Science and Art Finale

Wrapped up the formal part of the study today with roast chicken dinner and a cake which the boys made. They used berries as their tessarae make a mosaic American flag for the decoration. We had a quick anatomy lesson before serving the chicken (everyone asked for the feet, of course). After dinner, the boys pulled out our microscope to check out the giblets and the inside of the bones. No one seemed grossed out about eating our study topic which I appreciated because eating chicken in any form makes me quite green.

We still have some smaller activities planned--maybe we'll do some Science Fridays--and 3 mosaic field trips to the Basilica, the Islamic Center, and the Dumbarton Gardens.

Learning Notes--Science and Art Week

Day 3--Lots of mistakes today. I wasn't prepared enough with our human body models. Also, I wanted to do too much, so instead of putting something off until later, I tried to multitask. Stupid stupid stupid to try to read picture books while kids are coloring and cutting.

Then we ran off to the local panadaria y carneceria (Mexican bakery and butcher) to see what they had for Dia de los Muertos. The answer: nothing since it isn't until Nov. 2. Duh. They didn't have chicken feet either, sigh, but fortunately they did have beef tongues (only $11.20 for a tongue I was told after assuring the man we were not interested in buying one but only wanted to look at the taste buds...). Another unexpected benefit was that we had our John Lithgow CD on in the car and have sung Skin multiple times a day since. Forgot to point out the tripe to the kids, and we were doing digestive system. Dang.

Day 4--Much better. First of all we cuddled on the loveseat and read books for 1 1/2 hours. Then we worked on completing the human body models, and since I had done mine last night, it went very smoothly. Maria, after we read St. Valentine, spent the rest of the morning drawing mosaics. Her assessment: it's harder to draw a mosaic than it looks.

Day 5--Started the morning with a cuddle and many fine books again. I had 2 Dia de los Muertos books, plus some new human body books. We touched on the nervous system after reading the book Now One Foot, Now the Other by Tomie de Paola. The kids loved the reading time and were fully attentive as we glued paper mosaics and made one last human body model to show how muscles work. I like the larger skeleton model best, but the boys thought this was pretty neat too. I'm still hoping for chicken feet at a different butcher today.

More Halloween Pictures

For Halloween Anthony was a black unicorn; Thomas was a Chinese dragon. Here they are on the way out the door. Bill made it home from work in time to take them, and it was his first time going trick-or-treating. Maria was an angel, Cecila a "Pinky", the pink octopus from Finding Nemo, and James', for as long as it took me to take this picture, was St. George.

Thomas and Anthony had a Hallween recital on Tuesday where they played some Christmas carols improved into Halloween carols and other spooky songs, including The Star Spangled Banner. I'm not quite sure how that was chosen as a Halloween piece.... By the way, if you ever need an easy program to compose music in the free download of Finale Notepad was great.

Happy Halloween!

Science and Art Week--Day 2

This morning we started by curling up on the loveseat, talking, and looking at book about mosaics. Then the kids browsed the gallery at the back of the book, laughing when we got to the shish kebob mosaic, to get ideas for their own artwork. Golden moment: Anthony pointed out that the perspective in one mosaic reminded him of how Cezanne changed perspective within a piece to draw your eye across the entire work. (They have learned something!)

They took out pattern blocks and used different colors of background paper (to simulate different colors of grout) and designed their own mosaics. Cecilia used mosaic magnets. Maria, who is also sick with croup and only halfway doing school, stayed absorbed with the blocks the rest of the morning. Her dream is of a school day of only art.

To segue back to our Human Body study I showed the boys some pictures of the bone mosaics in the crypt below Santa Maria della Concezione in Rome. I don’t think they are proper mosaics really, but they are pretty cool. Sadly though, nothing could make our study of bones less dry after the excitement of designing their own artwork in a new style, and it was tough to keep their attention. Dem Bones by Bob Barner came to my rescue, at least halfway engaging them so we could look at the more educational but un-singable Visual Dictionary of Human Anatomy.

Learning Notes--Science and Art Week

This week we have set aside our regular curriculum for unit studies in art and science. When I plan a unit study, I choose a topic and then free associate books, projects, games, and field trips to come up with a plan that is book heavy, project heavy, mom- and learning-intensive, and fun. Based on the 3rd grade science suggestions in What Your Third Grader Should Know, I chose the Human Body for our science topic. Since Cecilia had a trip to the doc this morning (diagnosis: croup), our art study of mosaics will begin tomorrow.
Day 1--Today we colored and built a skeleton using the patterns in the book The Body Book, Ferbys, and brads. Even though the kids don't seem to enjoy coloring in general, they enthusiastically worked on the project all day long. They asked lots of questions, and we discussed the body as we worked. When it was time to break for lunch, they watched School House Rock! and cut out their skeletons. The Science Rock section of the DVD has some great songs about the body. In fact all 5 of the older kids asked where on the skeleton you would find the villi ("In through the villi which look a little sill-i!"). I broke it to them gently that the small intestine (not a part of the skeleton) will be a part of our lesson on Wednesday.

Because he's cute

Here is James checking in with Uncle "Christmastom" who is home with my parents after being evacuated from St. Michael's because of the wildfires. Chrysostom says that the air quality is poor at the abbey, but otherwise things are fine.