The Mill at Anselma Educational Programs

Group Tours

The Mill at Anselma strives to provide visitors of all ages with a fun, hands-on educational experience. This c. 1747 grist mill has witnessed the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and many other historical highs and lows in its 250+ years. We have chosen to represent the site as it evolved over the years, rather than restore it to one particular period, to give visitors a better understanding of change over time.

Please click here for “General Guidelines for Group Tours.”

Group Tours

Special Programs

Pancakes, Pancakes Program

Simple Machines Program

Run of the Mill Program

Millers' Forum

Special Programs

We offer many opportunities for students and groups to explore the past beyond our traditional site tours. We encourage our visitors to experience the Mill through taste, touch, sight, smell and sound, and offer a variety of programs that suitable for history, economics, science and English curricula.

"Pancakes, Pancakes” Program

Grades Pre-K - 4
This program gives students a basic understanding of where food—in this case flour and cornmeal—comes from. Students enjoy a tour of the grist mill, where they can help the miller shell corn, grind the grains, and sift the flour. Then the students help Mill staff bake cornbread with the newly ground cornmeal, after a reading from the Eric Carle book “Pancakes, Pancakes,” which tells the story of how the food we eat every day makes the journey from the field to the table. This program is best experienced as a milling tour.

Pancakes
Students touring the grist mill.

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“Simple Machines” Program

Grades K - 7
Our simple machines program begins with a workshop on the identification of simple machines (levers, pulleys, inclined planes, wedges and wheel-and-axle), and their household uses. A tour of the Mill follows, in which students will be given the opportunity to look for these same simple machines in the grist mill, and learn how they work together to accomplish the task of milling flour. This tour is available in both milling and non-milling versions.

“Run of the Mill” Program

Grades 1 - 8
In this program, students will learn a brief history of agriculture in Chester County, and how technological advances like railroads affected farming in this area. Students will identify different kinds of grains, including wheat, corn, rye and barley, and will learn where they are grown and used today. They will then have the opportunity to help Mill staff harvest, thresh and winnow wheat, and a tour of the grist mill will follow. This tour is available in both milling and non-milling versions.

Students learn to identify different grains.

The Millers’ Forum

In 2006, the Mill at Anselma Preservation and Educational Trust held its first annual Millers’ Forum, to bring together millers from historic mill sites from throughout the Eastern United States to talk about how we can collectively improve the visitors’ experience at historic mills, and promote the preservation of milling as a craft. >>more>>

If you or your school are interested in more information regarding the Mill’s educational programs, please call (610) 827-1906 or email info@anselmamill.org.

The Mill at Anselma offers both milling and non-milling tours. A milling tour, in which the grist mill is running and producing flour, requires an additional $50.00 to cover the cost of grain. Per-person admission fees still apply. If you have any questions about whether a milling or non-milling tour is best for you, please call our office and we would be happy to help.

Educational programs

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The Mill at Anselma Preservation and Educational Trust, Inc.

1730 Conestoga Road, PO Box 42, Chester Springs, PA 19425
610-827-1906
info@anselmamill.org