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Home>Learn>Teachers>School Field Trips>Every Picture Tells a Story

# Every Picture Tells a Story

Grades 2 through 12

**We are no longer accepting requests for winter/spring field trips.**

**We will offer a selection of in-person and virtual field trips (using Zoom) for Fall 2024.**

**Request for fall field trips (September 30 – December 6, 2024) will be accepted from August 1 – November 1, 2024.**

Uncover the many stories that works of art tell. During this field trip, students will learn to "read" works of art by considering multiple perspectives, characters, settings, and plots. They will engage in activities to imaginatively create narratives and dialogues inspired by the works of art.

Schedule a Field Trip

George Catlin, *Boy Chief - Ojibbeway*, 1843, oil on canvas, Paul Mellon Collection, 1965.16.349

Looking and Learning Skills

During four or five field trip stops in the galleries, students engage in activities—such as looking exercises, small-group work, creative writing, and sketching—that foster conversations about works of art. On this field trip, students will practice the following skills:
                    - Making and articulating careful observations.
                    - Formulating questions that demonstrate curiosity and engagement.
                    - Examining paintings from the perspectives of peers, the artists, and the people in the paintings.
                    - Comparing and connecting different paintings.
                    - Reasoning with evidence from the works of art themselves—developing narratives based on what is seen in the work of art.
                    - Taking new ideas learned from the field trip and connecting them to prior knowledge and experience.

## 

**In-Person Field Trip Information**

Group Size: Up to 90 studentsLength: 60 minutes for grade 3; 75 minutes for grades 4 through 12Meeting Location: West Building Rotunda

**Virtual Field Trip Information**

Length: 60 minutes

**Important Scheduling Information**

Field trips must be scheduled at least four weeks in advance. Groups must contain at least 15 students.

Once your field trip has been scheduled, you will receive an email confirmation within ten business days.

**Title I Bus Stipends**

Funding for the cost of bus transportation is available for Title I schools that participate in our docent-led school field trips. For more information, please get in touch with Deirdre Palmer at [email protected] or (202) 842-6880, or use the application form.

## Examples of Works Featured on this Field Trip

Examples of Works Featured on Tour
George Catlin, *Boy Chief - Ojibbeway*, 1843, oil on canvas, Paul Mellon Collection, 1965.16.349

Examples of Works Featured on Tour
Edouard Manet, *The Railway*, 1873, oil on canvas, Gift of Horace Havemeyer in memory of his mother, Louisine W. Havemeyer, 1956.10.1

Examples of Works Featured on Tour
Sir Edwin Landseer, *Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveler*, 1820, oil on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2019.120.1

Examples of Works Featured on Tour
Thomas Moran, *Green River Cliffs, Wyoming*, 1881, oil on canvas, Gift of the Milligan and Thomson Families, 2011.2.1

Examples of Works Featured on Tour
Archibald John Motley Jr., *Portrait of My Grandmother*, 1922, oil on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund, Avalon Fund, and Motley Fund, 2018.2.1

## Additional National Gallery Resources

Uncovering America

Lessons for Grades 3 through 5

Lessons for Grades 6 through 8

Lessons for Grades 9 through 12

Classroom Poster
The Railway
Manet’s *The Railway* gives us a glimpse of Parisian life in the 19th century. The poster offers information and activities to encourage looking at, thinking about, and interpreting the work of art. It can be used flexibly and is suitable for small-group or whole-class work.
Download Poster (PDF 522KB)
Classroom Poster
The Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial
The poster offers information and activities to encourage students to consider the perspectives of a famous regiment of African American Civil War soldiers by carefully looking at art images and using creative-writing prompts. It explores the artistic challenges of creating a meaningful memorial and tasks students with conceptualizing their memorials.
Download Poster (PDF 685KB)
Classroom Poster
The Farm (La masía)
This bilingual poster of *The Farm* by Spanish artist Joan Miró is designed to be a primary source for you to display and use in your classroom. We hope this poster will generate rich conversations, probing questions, and great ideas among your students, which you can support and develop using the information and activities provided on the back of the poster. The poster also offers opportunities to develop content knowledge about a Spanish modern artist, his artistic process, and the idea of identity expressed through art.
Download Poster (PDF 882KB)

## Related Resources

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