Topics of workshops:
1. Cloud’s Siberian Adventures
Duration of the workshops: 45 minutes (+ time to use the changing room)
Key words: war, emotions, loss, empathy
Description: Our guide during the workshops will be the main character from the book “Syberyjskie Przygody Chmurki” (‘Cloud’s Siberian Adventures’). She was taken to Sybir together with her mum and grandma during World War II. Thanks to the big map and a special time loop we will find out how long ago it was and how far she got.
Her fates will make us familiar in an emotionally safe way with the difficult expressions such as: war, lost, deportation. Mutual lecture and art will make it easier. We will be able to think what is the difference between our and the character’s reality.
Lesson was made in partnership with the Literatura publishing house.
2. Suitcase full of stories
Duration of the workshops: 45 minutes (+ time to use the changing room)
Key words: museum, empathy, war, deportations
Description: During the workshops we will find out how does a modern museum work and what does it take care of. In an active way we will get to know the rules of behaving at the exhibition and using the multimedia systems. We will ‘touch’ history by getting to know the replicas of the exhibits presented in our walls.
The museum’s story is an opportunity to introduce difficult words such as war and deportations. We will get to know it in an emotionally safe way, based on empathy and the pairs of concepts understandable for children such as home and the necessity of moving out or danger and a dangerous situation.
3. Siberia – the land of mysteries. Art workshops.
Duration of the workshops: 45-60 minutes (+ time to use the changing room)
Key words: nature, Siberia, art
Description: We managed to transfer a piece of Siberia to the museum, together with its unusual plants and animals. Thanks to the use of virtual reality goggles, we will be able to see with our own eyes how wild and cruel, and at the same time beautiful, the land to which Polish exiles ended up.
Together we will set off on a journey through the Siberian taiga, tundra and steppe, discovering part of the extremely rich nature of this beautiful land. We will be accompanied by a steppe manul, a Siberian burunduk and a Kamchatka bear. A souvenir from the classes will be a large map of Siberia made by hand.
4. Bear, who became a soldier.
Duration of the workshops: 50 minutes (+time to use the changing room)
Key words: Wojtek the Bear, animals in the war, map
Description: Animals have long been used in wars, mainly for transport, but how did a small Syrian bear become a Polish soldier? Not only will we solve this puzzle, but we will also find out where our military men found the famous Wojtek the Bear and how far they traveled together.
On our journey through three continents, we will be accompanied by riddles that we will have to use many senses and use our imagination to solve. Piece by piece, we will learn the fate of Wojtek the Bear: from playing wrestling with soldiers, eating marmalade with them, helping to carry heavy boxes with ammunition, and ending with the difficult decision to part ways…
Thematical paths:
1. What is your sign? The White Eagle
Duration of the workshops: 50 minutes (+ time to use the changing room)
Key words: emblem, the White Eagle, national symbols, patriotism
Description: We know the title words from an early age. But will we be able to find Polish national symbols at the exhibition? For the youngest trackers, there is a test of perceptiveness and a discussion about what these symbols are and whether they can only be an emblem, anthem and a flag. We will also find Polish emblems, secretly made by gulagers and exiles. How much effort did it take to create such an item? Was it risky? Together we will try to answer these questions, trying to understand what patriotism was and is. The history of these objects and their creators is also a pretext to introduce children to the difficult subject of Polish Siberia.
2. First visit to the Museum
Duration of the workshops: 40-60 minutes (+ time to use the changing room)
Key words: museum, family mementos, exhibit
Description: During the first meeting with the Sybir Memorial Museum, we will see how many tasks this institution performs. We will enter the largest exhibit and the world of the permanent exhibition. We will discover that behind an ordinary object there are often extraordinary stories. We will learn, for example, the fate of the teddy bear who traveled halfway around the world. We will also learn how a doll in Polish, highlander clothes got to Africa. Meetings with ordinary-unusual exhibits will encourage us to learn about the stories hidden in family mementos.
As a part of the path there is the possibility of visiting the background of the Museum (for example the Conservation Workshop, the exhibit magazine) and meet the museum’s workers taking care of the collections.
