Learn At Home

Learn at Home
Resources for students and families
Special thanks to Tacoma Creates for supporting our Learn at Home resources.

Kids Activities
Arts and crafts materials for Tacoma-area kids

We're hosting Craft Saturdays.
We are offering take-home craft activities. Pick up your craft kit each month from the museum's front porch on designated Saturdays.

Winter/Spring 2024 Craft Saturday Events
January 20 - Indoor Games Kit
February 10 - Lunar Dragon Eye
March 15 - Log Cabin Art
April 13 - Flower Planting
May 4 - Old Town Craft & Music Fest

More details on our Facebook page.
Instructional videos for our past craft activities are available on the Museum's YouTube channel.
We're bringing the museum to you.
Museum activity packets in Tacoma neighborhoods
Our volunteers regularly deliver activity packets to over 100 Little Free Library locations throughout the Tacoma area. Inside each folder are 6 activities designed for kids and a book. The learning materials are designed for children ages 3-12.

Take a look inside our Little Free Library museum activity packets with this 1-minute video. Keep an eye out for our folders at Tacoma Little Free Libraries throughout the year.

Also look for our community booth on select dates at the Tacoma Farmers Market , Proctor Farmers Market , and other local events.
Perspectives in Old Town
Find out about the people and places that were important to the history of this area with our Perspectives in Old Town Scavenger Hunt. Along the route, you'll learn more about the Puyallup people and the immigrants who settled in this area during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This printable walking route begins and ends at Job Carr Cabin Museum in Old Town Park -- 2350 N 30th St, Tacoma.

Print at Home

Homemade Butter
Get a taste of pioneer life with this easy recipe

Try This At Home

Draw Job Carr
Use this tutorial from local artist Benjamin Davis?

Try This at Home

Old Town Scavenger Hunt
Take a walk through the Old Town Tacoma neighborhood to learn about Job Carr, the transcontinental railroad, and the industries that helped the City of Tacoma to grow in the 1800s. Along your route, you'll visit the location of Tacoma's oldest restaurant, first church, and first schoolhouse.

This printable walking route begins and ends at Job Carr Cabin Museum in Old Town Park -- 2350 N 30th St, Tacoma.

Print At Home

Hot & Cold Game
Play a classic indoor pioneer game, perfect for a rainy day

Try This at Home

Hard Tack
Make a batch of pioneer biscuits with this dough recipe

Try This at Home

Art Scavenger Hunt
Draw a picture of items you see in your home and neighborhood with this printable children's activity.

Print at Home

Winter Activity Bingo
Ideas for keeping kids active on chilly days in the Pacific Northwest

Print At Home
A Day In The Life of a Pioneer Child
Find out more about daily life for Tacoma children in the 1870s in this 4-part series.
Morning Routines
Starting the Day
What style of clothing did pioneer children wear?
What types of chores did kids do?
What did they eat for breakfast?
School Days
Tacoma's First Schools
What did pioneer children learn at school?
What did kids eat for lunch?
What did they play at recess?
Entertainment
Fun & Games
What types of toys and games pioneer kids play?
What did children do on rainy days?
What kind of music did they listen to?
Evening Routines
Hygiene & Bedtime
What did pioneer children eat for supper?
How did kids clean up at the end of the day?
How did they sleep?
Crossword Puzzle
Review
Test your knowledge with a crossword puzzle
All answers can be found in the 4-part Day In The Life series
What Was Job Carr's Life Like Before He Moved West?
Learn at Home Lesson 1 - Designed for 3^rd and 4^th grade students, this lesson plan includes reading, social studies, writing and art. It provides students with an opportunity to learn about Job Carr’s life before he traveled west along the Oregon Trail. Students conduct a close reading of a first-person historical narrative, complete a timeline of sequential events, and create an illustrated storyboard of these events.

This material is adapted from the Museum's award-winning traveling trunk curriculum for schools.

Download This Lesson

Where Was The Oregon Trail?
Learn at Home Lesson 2 - Designed for 4^th grade students, this lesson plan includes math, reading, writing, and social studies. It provides students with an opportunity to learn about important landmarks along the Oregon Trail. Students use a grid map to plot a route across the western United States, complete a close reading activity about Oregon Trail landmarks, and write an opinion paragraph about which landmark was most important to the pioneers.

This material is adapted from the Museum's award-winning traveling trunk curriculum for schools.

Download This Lesson

What Did Job Carr See And Do When He Arrived In Puget Sound?
Learn at Home Lesson 3 - Designed for 4^th grade students, this lesson plan includes reading, social studies and art. It encourages students to think critically about what the Puget Sound area looked like when settlers first began to arrive. It provides students with an opportunity to compare and contrast primary and secondary historical sources.

This material is adapted from the Museum's award-winning traveling trunk curriculum for schools.

Download This Lesson

What Would It Be Like For Job Carr To Travel Through Puget Sound?
Part A
Learn at Home Lesson 4, Part A - Designed for 4^th grade students, this lesson plan includes social studies, P.E., math, and writing. It provides students with an opportunity to learn about daily life and transportation in Washington territory for the era prior to statehood.
In Part A, students increase their knowledge of local geography, maps, and trip planning to understand how tribal members and early settlers traveled around Puget Sound.
This material is adapted from the Museum's award-winning traveling trunk curriculum for schools.

Download This Lesson

What Would It Be Like For Job Carr To Travel Through Puget Sound?
Part B
Learn at Home Lesson 4, Part B - Designed for 4^th grade students, this lesson plan includes social studies, P.E., math, and writing. It provides students with an opportunity to learn about daily life and transportation in Washington territory for the era prior to statehood.
In Part B, students write a narrative story about an imagined journey during the 1860s, before the arrival of the transcontinental railroad.
This material is adapted from the Museum's award-winning traveling trunk curriculum for schools.

Download This Lesson

How Has Tacoma Grown?
Learn at Home Lesson 5 - Designed for 4^th grade students, this lesson plan includes social studies, reading, and math. Students examine historical photographs to learn more about the development of the city of Tacoma, including the importance of the transcontinental railroad. They compare and contrast the past with the present by analyzing a historical advertisement. Students also use census data from 1870 to 2010 to graph the population growth of Tacoma.

This material is adapted from the Museum's award-winning traveling trunk curriculum for schools.

Download This Lesson
Activity Pages
Downloadable resources for school or home

Dot-to-Dot
Travel the Oregon Trail
Can you help Job Carr follow the dots along the Oregon Trail map?
Word Search
Native American Tribes
Can you find the names of the tribes Job Carr may have met on his journey west?
Maze
Tacoma to Steilacoom
Can you help Job Carr find his way?
Word Search
Railroad
Can you find the words about trains?
Word Mining
Oregon Trail
Can you use the letters to create new words?
Word Match
Pioneer Vocabulary
Can you connect the Oregon Trail word pairs?
Word Scramble
Pioneers on Puget Sound
Can you unscramble the pioneer words?
Crossword
Job Carr's Life and Times
Can you solve the clues to find out more about Job Carr?
Nature Riddles
Brain Teasers
Can you solve these word puzzles?
Board Game
The Great Mail Race
Can you be the first to deliver the letter?
Job's Cabin
Coloring Page
Job Carr
Coloring Page
Bear
Coloring Page
Cabin With Apple Tree
Coloring Page
Cabin with Mountain
Coloring Page
Cabin at Night
Coloring Page
Job and Cabin
Coloring Page
Oregon Trail
Coloring Page
Fishing
Coloring Page
Annual Coloring Contest
Congratulations to our 2022 winners!
Entries were selected by public vote at the Tacoma Fiber Fling.

Patchwork Quilt Design
Age 7-12 category: Gracelynn
Patchwork Quilt Design
Age 0-6 category: Aadhya