Metropolitan Museum of Art

The third grade at Saint Ann School went on a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I'd gone in and done a dry run the day before to ensure it would go smoothly - and it did!  The rain even went away in time for us to eat lunch on the museum steps before our tour.

The Met is much more formal about their classroom visits than the National Gallery in DC, with good reason - the Met is much more crowded, so they need the extra organization.  They were great about greeting the class and explaining the rules of the museum.  The Met has an admission fee, but because we're a Title I school, the trip was free.  I was also given free family vouchers to hand out to the kids at the end of our visit, which was especially neat.

First, we visited paintings by two artists the kids had studied in class.  In the Modern wing, we looked at works by Georgia O'Keeffe, discussing why she painted her famous flowers so large and how her love for the landscape of New Mexico influenced her work.  The kids had fun walking around the adjoining rooms and looking at the other pictures as well.

Next, we headed up to the 19th Century galleries.  There, we saw 'Circus Sideshow' by Seurat.  The kids had studied pointillism, specifically 'A Sunday on La Grande Jatte'.  I had a copy to remind them - we compared and contrasted the two paintings, and got to see Seurat's unique technique up close.  The kids were also excited to see the several Van Gogh's in the room, especially his self-portrait.

Finally, we went down to the Egyptian wing.  The students hadn't studied Egyptian art this year (5th and 6th grade did), but I feel taking a kid to the Met for the first time and not taking them to see that amazing collection is criminal.  First we looked at a sarcophagus (and compared it to a Roman one we'd passed upstairs).  Next, we looked at mummies, learning a bit about heart scarabs.  Finally, we walked over to the Temple of Dendur - my favorite part. The kids got a chance to roam around for ten minutes, and learned a little bit about the temple and the female pharaoh Hatshepsut.

It ended up being a great field trip, thanks to Ms. Gagliardi, the small and well-behaved class, and our two parent chaperones.  Also, thanks to Lynn at Creative Classrooms and Ms. Flores at Saint Ann's for helping secure the museum date and bus!