Corcoran Gallery Tour

Today the first grade teachers and I took our students to visit the Corcoran Museum in Washington DC. First graders boarded a bus and headed across the city  to experience a "Five Senses" gallery tour. The students were broken down into groups and then were assigned a tour guide.

The museum tour guide then gave the students a card with a shape and a color on it. The students were instructed to hold up their card when they passed a piece of art work that had either their color or their shape in it. It was a wonderful way to keep the students engaged and looking at lots of art pieces in depth.

The students then observed many different kinds of art work including sculptures and paintings. The tour guide had them do exercises to experience the painting, such as posing like the figures in the painting or guessing what kinds of paint brushes were used to create the painting. They also related the pieces of art work to our five senses (touch, smell, see, hear, and taste) by asking the students what they thought the painting sounded like or how something in the painting might have tasted.

 

Then first grade was walked down to the Corcoran's basement where there was an art studio set up for them to make a hands on project! The students were instructed by a teacher on how to roll a piece of model magic into a ball. Then the students were taught how to make that ball into other shapes. Before we knew it the students were creating boats, birds, and snakes with their model magic!

After crafting a form, the students then used all kinds of special materials to decorate their projects. Feathers, sequins, pipe cleaners, and googlie eyes were used to adorn their sculptures. The end results were so colorful and fun!

 

I can not thank you tour guides enough for hosting us at the Corcoran Gallery today! They were so accommodating and pleasant and really beamed with happiness at the students' work. I am so proud of my Langley Tigers today!

Here is a short video clip of our gallery experience today. Also, remember that many more images can be found on the classroom's instagram: northeastcityart