SCHOOL GROUP GRADES 6–8
We book all our tours on Explorable Places.
When you are ready to schedule your visit, please read through these frequently asked questions and book below.
Behind the Screen Tour
60 minutes
10-50 students
$8/student ($3/student for Title I)
Students learn about how moving images are made, marketed, and shown, while discovering the many careers open to them in the moving-image industries. Under the guidance of a Museum educator, students actively explore and discuss artifacts and artworks, and experiment with hands-on interactive experiences and demonstrations. This tour serves as an ideal introduction to the Museum and its collection, and discussions can be focused to address the class’ specific curricular needs.
Behind the Screen Tour & Screening Program
90 minutes, 10-50 students
$9/student ($3/student for Title I)
Optional: $175 fee for live musical accompaniment
Along with a guided tour of the Museum’s core exhibition, students experience a historic film or television episode in one of the Museum’s state-of-the-art movie theaters as part of the Screening America program. These screenings, which include a post-screening discussion, use historic media to help teach English, English as a Second Language, and Social Studies, with a focus on American history.
Choose either an episode of I Love Lucy ("Job Switching," 1952), which explores women at work in the fifties, or a Charlie Chaplin film (The Immigrant, 1917), which explores screen comedy and the immigrant experience. Live musical accompaniment is available for The Immigrant.
Middle school groups looking for a program with specific alignments to American History topics also have the option to select a feature-length film. Click here for a full menu of options.
Behind the Screen Tour & Video Game Design Workshop
90 minutes
10-50 students
$9/student ($3/student for Title I)
Students participate in a guided tour of the Museum’s core exhibition, and also explore the world of digital game design through a hands-on, educator-led workshop. Students are introduced to basic game design principles, and then work in teams to use programming software to build their own unique versions of a ping-pong style video game.
Behind the Screen Tour & Political Ad Workshop
90 minutes
10-50 students
$9/student ($3/student for Title I)
As an extension of the guided tour of Behind the Screen, students explore basic principles of video production through the lens of political campaign advertising. Working with archival materials from The Living Room Candidate, the Museum’s online exhibition of historic presidential campaign commercials, students remix and re-edit a campaign commercial from an actual presidential campaign.
THE JIM HENSON EXHIBITION: GUIDED TOUR
60 minutes
10-50 students
$10/student ($3/student for Title I)
With a museum educator as your guide to the inspiration behind The Jim Henson Exhibition, discover the creative genius and legacy of Jim Henson, which includes puppets, character sketches, scripts, interactive experiences, and costumes from the worlds of Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and more. This dynamic experience explores Jim Henson's groundbreaking work for film and television and his transformative impact on culture.
The Jim Henson Exhibition: Guided Tour & Workshop
90 minutes (recommended)
10-50 participants
$11/student ($3/student for Title I)
In this inquiry-based tour of The Jim Henson Exhibition, students explore the creative genius and legacy of Jim Henson, which includes puppets, character sketches, scripts, interactive experiences, and costumes from the worlds of Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and more. For Grades 6–12, the Museum offers a supplementary Storyboarding Workshop in which students explore design-thinking through advertising agency exercises modeled after Henson's early work for television.
The Jim Henson Exhibition: Guided Tour & Screening Program
90 minutes
10-50 participants
$11/student ($3/student for Title I)
Along with a guided tour of The Jim Henson Exhibition, students learn about the science, technology, engineering, art, and math behind the creation of imaginary worlds through puppetry, with a screening of clips from Henson's Muppet Show in one of the Museum’s movie theaters. This program is a dynamic complement to any STEAM curriculum.
Self-guided Visit
90 minutes (recommended)
10-100 students
$7/student ($3/student for Title I )
Groups will receive an introduction from a Museum educator, and then explore any of the Museum’s general-admission exhibitions with their teachers and chaperones. The whole museum can be experienced in an hour and a half, and self-guided groups are welcome to stay for up to a two hour maximum. Students must be accompanied by chaperones at all times during self-guided visits.
