When children are in school for the first time at
this early age, we feel it is helpful to visit the class for the
first time with the purpose of getting acquainted.
The children have such a natural curiosity that it is
necessary to spend some time to know them and helping them to know
you and why you are there.
The following is a list of ideas to present and
some simple definitions to help you prepare:
- Introduce yourself to the class. Talk about
"art is all around".
- Review the concept of a volunteer.
- Explain what a museum is. Art can be in
museums.
- Explain what collectors are.
- Explain how museums protect their collections.
- Explain what a reproduction print is.
- Talk about local museums.
- Explain why people make art.
- Show various prints.
Museum: A place that collects, protects and
teaches about the things they own. There are many kinds of museums.
Some museums primarily collect only one type of thing e.g. Sandwich
Glass Museum. Some museums collect only paintings. Some, like
Heritage Plantation, collect a lot of things that have something in
common. The collections at Heritage are all things that are
American.
Volunteer: A person who does a job to help
out but who isn't paid to do the job. Volunteers work because they
enjoy it, because they like learning new things or because they have
skills that will help the place where they volunteer. Sometimes
children volunteer in class or at home to do jobs to help out the
teacher or family. (These jobs might be discussed too.)
Collections: The things that a museum owns,
takes care of and teaches about are the objects in their collection.
Museums protect their collections in many ways:
From theft and fire - alarms and guards.
From sunlight - special indoor light and window
shades to keep them from fading.
Gloves are used when handling things to keep
oils from our skin from getting in to the objects and leaving
marks.
They also put things in cases so visitors won't
touch them.
Why people make art: Today I've brought
some things to help you learn more about art. We want you to know
that there are many kinds of art and that people have always made
art for various reasons:
Religion, decoration, to remember, to express
feelings, to tell stories, to advertise.
No matter why it is made, or who made it, the art
around us helps us to appreciate our lives more fully. After you
visit a museum you sometimes look at things around you more
carefully.
Reproduction Prints: Art is everywhere in
the world. Some famous paintings are very far away in other
countries in museums there. We can't bring them to your classroom so
we buy pictures of them and bring the pictures of the real painting
to show you.
