Designed for students in grades 1 through 5, School Frolics provide five educational and fun-filled hours of learning about Colonial America through living history demonstrations and hands-on activities. 

Frolics educate the whole student by providing a multi-faceted educational experience around the 1719 Hans Herr House and the life and culture of the Swiss-German Mennonites that settled here. This learning opportunity takes place along "The Great Conestoga Road" at the very birth-place of Lancaster County.

New in Spring 2013 will be the addition of the Longhouse, where the life and culture of eastern woodland Native Americans will be shown. Learn about the food they ate, the tools they used and and the impact the Europeans had on their very existence.

The Frolic curriculum guides students through a series of stations at which interpreters demonstrate cooking and crafts, explain Colonial and Native American lifestyles, and highlight notable features of the 1719 House, the Longhouse and surrounding gardens and orchards.

• Hands on
  Frolic participants receive the unique chance to see, hear, smell, and taste the elements of Colonial & Native American life. Students get to play colonial & native games and participate in demonstrations like basket making, quilting, butter churning, scherenschnitte and fraktur. When they are done, they can wash up with authentic home-made soap.
• Authentic
  Frolics reveal the authentic details of 1750 clothing, Germanic architecture, blacksmithing, a four-square German garden, wool spinning, fabric dyeing and treenware, in addition to authentic Native American architecture, hide tanning, food preparation and basket making.
• Flavorful
  Students will enjoy tastes of Colonial & Native American life including freshly made butter, three sisters soup, smoked sausage, ginger bread and pound cake. Frolics are enhanced by the smells of a blacksmith’s fire, smoke-house smoke, woodshop shavings, livestock and a wood fire on the hearth.

School Frolics at the 1719 Herr House are a great culminating activity to any social studies or history curriculum.

2013 Frolics

Friday, April 26, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Friday, May 10, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Friday, May 24, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Friday, October 11,  9:00 AM – 2:00 PM —with reservation priority for home school students

Among other activities, each school group will be scheduled to participate in three timed events: a Herr House tour, a Longhouse tour, and Colonial and Native American games.

Students—$ 6
One adult chaperone per 8 students—Free
Additional adults—$ 5

To register

Contact . Registration is required at least 5 weeks prior to the event. A non-refundable deposit is required for each group registering for the Frolics.