NOTE: We had started this unit previously and I linked some detail in this post. This is a continuation of that beginning to the unit.
Picture Study for this week:
Henri Matisse, Interior, Flowers, Parakeets (1924)Mary Cassatt, Portrait of a Little Girl
These selections gave me a chance to review warm and cool colors this week. It was also easy to tie warm/cool colors into talk of the seasons so it worked out nicely. We talked about the artists and time periods but basically just discussed the use of color and what we noticed, thought, and felt.
Day 1—Fall overview and leaf collection.
We talked about deciduous vs. evergreen trees and collected a variety of leaves for identification and rubbings.
I could have made “leaf people” by gluing the leaves to paper but I didn’t want to have the leaves in my house indefinitely and artwork is “forever” here so we stuck with the rubbings.
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons was used for our music appreciation this week and last. Youtube has tons of videos for them. Here is an example for Autumn.
Day 2—Winter overview including wind.
We talked about wind and made an anemometer as we discussed how wind speed is measured. I used this site for my lesson planning and directions.
We read the Poem I Do Not Mind You Winter Wind by Jack Perlutsky as specified and included in the Art for December in the Baltimore Lesson Plans.
We listened to a waltz from youtube and enjoyed the music by “skating” around on wax paper. It was fun and great exercise though not particularly educational! I read up that there is some controversy about the man in the world of classical music. But what joy it was to watch them and listen. Fun!
We did listen to Vivaldi’s Winter as well via youtube but it wasn’t great to “skate” with hence the waltz!
Day 3—Spring including Rain
We talked about spring and rain particularly.
We watched a free Magic School bus video about the Water Cycle Note that there is a Bill Nye one as well on the same site but my kids are more a fan of The Fritz right now! The Magic Schoolbus books are wonderful and we are using those for the ones I own in our science units. However, the free videos are saving me money or interlibrary loan headache and the boys really love them.
We made “rain in a jar” illustrating the water cycle.
We didn’t use them due to limited time but here are some other science ideas to go with this topic!
We talked about the idiom “Raining Cats and Dogs” today.
Day 4—Rainbows
Poem— April Rain Song by Langston Hughes
We watched a Magic Schoolbus video about Rainbows.
If there was sun we were going to make a rainbow with a hose outside but, alas, it rained!
We made watercolor pictures of rain scenes or rainbows listening to Vivaldi’s Spring via youtube.
Note: Schoolastic has a color mixing/Rainbow activity that would have been nice but we didn’t need that type of activity right now.
Day 5—The House on Pooh Corner Literature Day
I found videos of extremely well done audio recordings of this book with the illustrations. I selected a few specific chapters because we focused on characters and completed a character map but I definitely included Chapter Nine—In Which Piglet is Entirely Surrounded by Water! The recordings include 10 chapters and are wonderful and worth checking out even if you have the book in my opinion! I used free character map printable worksheets.
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