Best. Fieldtrip. Ever.

Dolores Mission has been building up its arts program over the past 5 years.  A few weekends ago, we went to the art benefit that began 5 years ago under the leadership of one of the former art teachers.  The benefit was held at a Mexican restaurant in Pasedena that the teacher's parents own.  Through donations and the auction of about 15 students' artwork, DMS raised over $25,000 in just one night for the arts program.  One of the main items that this money goes to each year is field trips to various art museums throughout the LA area.  The goal is that by the end of their 9 years (K-8) DMS students will have visited 9 different museums, one each year.

 {stolen from Colleen: us at the fundraiser: Andrew (our program coordinator),

Colleen, Greg, Greg's friend Omar, me, Paula M., Paula C.}

The sixth graders went on their field trip this Friday to the Getty Villa in Malibu and I was lucky enough to be asked to go with them.  According to the self-guided tour guide, the Getty Villa was modeled after the Villa dei Papiri, a Roman country house in Herculaneum buried by the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.  Over 1,200 works of art from the Getty's collection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities are displayed as well as 2 visiting collections of ancient glasswork and Roman and Greek Theatre items.  It was amazing to see stautues of gods and goddesses that have lasted over 2000 years. As we walked through, I realized that I had completely forgotten the the thoughts of 12 year olds - every naked statue led to the eruption of giggles.  One of my favroite exchanges I overheard was between a boy and girl next to a statue:

Girl: Eww!!! that is so disgusting!
Boy: Calm down, everyone's going to see one sometime.
Girl:  If I have to see that thing, I'm never getting married.
Soooo mature :)

Some of the kids in my group's favorite collections were the coins, glasswork, and jewelry.  Along with the collections inside, gardens containing plants from the Mediterranean lined the inside and outside courtyards.
 

 {Almost all of the busts and statues were actual pieces from 2000 years ago.  

I would not have wanted to be the person he was staring at!}

 {Naked man on rock... tee hee hee!  :)  }

 {Getty Villa Gardens - I love LA weather!}

 {my awesome group of 6th graders}

After the museum, the art teacher, Clarence, decided that it was sacreligious to be in Malibu without going to the beach, se he surpiristed the kids with a trip to the Santa Monica Pier.  It was a beautiful day in the mid 90s without a cloud in the sky (weirdest November weather I've ever seen) and the kids had a blast.  We played in the water (some of the kids got completely soaked in their uniforms - oops) and the students realized that their were shells and animals in the ocean which led to over an hour of exploration.  It was awesome to see the kids digging up tiny crabs and clams and getting so excited about what they were finding.  I had so many asking all about the animals and I showed some of them their first sand dollar they'd ever seen.  Yay for curious little biologists!  After some fun time in the sun, we walked up to the pier and got frozen yogurt, them hopped back on the bus. 

Definitely the best field trip I've ever been on!

 {they built a little pond in the sand and were trying to collect crabs in it to observe}

 {6th Grade with the Santa Monica Pier in the background}

 {yay for the beach!}

{exhausted on the bus.  the 6th grade boys are some of my favorites}