversary on 15 April 2021.

3. Watch the video “Clown and Puppet Theatre”

• The point of the video: Even ordinary things can have surprising and wonderful histories. Puppet theatre lifts the veil of secrecy on the history of a pet familiar to us all – the cat. Where have cats travelled during their history?
• Highlights after viewing:
  • Cats were important animals to the ancient Egyptians.
  • Cats came to Finland with the Vikings.
  • The ancient Finns knew the guardian cat Kipinättären. It could be conjured up to chase away thieves. The sparking is caused by static electricity that accumulates in the cat's fur.
• Play or theatre: Create your own little cat-themed theatre or play. Other animals can also be part of the adventure – woof! You can also try being clowns. Clowns stumble around in a funny way. They can cry and laugh, and they make others cry and laugh too. You can also paint your face to look like a clown or a cat. 
• Discussion topics: What cats do you know? Do you have any fond memories of cats? Why were cats so important to people in the past? How are cats and other pets important to us today? What can we lea from cats and other animals?

This content has been translated using AI