Primary Archives - The Hunt Museum

Design a Sustainable Village

Design a Sustainable Village

Suitability : 4th – 6th Class

Duration : 2.5 hours including break

Cost: €3.50 per pupil, Teachers go Free

 

This workshop supports pupils, 4th to 6th classes, to design a thriving eco village which harnesses green energy, grows its own food and supports and cherishes all of its community, while minimising its impact on our planet.  

Discussion on the UN Sustainable Goals, object based learning and games relating to sustainable living in the past, present and future, will support pupils to define the scope of their futuristic eco village. They will then work in teams, using drawing, making and collage, to visually represent it.

Workshop Activities

  • Interactive Game: Play Design a Renewable House and make smart energy choices.
  • Explore Seán Keating’s Night’s Candles Are Burnt Out to discover how electricity transformed Ireland.
  • Examine artefacts that have been repurposed or repaired in inventive ways.
  • Collaborate to come up with creative, sustainable solutions for a more mindful society.
  • Work together to design their own sustainable village.

Key Learning Objectives 

  • Consumer Choices & the Environment
  • UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • Sustainable Living at Home
  • Recycling & Renewable Energy
  • Creative Learning & Innovation

Booking is Essential

Contact

emma@huntmuseum.com

call :061 490083

Clay Through the Ages

Clay Through the Ages

Suitability: 3rd- 6th Class

Duration : 2.15 hours ( including break)

Cost: €5 per pupil, Teachers Go Free

Step into the world of clay and explore its journey through history in this engaging, hands-on workshop! Participants will uncover how ceramics have evolved, from Bronze Age artifacts to modern-day creations, examining pieces from the Hunt Museum’s collection. Through this exploration, students will gain a deeper understanding of how clay has shaped cultures, reflected human creativity, and served both artistic and practical purposes across time.

Workshop Highlights:

  • Discover the properties of clay and its many uses in daily life.
  • Learn how different civilizations developed clay technology for trade, domestic use, and rituals.
  • Create a food vessel using traditional hand-building techniques like pinch pots, coiling, and slab-building.

This workshop offers a unique opportunity to connect with the past while exploring the continuing evolution of clay as an essential material in both art and function.

Science : Materials; Properties and characteristics of materials Materials and change

Environmental Awareness & Care ; Environmental Awareness

Visual Arts ;Clay

History: Early People and Ancient Societies; Bronze Age People, Ancient Greeks; Continuity and Change Over Time

Maths; Shape and Space: 2-D shapes3-D shapes; Symmetry Lines and Angles

 

Five children smiling and sitting in the Hunt Museum, holding various pottery and decorated tiles, conveying excitement and curiosity about ancient artifacts.

26-03-2025 Hunt Museum Clay Workshop. Picture: Keith Wiseman

Children focusing intently on clay modelling at a table. A girl in a pink shirt works closely, while others in vibrant attire engage nearby. Creative, focused atmosphere.

26-03-2025 Hunt Museum Clay Workshop. Picture: Keith Wiseman

A group of children gathered around a table engaging in a pottery class with an instructor. They appear focused and attentive, working with clay.

26-03-2025 Hunt Museum Clay Workshop. Picture: Keith Wiseman

Three smiling children sit in the Hunt Museum near a glass display of ancient pottery. More children sit in the background, creating a lively and curious atmosphere.

26-03-2025 Hunt Museum Clay Workshop. Picture: Keith Wiseman

A young girl gazes thoughtfully at ornate, colourful pottery displayed in the Hunt Museum, reflecting interest and curiosity. A woman and child are nearby.

26-03-2025 Hunt Museum Clay Workshop. Picture: Keith Wiseman

A guide explains ancient pottery to attentive children through a glass display in the Hunt Museum. The scene feels educational and engaging.

26-03-2025 Hunt Museum Clay Workshop. Picture: Keith Wiseman

A woman stands by a display of ornate pottery in the Hunt Museum, engaging a group of seated children. The setting conveys curiosity and learning.

26-03-2025 Hunt Museum Clay Workshop. Picture: Keith Wiseman

A group of children and a woman look at The Hunt Museum artifacts behind glass, including a ceramic animal and decorative plates, with a curious, engaged atmosphere.

26-03-2025 Hunt Museum Clay Workshop. Picture: Keith Wiseman

John Hunt Collector & Archaeologist workshop delivered through zoom


Location: Zoom
Suitability: 3rd & 4th class
Duration: 30 minutes

Cost : Free

To Book contact the education team at

education@huntmuseum.com or call 061 490089

The Hunt Museum Collection speaks to John Hunt`s curiosity about the world he lived in, ancient cultures, archaeology, art and fine craftsmanship. 

In this live, online, taster workshop learners will virtually access the world of John Hunt through archival photographs, Collection images and short animations and a live discussion with a member of staff from the Hunt Museum. They will develop a broad understanding of the types of objects he collected, where he sourced them, as well as the impact he made in the field of Irish archaeology while living in Lough Gur. 

 

Curricular Links
History: Working as a historian; Stories from the lives of people in the past 
Science: Working Scientifically; Materials 
Geography: A sense of place and space; Maps, globes & geographical skills; Human Environments

Making Ink – ARMA

ARMA – Making Ink: Suitable for 4th – 6th Class

Primary School Arma Educational Resources

Medieval Manuscripts provide scholars and historians with insights into society and culture during the Middle Ages. They are also of interest to scientists, as they provide evidence of how different coloured inks and dyes were created using materials found in nature. Under this theme, primary school pupils will have the opportunity to experiment with pigments from natural materials inspired by those used in Medieval Manuscripts. The first video will introduce pupils to ink making in the Medieval period, recipes to achieve different colours, and the level of creativity and ingenuity required to make such inks. The second video provides tutorials on how to make ink from foraged and natural materials found in your nearby area.

Click here for ARMA Reading Aloud resource.

Click here for ARMA Calligraphy programme.

With Thanks to

Reading Aloud – ARMA

This programme will introduce primary school pupils to the practice of reading in the Middle Ages and how it was different from reading today. Pupils will begin by playing the interactive Reading Aloud Game, which will encourage them to think about what reading is and how it changed over time. The lesson plan that follows outlines a series of performance-based activities inspired by the research of Eleanor Giraud on Melodic Lection Marks, and how they aided with reading aloud. Following this programme, pupils will have a greater understanding of the practice of reading aloud in Medieval times, the shift towards silent reading, and how this changed our relationship with the written word.

Click here for ARMA Making Ink resource.

Click here for ARMA Calligraphy programme.

Play ARMA`S interactive Reading Aloud Game

With Thanks to

Calligraphy – ARMA

Welcome to the Art of Reading in the Middle Ages (ARMA) curriculum linked teaching and learning resources for schools. These harness medieval digital collections from the Hunt Museum and Limerick Museum and manuscripts available through Europeana Foundation

The ARMA programme aims to explore how reading culture evolved in the Middle Ages and became a fundamental aspect of European culture. The main objectives of this programme is to digitise up to 20,000 medieval manuscripts (c. 500 and c. 1500) and make them accessible online for anyone to use copyright free.  Critically the programme will also unlock the educational potential of these digital collections by producing an online exhibition, blogs and other editorials and teaching and learning resources.

Click here for ARMA Making Ink resource.

Click here for ARMA Reading Aloud Resource

Resource 1: Calligraphy in the Middle Ages

Suitability: 4th to 6th classes

A man in medieval blue robes and a red cap naps at a wooden desk in a dimly lit room with bookshelves, arched windows, and intricate wall designs.

Translator at work from BL Royal 18 E III, f. 24 by Valerius Maximus, translated by Simon de Hesdin and Nicholas de Gonesse - 1479 - The British Library, United Kingdom - Public Domain.

Illuminated medieval manuscript depicts a crucifixion scene with vivid colours and intricate details, featuring haloed figures in a solemn composition.

Manuscript leaf from a Book of Pericopes/Animal,Skin,Mammal skin,Parchment,Vellum/12th century AD/The Hunt Collection/PD

A framed, medieval manuscript page with Latin text in brown ink, featuring visible stitching along the edges, conveying an antique and historic feel.

Manuscript leaf from a Book of Pericopes/Animal,Skin,Mammal skin,Parchment,Vellum/12th century AD/The Hunt Collection/PD

Visual Art

  • Strand – Drawing
  • Strand Unit- Making Drawings

 

History

  • Strand: Life, Society, Work & Culture
  • Strand Unit: Life in Medieval town & countryside

Teaching Materials

Today it is easy and quick to record and disseminate information, but in the Middle Ages this process was slow and laborious. All books known as manuscripts were copied by hand using a decorative style of script known as calligraphy.

These teaching materials will enable primary school children to learn about the process and history of calligraphy by comparing and contrasting manuscript examples from Europeana’s collections and historical objects from Limerick Museum and the Hunt Museum associated with the practice of calligraphy. The children will then fashion a calligraphy pen and use it to create their own piece of calligraphy.

With thanks to:

Communities of Culture Loan Box

Communities of Culture Loan Box for Primary Schools.

The Hunt Museum offers a range of different loan boxes containing an array of handling material, and activity resources, that can bring the past to life in the classroom.

Choice of two loan boxes to choose from – the Northside loan box and/or the Southside loan box. Created by local community groups with activities and workshops relating to the culture and heritage in these areas.

Viking Loan Box

Available to rent for 5 days at a cost of 35  Euro

Suitable for Primary and Secondary Schools

This  loan box comes with a set of instructions enabling teachers to set up and deliver our fun and engaging workshops in the classroom.

This loan box contains an array of replica objects and activity resources, that  bring the history of the Viking Age to life.

Teachers must be able to collect and return loan boxes to and from the hunt museum

Animal Hunt Online

This 20 minute video workshop introduces Primary School pupils to animal based collections at the Hunt Museum. Pupils learn how artists throughout history have depicted animals in their art, and why certain animals are important to different cultures. Pupils  will be introduced to the online research tools that will help them complete the Animal Hunt 3D online activity.

 

Animal Hunt 3D Workshop

History

  • Strand: Early people and ancient societies

Art

  • Strand: Drawing
  • Strand: Making & constructing
  • Strand: Looking & Observing

Ancient Ireland- Life in the Stone and Bronze Ages 

 

For 3rd and 4th Classes
Cost: 3.50 per pupil, teachers go free!
Duration: 2 hours including 15 minute break

This workshop takes learners on a journey through the Stone Age and Bronze Age. Through the handling of replica objects and analyzing archaeology in the Collection, they will learn how people lived, their beliefs and practices and what technologies emerged and evolved during these prehistoric periods. Visual thinking strategies will be used in conjunction with our beautifully illustrated Life in the Bronze Age exhibition, deepening learner knowledge.

 

 

 

 

History

  • Working as a historian
  • Early People and Ancient Societies
  • Community and change over time
  • Local studies

Science

  • Materials

Geography

  • Human Environments

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