A Teacher's Reflections

This sight brought on a huge smile.
A big American flag against the backdrop of the Green Mountains.
Life is good.

Our destination was the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont.  There’s a back story here, which many of my longtime bloggers know.  Milly the quilter ‘happened’ because of my first visit to this museum.  I went there to see the Grandma Moses collection, was thunderstruck at their Haitian quilt exhibit, and… the rest is history.  My classroom designed quilts that now hang in National museums.  Milly hand-sewed those quilts.  The children loved Milly.  She dearly loved them, too.

Fast forward to now.  I was headed, once again, to see the Grandma Moses collection.  The museum hosted a series of webinars on Grandma Moses, which I ‘gobbled up‘, and was determined to create a unit of study at school.  Fortunately a museum director loves the idea as well, and gave me a tour of the collection.  We brainstormed about the many possibilities at school, using the paintings to learn about seasons, animals, farm life, and more.  Did you know Grandma Moses used glitter in her winter paintings?

Thank you Bennington Museum for this lovely gift!

There is a plethora of artifacts and art in the museum.  It houses a diverse collection of history from soup to nuts.  There is something for everyone.  Let’s take a tour.

A magnificent entrance.  The building was originally a church.

This eagle is huge and graces the lobby.

A storm coming across the Green Mountains.  One of my favorite paintings.

This is what I saw traveling across Vermont.

Bennington is famous for its pottery, still being made today.

Those clever Yankees used everything, including turning tree fungus into art.

Headstones in the old New England cemeteries were beautifully carved and decorated.  Many were made of slate which retains its markings.
This one is made of marble- quite rare.

Native hardwood trees make for beautiful furniture.

This is a Memory Ware Tower.  It was popular in the late nineteenth century
to collect special personal items and attach them to pottery.
Won’t my children at school have fun making one of these?

Modern art is exciting.  I can’t wait to recreate this with the children.

I got lost in this room in the best of ways.  Silver, tools, hardware…

Vermonters didn’t throw away anything.
An old fence post can become a work of art.
Maybe this one scared away crows.

Outside the museum was a StoryWalk.
Follow the trail, read the page of the story, and build with items in the woods.
Tell your own story using words on wood chips,
hanging them on a big tree stump.

There was more driving and Vermont discovery.  Our last stop was the famous Bennington Monument.  Grandma Moses added this monument to some of her popular paintings.

The Bennington Monument is a famous tribute to
The Battle of Bennington,
a 1777 battle of the American Revolutionary War.

Thank you for coming along on my trip to Vermont.  Happy trails to you.

Jennie