How Native Americans lived long ago is very different than today. In this tour, Kindergarteners will explore elements of culture of the Eastern and Great Plains Native Americans, using The Rockwell Collection as a jumping-off point. Learn about how different tribes hunted, using the animals in their habitat for food, clothing, blankets, jewelry, tools and many other items used in daily life. Today, many Native Americans continue to hunt and carry on these traditions. Students will learn to “read” the story of works of art, by looking carefully at Hunter’s Bounty by Tammy Garcia and The Buffalo Hunt by William Robinson Leigh to spark conversation and learning. In this tour you’ll find:
- Video: Hunter’s Bounty: Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands
- Video: The Buffalo Hunt: Native Americans of the Great Plains
- Art Project Instructions: Make Your Own Tambourine
- Online Game: Memory Game featuring items and animals that are important to Native American life
The Rockwell Museum, Elmira City School District and Bath Central School District have partnered for several years with teaching artist Aleta Wynn Yarrow to offer arts programs related to Grade 1 New York State curriculum. Students explore the overall theme of “The Great Circle” which focuses on nature—the seasons, sun, moon, plants, animals and human relationships with natural cycles. Students will love the engaging episodes featuring Miss Aleta and her woodland puppet friends. Each episode is accompanied by art project instructions for the home or in the classroom, plus games, slideshows and more.
This program contains:
- Video: 5 Episodes featuring Miss Aleta and her woodland puppet friends
- Video Slideshows: 3 accompanying slideshows that further explore episode topics
- Educator Guide: The lesson plan contains additional resources and tips for using each episode, guiding caregivers and teachers confidently through the program.
- Printable Activities: Print worksheets and games like the Great Circle Guessing Game and Solar System Memory Game.
- Guided Art Projects: Find detailed art lessons accompanying each episode, designed to be completable with simple materials from around the home or classroom. Projects include Music Shakers, Sock Puppets and Puppet Stage, Masks, Bird Feeders and Mail Art.
The moving of settlers from the east into the wilderness of the west has forever changed the look of the country. In this tour, Grade 2 students will explore Westward Expansion using The Rockwell Collection as a jumping-off point.
Learn about what the landscape of the west looked like before it was settled by Europeans and how that changed as they moved through and settled. Find out how artists were involved in Westward Expansion and what a trip across the wilderness could have been like. Students will learn to “read” the story of works of art, by looking carefully at two important paintings, Mt. Whitney by Albert Bierstadt and If the woman in the wagon was scared to death…, 1918 by N.C. Wyeth to spark conversation and learning.
In this tour you will find:
- Video: Westward Expansion: Albert Bierstadt’s Mount Whitney
- Video: Westward Expansion: Moving West
- Art Project Instructions: Changing Landscape project including basics of perspective drawing
- Online Game: Pack Your Covered Wagon
Dia de los Muertos is a festival of “welcome” for the souls of the dead, celebrated on November 1 and November 2 each year. The customs surrounding this celebration are based on ancient traditions traced to the Aztec and Maya civilizations in Mexico. Today, there are large Mexican and Latinx communities across the United States, particularly in southwestern portions of the country, where Dia de los Muertos is widely celebrated.
Explore traditions of Mexican culture in this virtual tour designed for Grade 3. The Rockwell collaborates with Spanish educators and Latinx community members to offer authentic digital resources and share how the Museum collection of American art is influenced by diverse American traditions and experiences. In this tour you’ll find:
- Video: Dia de los Muertos and Artworks of Remembrance with Director of Education Mary Mix
- Video: Paper Flowers and Honoring the Dead with Gloria Harris and Carly Nichols
- Video: The Meaning and History of Sugar Skulls with Dinorah Peters and Family
- Video: Step by Step, How to Build an Ofrenda with Bev Stevens
- Video: Oaxacan Ofrendas with Leonel Rosario
- Video: Jarabe Mixteco Dance with Folk Artists Leonel Rosario and Dolores Alvarado
- Online Games: Ofrenda Word Seach, Spanish Vocabulary Matching Game
- Art Activity Instructions: Mexican Paper Flowers
- Art Activity Instructions: Sugar Skull Collage
- Additional expert resource links
The Rockwell Museum is located on the ancestral land of the Seneca, one of the six Nations that comprise the Iroquois Confederacy. To recognize our region’s cultural legacy, in 2017 we added the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Gallery.
The Museum’s collection of Haudenosaunee objects of material culture and contemporary art serves as testaments of creativity, evoking a connection between the past and the present. Learning about Haudenosaunee art and culture supports the 4th Grade Common Core Social Studies curriculum, connecting local, New York State, and United States history, focusing on Native American Indians of New York State. This program includes:
- Video: Nature’s Bounty – Use of Natural Resources
- Video: Social Games – Lacrosse and Snow Snakes
- Art Activity Instructions: Natural Materials Weaving Project
- Online Games: Haudenosaunee Vocabulary Word Search, Haudenosaunee Memory Game
- Additional expert resource links
This tour is designed for Grades 9-12 in New York State up to college levels, but all educators and youth are invited to use these resources! This module explores contemporary works of art by artists Virgil Ortiz and Kara Walker, both featured in the Museum’s collection. Explore artwork in-depth with Rockwell educators connected to themes of the environment, appropriation and social justice, and examine how American artists express their ideas in a variety of media. In this tour you’ll find:
- Video: Rockwell Reimagined: Themes of Environment with Artist Virgil Ortiz
- Video: Rockwell Reimagined: Social Justice with Artist Kara Walker
- Art Project Instructions: Appropriation Collage