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Visit Museums for FREE on September 17!

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

The annual Free Museum Admission Day falls on Saturday, September 17, 2022. You can take advantage of visiting museums for free on this day, and if you can’t make it in person, you can always visit one (or more!) virtually.

How to Get Tickets

Museum Day is a one-day, annual event that brings together museums, zoos, and cultural centers from all over to offer free admission for the day. According to the Smithsonian, Museum Day shines a spotlight on incredible arts, culture, sciences, innovation, and history exhibits across the country.

To get started, go here and click on Get a Ticket. Next, select the museum you want to attend for free and submit your name and email address. You’ll then be able to download your ticket, and they’ll also email you a copy. If you don’t see one in your area on the list, you might want to give them a call.

Virtual Visits and Online Resources

Museum Day goes beyond walking through museum doors because you can now make virtual visits. In fact, many museums offer educational resources that accompany the virtual visit. Below are a few you’ll want to check out.

The American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History is located in New York. It offers professional development seminars on topics such as “Using Picture Books in Science Classrooms.” Additional resources include a complete curriculum, virtual field trips, and a lot of articles, videos, and other classroom materials. The museum also offers OLogy, a science website for students that includes games, videos, and hands-on activities.

OLogy Activities

The Smithsonian

The Smithsonian is located in Washington, D.C. Within the Smithsonian are various museums such as the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The Smithsonian even has a zoo. The Smithsonian offers so many educator resources.

Here are a few educational resources to check out:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met virtual museum day map

The Met offers a variety of programs designed for K–12 educators that explore objects in The Met collection, curriculum integration, and methods for teaching with objects. There are many lesson plans, videos, and curriculum resources that you can use to introduce your students to the selected collections of the museum. In addition, MetKids is a free kid-centered resource for grades 2–8.

Don’t forget that you can also explore the Louvre’s entire collection as well. Let us know in the comments if you made a virtual or in-person visit on Museum Day!

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Announcements/Important DatesSocial StudiesSocial-Emotional Learning

Five Veterans Day Activities for Your Classroom

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

On November 11, we celebrate Veterans Day. It’s our chance to salute veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces and to show our appreciation for the sacrifices they have made to protect our country. At first, Veterans Day was initially called Armistice Day, and it became an official U.S. federal holiday in 1938. Later, in 1954, the holiday was renamed Veterans Day. At this time, it became an official holiday honoring all U.S. veterans. Help your students connect with veterans and understand how much we owe them with these five meaningful activities.

Write a Thank You Letter to a Veteran

Communicating through letter writing is a great way to say thank you to men and women who have served our country. This is an opportunity to teach students about gratitude and the importance of giving thanks. Also, according to Operation Gratitude, letters are an extremely cherished item among veterans. Students can write a letter online, and Operation Gratitude will print the message on a postcard and send it. In addition, teachers can sign up for a letter-writing toolkit with Operation Gratitude.

Explore the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Every Veterans Day, there is an official wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. For nearly 100 years, the Tomb has stood at the heart of the cemetery where it serves as a site for reflection on service, valor, and sacrifice. The Education Program of the Arlington National Cemetery has materials you can use to help your students explore the Tomb’s history and meaning. It contains lesson plans, teaching materials, and student activities.

Take a Virtual Field Trip

Help students explore our rich history by taking them on a virtual field trip. There are many museums that can connect students to firsthand experiences of our nation’s heroes. Below are a few resources to check out:

  • The National Veterans Memorial Museum will offer a Veterans Day ceremony. The ceremony can be viewed online on Thursday, November 11. Distinguished veterans and guests will share messages of unity in support of our veteran community and ways to promote selfless service in our communities on Veterans Day and every day. More details about the event can be found here.
  • Discovery Education is offering the Voices of the U.S., a virtual field trip series that will help teachers and students around the world learn about the importance of service through a celebration of Veterans Day. Created in partnership with Discovery Inc., the Voices of the U.S. virtual experience premieres on Wednesday, November 10 at 1 p.m. EST here. Be sure to register before the event.
  • For more virtual field trip options, take a look these TechNotes articles.

Record Video Responses to Historical Prompts

veterans day

As mentioned in this blog post by Sharon Hall, one of Flipgrid’s partners is the National WWII Museum. The WWII Museum topic area includes prompts that engage students in learning activities related to World War II and Veterans Day. Some activities include responses to video, analysis of primary documents, and exploratory visits to relevant websites. Furthermore, Flipgrid’s Discovery Library contains many other Veterans Day prompts.

Invite a Veteran to Speak to your Students

Having a veteran speak about their experiences can be a wonderful learning opportunity for your students. I still remember the stories my father would tell me about his time in the Army. Ask your students if they have relatives who are veterans. If so, see if they would be willing to speak to the class. Your local veteran’s organization might be able to help also. You can find your local VFW here. Veterans can visit virtually or in person, and after the visit, have your students write some of their takeaways.

How will your classes celebrate Veterans Day? Share your activities in the comments!

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Louvre
Good Teaching

Explore the Louvre’s Entire Collection Online

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

This March, the Louvre announced that it has put its entire art collection online. There are now more than 480,000 works of art available for anyone to look through at any time for free. The primary reason for this is that the museum is currently closed to visitors due to Paris’s COVID-19 lockdown.

Getting Started with the Collection

If you aren’t sure where to get started, you can use an interactive map to virtually explore the museum room by room. You can also search for a specific work of art that you might want your students to explore. You may browse the collection by theme or follow a themed collection made by the museum’s curatorial department. Along with thousands of paintings, there are also sculptures, jewelry, furniture, textiles, and historical objects.

The database of collections is continually updated with new works and new research. When using them in the classroom, keep in mind that the collections are free to browse, but are not open access, meaning you or your students cannot directly download, share, or reuse the images.

Mona Lisa

One of the museum’s most famous works of art is the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa painting is a half-length portrait by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci that has been described as the best known and the most visited work of art in the world.

Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass is a virtual reality experience that sets out to tell the real story of the painting. It then takes us on a journey back in time to the original setting where you get to meet the real woman da Vinci painted. You can also watch it in a 360-degree video or in VR with a Cardboard viewer. The app is available on Google Play Store and the Apple Store.

In addition, if you would like your students to learn about the theft of the Mona Lisa, you can visit the Louvre Kids section. It contains a short video about how the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre at at one time.

Benefits of Virtual Field Trips

There are so many benefits of taking your students on a virtual field trip. As Lori Gracey pointed out on the Take the Learning Outside the Classroom blog post, seeing the Mona Lisa on the screen is not the same experience as being in front of it at a museum. But it is still an amazing occurrence that can broaden a student’s perspective.

So, take your students on a virtual field trip to visit the museum rooms and galleries. Allow them to admire the palace architecture and to just take in the views. Have them find their favorite piece of art and share why they like it so much. For more virtual field trip resources, be sure to check out our additional Technotes blogs.

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