Eye to I

A Curriculum-Based Tour
for
Fourth and Fifth Grades
Third Edition, 2010

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE EYE TO I PACKET

Boca Raton Museum of Art
501 Plaza Real, Mizner Park
Boca Raton, Florida
Phone: 561.392.2500
Fax: 561.394.2977
www.bocamuseum.org

©Boca Raton Museum of Art

DEDICATION
To fourth and fifth grade students everywhere:
the best and brightest hope for our future. 
And to their teachers who recognize the truth of the
Chinese proverb which tells us . . .
I hear and I forget
I see and I remember
I do and I understand. 

OVERVIEW

The process of learning how to find meaning in art fosters intellectual development and critical thinking skills.

Welcome to EYE TO I, an experience in art appreciation designed to help young writers increase their awareness of the aesthetic world around them.  With the eye of an artist, students will learn how to think about and describe characters and settings as they study landscapes, portraits, narratives, still lifes, and sculpture.

EYE TO I is a 3-part program designed to help students learn how to analyze, interpret, and appreciate art works and, in so doing, use this visual awareness to broaden their expressive selves, language skills, and writing ability. 

Part 1 consists of pre-visit activities designed to prepare a common knowledge base for all participants.  Many children have not been to an art museum and need to be able to anticipate their first visit with a sense of confidence that they will be able to understand and participate fully in the tour and discussion. 

Part 2, the docent-led tour of the Boca Raton Museum of Art (BRMA), involves you and your students in an investigation of five to eight works of art in order to discover what they represent and how the artists have communicated their meanings.  The tour will include works in the Museum's Mayers Collection of 19^th and 20^th century American and European art by some of the great masters of that period.  Your group will engage in minds-on/hands-on discussion, Visual Thinking Strategies, and vocabulary-building activities such as Polar Pairs in which students will, in small teams, make decisions about the best words to use in describing the character of the artwork being discussed.  The tour has been planned so teachers and students can study works of art to explore possible interpretations, using the "colors" of their own experiences.  Tours last from 45 minutes to an hour. 

Part 3, the post-visit follow-up, suggests activities that reinforce the concepts or big ideas learned during the tour.  Students will complete the projects begun during their pre-visit activities.  Students will also be asked to write to the BRMA with their impressions and teachers will be asked to complete a one-page evaluation of the EYE TO I program.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE EYE TO I PACKET