Guided School Experiences combine hands-on animation and design activities with interactive gallery tours, allowing students to be creative while exploring Walt Disney’s life and work in meaningful ways. School Experiences appeal to a variety of learning styles and align with Common Core State Standards.
Grades TK‑1
Mon, Wed, Thu, & Fri | 10–11:30am
On this tour, our littlest students learn all about the importance of color in animation. In the galleries, they explore how color is used as a form of storytelling to set the mood of animated movies. In the Learning Center, they create their own color scripts to gain a better understanding of how the right colors can enhance a story.
Grades 1‑3
Mon, Wed, Thu & Fri | 10am–noon
In the galleries, students discover the importance of storytelling in animation by engaging in interactive activities focused on the concepts of character, setting, and plot. In the Learning Center, they will illustrate and animate a story using a zoetrope, a device that produces the illusion of motion in a sequence of drawings.
Grades 3–6
Mon, Wed, Thu, & Fri | 10am–noon & 1–3pm
Students take a tour through the galleries highlighting the importance of music throughout Walt's life. With a focus on masterpieces like the Silly Symphonies (1929–39) and Fantasia (1940), the guided tour then transitions students into an interactive workshop where they make music collaboratively using a unique, pitched percussion instrument called Boomwhackers®.
Grades 4‑12
Mon, Wed, Thu, & Fri | 10am–noon
In the galleries, students discover the importance of storytelling structure in animation by taking part in interactive activities focused on the concepts of character, setting, and plot, as they apply to film. In the Learning Center, they work collaboratively to write a story within eight frames and pitch their completed storyboards to the class.
Grades 4‑12
Mon, Wed, Thu, & Fri | 10am–noon
In the galleries, students discover how Walt encouraged his staff to experiment with special effects technology to make animation more compelling and realistic, and how the resulting advancements inspired the industry as a whole. In the Learning Center, students experiment with a mini Multiplane Camera, explore how depth is created in animation, and create their own silent stop-motion shorts.
Grades 6‑12
Mon, Wed, Thu & Fri | 10am–noon & 1–3pm
Students tour the main museum galleries in search of unique hand-drawn special effects in Disney classics from 1937 to 1966, discussing The Walt Disney Studios’ many technological innovations, like the Multiplane Camera that brought new dimensions to Walt’s stories. In the Learning Center, students...
Grades 4–12
Mon, Wed, Thu, & Fri | 10am–noon & 1–3pm
During this two-hour workshop, students learn about the innovation of synchronized sound and are challenged to match their animations with an exciting soundtrack of their own design. Students also experiment with a mini Multiplane Camera, explore how depth is created in animation, and create their own stop-motion shorts.
Grades 6‑12
Mon, Wed, Thu & Fri | 10am–noon & 1–3pm
In the galleries, students learn the history of Audio-Animatronics® technology, first invented by WED Enterprises during the early 1960s. During this hands-on team workshop, students become Imagineers and are challenged to navigate Sphero SPRK robots using block computer programming.
Grades 3‑6
Mon, Wed, Thu & Fri | 10am–1pm
In partnership with HI USA, It's a Shared World explores Walt Disney's lifelong commitment to environmental education, international travel and intercultural understanding. From driving an ambulance in Europe during WWI to pioneering nature documentaries, Walt Disney wanted to make a difference on a...
Grades 3–6
Wed, Thu, & Fri | 10am–noon & 1–3pm
Thanks to our partnership with The Society of California Pioneers, located just steps away from the museum, students begin this program at The Society’s research library engaging with primary source materials, creating a narrative, and collecting images. The second half of their hands-on experience...
Grades 6‑12
Mon, Wed, Thu, & Fri | 10am–noon and 1–3pm
In the galleries, students reflect on the work of Imagineers, who worked under Walt at WED Enterprises during the 1950s and 60s to imagine, research, design, and build some of Disney’s most iconic and revolutionary projects and attractions. In the Learning Center, students apply these concepts to...
Grades 9–12
Mon, Wed, Thu, & Fri | 10am–noon & 1–3pm
Through a guided tour of the museum galleries, students gain a better understanding of significant women in Disney history. Students will participate in group discussions to promote feminist perspectives and critical thinking. During the workshop, the students will ink and paint a cel, a job done...
Grades TK‑1
Mon, Wed, Thu & Fri | 10–11:30am & 1–2:30pm
Students learn about Walt Disney and his team of Imagineers to see how their creativity and dreams led to the construction of Disneyland. During the workshop, students create a ride blueprint, collaboratively prototype designs by assembling and testing a variety of ride tracks, and—like real...
Grades 1‑3
Mon, Wed, Thu & Fri | 10am–noon
In the galleries, students step into Walt’s shoes, using their imaginations as they discover exciting moments in Walt’s life and the history of animation. In the Learning Center, students star in their own short animated movie using an engaging stop-motion technique called “pixilation” to gain a hands-on understanding of the animation process.
8–9am PST on Wednesdays
1:30–2:30pm PST on Thursdays & Fridays
Benefitting from embedded digital media content, this walk-through the museum brings Walt’s inspirational message to life. Classes learn about his early failures, the art of animation, storytelling principles, and the technological innovations that made classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) possible.
1:30–2:30pm PST on Thursdays & Fridays
Grade 3–8
Mon, Wed, Thu, & Fri | 10am–noon and 1–3pm
Limited time only: September 4, 2019 to January 6, 2020
Students take a tour of our newest special exhibition, Mickey Mouse: From Walt to the World, with gallery activities and group discussions centered around one-of-a-kind Mickey artworks and objects. In the Learning Center, students bring to life their own animated characters using a Crankie box —illustrated stories literally cranked around two scrolls with a viewing screen. Students are welcome to self-guide through the main museum galleries before or after the workshop finishes.
Limited time only: September 4, 2019 to January 6, 2020
Grades 1‑12
Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri | 10am–4pm
School groups are welcome to explore the museum’s galleries on their own at a discounted school rate. Self-guided school groups have access to the museum’s core galleries, special exhibitions, and film screenings. Be sure to pick up a STEAM Self-Guide handout for each student to use while touring the core galleries.
Additional Resources
Scholarship Programs
We are committed to quality education and providing every student with the opportunity to benefit from our curriculum-based school experiences. To ensure that under-resourced schools can take part in our school experiences, we offer two scholarship programs.
Admission Waivers
Scholarships are available for museum admission for all Title I schools. Please indicate your Title I status on your registration form or contact education@wdfmuseum.org for more information.
Bus Scholarships
Bus scholarships are available for field trips scheduled during the academic year for Title I schools in the San Francisco Unified School District. Teachers are responsible for booking their own buses.
Education Mailer
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