Today the fourth-grade classes returned to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art for their second visit with the partnership program, My School My Museum (MSMM). Through arts integration the MSMM program offers elementary students the opportunity to make meaningful connections between the core disciplines (English-Language Arts, History-Social Studies, Math, & Science) and the visual & performing arts. MSMM provides an immersive experience where the students and teachers use the Museum as an extension of their classroom.
The focus of this visit was Mrs. Suchy’s English Language Arts class. Students have been learning about narratives, themes, and main ideas of stories. The fabulous Museum educators provided a tour for the students which included five spectacular objects from the collection to combine these ELA objectives. Works included: Our Town by Kerry James Marshall, The Old Arrow Maker by Edmonia Lewis, Rosie the Riveter by Norman Rockwell, as well as Johnny and Young Truck Driver by Susie J. Lee.
The day ended in the studios at the Museum with an Arts Integration experience with Mr. Jones, AAA Director of Arts Integration! The project required students to look at Triptychs, a medieval style of painting that uses three panels to illustrate a story or sequence of events. Using their ELA knowledge of theme, narrative and main ideas combined with their new museum skills of how to interpret narrative stories in works of art, the students created visual narratives in the form of a triptych! Student triptychs illustrated some pretty fascinating stories including: 3 Amazing Things that Happened this Weekend; A Day at School; The Best Weekend EVER!, and How I was Abducted by an Alien…
Thank you to the amazing Museum Educators that made this experience possible: Paramita, Meg, Matthew and Sigrid!
To learn more about Crystal Bridges visit https://crystalbridges.org/