MFA Comes to Walnut Park Montessori
A Museum of Fine Arts Boston Outreach Educator spent two days at Walnut Park Montessori introducing children ages 3-6 to the Museum’s global art collections and helping the children build their visual literary skills through discussion and kinesthetic activities.
In her visits to different Primary Classrooms, Lauren Yockel read the book Hannah’s Collections and asked the children to describe their collections. She explained that the Museum’s collections are so big, each collection has its own room or gallery. Acquainting them with the Museum’s collection of musical instruments, she showed a colorful and fanciful image of the Museum’s “Fiddle mayuri,” a wooden instrument crafted hundreds of years ago in India. She then distributed small, wooden musical instruments in shapes of animals or painted eggs. Together, she and the children explored and played their instruments then sorted them into collections based on size, color, and shape.
Walnut Park Montessori children study famous painters and their works. When Yockel moved into a new collection and held up a bold, loud image the children immediately identified it as a Picasso. Room 5 children studied Picasso and his artwork in March. Yockel’s painting, however, was a work of abstract impressionist Stuart Davis. His “Hot Still-Scape” is of 7th Avenue, New York City. Holding up a large aerial photograph of New York City, the children could identify structural shapes in the Davis painting.
Breaking into small groups around large felt rugs spread across classroom floors, the children eagerly emptied a bag of multi-shaped felt pieces and created their own bold pieces of artwork. Some were identifiable: bridges, sailboats, faces, and others were whimsical designs. They then walked to each other’s felt mats to view the creations made.
This was their museum tour.