November 7, 2012

What a fun play! I've been very impressed by the educational shows put on by the Waterville Opera House. This was a small cast - just five actors. Four played previous presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams, as well as Benjamin Franklin. They came to the future to help a young girl run for class president.

It was, of course, a musical as most of these plays are. The singing was excellent. They taught the kids about how laws are made and how the political/judiciary processes work.

It was informative, fun, and very well done! We have a couple more we're heading to in the spring and I'm sure they will be as good.


Day #14/175 Days

May 7, 2012

Our 4-H group has set up some pottery classes at a local store. It's a pretty small studio so when all of us show up, we pretty  much fill the space! The neat thing is it's located in the old county jail building. The studio  is located in the garage space where the police cars would pull in to bring prisoners to the jail. This was a fantastic late spring day, so the garage door was open which made it feel a bit more open and airy in there.

Anyway.....

This class was one of two where the kids were making mugs. Today they created them. They will be fired and then we'll go back and paint and glaze them and they'll have one more firing.

My boys really enjoy these classes. As a bonus, it helps the boys with their Arts & Crafts Project Record for their 4-H program.

Day #148/175 Days

May 2, 2012

We had a fantastic time today at one of our favorite places to go - the Waterville Opera House.

Every year they put on four "educational" shows for school aged children and the admission is extremely affordable ($3/a child). All we have seen have been extremely well done.

Today we saw an adaptation of the book Skippyjon Jones. I wasn't familiar with book so neither were any of my boys. I made my sixteen year old come with us. What I loved about the play though, was 1) it was made into a musical and 2) they threw in some jokes that only the adults in the audience would get. I exchanged many a glance and a laugh with my oldest as we caught things that the other boys missed.

It was definitely an enjoy outing. We look forward to each play. 

Day #147/175 Days

December 13, 2011 - Art Class

Today we headed north again for our monthly art class. This month we did watercolor. It was fun. Karen showed the kids how to do various techniques. At the end of the class they were able to pick one of their favorite creations and have it matted. They did a great job.

 Day #58/175 Days

November 15, 2011 - Fine Arts Day

The morning was spent at our monthly art class. (I'll add photos later) It was a small class today and the kids worked with leather. They were allowed to design anything they wanted to and create it using leather. The two younger boys created large pouches. My oldest son created a case for his laptop. They all really enjoyed this class.

The afternoon was spent at piano lessons.

While driving we listened to Christmas music.

Day #53/175 Days

October 25, 2011 - Art Class

Today was our second monthly art class. The children worked at glazing all the pieces they had made before. Karen also had a fun recycling project for them. She took them outside one-by-one to use a lot of fun packing materials to create costumes and whatever their imaginations could come up with.

Lego-Man glazing his plate.

Happy's projects

Conductor glazing his plate.

Happy showing off his new bubble wrap coat and arm guards.

Lego-Man ended up with a sword and Conductor a shield.

 And yes, Happy even wore his outfit to piano lessons. 

Day #44/175 Days

September 26, 2011 - "The Three Little Pigs" Play

The boys and I love going to see plays. Thankfully we have a couple of theaters that do plays for children. This year we were able to attend one for the first time at Lakewood Theater. 

The play was a take on the classic "Three Little Pigs" story. In the play the three little pigs were rather naughty and did not obey the Farmer's Wife. The smallest pig was called "Hamlet" and spoke with a definite "Shakespeare" tone. Most of the adults caught the funny spots even if the kids missed them. 

There was singing throughout.  

One of the "villains" 

The "big bad wolf" was a bit "tender-hearted" even though the

vulture kept trying to get him to catch the pigs.

The wolf attempting to grab the pigs.

I found the play hilarious and even the boys loved it. In fact, while I was loading photos for this post, my youngest saw them and again commented on how much he liked the play! We'll definitely continue to try to see more as we can.

Day #24/175 Days

Day #159/175 Days - Fine Arts Co-Op

Today are instruments are the triangle and glockenspiel. Our composer is Gershwin. For art we learned how to draw a human figure and the a profile of a clown. Our artist is Matisse.

All excited to start co-op. Okay, not really but still cute!

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Music

• Read page 80 in Story of the Orchestra about the triangle
• Listen to Track 33
• Watch this video on YouTube

• Listed four things about triangles on the white board and created a mini-booklet
• Read pg. 82 in Story of the Orchestra about the glockenspiel
• Watched this video on YouTube
• Listed four things about the glockenspiel on the white board and created a mini-booklet
• Read from Lives of the Musicians pgs. 87-89 about George Gershwin
• Read from the Young Composers book as well pgs. 173-175
• Boys colored a picture of Gershwin while being read to
• Listed four things about Gershwin on the white board and created notebook page (pg. 12 in this free set) listing birth/death dates, famous songs, where he was born, his name, and pasted a few photos on it as well. 

• While the boys created their notebook page on Gershwin we listened to Rhapsody in Blue.

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Art

• We continued with our drawing lessons via Barry Stebbing videos. We continued with Portraits and Anatomy and learned to draw the human figure. Here are the boys offerings:

Happy's

Conductor's

Lego-Man's

• They also drew the profile of a clown and a cartoon character called "sleepy." 

• Our artist today is Henri Matisse. 
• Read about Matisse in Art in Story pgs. 258-259
• Read Drawing with Scissors - a picture book about Matisse
• Watched this video of Matisse drawing with scissors on YouTube.

• Listed things learned on the white board and created an artist biography page.

I find images online and paste them in to Word to create these pages. I shrink them down (just hold the control key and grab the corner of the photo and the dimensions will stay while you shrink it). I like the hands on aspect. 

We ran out of time to do the other project we had planned. You can see it here and print the templates to create your own. I think we'll be adding it to a future day of school.

Day #151/175 Days Fine Arts Co-Op

My sister again came up today to do our Fine Arts Co-Op (I'm heading there next month). Today our musical focus was on the tuba, drums, and composer Scott Joplin. Our art focus was on drawing heads correctly and Pablo Picasso.

Music

• Read about tubas in Story of the Orchestra and listen to the CD track
• We watched this video first on YouTube about how tubas are made and then this one of a tuba solo.

• The boys then each gave us one thing they learned about tubas and created a mini-book. 
• We then moved on to the drums reading about them in Story of the Orchestra.
• We watched this video on YouTube about how drum shells are made. 

• Then we watched this video of a 16-year-old boy play a really cool drum solo. Yes, I know drum kits aren't used in the orchestra but it's still fun to watch. 

• The boys then listed four things they learned about drums and created a mini-book.
• The boys colored a picture of Scott Joplin while my sister read to them about his life from Lives of the Musicians and the Young Composers book. 

• The boys each gave us one thing they learned about Scott Joplin.
• We then created a notebook page. We used one that I found for free online here. It's page #11 in this set. I had the boys add a photo of Scott Joplin (I found one online, copied it to MS Word, and made it small enough to fit), born/death dates, place of birth, names of 1-2 famous pieces, and they each had to give us one thing they learned. Then they picked three to add to their page.
• Finished up our music portion by listening to "Maple Leaf Rag" by Joplin. This was one my sister's Meet the Masters CD but it can be heard on YouTube as well. 

Art

• Watched Lesson 12 in "God & the History of Art" about "Other Periods & Artists" (This is our last one. I'm going to miss the art history although I'm tempted to have the boys go through it again.)
• Continued with "Portraits & Anatomy" in "Beginning Drawing IV" by Barry Stebbing. He taught how to draw a head with correct proportions.
• Read about Pablo Picasso in Art in Story
• Watched this video on YouTube of Pablo Picasso actually painting. Fair warning...Picasso loved the female figure. We only watched the first 50 seconds to see him do the very first drawing. The next two are somewhat abstract but I have a teenage boy and they weren't abstract enough.
• Listed four things on the board and created an Artist Biography page.
• We then went to a really fun website and each boy created a "Picasso Head." In fact, I had to go and do my own once they were all done.

Day #141/175 Days Fine Arts Co-Op

Today my sister came to our house and we did our Fine Arts Co-Op together. Our focus today for music were the guitar and bugle for instruments and Debussy for a composer. In art we began instruction on how to draw portraits and learned about Winslow Homer.

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Music

• We read an article about the history of guitars. 
• Then we watched this video on YouTube.

• The boys constructed a guitar shape book and wrote three facts about guitars inside.
• We read an article about the history of bugles.
• Then we watched this video on YouTube. 
• After the boys dictated three facts that were written on the chalkboard, they created a mini-book
• Read from Story of the Orchestra about Claude Debussy
• Listened to some of Debussy's music on the Story of the Orchestra CD
• Read from the Young Composers book as well
• The boys created a notebook page about Debussy

Art

• Watched Lesson 11 in "God & the History of Art" about "American Artists"
• Began the "Portraits & Anatomy" section of "Beginning Drawing IV" with Barry Stebbing
• The boys drew:
• Charlie/Charlene Contrast
• Hot Dog Man
• Tin Man
• Rectangle Man
• "Sad"
• Read about Winslow Homer in Art in Story
• Watched this video on YouTube that showed some of Homer's work 
• Listed four things learned about Homer and created an Artist Biography Page
• Created a watercolor painting