2nd Grade Visits the Museum!

This week, classroom teachers handed each 2nd grade student a golden ticket to the museum, which they carried on their way to the art room. As they approached the door, they saw a red and could hear The Ticketmaster (me) shouting into the classroom, "the visitors are here!"



Greeted at the door by The Ticketmaster, students placed their tickets in the ticket box and entered the room with excitement and anticipation as they entered the room, only to be greeting by a large image of a museum sign pointing to a construction site.



"Visitors young and old, I welcome you to the most magical... the most magnificent... the most miraculous... the..." proclaimed The Ticketmaster as he turned towards the construction site. "Oh dear... umm... give me one second..." said The Ticketmaster said nervously.

After making a phone call to his "boss," The Ticketmaster explained to the students that there appeared to be a problem. The museum was suppose to be open, but it was unable to be completed, because this wasn't a museum about ancient fossils or famous artists. This museum was designed to be a magical place about each individual student. The people at the museum couldn't complete the museum because they didn't now everything about each individual student, so The Ticketmaster asked the students if they would help create the museum.

After he Ticketmaster explained that, inspired by the book Me Museum, each student would spend the next several weeks designing architecture, paintings, sculptures, gardens, ceiling murals, gift shops, and tickets for a museum all about themselves.

Students immediately transformed into architects as they spent the rest of their class designing the outside of their museums.

  

Stay tuned for updates on the development of their museums!

3rd Grade Visits ChapMart!

This week, as 3rd grade students entered the art room, they were unenthusiastically welcomed by Mr. Grumpy to the fictitious grocery store, ChapMart. As students sat in The Hive, they saw an image of the cereal aisle and heard grocery store sound effects playing over the classroom speakers.

   

After Mr. Grumpy told the "customers" of this weeks specials, he proceeded to complain about having to spend the entire morning reorganizing the cereal aisle based upon which cereals were designed for adults and which cereals were designed for kids. Suddenly a crashing sound came over the speakers and cereal boxes came crashing down onto the aisle floor, sending Mr. Grumpy into a nervous fit, as he has already been written up 3 times this month. 

Mr. Grumpy asked the customers to help him not get fired, by organizing the cereal boxes at the tables. Customers moved to the tables and worked together to place cereal boxes designed for adults on one side and kids on the other. 

Customers gathered together as a whole class to take time to reflect on the designs of the boxes and discuss the similarities between the kids' boxes, and then the adults' boxes. 

Customers then discussed the purpose of "audience" as part of the design process. Customers investigated board game designs in search of who the targeted audience could be. Customers were then transformed into designers as they identified their audience, listed important design elements of a board game, and began to generate ideas of their own board games.

A lot of fun will soon be created by the creative games I saw being planned this week!