K-12 Museum Education Program:
Adventures with Alfred the Aardvark!
By Isabel Engel
AAD 529
Adventures with Alfred the Aardvark!
Denver Art Museum
Introduction
On the second Monday of each month, join Alfred the Aardvark as he travels the world in search
of new animals. Whether it’s on a safari ride through the jungle, a journey through the wild west
on the back of a horse or on a train ride through the tundra, Alfred always finds fun and
interesting animals.
Who’s Invited?
Anyone ages 5-7 years old. Feel free to bring your parents or grandparents along! Whole class
want’s to join? No problem! We love it when school groups join in. Please contact Isabel Engel
at ​[email protected]​ to book a private adventure with Alfred the Aardvark during the
week for your Kindergarten or First grade class.
Mission
The mission of the Denver Art Museum is to enrich the lives of present and future generations
through the acquisition, presentation, and preservation of works of art, supported by exemplary
scholarship and public programs related to both its permanent collections and to temporary
exhibitions presented by the museum. (Denver Art Museum) This program excellently aligns
with the mission of the museum by enriching the lives of the young generations through public
programs by teaching them to observe and analyze the world around them.
Overview
Goal of the Program
1. For children to be able to identify different types of animals based on their
appearance, habitat and diet.
2. Learn new vocabulary words and use them in conversation.
Objective
Teach the children how to observe using Visual Thinking Strategies so they can support
their reasoning and identification of the animals. This will teach them to observe the scene (the
artwork) to be able to look for the animals.
Materials
1. Alfred the Aardvark​: The program will partner with students from the Audience
of One Youth Theatre to play Alfred the Aardvark. The theatre values promoting
arts in it’s community. By having a performer from that theatre, it will be
mutually benefiting as students from the theatre will get outside experience with a
live audience, and the museum will get a skilled volunteer to perform as Alfred.
2. Props​: Depending on the setting that the teacher selects, there are several props to
help enhance the adventure and to get kids into the scene. Below is a possible list
of props:
a. Train Ride​: A cardboard train engine (for one child to wear who has been
designated the leader. Perhaps the one who identifies the first animal at
each stop to encourage participation.), a train whistle, conductor hats.
b. Safari Ride​: cardboard or plastic binoculars, safari hats.
c. Wild West Ride​: inflatable horse sticks (inflatable so there is a slim
chance with harming any art), cowboy hats, coconut shells (for the horse
trotting sound)
3. Exhibits: ​The students will be led around to 5-8 different pieces of art.
Depending on what is currently on display, this could either be in one exhibit, or
through several.
Duration
60 minutes
Vocabulary Learned
Desert
Definition: A dry, often sandy region that has little rainfall, extreme temperatures, and sparse
vegetation.
Diet
Definition: The kinds of food that a person or animal eats.
Forest
Definition: A dense growth of trees, plants, and underbrush covering a large area.
Grasslands
Definition: Land where mainly grass or grasslike vegetation grows, such as a prairie or a
meadow.
Habitat
Definition: The type of environment in which an organism or group normally lives or occurs.
Jungle
Definition: Land where there are lots of trees and plants that are usually in warm weather.
Wetland
Definition: An area of land where water covers the soil or is present either at or near the surface
of the soil year-round or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the
growing season.
Program Schedule
As stated in AAM’s ​True Needs, True Partners and Excellence and Equity, “The Museum’s role
as an agent of education carries with it certain obligations to the multifaceted public it
serves…[This includes] education within the museum structure, education policies and plans
[and] education resources.” (True Needs, pg. 62-63). The Denver Art Museum strives to meet
these goals and obligations throughout all of its public programs. The idea of this program is for
children to come with their class (or their families on the second Sunday of the month) after they
have learned about animals and habitats. Before they come to the museum, the class should have
already discussed the vocabulary words habitat, appearance (including feathers, fur, and scales)
and diet. Alfred will go over these vocabulary words throughout the tour, so previous knowledge
will be helpful, though the point of this tour is that they understand them further. The teacher
will have previously picked out a setting for the tour, so once Alfred meets the group and tells
them that they are going on an adventure to find new animals, he will tell them what kind of
adventure they are going on, and will gather their supplies for their day. The goal is to then stop
by 5-8 pieces of art in the exhibits (depending on what us up, it could either be in one exhibit or
throughout several) and for Alfred and the students to spot animals along the way. Alfred will
use VTS to encourage the students to find animals. He will ask them “What do you see in this
picture?”. Once a student identifies an animal, then Alfred will ask questions like “Does it have
fur, feathers or scales?” or “What is its habitat?”. This will help the students to use critical
thinking to make sure they are using the surroundings of the painting to correctly identify the
animal.
Evaluation
As AAM highlights, evaluation is a very important step in ensuring that your programs are
benefiting the audience it serves. There are several ways this program can be evaluated:
Throughout the tour, the teacher should be able to notice the students use of the vocabulary
words, to show that the children are understanding them. Also, by how active each student is in
the discussion will also be a good way to evaluate how much a child is observing and paying
attention.
At the end of the tour, Alfred will thank them all so much for helping him find so many animals.
He will then ask the students to tell him what their favorite animal was and why. This will show
that students did observe and learn about animals, appearance and habitat during the tour.
Bibliography
Ao1 ​Theater. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.ao1theater.org/
Lesson Plan Library. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2016, from
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/animals-around-us.cfm
Mission & History. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2016, from
http://denverartmuseum.org/about/mission-history
Nichols, S. K. (1992). ​Patterns in practice: Selections from the Journal of Museum Education.
Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.