How Art We Doing?

 

Mockingbird 8y/o Park Life painting

 

This is just a quick glimpse of 3 ways have done Art this year, so far. 

 

En plein air

 

One beautiful day we went to the park to paint landscapes. We tried to use the water from the pond to really 'capture' the environment as a one famous Japanese artist does (so famous I forgot his name), but the scum on top sent us elsewhere. In the water we saw the muskrat, goldfish, a Frisbee disc fly in with a splash, and somewhere in there Mockingbird saw lily pads....

 

I probably could have given more instruction for the landscape due to the frustration voiced, but live and learn and use up canvases collecting dust...

 

Mockingbird's Red Room about 12"





 

Artist Study

We are doing Matisse this term. After reading a few children's biographies during lunches, we painted his The Dessert; Harmony in Red (The Red Room) in acrylics and white chalk--because we were out of white paint... This is Mockingbird's picture again. Her work is pictured in this post a lot not because I favor her, but because she starts with enough enthusiasim to have time to finish it, and allows it to be photographed easily (unlike some people). But that's OK. This isn't for a grade or even the end product. It's for the experience, it's for fun--most of all it's for them (not me).

Painting is also a great chance for children to solve their own problems when they say, initially forget to draw in the chair--or paint over the fruit bowl and their mother refuses to step in and fix it (with mixed reviews). I love Harold and the Purple Crayon and once did a whole week of lessons in public school around him and his sword purple crayon, focusing on how he comes to a problem and his crayon leads him to solutions. (A child's version of the Hero's Cycle.) I do try to choose simple pictures by the artist that are big shapes, and might give some sense of success to young children in copying.

I gave them a piece of cardboard, chalk to sketch out the big rectangles we observed, and then paint to go at it. We talked about the curvey lines, the fruit repeating the yellow flowers outside, and where the center of the picture is. Kingfisher 5y/o painted his board a monster, all green, then all black. Mockingbird 8y/o cheerfully reassured him when he complained about his artistic ability only to (I'm not kidding) 2 minutes later, burst into song and dance about how she couldn't do anything right as she had painted something wrong. It was all I could do to not burst into laughter regarding the about-face...which worked itself out in 2 more minutes.

 

Art History

 

It's still early in the year for us (I keep telling myself) and so we have read only to Chapter 5 in Hillyer's A Child's History of Art. This book is a bit pricey and was admittedly a school gift to myself.  It has three sections; Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. We are going to go straight through it--maybe in 3 years, maybe less.  It's wonderful; concise, applicable to a child's world, chronological, and informative- if dated. I finally went through and penciled in on a printed copy of the contents a little related project we would do for each chapter. Ambleside Online has a chart that also references the dates for me.

 

I made a big chart that has the general artistic periods running up the middle; Ancient, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Modern, Post-Modern. I found this outline from Art for Dummies helpful. On the right there is space to note Historical Events to help us relate. I found an old Janson's History of Art at a used book sale cheap enough to warrant cutting out the pictures to add to our poster as we read about them.

 

Typically, I show them images on-line, set them up to do a related project, and read the chapter to them while they work.

We do this on Sundays because they enjoy it and on that day we have the time to really spend on it if they want to work longer.

 

Related Art Projects

 

So far we have done Cave Art, where we drew with sidewalk chalk on brown butcher paper taped to the wall animals--some riddled with primitive arrows, some not.

 

Cave Art -Bowery Bird & Canary

 

We did Egyptian art, simply copying the front-eye, side shoulders stance.

 

Egyptian -8y/o Mockingbird

 

Then we did Assyrian art, drawing in clay an animal with a repeated decorative pattern. I gave them each a slab of clay and some little tools. For Kingfisher (5y/o) I drew the outline of a bird and let him fill it in, but this is again, is Mockingbird's work (remember, Best Beloved, not because I favor her more), it's only about 3x5".

 

Assyrian; Peacock -8y/o Mockingbird

 

 My goals with art aside from learning about an artist a term are:

• Exposure to different styles and understand how they fit into history
• Experimentation with those different styles and materials
• That's it. (I have to remind us all, myself included) It's not to create a perfect copy, memorize the dates of the period, or what part they played in their larger culture--just enjoy and someday further down the road, have a place to put more detailed information as it comes.

The Red Room

Mocking Bird's Matisse copy of the Red Room (8y/o)

 
 
 

 
 

Rocks & Fossils

Today we did Building Foundations of Science D-8 Vol 1.

After watching the Dinosaur Magic School Bus episode we learned about sediment and how dinosaur bone fossils are mold and cast formed. We made our own mudslide, let it settle, and as an after thought, Kingfisher stuck a desperate dinosaur in the middle... Later when I called him to do his journal he called out from within a pile of cushions on the couch, "sorry mom, I'm a fossil!" In other words, I was too late.

 

We looked at sandstone. We looked at how tiny clay particles that form shale can be by shaking up a bit of artist's clay in a jar of water.

We looked at limestone from our rock collection (fortunately labeled for us), and tested it and shells with vinegar for calcium properties. Shells fizzed a little, limestone OK, limestone tufa rock gave a more impressive response! (tufa; center above magnifying glass)

Then we watched these clips;

Fossil Rock Anthem  a music video parody, soo funny...

Dinosaur Days clip explaining fossil formation

Which prompted these science journal entries:

This is Kingfisher's (5 y/o) diagram of sediment with a dinosaur I drew for him. The caption he dictated reads; "Help! I'm sinking! What should I do? I'll just wait till I dry up then a paleontologist will dig me up-but that's terrible all my bones are going to get washed away!"

 

This is Mockingbird's diagram of how fossils are formed... see the Dinosaur Days clip for this girl's doppelgänger...

Schedules for Y5 and Y3

Here is the Y5 schedule we are using this year. Here is the Y3 one too.

Moral Tales for all that Ails

Me own mum confessed in true Catholic style the other day that if it weren't for the dear nuns and her early readers constantly concluding with some moral reminder, she'd have ended up like the rest of her siblings; self proclaimed "owl hoots and jaspers."

I found this telling, and went on to instantly catalogue what moral tales I was telling to my own impressionable little charges. They are good and plenty, a few for the record:

 1. The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett and it's companion, The Moral Compass

It begins with a quote from Plato's Republic,

Anything received into the mind at that age is likely to become indelible and unalterable; and therefore it is most important that the tales which the young first hear should be models of virtuous thoughts...

One school year we were graced by one of these every morning after breakfast. It holds such chapters as "Responsibility" and "Courage" and "Work." I would give my children three of these categories and when I was finished they had to guess what the story was about, and why.

Some of our favorites are "Dust Under the Rug," a story about a girl who one day gets hurried in her housework for dwarfs and fulfills the title's foreshadowing, only to later have her conscience stricken and discover gold as she makes amends.

Another is the rollicking rhyme of "Matilda, Who Told Lies, and Was Burned to Death."
...Need I say more?

2. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Magic (and really, anything else by Betty MacDonald you are lucky enough to get your hands on)

Not only is this a great introduction to the world of illustrator Hilary Knight (male, not female) but a didactic classic with entertaining yarns of the familiar friendly neighborhood cure-it-all with-a-call, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. We know her, we love her, go out and order yourself three.

3. Picture books; Pepe the Lamplighter, Princesses are not Quitters, Ruby and the Teeny Tiny Lie, etc.

These three came to mind most readily being ones we own.
Pepe the Lamplighter highlights an immigrant boy's "insignificant" job which ends up saving his little lost sister one dark night.
The next is a modern fairy tale of three princesses who are tired of seeing the servants have all the fun. It is so fanciful and silly that little girls are easily swept up in the magic of...work.
Lastly, Ruby loves to collect little things so much that she slips, just a little, and tells her teacher that a little camera she founds is hers, and pays for it with a big guilty conscience.

4. Biographies:Stone Girl Bone Girl, Minty, and Annie Oakley

This is from memory, but impressionable true-life tales always leave my children desiring to do something great:
Stone Girl, Bone Girl is of the young girl, Mary Anning, who discovered many paleontological firsts along the coastal shores of her British homeland, helping to support her struggling family and defeat personal ridicule from her peers.
Minty, was Harriet Tubman's childhood nickname. The illustrator, Jerry Pinckney also did the Harriet Tubman stamp. This beautiful bringing-up story made me cry, but made my children laugh (at the right places). Minty tells her homemade doll a lively rendition of Davy & Goliath she has learned from her mother, comparing Goliath to their master and ending it all with a feast of plenty at the 'big house'.
Annie Oakley is a personal favorite, followed up by the musical, of course. This talented female went from providing food for her family to touring the country and donating much to orphanages.


5. The Friend, a magazine

Yes, I'm LDS and so is this children's magazine that monthly brings to our home true tales of children who have come up against disobedience, laziness, bullying, viewing something their family rules deem inappropriate, etc. from others, or themselves at a weak moment. Sometimes they initially make the right choice, sometimes they don't; which in itself, is a lesson. As a side note, a wise mother once told me she tries to discuss with and prepare her children for issues they must face a full five years before they will even need to.

6. Among the Farmyard People by Clara Dillingham Pierson

This series of "Among the...People" is actually about animals, because animals are people too. Basing moral messages around actual animal behavior results in stories, for instance, of a lamb who shakes his long tale proudly at the others when his mother isn't looking--until it's cut off. Another of my favorites is the surprisingly abrupt story of a mouse who mistakes foolishness for bravery with an owl around. While it takes a bit to read the humor at times, it is consistent throughout and directed toward kindergarten age of long ago.

7. Works of fiction: The Trolls, The Hundred Dresses, and Gone Away Lake

Good fiction, should be blatantly fun and subtly enriching.
The Trolls is one of the most surprising and though-provoking books I have ever read. Its light-hearted family stories have a deep and even dark undertone revealed in the very last lines. I pondered it's meaning for days after...
The Hundred Dresses, I'm sure we're all familiar with this early portrait of bullying or excluding, and it's consequences.
Gone Away Lake is an adventure of discovery into another time as two siblings and a cousin meet living relics of a time gone by. As beautifully as that unfolds, it's also about watching out for your younger sibling, and what can happen if you don't.

   

8. Fairy Tales

I put this last, but really, isn't this a child's first introduction to the realm of stories-with-hidden-meaning? Just think back on these tales that obviously originated with that purpose in mind:

Cinderella
Little Red Riding Hood
The Little Mermaid (Please, I'm talking the real one here)
Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Obviously enjoyed by all ages, these references are all mostly geared toward younger ages. If you know of some gems for the older set, please let me know. I'm half-thinking of myself here, for they have helped strengthen my moral character as well.