\u201cThat\u2019s a great point,\u201d said Corso, the museum\u2019s director of education and public programs. \u201cWhat we know is that kids learn best when they are encouraged by their parents. Learning doesn\u2019t just happen from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in schools. It happens 24 hours a day – all day long.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what we want to do,\u201d Corso explained, \u201cis empower all of you to help your kids learn outside of school time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parent education is just one goal of SAPLINGS (Students and Parents Learning Intellectual Growth Strategies), a program offered by Virginia Beach City Public Schools\u2019 (VBCPS) Title I and Gifted Education programs in collaboration with Chrysler Museum. A second goal is supporting early and equitable identification of student giftedness or potential by observing first-graders from Title I and former Title I elementary schools outside the classroom. Some students are more likely to engage in activities and express themselves at a museum, aquarium or other cultural institutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times gifted characteristics are not manifested in the school house, in that regular brick and mortar setting, but they may be seen in this particular setting,\u201d said VBCPS Executive Director of Differentiated Academic Programs Dr. Veleka Gatling of the museum partnership. \u201cSAPLINGS extends what we do in the school with regard to gifted instruction, but it also helps parents see how they can use real-world opportunities to help further inquiry-based learning for their students.\u201d<\/p>\n Docents provided real-world opportunities during parent tours of the museum and modeled inquiry-based learning strategies using the acronym COWLICKS \u2014 Counting, Observation, Words, Letters, Imagination, Compare and Contrast, Kinesthetics and Senses.<\/p>\n Parents received COWLICKS cards listing sample questions for each strategy with blanks to fill in depending on their location and what they were viewing.<\/p>\n For example, to encourage counting, parents can ask their children, \u201cHow many [X] do you see in this [Y]?\u201d For imagination, \u201cPretend you are this [artwork, plant, animal, etc.].\u00a0What would you say to me?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0For senses, \u201cWhat would this [X] feel [or taste, smell, sound] like?\u201d<\/p>\n A docent modeled the \u201cL\u201d in COWLICKS by asking parents gathered around a European painting, \u201cWhat do you see in the artwork that begins with the letter R?\u201d Robes. Rocks. Red. <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHow about the letter F?\u201d she asked. Feather. Fingers. Foot. Faces.<\/em><\/p>\n The docent shared how \u201cI,\u201d or imagination, in COWLICKS could be prompted by asking, \u201c<\/em>If you stepped into this painting, what would you like to be part of?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a prehistoric Wal-Mart on Black Friday,\u201d replied a parent to laughter from all.<\/p>\n \u201cVery imaginative,\u201d said the docent with a smile. \u201cIt\u2019s true, everyone is lined up before sun comes up. You can see the moon is in the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n While parents continued to work with various learning strategies, their children discussed paintings and sculptures with docents on their own gallery tours. Sitting Indian style in front of \u201cThe Vegetable Vendor\u201d by French artist Fran\u00e7ois Boucher, first-graders talked about growing, selling, buying and cooking vegetables. When asked, they shared some of their favorite vegetables including mac and cheese, candy, pizza, grits, grapes and broccoli.<\/p>\n Docent Donna Bausch presented to students the painting \u201cMusic\u201d by American artist Philip Evergood. They brainstormed instruments they would like to play in their own orchestra \u2013 trumpet, violin, flute, karaoke machine, guitar, whistle<\/em>. Then, Bausch provided a kinesthetic learning opportunity by asking the first-graders to line up and creatively and silently<\/em> play their selected instruments while marching to their next location.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that people learn differently,\u201d Stark began. \u201cSome people learn by listening \u2013 auditory learning. Visual learners have to see something; just hearing about it isn\u2019t enough. There are people who learn by moving around. That\u2019s kinesthetic learning.\u201d<\/p>\n Stark explained their first lesson, mirroring, with a Portrait of Jack Tanzer<\/em> by Andy Warhol. \u201cKids mirror what you do,\u201d she said. \u201cYou put on makeup; they copy you. They imitate you. I want everyone to stand and mirror him and then decide what his next move would be.\u201d<\/p>\n Movements became more creative with the next activity to demonstrate \u201cmapping\u201d and \u201cactivating.\u201d<\/p>\n Stark assigned small groups of parents to a painting or sculpture in the gallery. They had to work together to physically depict or \u201cmap\u201d the artwork as shown and then \u201cactivate\u201d to put the artwork in motion without moving their feet.<\/p>\n The same parents who, earlier in the morning, wondered with Corso why they<\/em> were the ones at the museum, wasted no time sharing ideas, practicing routines and laughing.<\/p>\n There was lots of laughing.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone thinks that when you go to a museum you have to stand lock still and not move at all. Quite the opposite is true,\u201d said Corso. \u201cA lot of students learn best with physical movement.\u201d<\/p>\n A lot of parents, too.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s see you map the sculpture,\u201d said Stark after practice time ended. The parents stood frozen to depict “Dawn\u2019s Presence” by Louise Nevelson.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, activate!\u201d directed Stark, and the parents swayed and twisted, some with arms in the air.<\/p>\n \u201cI see waves,\u201d said one parent.<\/p>\n \u201cI see someone fishing,\u201d said another parent.<\/p>\n \u201cI see spirit fingers,\u201d offered a third parent, \u201clike a cheerleader.\u201d<\/p>\n More laughing and smiling.<\/p>\n Oil paintings by pop artists James Rosenquist and Roy Lichtenstein also were brought to life. The once quiet gallery with two-dimensional artwork on the walls was brimming with parent conversation, merriment and movement.<\/p>\n![\"01\"](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/01.jpg\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/strong>The group turned around to examine a piece by Francesco Maria Barzon entitled, \u201cConflagration on a Harbor.\u201d The painting depicts a fire blazing at night, while men move quickly on horseback and people drag sacks along streets and into boats on a harbor.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/strong>Parents also learned about kinesthetics in a session with docent Linda Stark.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/strong>After everyone mirrored the placement of their hands, Stark asked a parent volunteer to share his next move for Mr. Tanzer. The father moved his hand, acting as though he was brushing something off his shoulder.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/strong>\u201cWhat do you see?\u201d Stark asked the other parents in the room.<\/p>\n