Cityscape Art

As part of our art studies I like to teach the kids about the different kinds of pieces that artists  make - still life, portraits, landscapes - you get the idea. One that seems to be often overlooked is the cityscape.  We looked at several cityscape pictures and noticed that while more natural landscapes tend to have organic, irregular shapes, cityscapes tend to be with very simple, geometric ones.

We began with a horizon line, in this case, the street.  All the structures must be tied into the horizon line in a cityscape (unless you want the buildings to look like they're floating in the air!)  We cut out a street from black construction paper and glued it to our blue construction paper background.  That created the horizon line.

Next, the kids used any colors they wanted to to cut out tall buildings using simple geometric shapes of different sizes.  The one I pictured was done by my 4 year-old with very little help from me.  That's the beauty of cityscapes - their straight lines make things very simple!

Finally, we added details.  A black marker was used to add windows and doors to the buildings, yellow chalk made perfect dashes on the street, and white clouds were created with white chalk.

Older kids could add cut-outs of people, cars, fire hydrants, or anything else they'd like to.

Additional layers:

• Discuss the idea of organic versus geometric shapes.  
• Imagine back to the time before your city (or a nearby city) was there.  If it were all just the natural land and you were creating a landscape picture, what colors would you use?  Now compare that with the colors you would use if you made a picture of the city as it looks today.
• Make a replica of your cityscape art on another day or another time.  Create the same scene, except in the wintertime or make a picture of what it looks like at night.

DNA Extractions

Nathan extracted DNA from peas this past week. 

The stringy, white, snot-like stuff is the DNA. 

The DNA looks remarkably like . . . snot.  That would be because both DNA and snot are made of similar proteins.  It's a little weird though that the whole control center of your body's cells resembles the nasty stuff on your tissue.

We'll explain how to extract DNA from peas in Year 2, unit 6 where we learn about cells.


Additional Layers:

• You know how when you have a cold, you think, "If I blow my nose really well than all this nastiness in my nose will go away"  but then it doesn't, the snot just keeps coming and coming.  How does your body do this?  Find out how cells make the stuff they make.
•  DNA is both simple and complex.  It's only made with four different protein compounds.  The compounds are just arranged in different patterns and orders to make the whole code.  Tim observed that this is kind of like the binary code with which computers are programmed, only in the body it's a quaternary code.  Pretty cool stuff.
• Each strand of DNA is a single molecule; it's one of the very few molecules you can see with the naked eye.
• DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid . . . you will probably never need to know this in your real life.  But still, probably the only word you know that's longer is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, and that's just nonsense.

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A Trip To The Ocean

This week we're heading out on a family camping trip to the Pacific Ocean. We've been doing all sorts of things to get ready. We've mapped out a plan of our trip and where we want to go, made lists of fun things to do, and learned about the area's geography, wildlife, weather, and even a little history. We've also planned games, menus, and gathered our equipment.

It would be a whole lot easier for Mom and Dad to just do the planning and bring the kiddos along, but then no real learning would happen. Instead, we've let our kids really take ownership of our trip. They each get to choose some of our excursions and be "the leader" those days. They are each in charge of planning out the food and cooking on certain days. They have also each made a list of goals for the trip. My son, who is just starting Cub Scouts, has decided that on this trip he wants to start a seashell collection to help him earn a badge. He is also really excited about learning photography and will be bringing his new camera to document our trip. My daughter wants to find a starfish in the tide pools. She also wants to try to find some of the places that she's seen in pictures in our family scrapbook. We traveled to this area before she was born, but she has only seen pictures of the space needle, ferry boats, and the Pacific Ocean. They both want to learn to cook in the dutch oven and over the campfire.

Here I am in front of the Space Needle.

The last time we traveled here none of our kids were born yet!

Because we are taking the time not only to learn about things we will see ahead of time, but also to let them take some ownership in our trip, they are bundles of enthusiasm. Studying the ocean, tide pools, sea life, Seattle and the Puget Sound, transportation, volcanoes, explorers, and rain forests has all been 100% joy because it feels so real to them. School feels like play when it's part of their own adventures.

Thumbprint Autobiography

Pinterest is a new love of mine.  Check out this cool art project I just pinned:

Source: google.com via Karen on Pinterest

It's a thumprint self-portraint!  Brilliant, eh?  If you like this project, come check out my homeschooling board on Pinterest.  You can find me at http://pinterest.com/kloutz/  I have boards on all kinds of topics and am always scouring the internet for fun new ideas to pin.  Come join the fun!