We started with a video of students in Wake County who visited the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh, and some of the stories they learned about the art they saw there (https://youtu.be/ZC2pQmjdSLk).
Then, we watched parts of a video of a walk-through of La Louvre so they could mark the differences between a quiet field trip to a local museum, and the outrageous collection (and amount of tourists!) at the biggest museum in the world (https://youtu.be/PmT-djHyo3E).
4th Graders were told that if they were art students in high school or college and we were to visit a museum, they'd likely bring a sketch book and draw what inspires them, shapes they want to practice, unique techniques, etc. So after getting an understanding of what sketching is, they were armed with iPads (with photo gallery to choose some art from), some sketch paper and pencils.
Looking through the photos below, you'll see that art ranged from familiar paintings by Monet, Degas, and Van Gogh, statues, a portrait of Marie Antoinette, gardens, and even architecture. By doing this exercise, students focused more on being creative without being perfect, exploring how art is seen in and outside museums, and that everyone's interpretations will be different - and its OK!
This very fun virtual field trip allowed our students to act as art students and express creativity in a judge (grade) free zone. They absolutely loved it and have begged for more time to do another sketch. They also really loved hearing my stories about traveling to these museums, and seemed more connected to the photographs because they knew the history behind them. At the end of the year, after EOGs, our students will be artists in the library instead of passively watching movies - and they're excited about it!