Museum Field Trips
The Saginaw Art Museum is looking forward to welcoming your class to the museum! At our core, we value educating and enriching students through the use of visual arts. Please review the field trip options below and reach out to plan a visit!
For specific questions please reach out to Katie Mielens, Education and Museum Services Manager katie@mytemplearts.org
Tours are inspired by Michigan’s Visual Art and English Language Arts State Standards. They are facilitated by staff and trained volunteers.
K-2
English Language Arts/Arts Integration (K-2) – Art Sparks Stories
Discover the storytelling in art! Students use art to discuss setting, characters, and plot. We will draw, move, and make stories inspired by the collection. Besides a tour through the exhibit, students will also have a chance to use art materials to create their own characters.
Visual Arts (K-2) – Creative Curiosity: Exploring Why & How Artists Create
Explore all the reasons why artists create and how they do it. We look at community art, photography, sculptures, old art, and new art, while doing some fun activities along the way. Spend some time in the studio expressing emotions through art, just like an artist!
3-6
English Language Arts/Arts Integration (3-6) – Art Sparks Stories
Discover the storytelling in art! Students use the same skills to interpret art in the museum collection as they would to analyze a text. There will be discussion around the setting, characters, plot, and gallery activities that spark imagination. Besides a tour through the exhibit, students will create a story by making their art down in the studio.
Visual Arts (3-6) – Learn to Look: Observing Art from a New Perspective
Students will learn to look at artwork in a whole new way by doing activities that expand their imagination. We will observe abstract and 3D art, discussing the elements of art and the artist’s meaning. We will also do an art activity about symbols, and how they are more than what they seem.
7-12
English Language Arts/Arts Integration (7-12) – Art Sparks Stories
Discover the storytelling in art! Students use the same skills to interpret art in the museum collection as they would to analyze a text. They will cite evidence for their opinions and use ELA vocabulary like, tone, point of view, and conflict to describe artwork. Besides a tour through the exhibit, students will create art that inspires a story.
English Language Arts/Arts Integration (7-12) – Ode to Art: Creative Writing Inspired by Artworks
Get inspired! Spend half the tour in the galleries writing ekphrastic poetry (poems written about works of art) and the other half of the field trip making visual poetry in the studio. Students will stretch their creativity through collaborative activities, short story-writing and more.
Visual Arts (7-12) – But What Does It Mean?: Decoding Artworks
Students no longer will have to instantly say, “I don’t get it!” while viewing artwork! We will discuss art criticism techniques and analyze artworks’ meanings, using the elements and principles of design as clues to determine interpretations. For the other half of the field trip, we will discuss one of humanity’s biggest questions: What is art?
Self-Guided Tour
Teacher plans all activities, museum staff and volunteers will be nearby to support. Studio is not available.
