Trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum

Next week we are traveling to the 

Milwaukee Public Museum! 

We are taking this field trip for many reasons. First, learning shouldn't just happen in the classroom. This is a chance to get a change of scenery. While reading is part of the experience of going to a museum, the majority of learning happens through seeing and experiencing. I hope what you see and experience at the museum will expand your mind in new ways. The Milwaukee Public Museum is a resource that we pay for with our tax dollars. To use this resource, we need to know how to "read" an exhibit. In addition, knowing different vocabulary and historical people and events will help us make more sense of the museum. 

What can you expect from this trip?

Arrive on time!!!! 5pm!

First half: Group Activity
               Tour of immigrant groups. Streets of Old Milwaukee.

Second half: Your choice. Time to explore!

Leave museum promptly at 8pm. 

What will you do? 

See 

Hear

Read

Think--Make meaning!

Below you will find tasks to prepare you for this trip. 

1. Complete the Questioning Chart after examining the photo and plaque. 

Here is the first exhibit you see at the Milwaukee Public Museum when you walk up the staircase. 

Read the plaque that goes with this exhibit.

The plaque says: This area is designed to suggest late Victorian museum exhibitions. At that time, museums of natural history often emphasized collection of the beautiful, the rare, and the unusual. A museum visit was a vivid way of experiencing the exotic. Collections from wide-ranging geographic areas and cultures, past and present, inspired visitors to learn more about their world. 
Together, after more than a century of work, staff members at the Milwaukee Public Museum continue to develop and study collections. Current research questions, not the lure of the extraordinary, guide modern collection activities. Still museums such as ours continue to help us better understand and appreciate the diversity of life on earth, and to foster in all of us, a sense of wonder. 


2. We will spend time in the exhibit called the Streets of Old Milwaukee. What's that?

The Streets of Old Milwaukee

Located on the first floor, this exhibit re-creates the essence of urban life in Milwaukee around the turn-of-the-century – roughly the 1880s to just prior to World War I.

2. This exhibit was just renovated. Watch this video to hear about how they made choices during the renovations. 
3. Go to this website. Scroll down and click on all the photos. Read the captions. 
4. What is a nickelodeon? Find out here.  Read the first paragraph of this article. 
5. Who are Sully and Susanna Watson? Find out here. Scroll down this list of famous Milwaukeeans and find the Watsons at the very end.