AAA fourth grade class traveled Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art for their second visit for the partnership program, My School My Museum (MSMM). Social Studies and Language Arts were the disciplines of focus as the students visited the current exhibition We the People: The Radical Notion of Democracy as students are currently learning about the three branches of the U.S. government.
Teachers Mrs. Adams and Ms. Rozanne worked with Museum Educators to offer an immersive educational experience in the galleries. Museum Educators led conversations with students as they experienced original prints of the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the proposed Bill of Rights, and the Articles of Confederation as well as numerous portraits of revolutionary leaders.
Each experience ends with an Arts Integration project. Equality, Freedom and Justice were themes that were then brought into the activity in which students reproduced a portrait of George Washington. Students from four different classes were each given a printed piece of picture from one of the Museum’s portraits of George Washington. Upon completing their individual section, all the pieces were collected and assembled to re-create a large version of the portrait; each with distinct characteristics from each artist. The exercise has a symbolic message like the Latin motto E pluribus unum (“Out of Many, One) that appears on the Great Seal of the United States.
A big THANK YOU to Mrs. Debbie Benton, Mrs. Sarah Yarbrough, Mrs. Rachel Carpenter and the amazing Museum Educators that made this experience possible (Paramita, Donna, Joann, Jennifer and Sigrid)!
To learn more about Crystal Bridges visit https://crystalbridges.org/ For information about the exhibition We the People: The Radical Notion of Democracy visit https://crystalbridges.org/calendar/we-the-people/