First Look - 1st Grade Field Trip

FIRST LOOK - Cover letter

Dear First Grade Teachers,
Enclosed is your FIRST LOOK TEACHER’S GUIDE for 2004.
As you’ll see when you look through the information, our goals are:

• to make the museum experience for your students more kid-friendly, and
• to utilize your time with us in ways that link the museum visit to the history standards of the Casa Grande Elementary District curriculum.

Last year we used FIRST LOOK successfully with more than a dozen classes. By providing a focused experience, the children were able to absorb new information. We want them to begin to see how their own lives and those of children who lived in the Casa Grande Valley in the past are similar and how they are different.

The guidelines on the Museum Field Trip request form are based on what makes the visit work well for you and for us. We know that, by setting the stage prior to your arrival, we can do our job better.

We hope to see you in the coming months and we are open to your comments, questions, and suggestions. Your feedback will help us make FIRST LOOK even better.

Sincerely,

Museum Administrator

Education Committee Chair

FIRST LOOK - Focused Field Trip

The FIRST LOOK program was developed with assistance from first grade teachers just like yourself, and by educators in this community as well as those serving other museums in the United States.

Our purpose in providing a unit that is directly tied to the curriculum standards of the Casa Grande Elementary School District is to make your children’s experience meaningful to them as six year olds and to them as a learning experience related to what you have been teaching in the classroom.

There’ll be two (or more) docents working with your class so that the children can be divided into smaller groups before they enter the museum. Classroom teachers and adults who chaperone the class are asked to participate in the visit. You know your students and can set the tone for their behavior. The chaperone’s can help keep the children on task throughout their visit.

This is our agenda for your visit.

First, we’ll focus on stories and descriptions of daily life to help the children become comfortable with new information.

Second, we’ll provide skirts for the girls and cowboy hats and/or vests for the boys so that they know what it felt like to be a child in the Casa Grande Valley in the past. Besides, it adds to the fun.

Third, each child will have a hands-on experience! We want the children to participate in their own learning through active involvement with objects and photographs we have here at the museum.

You can help prepare the children by working the following vocabulary and expectations into your discussion of this visit.

1. What is a Museum?
   A museum is a place where people learn about a particular place, subject or idea.
2. What kinds of things will you find in this Museum?
   You will find exhibits/displays that help us learn something. An exhibit is a display that tells a story. In the case of this Museum, exhibits and objects on display tell the story of central Arizona where we live.
3. What will happen at the Museum?
   1. We will gather in the Dallis Schoolhouse, an actual one room school that served children in Casa Grande more than fifty years ago.
   2. We will be separated into two groups so everyone has a chance to see and take part in a part of the museum.
   3. While one group goes into the museum, the other will hear a story about one or more children and how they lived in times past.
   4. Each group will go into the museum and each group will hear the story.
   5. Everyone will have a chance to take part in activities planned just for us.
4. How will we behave in the Museum?
   A museum and a library are a lot alike. We use our quiet voices. We walk rather than run, skip, or jump. Because many things in a museum are rare or precious, we touch only those things in the museum that we are told we may touch. We treat one another with respect and we listen carefully. We stay with our group so we can learn as much as possible during our visit.

FIRST LOOK - Packet Cover

A First grade Teacher’s guide
To a Museum visit

FIRST LOOK - Table of Contents

What’s in this packet?

Enrichment Information for the Teacher

Enrichment Information for Parents