Last November 2010, I went on a field trip with my 2nd graders to the Museo Reina Sofía, and that same week, I went with my 4th graders to IMAX. At first, I was worried about how we would be able to control and discipline 20 six-year-olds roaming around a museum…
But it turns out, we were joining a taller, or organized tour/activity by some lovely museum guides. There was a man and woman who were both very enthusiastic activity leaders who asked them questions to spark their imagination about art and inspire them to think outside the box.
The museum guides organized games and activities for the kids, with the goal of teaching them to appreciate art, and think more in-depthly about how art is created.
The last activity they did was to “create their own art.” It was pretty cool, each of the kids picked random props from the room to put on a fake piece of grass, and then each of the kids put their nametags on the grass. The museum guides told the kids to be impressed that they had created their own, amazing piece of modern art that even had their names on it.
After the organized activity, we all had a picnic lunch in the museum courtyard, and the kids ran around and played.
After lunch, we took the kids on quick walk-through tour through the museum. Surprisingly, the kids were very well behaved, and were truly interested in the art. They were very inquisitive- one of the kids saw a picture of a dead soldier, and was even asking me questions about why the soldier was dead.
We saw the famous Guernica by Picasso.

Outside the museum (note the clear museum elevator in the background) with a (scary) braided big street performer
That same week, I went with my 4th graders to the IMAX theatre. We saw Wild Ocean 3D movie, about the ocean and sea animals, and the other movie was Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees. It was cool to watch IMAX movies in Spanish. The kids loved the change of pace from the classroom.
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