Travel back in time to meet the Prince and Thorpe families—the real people who lived in two of our unique historic homes. Through exploration and comparison of cultural traditions, home life, family roles and responsibilities, students will gain an understanding of how families and communities have changed over time and how they have stayed the same.

This popular program unites songs, stories, and homespun crafts with the pageantry of a prairie school concert. Wholesome fun and seasonal charm take centre stage, highlighting community fellowship regardless of religious or cultural background. The program is topped off with an old-fashioned horse drawn wagon ride (weather permitting).

Explore our historical buildings as you follow a family who just arrived in town. Discover some of our landmarks, and learn about jobs people did and the goods and services they relied upon. By the end of the program, students will have a new understanding of how everyone contributed to strengthen a community rich in traditions.

While visiting Heritage Park, find out how our little community differs from your neighbourhood. Discover how our village inhabitants, with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, each contributed as individuals and cooperated together to build and develop a strong community.

What creates a community? This program will engage your students with stories of remarkable individuals who laid the cornerstones of justice and compassion in early Calgary. See the growth of Calgary through historic maps and photographs, from isolated ‘Mountie’ outpost, to a bustling prairie city. Meet Colonel James Macleod and his courageous wife Mary at the Sandstone House. A visit to the Cottage Hospital reveals the story of Jimmie Smith, a humble Chinese immigrant who helped fund Calgary’s first hospital. Your class will learn that no matter who you are, everyone can make their community and the world a better place.

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to go to school in the olden days, here’s your chance. The “One Room School House” program allows students to soak up the atmosphere of a century-old school while our staff delivers an historic lesson with chalk and slate. (Bring a stick pony and ride to the pony barn, just like the farm kids did 100 years ago!)

Who are the people in your neighbourhood? What jobs do they do? What sorts of tools and vehicles do they need to do their jobs well? Are the jobs of the 21st century the same as those 75 or even 100 years ago?

Introduce your students to the stories of fur traders, Indigenous peoples, and early settlers on Canada’s western frontier. Discover how the beaver pelt brought Indigenous groups and Europeans together and how communities developed and grew on the prairies. Taste fresh bannock made on the open hearth in the Hudson’s Bay Company Fort. Visit the original log home of Sam Livingston and his Métis wife Jane to compare home life then and now.