Ghosts of the Great Hall Activities
Each school year, the museum brings performances, demonstrations, and storytelling to student audiences as part of our seasonal Ghosts of the Great Hall programming. This page provides a series of activities for before, during and after a visit to one of these special programs. Teacher lesson plans, activity sheets, and student materials will be uploaded to this page two weeks before the beginning of the program.
This program explores the history, geography and geology of natural disasters in the Pacific Northwest. Performances for 2009 include a visit with Fay Fuller, first woman to climb Mount Rainier, Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille's harrowing experience in the Nisqually Glacier Blizzard, and exploration of Eastern Washington earthquakes and farming disasters with cowboy and rancher A.J. “Jack” Splawn. Quinault storyteller Harvest Moon will be sharing stories about the natural environment to provide students with a native perspective.
The program materials are provided below for your use. Materials marked with an asterix (*) feature specific characters that will be seen on the visit. However, Disaster may be used as a complete, stand-alone classroom unit as well with all readings.
For the 2009 program, you may wish to consider having students read the Yakama legend of Mount Adams or this excerpt about the Nisqually tribe's relationship with Mount Rainier either before or after the visit, to provide a comparison point for the stories they will hear while at the museum.
What was the Northwest Passage? Were there pirates on Washington's coast? Where is the "Graveyard of the Pacific"? Find answers to these questions and more when you sail the seas with performances about maritime explorers in the Pacific Northwest!
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