Museum Update >
The Hermosa Beach Museum is currently open Wednesday through Sunday from 12 noon to 4 PM
School tours
The Hermosa Beach Museum is proud to offer low to no cost field trips to local schools and youth groups. If you are an educator or group-leader interested in scheduling a field trip, please contact Museum Staff with a completed request form or questions at hermosabeachmuseum@gmail.com to begin planning your visit. See if an option from our list of educational opportunities is right for your students or contact us if you are interested in a customized experience!
Kindergarten-Grade 5: Beach History Explorers
This tour introduces students to local history, the function of a museum, and how to practice democratic citizenship as they visit exhibits on Early Hermosa Beach, a walk-through lifeguard tower, and Beach Culture. At the end of the tour, students may color in a Tongva language coloring page from Julia Bogany’s Tongva Language Coloring Book, draw their own lifeguard tower, or explore the museum at their own pace.
Grade 4: Tongva Experience
This cornerstone program has invited representatives of the Gabrieleno Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians to share their history with students in interactive discussions since 2010. After a rich discussion of Indigenous history and culture, students have the opportunity to make a soapstone necklace souvenir. Thank you to the Hermosa Beach Kiwanis Club for generously sponsoring this event!
Grade 7: Conserving Nature and the Nature of Conserving
In an interdisciplinary connection with Grade 7 Environmental Science standards, this program introduces students to the historiography of environmental history. Students first read excerpts from key pieces of environmental history scholarship from 1965, 1983, 1995, and 2006, noting changes in the field. They then apply their understanding of those readings to primary sources relating to the debate over oil drilling in Hermosa in the 1930s. Finally, students are prompted to consider their own relationships with the beach.
Grades 6-8: Significant Stories at the Museum
This guided tour invites students to consider how an object might help tell a story, culminating in a discussion of how museum curators assign significance to objects in historical narratives. As a final thought exercise, students will choose an object to use in telling a historically significant narrative about their home town, then reflect on relationships between their answers.
High School: Making History Student-Led Exhibit
Have you ever wondered how museums produce striking exhibits? The Hermosa Beach Museum invites high school students to take an exclusive look into its archives to produce your own public display. Over the course of three two-hour sessions - Setting the Stage, Archive Deep Dive, and Connecting Past and Present - you will join a team of students and Museum staff to craft a narrative of the South Bay’s history. This program provides exclusive behind-the-scenes access to a local history museum, real world experience in the field, and an excellent opportunity to add to college resumes. Spaces are very limited; apply by Friday, March 13, 2026, to potentially join the team.
This program is best suited to junior or senior high school students in AP/IB level history or English courses. Click here to apply!
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Please contact Museum Staff at hermosabeachmuseum@gmail.com for full lesson plans if desired.
The Hermosa Beach Museum is a private 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that is only able to offer these educational opportunities and develop new ones with the generous support of our donors. If you are interested in donating more to support history education in Hermosa Beach, please consider donating here or contacting hermosabeachmuseum@gmail.com to sponsor a field trip.