School programs
Plan your school visit to our national landmark
This nationally significant historic attraction has been delivering educational school programs to the school community for over 50 years. We are proud to offer you and your students some of the most outstanding educational opportunities available in the province of Ontario.
Please contact us for more information or to book a visit, please send an email to:
About Sainte-Marie’s educational programs
We offer interactive activities that correspond with the development of learning outside of the classroom. All education programs at Sainte-Marie link with the new Ontario Curriculum which came into effect September 2018. In addition to relevant content, programs make use of the Concepts of Disciplinary Thinking such as Continuity and Change and Cause and Consequence. At Sainte-Marie students have the opportunity to engage in Social Studies and History in a way that gets them thinking about people, places, and ideas.
A wide variety of program options, available year-round!
Our skilled and experienced interpreters will teach and engage your students through exploration, story-telling, lively discussion, comparisons, and hands-on activities. They like kids and they love history!Their mission is to connect your class to the past, in a spirit of discovery and fun.
Discover Winter Education Programs
24-hour live-in program
Choose from our many activities to customize your program:
The Moon of Wintertime program invites your students to experience the historic site in person for 24 hours. Invite your class to step into the past and live a historic lifestyle through a mix of indoor and outdoor activities, including the exclusive use of our facilities and reconstructed mission. Your group will have dedicated historical interpreters to guide them during their entire stay.
- Historic carpentry
- Clay and cornhusk workshop
- Indigenous games
- Bannock and tea tasting
- Quill pen writing
- Medicine wheel
- Snowshoeing*
- Museum exploration
- Lacrosse and snow snake game*
*weather permitting – snowshoes provided
Additional components:
- Introductory video
- Evening tour
- Legends in the Longhouse
Availability: January to March (limited dates)
Capacity: 15 to 30 students
Grades: 4 to 8
Cost: $70 per student (tax included)
Full-day winter program
Spend a day in 17th century Wendake! This program explores the interactions of French missionaries and the Wendat during the winter season. Students study the roots of this French Jesuit community, and learn about the contributions of Indigenous people to the development of Canada. Students will use an Indigenous invention to walk across the snow during a historical snowshoe hike, and participate in a number of hands-on activities.
Program highlights:
- Interactive tour of the historic site in winter
- Lacrosse
- Snowshoeing*
- Snow snake game*
- Museum exploration
*weather permitting – snowshoes provided
Additional component: Introductory video
Availability: January to March (limited dates)
Capacity: 15 to 50 students
Grades: 3 to 8
Cost: $15 per student (tax included) – Winter 2024
Backpack program
This program will provide teachers with the necessary information to interpret the historical site and each specific building for a self-guided exploration. The learning kit included in the backpack will allow teachers to navigate stops on the historic site as well as bring back learning tools to their own classrooms for further learning.
What is included in your backpack?
- Instructions
- Map
- Reproduction artifacts
- Tools
- Traditional materials to participate in multiple activities
Additional components:
- Introductory video
- Indoor museum visit
Availability: Winter and fall
Capacity: 15 to 30 students
Grades: 5 to 8
Cost: $9 per student (maximum of 30 students per backpack)
In-class program
Let us bring history to you! Sainte-Marie’s historical interpreters will explore the story of Ontario’s first European Community with your students in your classroom. Through hands-on activities, videos and lively discussion, students will learn about the lifestyles and relationship of two very different cultures: French Jesuit missionaries and the Wendat people.
What to expect:
- Introductory video
- Historical interpretation
- Hands-on activities
- Demonstrations
- Discussion with a historical interpreter
Availability: Winter and fall
Capacity: 1 program per classroom
Grades: 3 to 8
Costs vary by season and distance:
- $185 per classroom – up to 30 km
- $265 per classroom – up to 60 km
In-person Education Programs
Available April to June & September to October
PRIMARY PROGRAM (Half-day)
Students experience another lifetime when they tour Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, and learn about Ontario’s earliest European settlers and the Huron-Wendat people. They are introduced to the ‘three sisters’ (corn, beans and squash), and learn how the Huron-Wendat taught the French to grow these crops in mounds. Their experience will include a tour of the reconstructed historic site, the making of corn husk dolls, and planting the three sisters as it was done long ago.
Time: 2 – 2 1/2 hours
Cost: $9 per student (tax exempt)
Program highlights:
• Interactive tour of the reconstructed historic site
• Corn bread sampling in the Cookhouse
• Corn husk doll making workshop
• “Three Sisters” planting (corn, beans and squash)
Chaperones: 1 per 5 students (JK to Gr. 3) or 1 per 10 students (Gr. 4 and up): Complimentary
Numbers: Minimum 15 – Maximum 80 students
JUNIOR / INTERMEDIATE PROGRAMS (Half-day)
’The Longhouse People’ tour focuses on the interaction between the Huron Wendat people and the French missionaries. The impact of that interaction will be discussed in such areas as European technology, the introduction of disease, the effects of the fur trade, and the attempt by the Jesuits to convert the Huron Wendat to Christianity. This curriculum-based tour is an excellent opportunity for students to experience, first hand, the significance of the Huron Wendat people in the history of Canada.
Time: 2 1/2 hours
Cost: $7 per student (tax exempt)
Chaperones: 1 per 5 students (JK to Gr. 3) or 1 per 10 students (Gr. 4 and up): Complimentary
Program highlights:
• Interactive tour of the reconstructed historic site
• Introduction of European technology and disease
• Effects of the fur trade
• Attempt by the Jesuits to convert the Wendat people to Christianity
Numbers: Minimum 15 – Maximum 80 students
“Two Cultures: One Land” will transport your students back in time to the establishment of French culture in what is now Ontario. Topics include why the French came to New France, why Sainte-Marie was constructed so far inland from Quebec, and how the newcomers interacted with the Iroquoian Wendat people, resulting in changes for both.
Time: 2 1/2 hours
Cost: $7 per student (tax exempt)
Chaperones: 1 per 5 students (JK to Gr. 3) or 1 per 10 students (Gr. 4 and up): Complimentary
• Interactive tour of the reconstructed historic site
• Why the French came to New France
• Why Sainte-Marie was constructed so far inland from Quebec
• How the newcomers interacted with the Wendat people, resulting in changes for both
Numbers: Minimum 15 – Maximum 80 students
Students are introduced to the culture and heritage of the Huron Wendat peoples, and explore their interaction with Ontario’s earliest European settlers, the French Jesuit missionaries. Their experience includes a tour of the historic site, making First Nations Aboriginal projects out of clay, and a choice of either traditional Native games or Canada’s oldest and national sport: lacrosse.
Time: 2 1/2 hours
Cost: $9 per student (tax exempt)
Chaperones: 1 per 5 students (JK to Gr. 3) or 1 per 10 students (Gr. 4 and up): Complimentary
• Enhanced tour of the reconstructed historic site
• Clay workshop
• Indigenous games or lacrosse session
Numbers: Minimum 15 – Maximum 80 students
JUNIOR / INTERMEDIATE PROGRAMS (Full-day)
Spend a rewarding day with your class in the vibrant past of Ontario at the mission headquarters of Sainte-Marie. This experience includes an extensive tour of the site, and hands-on workshops that encourage interaction and understanding. Work with clay, play some of Canada’s oldest games including lacrosse, and explore the related past in the museum. Your students will enjoy a day like no other.
Time: 5 hours
Cost: $15 per student (tax exempt)
Chaperones: 1 per 5 students (JK to Gr. 3) or 1 per 10 students (Gr. 4 and up): Complimentary
Program highlights:
- Enhanced tour of the reconstructed historic site
- Clay workshop
- Lacrosse session
- Indigenous games
- Museum exploration
Numbers: Minimum 15 – Maximum 80 students
Immerse your students in a day long past at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. Follow in the footsteps of Ontario’s first peoples and the French newcomers as you explore the mission headquarters on tour. Participate in hands-on workshops, including 17th century fire-starting techniques, quill pen writing, enjoy Canada’s oldest national sport, lacrosse, and make connections between past and present in the Museum.
Time: 5 hours
Cost: $15 per student (tax exempt)
Chaperones: 1 per 5 students (JK to Gr. 3) or 1 per 10 students (Gr. 4 and up): Complimentary
Program highlights:
• Enhanced tour of the reconstructed historic site
• 17th century fire starting techniques
• Lacrosse session
• Quill pen writing
• Museum exploration
Numbers: Minimum 15 – Maximum 80 students
COOPERATIVE PROGRAMS (Full-day)
Walk Where They Walked is a full-day pilgrimage experience developed for both elementary and high school students in the Roman Catholic separate school boards of Ontario.
At Sainte-Marie, a specialized tour of the historic site will highlight important historical elements related to the life of St. Jean de Brébeuf, the story of ‘First Contact’ between the French missionaries and the Wendat people, and daily life at Sainte-Marie.
At Martyrs’ Shrine, students will have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the Canadian Martyrs. Their experience begins with the film: “Martyrs’ Shrine: A Home of Peace”. This will be followed by a presentation given by a Jesuit Priest integrating aspects of the lives of the Canadian Martyrs into the reality of Christian life today.
We invite you to take part in a spiritual journey… and to walk where they walked.
Time: 5 hours (2 1/2 hours at Sainte-Marie and 2 1/2 hours at the Martyrs’ Shrine)
Cost: $7 per student at Sainte-Marie + $7 per student at the Martyrs’ Shrine (tax exempt)
Chaperones: 1 per 5 students (JK to Gr. 3) or 1 per 10 students (Gr. 4 and up): Complimentary
Program highlights at Sainte-Marie:
- Tour of the reconstructed historic site
- Why the Jesuits chose this spot to build Sainte-Marie
- The Journey to Sainte-Marie and its challenges
- Visit the gravesites of two of the Martyrs, Father Jean de Brébeuf and Father Gabriel Lalemant
Program highlights at Martyrs’ Shrine:
- Facilitated program led by a Jesuit Priest
- Integrated interactive activities led by a trained Pastoral Animator
- Personalized Mass in the Shrine Church or the St. Ignatius Chapel
- Blessing with the Relics of Canadian Martyrs St. Jean de Brébeuf and St. Gabriel Lalemant
- Schools receive a curriculum-based lesson plan developed in consultation with the five separate school boards of the Archdiocese of Toronto and the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board.
Numbers: Minimum 15 – Maximum 100 students
Discovery Harbour, our sister site located in nearby Penetanguishene, also offers enhanced education programs.
Visit: www.discoveryharbour.on.ca for more information or contact: reservationshhp@ontario.ca