Second graders across Tennessee are getting a brand-new reason to love a field trip. The Tennessee State Museum in Nashville has created a guided tour designed especially for second grade students – the first time the museum has built a permanent group tour for a single grade – and it launches October 27, 2026, with the museum admission fee waived for this school year.
The one-hour tour, called Second Grade Social Studies, brings classroom lessons to life inside the museum’s galleries. Students explore Tennessee’s natural wonders, meet Native American communities through objects in the First Peoples gallery, discover how early settlers lived in a frontier cabin, and watch how inventions changed everyday life. The experience was written to align with the Tennessee Department of Education’s second grade social studies standards, so teachers can tie the visit directly to what students are learning back at school.
The best part for schools and families: the fee is waived for the 2026-27 school year. “We wanted to ensure cost was not a barrier to families across the state to access content-rich civics and history learning,” said Rachel Helvering, the museum’s Director of Education and Community Engagement. The museum thanks the Tennessee General Assembly for supporting the effort.
If your child’s class is planning a Nashville outing this year, this cheerful new tour belongs on the list – a full hour of hands-on Tennessee history, made just for seven- and eight-year-olds.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
