Youth Programs

Youth Programs | Past Chautauqua Camps

Chautauqua offers a variety of youth programs to engage participants in the history of the 1930s and of their local community.  All youth programs are free, but registration may be required.

Youth Chautauqua Camp

(Grades 4th-8th)
Wednesday-Sunday of Chautauqua Week
Registration required
See community schedules for Beloit, Lawrence, Hastings, and Falls City for local registration, locations, and times.

Youth Chautauqua Camp provides students in 4th- 8th grade the opportunity to become historians, researchers, scriptwriters, and actors.  The five-day camp allows participants to identify and research a local historical figure of the 1930s and portray that person under the tent on the final evening of Chautauqua.  The camp allows participants to uncover fascinating local stories and learn valuable research and performance skills in the process!  The Youth Chautauqua Camp is taught by Ann Birney and Joyce Thierer, co-owners of Ride Into History.

Click here for a photo gallery of past Youth Chautauqua Camps.

Eleanor Roosevelt -Courtesy of the   Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library.

Dear Eleanor, Dear Laura

(Ages 8 and up)
Friday of Chautauqua Week
10:30 AM
See community schedules for Beloit, Lawrence, Hastings, and Falls City for locations.

If you could write a letter to the First Lady of the United States, what would you write?  During the Great Depression of the 1930s, children from all over the country sent letters to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.  In the letters, children asked Mrs. Roosevelt for everything from a pair of roller skates to food for their family.  Participants in this workshop will become historians-in-training as they research the letters and learn about the 1930s.  At the end of the workshop, they will write a letter to First Lady Laura Bush.

Iconic Images

(Grades 9th –12th)
Wednesday and Saturday of Chautauqua Week
Registration Required
See community schedules for Beloit, Lawrence, Hastings, and Falls City for local registration, locations, and times.

1930s photographers, like Dorothea Lange, captured the hardship and despair of the Great Depression in images that are still powerful today.  Aspiring photographers will have the opportunity to study historic local images from the 1930s and to create their own images of contemporary life in the Iconic Images workshop.  Cameras provided.

Click on the community name to see 1930s images from Beloit, Lawrence, Hastings, and Falls City.

Making Murals with Folktales: How Butterflies Were Made

(Children Ages 8 and above)
presented by Wanda Schell
See community schedules for Beloit, Lawrence, Hastings, and Falls City for locations and times.

Zora Neale Hurston compiled folktales for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from her home state of Florida.  One folktale tells how the colorful butterflies were created to keep the flowers company and how they came to be called butterflies.  In this workshop, children will listen to the vibrant story told by “Zora” and will then talk about the tale and compare it to the world they live in today.  They will create a mural based on the images in the folktale and related images from their own experiences.  The mural will be photographed and displayed on the website.