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Sixth Grade Class Explores the Met

2/11/2026

It is one of the most iconic art institutions in the world, and on Friday, February 6, it was transformed into a classroom for sixth graders.

The students and their teachers, Brittany Farrar, Mark Tamucci, Bruce Robbins, Katie Meadows, Dan Russo and Jennifer Rathkopf, visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art to explore its American Wing and Greek and Roman Art Gallery. The field trip is designed to deepen students’ understanding of related curricula from their history, English, Latin and art classes.

In preparation for decorating their Minecraft Domus projects, students viewed paintings, mosaics, sculptures and furniture in the Roman gallery.

“The museum was really fun,” said Chloe Bowden ’32. “I liked the Roman times exhibit because it was like one big house, and we got to walk upstairs and downstairs and take inventory of statues and other pieces.”

To conclude their social studies unit on Civilizations of the Americas, students explored the Arts of the Ancient Americas in the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing.

“The visit connected two units we recently studied: the first Americans, who crossed the Beringia land bridge from Siberia 15,000 to 30,000 years ago, and the Maya, Aztec and Inca civilizations of the Americas. Some of the pieces included elaborate stone carvings depicting gods of the civilization, as well as gold funeral masks,” Tamucci explained.

The sixth graders also completed a scavenger hunt in the American Wing, searching through the landscape paintings by the Hudson River School artists who have inspired their recent work in art class.

“They saw paintings by Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt to name a few,” Robbins shared. “The students thoroughly enjoyed investigating the details and beautiful illusion of depth in the sublime paintings on view.”

Tamucci noted “Masters is blessed to have such a wonderful resource as the Met so close to our School. Being able to see and connect to topics discussed in Harkness discussions in our curriculum is, in many ways, priceless.”