During a year of teaching a multi-age 3rd and 4th grade class at The Miquon School students exercised their own Spatial and Verbal Intelligences by learning how to “read” a painting. Students studied van Gogh's life, created a time line of important events that contributed to his body of work, learned to sing and play a song about his life, and examined other Impressionist paintings. They also created acrylic self-portraits in the style of van Gogh’s colors and brush technique and reflected upon the importance of portraying a mood in their paintings. “I remember students reporting that expressing mood in a painting, finding a skin tone to match their own, and drawing their noses were especially challenging.”

Another year, students in second grade were immersed in a study of ornithology that included studying the life of John James Audubon while also maintaining a personal field guide that included many drawings and written observations from field trips to a campus bird hide and to local sights. “Being able to look at and create paintings and pictures of the birds in the classroom enhanced the student’s ability to identify birds outside of the classroom.” A first grade class spent a semester exploring artists from around the world, which included many picture books, replicas of paintings and an incredible tour of the collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “It was quite amazing,” Lisa remembers, “to see seven-year-old students express personal connections to paintings and artists. We examined Horace Pippin, Faith Ringgold, Hokusai, Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo and more.” The unit culminated in a classroom reception/exhibition highlighting the students’ portfolios. The project exposed students to art, food and stories from the seven continents. “Students created lovely poster boards to display their work as well as a mini-autobiographies that allowed them to explain what inspired them to paint.” This year, her kindergartners will study paintings based upon the theme "People, Places, Wings and Things." This theme provides the potential to study landscapes, portraits, mobiles, sculptures, origami, Chinese scrolls and Audubon's scientific paintings.

For more information, please contact Education: School & Teacher Programs by phone at (215) 684-7580, by fax at (215) 236-4063, or by e-mail at .