Today was the class' first visit to our local art museum. Each year children in Mrs. Dengel's second grade make several visits to the art museum to view the changing exhibits and to view first-hand the various techniques that artists use to create their art. Children also begin to think differently and use art terminology such as, foreground, middle ground, and background. They distinguish between still life, landscape, seascape, and a portrait. In addition, the students learn to recognize different media that artists use. The museum visits not only help the students to become art literate, but the visits also help the children become greater critical thinkers as they begin to evaluate art.
On this first visit, the children viewed an exhibit called "Construction Zones". They saw a variety of artwork, including two-dimensional art hung on the walls, sculptures, and a huge installation which can be seen in the background in the photo above. The children actually were allowed to crawl through this latter piece of art. In addition, they all received hard hats to wear during the tour and to later take home. The interactive installation and the hard hats made it an exciting first visit to the museum for all the children.
