Art Trailblazers/Explorers

We talked about an artist from the time period that we are studying, Edward Hicks. He did some interesting paintings called Peaceable Kingdom, which we looked at and talked about. We discussed the fact that he used his art to tell a message about his hope that people could live peaceably together. We made collages that portrayed our own ideas about peace between "scarey things" or strong things and weak things or creatures. The kids were very creative in there work. I am looking forward to next class! 

Art: Navigators/Pathfinders

Overview  

Romanticism Art Period

Each week we will be focusing on a different art period within this semester’s history timeline. We will be looking at the characteristics, style, and features as we analyze and critic different works from that art period.

Today we learned the three basic steps to critiquing a piece of art, which we will continue to apply throughout the semester:

A: ANALYZE the main objects/subjects

R: RECOGNIZE the colors, shapes, lines, textures, etc
T: TRANSLATE the meaning/emotion

 Project

Applying the three ART steps of critiquing, students found and cut out words from magazines to describe the various paintings shown. These words were then used in our group project, a Subway Style Word Art Poster.

Treasure Hunters and Eli Whitney

Eli Whitney- Inventor of the Cotton Gin (and interchangeable gun parts)

Focus:  Eli Whitney and inventions

Explore table:  tinker toys, erector sets, wheels and gears, screw board

Literature/Listen:  The children listened to an excerpt of the Story of the World (v3) on Eli Whitney's life and we read from the Discover the Life of an Inventor series:  Eli Whitney by Gaines.   Slavery was briefly discussed, (taking a person from their homeland, making them work for free, likely not treating them nicely).

Project:  The children colored a portrait of Eli Whitney and made model cotton gins.  We also discussed and pointed out North America on the globe, as well as identified Florida and traced fingers up the coast to NH. (and Massachusetts where Eli Whitney was born).

Music:  The children were introduced to the concept of rhythm through various songs/clapping.  They learned the value of a quarter note and rest and an eighth note using hand motions and the silly words blue, jel-lo, and (whispered) rest.   We worked on learning a song (surprise!).


Questions to ask your child throughout the week:
"What does a Cotton Gin do?"  (separates seeds from cotton) "Who invented it?" (Eli Whitney) "Why?" (because it took a long time to pick the seeds out).

Wonderful week!   Enthusiastic kids!
-Winnie

Music- Navigators

The Navigators delved deep into their young minds, and began to think about what music is, and what it was meant to be. They had already written their own definitions of music which we discussed further in class. And then we looked at a quote from Plato-"Music is..wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything." After drawing little pictures of what came to mind from those phrases, they went a little deeper and started thinking about how those word pictures really do relate to music. They began to talk about how important music is to our everyday lives, and how it affects us. Music reaches into so many areas of our lives, many more than we even realize. Many conversations were opened up about music's affect on us, and God's intent for it. And hopefully we will continue those conversations through the rest of the year, as we follow the progression of music through this time period.

Music- Pathfinders

We took a look at the definitions that the students brought in today, paying attention to the common denominators between the similar definitions. They decided that music should be described as combinations of sound that are pleasing to listen to, rather than just noise. They also realized that both sound and silence are needed to create music.
We took a look at a quote from Plato-"Music is..wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything." The kids drew pictures illustrating what those word pictures brought to mind.
And then they got creative making rain sticks. I gave them the initial instruction, and then they experimented by adding/modifying until they had the sound they were looking for.

Explorers/ Trailblazers Music

     Today's class was an introduction to music, where we explored what music is. The children shared the definitions of music that they had found. And then they came up with their own one-word descriptions of what music is to them.
     After that we took some time to play with some dynamics. We took a simple, familiar tune (Yankee Doodle) and changed the feel and sound of the song by changing the dynamics, singing it loud and soft, even shouting and whispering.
     And then we finished decorating our shakers, and used them to play some rhythm games. The kids enjoyed creating their own rhythms as well as mimicking others.

Monroe Doctrine

Only 40 years after the US gained its independence, the Monroe Doctrine fearlessly marked all of North and South America as a territory independent from Europe. According to Monroe, the US would no longer tolerate future European colonization or intervention in newly independent countries of the Americas, promising to retaliate if pushed.  

Interestingly, this message wasn’t found in a statement to other countries, but buried deep in a State of the Union speech that President James Monroe made to the US Congress. 

“The American continents … are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.  We … should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.” 

In class activities:

• Reviewed US path to independence
• Discussed the similarities between animals marking their territory, and the Monroe Doctrine
• Made handprint dogs
• Discussed our own ideas of territory and defense

Optional lesson extension activities:

• Monroe information and coloring pages - usa-printables
• Listen to the entirety of the Monroe Doctrine - librivox

In preparation for next week's class:

• read timeline cards #2-3