Fifth Graders from the Garfield School Visit the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Danielle Bass, art teacher at the Garfield School took the 5th graders on a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  The trip was planned to connect with their social studies curriculum.  Students discussed how artworks can be viewed as a source of information on many levels. By looking at art work and considering the historical context students are better able to understand life’s challenges of people that they study in Social Studies.

Paintings are a visual journey into the life and times of the artists who created them.  Artists record their attitudes and ideas in their paintings. Paintings also reflect the events, ideas, and customs, political and religious beliefs of people living in a particular time in history. 

Students visited three galleries.    Teams of students were presented with various scavenger hunts and challenges.  The primary focus of these activities was to learn how to analyze a piece of art by looking for symbols and finding ways to interpret them. 

To see the paintings the 5th graders looked at at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, click on this link.
                                                                                   
http://educators.mfa.org/galleries/detail/321