During the week of November 15, Grade 1 students went on their first field trip to a museum! The field trip was organized by their art teacher, Ms. Genova. The trip to the Phillips Collection was meant to inspire students’ creativity through exploration of the lines and colors in the works of Alma Thomas.

Before departing for the Phillips, students spent time in class looking at the virtual version of this exhibition, via the Chrysler Gallery. Students viewed this online access as a positive take-away from the pandemic—many museums have added virtual experiences to their websites in order to make their collections more accessible. They talked about who might benefit from a virtual exhibition and the students made some lovely connections about people who might not be able to come to a city to see a museum, or people who might not be physically able to get to or enter the museum.

Grade 1 students and teachers had the privilege of being the only visitors in the museum. During the field trip, students were introduced to Alma Thomas’s perspective, the inspirations behind her work, and her love of nature, in order to better understand her art. The students used the “See, Think, Wonder” thinking routine as they studied Thomas’s art:

• See: What colors stand out to you? What shape do you see repeated in this painting? Can you count the number of times it appears?
• Think: Step back and look at the painting from far away. Does it look like anything to you? Step forward and look at the painting when you’re very close to it. What does it look like now? Imagine you could step inside the painting. What would it feel like? What one word would you use to describe the painting? What do you see that makes you say that?
• Wonder: Students ask questions they might have on how or why she created a certain artwork. What was her inspiration? How do you find inspiration? What would be your inspiration, would you choose a geometric or an organic shapes composition?

At the museum, each student received a bag of small, colorful pieces of paper. Inspired by Alma Thomas’s style, they arranged these pieces into different shapes on a larger piece of white background paper. Once they were back at school, the students were able to finish their compositions. 

In art class, the students were able to reflect with Ms. Genova about their visit. They discussed her distinctive style; Alma Thomas loved to explore color and students reflected on their previous study of color relations based on Matisse’s work and looked for connections between the two artists. 

The students then explored their choices to create balanced pictures (with the pieces of paper from the museum) inspired by Thomas’s artwork and mimicking her style. They observed the choices everyone made, such as whether the shapes are geometric, organic, monochromatic, or colorful. They discussed the ideas behind those choices, and how each piece of art evoked emotions. 

The students also connected with their current Unit of Inquiry (Where We Are In Place In Time) by organizing data, building a bar graph, and interpreting the data. Students counted the pieces of paper they used in their artworks and then counted how many of each color they used.

A big thank you to Ms. Genova for arranging the private tour of the museum, and to the Phillips Collection for hosting our students!