Cultural heritage education promotes children’s interest in society, especially
their immediate surroundings and history. Traditionally in Finland,
history is learned through visits to local historic house and city museums,
where the learners’role might be quite passive and their only activity
a worksheet. However, evidence indicates that visits and educational
information are better enjoyed and remembered when they involve
activities and children can analyze the experience through interactions
and continued learning at school. We examined a preschool field trip
to a local historic house museum with arts-based activities continued at
school.We evaluated 14 students’follow-up stories and craft products as
cultural heritage education and museum pedagogical tools. A detailed
qualitative analysis showed that follow-up stories function similarly to
worksheets; theywere easy to implement and effectively collected information
on children’s experiences during museum visits. However, writing
stories allowed children to freely express their thoughts and experiences.
Craft products provided a cognitive strategy for reflecting on field
trips. It seems that the field trip to the historic museum acquiredmeaning
through active interpretation by children and through combining
the experiences and the information, which became real in the followup
stories and craft products.