Advice from Ms. Kissel's Third Grade Class at Erickson Elementary

ADVENTURING THROUGH

the Art Museum

Advice from Students in Ms. Kissel’s Third Grade Class at Erickson Elementary

A D VENTURI N G THRO U HG the art museum

Ms. Kissel’s Class

Advice from Students in Ms. Kissel’s Third Grade Class at Erickson Elementary

826

National’s Commitment to Inclusion

As an organization committed to encouraging youth in their creative expression, personal growth, and academic success, 826 National and its chapters recognize the importance of diversity at all levels and in all aspects of our work. In order to build and maintain the safe, supportive 826 environment in which great leaps of learning occur, we commit to inclusion: We will not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, nationality, marital status, English fluency, parental status, immigration status, military service, or disability.

826michigan Staff

Megan Shuchman Executive Director

Catherine Calabro Cavin Education Director

Megan Gilson Program Manager

Denise Ervin Program Manager

Caitlin Koska Volunteer Manager

Kinyel Friday Operations Manager

Ola Faleti Institutional Giving Strategist

Kayla Chenault Interim Program & Volunteer Coordinator

Paige Bennett Teaching Artist

Eli Sparkman Teaching Artist

The U-M Museum of Art puts art and ideas at the center of campus and public life. We create experiences that enrich our understanding of one another, foster joy, and build a more just future. Through exhibitions, programs, research, and community partnerships we are redefining what a campus museum can be.

Copyright © 2023 by 826michigan and Blotch Books.

All rights reserved by 826michigan, the many whims of Dr. Thaddeus Blotch, the illustrators, and the authors.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to any people or events, real or imaginary, is purely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced without express written permission from the publisher, except for small excerpts for the purposes of review or scholarly study.

Many thanks to the University of Michigan Museum of Art and our volunteers for their participation in this field trip.

By purchasing this book, you are helping 826michigan continue to offer free student programs. For more information, please visit: 826michigan.org

What would happen if you could jump inside a work of art?

This isn’t an ordinary trip to the museum! During this field trip program, students imagined that they were shrinking down to the size of a paper clip and then jumping inside of different art pieces at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. They worked with volunteers and museum educators to write creative survival guides, giving advice for how readers might survive inside of these different art worlds. Students’ writing was then published in a book–the one you are now holding. Students toured the museum and saw the art that they wrote about in real life, reading their newly-written survival guides in front of the art.

This field trip is offered each year to every third grade class in the Ypsilanti Community Schools district. The program is a partnership between 826michigan, a local youth writing organization, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art to highlight the connections between art and writing.

We hope you enjoy reading these guides to survival in some very unusual settings!

How to Survive Alice

Florencia Pita

Alice, 2007

Polymer foam, PETG, urethane

Gift of the artist

Ms. Kissel’s Class

First, you need to feel it. You should wear gloves in case your hand gets poisoned.

Then, make a spear and make a bow and arrow. Look around for animals.

Next, you need to build a shelter. You could use a screwdriver.

Last, make a bed. You need a bearskin pillow and blankets. You need apples, oranges, and blueberries. Look for them in one of the big holes. You’ll need to really look around in the holes because they’re so big. When you find some blueberries growing in one of the holes, you can make a pie. You should also find a wolf to be your companion. Ask the wolf’s pack if you can join them. You will realize you could get eaten, so you should use your weapons for defense. Find a hole and hide from the wolves.

How to Survive Future Cache

Andrea Carlson

Future Cache, 2022

Gouache on paper

Courtesy of the artist

Group 1

First, you should build a shelter. You should decorate it with lights made of fire. You should have a bed in your shelter. You should use the trees to build it. You can put your clothes inside, and create a bathroom in the shelter. You can find a red swimsuit on the beach and use it to go in the water. The water will be cold.

Then, you should keep watch in the water for sharks. If you see a shark, you should run to the beach and then into the woods. You can keep a bow and arrow in your shelter.

Next, you should find berries in the bushes in the forest. You can go fishing for fish and crab legs. You can make a fire to cook your food. You should feed fish to the sharks because sharks really like fish. You can use fish to train the sharks to do tricks. Then, they will be your pets.

Last, to get out of the painting, you’ll need to concentrate really hard. You need to flip your brain upside down like a pancake. Then, you can make yourself big again.

How to Survive Lion Dance and Monkey Dance

Unrecorded, Japanese

Top: Lion Dance Under Red Plum Blossoms, 1730-1740

Bottom: Monkey Dance Under White Plum Blossoms, 1730-1740

One of a pair of 6-fold screens ink, color, and gold pigment on paper

Museum purchase made possible by the Margaret Watson Parker Art Collection Fund

Group 1

First, get rocks and start a fire by rubbing two sticks from the tree together and cook rice on a metal plate.

Then, gather resources to build a spear and bow and arrow and then buy a sword. Go deep into a cave and find metal, or smelt rocks if you can’t find any metal, to build samurai armor. Build a sword handle to carry your swords and a weapon holder across your back to hold the bow-andarrow and spear.

Next, ask where to get shelter from the locals. If a dragon comes, you should get inside of the dragon puppet and use your resources to attack if possible. Or you can make the dragon your companion (like a Pokémon) and ride the dragon around. You can name the dragon Dracula or Demitrius DeMarcus James the III!

Last, try to get out of the place by calling the people who accidentally sent you here and maybe they can send themselves into the art to help you get out.

How to Survive Nevelson Dark

Presence III

Dark Presence III, 1971

Painted wood

Gift of Bobby Kotick

Louise Nevelson

Group 1

First, you need to find food and water. You have to be careful in case the food is rotten. You will know if it’s rotten because it will have bugs on it, it would be mushy, or the color might be green. It is cold in the house.

Then, you need to find pajamas, blankets, hats, and gloves. Sometimes in abandoned mansions there are dirty clothes, so you want to make sure the clothes are clean. You need a washer and dryer if the clothes are dirty.

Next, you have to make weapons out of wood and metal. You can take some wood off the house and grab a rock and make it sharp. You need to use the weapons because there might be bats, ghosts, and scary dolls that might come to get you. When they count to five that means the monster is coming. Make sure there are no intruders in the house.

Last, you can use your phone so you don’t get bored. You can call 911 or the ghostbusters if the ghost gets in your body. You can call the ambulance if you get hurt.

Group 2

First, you need to find a place to hide. Because there is a huge robot spider monster that has sharp teeth, eight legs, two heads, five arms, and a monster tail. It has ten dragon eyes. It can make fire come out of its mouth. It can command armies and control them. This monster came from the underground world from a scientist who was trying to take over the world. So beware!

Then, you need to work as a team because you can’t conquer this alone. You need to set an elaborate trap with nets. The trap could also double as a giant tasernet. You could set a bear trap, which could hold the monster for ten years. You could eventually defeat the monster when it comes back.

Next, you need to gather tools such as a giant shovel, a fire extinguisher, possibly a sword. You should get a bucket of water because water would break the code of the robot. You could find the water jugs in the bottom.

Last, you should lure the giant spider robot to follow you. It’s actually a strategy to get it closer to the water. You can make a teleporter so the robot will think you went into it and out of nowhere, the robot spider monster will be lost and confused and you will be safe. The art world explodes, and you board your ship and fly to another universe.

How to Survive Ngoromera

Masimba Hwati

Ngoromera, 2020

Brass, iron, copper, carbon steel, and plastic

Museum purchase made possible by the University of Michigan Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the Director’s Acquisition Committee, 2020

Group 1

First, you need to avoid the toe-eating monster. You can play the trumpet to know where the monster is.

Then, you need to make weapons to defend yourself. You can pull the metal spear off the end to create a weapon. The monster’s weakness is its toes. If given the chance, aim for the toes.

Next, to protect your own toes, you need to go to the toe protecting machine on the black space below the red dot. Once activated, the machine will shoot you down the large tube.

Last, to escape you need to make a portal device. Pull down the hanging metal pieces to open the portal. You teleport to the monster’s stomach. This was a glitch! Luckil,y it only lasts a second and the glitch is fixed. You teleport home.

Group 2

First, you will notice it’s a powdery environment. You are a vampire, you have to hunt. You have to avoid the stinky, poisonous garlic forest hanging from the right. You should put a mask on to avoid the smell.

Then, you cut the tubes and make plastic gloves. You blow yourself out the bottom, climb a rope, and get away from the garlic. Now you are on top, so you make a bed, food, and glasses to drink blood.

Next, find some trees and build a vampire lobby, which has a secret basement with secret plans and a map of the world. Then go and eat some dinner.

Last, you collect bananas, poisonous garlic, apples, powder, and blood. Shake it up, and you made a potion! You conquer the world by making potions and letting them explode. All of the vampires go into the portals on the ends of the spears and escape. Then you wonder, “what happened?” because after escaping you forget everything.

WRITE YOUR OWN SURVIVAL GUIDE!

Author Name:

How to Survive:

First, Then,

About the Author

WRITING IS

A way to figure things out by ourselves

A way to help us connect to our world

We create a safe place to be ourselves and try new things

We support the ways that writers work (like thinking, sketching, talking)

We study the writing we want to do so we can try it

We learn how to change our writing for genre, audience, and purpose

We work with a group of writers who help and support each other

www.826michigan.org

A way to help us learn who we are and who we will become

A way for us to use our power to make changes and build a better world

826 National was inspired to take a stand on issues of inclusion and diversity in light of the many events that spotlighted social and racial injustices throughout the country. We as educators, volunteers, and caring adults need to be aware of the wide range of issues our students face on a day-to-day basis. We need to support these young people as they navigate through and try to make sense of the world and their own identities.

We need the support and the feedback from our community to ensure 826 is living up to these standards. Through our inclusion statement, our internal diversity and inclusion group, cultural competency resources provided to staff and volunteers, and partnerships with other organizations, we are always working towards being a more inclusive and supportive organization.

We at 826 have the privilege of working with the next generation of scholars, teachers, doctors, artists, lawyers, and writers. It's our job to make sure they are able to take their own stands.

As an organization committed to encouraging youth in their creative expression, personal growth, and academic success, 826 National and its chapters recognize the importance of diversity at all levels and in all aspects of our work. In order to build and maintain the safe, supportive 826 environment in which great leaps in learning happen, we commit ourselves to inclusion: we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, nationality, marital status, English fluency, parental status, military service, or disability.

The 826 National network is committed to encouraging youth to express themselves and to use the written word to effectively do so. We encourage our students to write, take chances, make decisions, and finish what they start. And 826 strives to do this in an environment free from discrimination and exclusion.

by Gerald Richards, CEO