Fairy Tales School Program

Childred participating in school program for Museum at FIT's Fairy Tale Fashion exhibition

Over four weeks in February and March 2016, The Museum at FIT offered educational programming geared towards kindergarten students for the first time in the museum's history. MFIT partnered with Chelsea Prep Elementary school (P.S. 33) to develop a program in which students learned to identify the special types of garments seen in fairy tales and the characteristic clothing details of "fairy tale" fashions. They also created their own "fairy tale fashion" mannequin. The program concluded with a visit to the MFIT exhibition Fairy Tale Fashion, during which students participated in a scavenger hunt to find the types of garments seen and discussed in the classroom.

The museum worked with Lauren Zodel, Assistant Professor Fashion Design, Fashion Institute of Technology, for this project. FIT students in professor Zodel's Introduction to Childrenswear class worked hands on with Chelsea Prep students. The FIT students also developed garments for their final class project based on the Fairy Tale Fashion exhibition and their work with the Chelsea Prep students.

The museum’s goals were to engage children with the exhibition and to provide experiences that supported their classroom reading curriculum. The project included age-appropriate lesson plans based on exhibition content in order to support visual literacy and to show students and teachers that a fashion museum is a place where learning can be fun.

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