Our School Programs
Programs for Grades 1-6 and House tours for Grades 1-12
Your students will explore and tour Alberta’s most opulent and significant Victorian sandstone mansion. Through hands-on inquiry based learning, they’ll explore through artifacts that will empower them to create a connection with the past. Immerse your students in Lady Lougheed’s Métis heritage by learning how to dance the Red River jig, just as she would have done. Use theatre to explore the diverse stories of families who immigrated to Alberta, let your students try their hand at building their own Victorian Christmas gifts, and so much more!
Half-day and full-day programs are available only on Mondays and Tuesdays. Group Tour bookings are available Wednesdays through Fridays.
Schedule Example
AM Program Start Time: 10:00 (bus arrives at 9:45)
AM Program End Time: 11:30 am
Lunch (11:45pm– 12:15pm)
PM Program Start Time: 12:15 pm
PM Program End Time: 13:50 pm
Bus Pick up time: 14:00 pm
LADY BELLE: FROM FUR TRADE FORT TO BEAULIEU MANSION Grades 2-5 (Social Studies)
The Lady of Lougheed House, Isabella Hardisty Lougheed (Lady Belle), had an extraordinary life. From spending her early childhood in the far north to her arduous travels by canoe and wagon across Canada, students will explore her rich Métis heritage and her family connections to the fur trade and Hudson’s Bay Company. By being fully immersed in the house itself, students will compare what it might have been like to live in a small, rough fur-trading fort versus a large, rich, beautiful mansion. This program includes a tour of Lougheed House as well as a hands-on exploration of culturally significant artifacts.
LIFE AT LOUGHEED HOUSE Grades 1-5 (Social Studies)
From Maids and Butlers, to Cooks and Gardeners, this program explores the lives of the many people who lived and worked at Lougheed House over a hundred years ago. Students will be introduced to artifact handling and will have the opportunity to interact with a wide assortment of historical objects and tools. As a group they will identify who in the house would have used each item and will reflect on how those same tasks are accomplished today. Upstairs, students will be given a tour which will detail what a typical day would have consisted of for a member of the Lougheed family or their staff.
ART EXPLORERS Grades 1-6 (Social Studies and Art)
Lougheed House is rich in its unique Victorian style and design motifs. After learning sketching techniques, students will be given supervised time to explore the house and will be encouraged to closely observe their surroundings by using sketching as a mode of looking. All art supplies used by the students are provided, i.e. worksheets, pencils, and clipboards.
A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY Grades 4-6 (Social Studies)
This program tells the stories of six families, of different backgrounds, who chose to immigrate to Alberta at the turn of the century. Upstairs, students will have the opportunity to connect with the personal stories of these families and reflect upon the reasons they chose to immigrate to Alberta through short readers theatre plays, complete with a small stage set and props. A variety of roles will be available so that all students will have a positive experience participating in this activity. Downstairs, students will interact with and investigate an extensive collection of culturally significant objects which families chose to bring to Alberta. Students will learn about how these objects are endowed with both personal and cultural meanings.
Common Questions
Half-Day Field Trip (House History + 1 Program)
$105 for up to 15 students. $7 for each additional student to a maximum of 50.
Full-Day Field Trip (House History + 2 Programs)
$210 for up to 15 students. $14 for each additional student to a maximum of 50.
House Tours - 1 hour
$50 for up to 10 students. $5.00 for each additional student, up to a maximum of 25.
AN INTIMATE CONNECTION WITH CALGARY’S PAST In 1891 James and Isabella Lougheed, one of Alberta’s most influential families, built this beautiful mansion on what was then the outskirts of a young pioneer town.
Since then, Dukes and Duchesses, Princes and Princesses, and the first female contingent of the Canadian army during WWII, have stayed at Lougheed House and brought with them their own unique stories. These personal stories of fascinating people are the connective threads running through all of our school programs.
Students can metaphorically grasp the threads and unravel these unique histories as a lived experience as opposed to a static, abstract concept. The intimate and familiar environment of our cozy home is a truly unique learning space, where we empower students to create a personal connection with the past, one that informs the present and future.
A great in-class resource for teachers!
Use the new Virtual Museum of Canada online exhibit, Conflicting Loyalties: The Hardisty Family Legacy, to teach your students about Lady Isabella Lougheed’s fascinating life story and identity. Her childhood journey that brought her from an HBC outpost in Fort Resolution, NWT to Calgary where she became a feted, generous and influential citizen, is rewarding visual material for your students.
The exhibit reveals a complex, determined, generous woman, and her experiences in the new community of Calgary is as rich and engrossing as a great historical novel.
