In Class? Second Grade at the Museum

Last week, second grade boys visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as part of our curriculum's imperative to "break down the walls of the classroom" and provide all of our boys with greater opportunities for out-of-school learning experience--one important outgrowth of the Curriculum Initiative.

At the Met, boys experienced a guided tour, chaperoned by two of their art teachers, Ms. Boccella and Ms. Fidler, and their homeroom teachers. The program, called “Faces and Masks,” reinforced and enhanced what the boys have been learning about in their art classes back at school.

The tour specifically focused on African, Native American, and Pre-Colombian masks, (which is what the boys have been studying at school) along with Western works of art featuring faces.

The boys concluded their time at the museum with a drawing activity that asked them to zoom in on particular details of a mask that appealed to them.

It has been said that when viewing art, it is important to stand or sit in front of it and let the piece speak to you.

Having the boys draw what they see can help the eye and mind connect with the artist and to what the work is "saying."

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