Onsite Programs: Elementary
Kindergarten | Fall/Winter
Artists & Authors
Session 1-3 IN THE SCHOOL CLASSROOM (45 minutes)
Session 4 at the museum (45 minutes)
This program help students gain an understanding of the similarities between visual artists and authors. In the first sessions, students participate in basic drawing lessons. These lessons are intended to provide students with the necessary tools for completing an illustration to accompany a story. At the museum, students complete a treasure hunt in the galleries looking for “narrative” paintings, create an illustration for a painting title, and write a short story response to a painting or sculpture.
grade1 | Spring
The Art of Weather Watching
Session 1 in the school classroom (60 minutes)
Session 2 at the Museum (60 minutes)
This program helps students gain an understanding of the natural world through observations and experiences. In the first session, students participate in activities designed to increase their awareness of weather and use their senses to describe weather. In the second session, students find examples of different types of weather in the paintings and relate the weather conditions to personal experiences.
Grade 1 | Fall/Winter
Exploring Color
Session 1 in school classroom (60 minutes)
Session 2 at the Museum (60 minutes)
In this program, students explore their personal feelings about color. In the first session, students hear a story about color and discuss color choices. At the Museum, students observe how artists use color. They participate in a game designed to challenge their perception and memory of color observed in paintings.
GRADE 1 | Spring
Poems Paintings Present
At the Museum (60 minutes)
Students look at paintings as an inspiration for storytelling. After hearing a few stories told through paintings in the Museum, they are inspired to write and illustrate their own stories in the Museum.
GRADE 2 | Fall
Observing Animals
Session 1 in the school classrooms (60 minutes)
Session 2 at the Museum (60 minutes)
In the first session of this program, students use mammal specimens and games to develop wildlife observation skills. In the Museum, students discuss the importance of field observation for scientists and artists and participate in wildlife observation games to develop these skills. They also look at the tools artists use to record filed observations.
GRADE 2 | Winter
Wildlife in Winter
At the Museum
Students look at paintings of some of the animals from the story and learn how they use migration, adaptation, and hibernation to survive in the winter.
GRADE 3 | Fall/WINTER
Plains Tribes and the Bison
At the Museum (90 minutes)
Students learn why bison were so important to the Plains Indian tribes. The program covers hunting techniques, uses of bison, and the decline of the bison. This lesson ends with a project in the NMWA classroom.
GRADE 4 | WINTER
Early Explorers in the West
Session 1 in school classroom (60 minutes)
Session 2 at the Museum (60 minutes)
In the first session, students learn about some of the early explorers using slides of paintings by John Clymer. These slides beautifully show the life of the fur trader as well as scenes from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In session two, students view John Clymer’s studio in the Museum and look at paintings by explorer artists such as Karl Bodmer, George Catlin, and Alfred Jacob Miller.
GRADE 5 | Fall
Landforms of Wyoming
At the Museum (60 minutes)
Through examining the paintings of Carl Rungius, students explore landforms found throughout Wyoming including mountains, buttes, canyons, cliffs, valleys, and lakes.
For more information about these programs contact:
Amy Goicoechea, Associate Curator of Education
307-732-5435
