Artist Study ~ Leonardo da Vinci [1] (PRINTABLES)

For the past week, we’ve been looking at the works of Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo is a painter, inventor, scientist, sculptor... and just about anything!  He writes from right to left because he is left handed.  And his notes are written in mostly mirror-image for secrecy of his works.

To supplement our study, I made art cards.  Through Google Image, I selected famous da Vinci’s artworks/writings and put them in cards.  We discussed each work, what he likes and doesn’t like about it, talk about his observations and by end of it he selected his favorite:  The Last Supper. 

While we do this, there were a few things that my son needed me to discuss like because he keeps on asking why (like, why is it called The Last Supper).

If you’re interested with the cards, you can download it here. You can print it twice to use as 3-part cards (Montessori approach).

I also talked about the museums that houses some of da Vinci’s works.  And he was surprise that we’ve been those museums and has in fact come face to face with Mona Lisa.

Here’s a picture taken at the Louvre, we went here when Mavi was 2 years old.  Mona Lisa was impressive, small and so dark.  I really wonder what’s the hype.  Since it’s barricaded it’s impossible to see the magic of da Vinci’s hand by just looking from afar :(

We also went to Vatican Museum when Mavi turned 1.  They house some of da Vinci’s works too.

And here’s Florence, Italy... the birthplace of da Vinci! This is the exterior of Uffizi Gallery, they have a room dedicated to da Vinci’s works. A

 

And there goes the first part of our study.  Next post would be my son’s paintings of his favorite da Vinci works :)

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Happy Halloween!!

Learning about Mushrooms

We’ve been seeing mushrooms around our estate so we just have to study it while they’re still everywhere.

Got these books from the library, I also borrowed books about seasons so we can talk about Autumn as well. 

We read the book of Fungus, and look at the different sizes and figures of mushrooms.

We worked on the parts of the mushroom.  

I made him draw some mushrooms and surprisingly, he manage to draw them according to what he learned from the parts of the mushroom. Like he always put a volva, ring and scales (see picture on the left).  And I asked him to draw a diagram.  He enjoyed doing the diagram and I would definitely integrate this in our future subjects.

                 

Then we looked into the real thing. I would love to pick mushrooms from the yard but my DH asked me to just use the ones from the supermarket :)

 

He started removing the stalk, examining the inside of the mushroom.

  

                   

He was really really that we did this.  Now he has an understanding of what mushrooms are, how they feel and how some are dangerous and some are perfect for pizza and pasta!

 

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Coral Reefs

EDIT: Because of problems with Scribd (charging for membership or something) I made a copy of the printable file HERE.

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Got some interesting books from the library about the world of coral reefs and I whipped out a reef theme.

First we worked on the fishes in reef.  The animals are from Safari Toobs which I bought when we were in Singapore.

My printable for Coral Reef animals can be downloaded from here.    Worked on the fish nomenclature card (homemade) for parts for the fish . 

Did the puzzle (homemade). We did this last year as well.

For crafts, we made fishes similar to that I’ve seen at I Heart Crafty Things.

My son made a blue fish (Blue Tang), and the name is IAJ.

And here’re mine, of course it’s pink and I named it Holly.

We play with it for hours... pretending to swim around the house, going into corals and caves :)

The “ocean theme” is just an overwhelming topic.  So I might as dissect it into smaller subject so we can explore it thoroughly. This is an unplanned activity actually, so everything here is just “on the go”.  Will definitely revisit this topic and will dwell on it a little bit longer.  Reminds me to look for Aquatic museum around our area! Wish me luck!

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Afternoon Walks

Learning about the world around us... and appreciating the gifts God has blessed us :)

 

We’re loving autumn!

Green Series

We finally moved on the Green Series!  We started with sh, ch, and th... my son did well with these sets.

I kept them on an envelope.

And we moved with a_e and i_e combination.  This is something new to him, so he’s a little challenged at the moment.

We'll still revisit the Blue Series for spelling lessons.

For my materials, I got it from a very generous source, The Helpful Garden. Thank you so much for sharing!

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Organic Shapes

After learning all about lines, we moved to learning about organic shapes!

I came across an artwork (sorry forgot the link), and was inspired with the artworks they did, and this is where I got the idea.  So I don’t take credit for this idea and creativity :) Promise to post the link if I encounter it again.

First we tear up free form shapes from a piece of paper.  We use our hands to tear the papers, I realize that it’s difficult and tiring, especially for him.   Then painted them as we like. 

I added borders on my organic shapes.  And added a few more details for the border.   My son wants to glue his organic shapes on a piece of black paper.  He wants to add details by writing letters (Oh he’s still obsessed with them!).

And here’s my work :)  Since I got black borders, I glued mine on a piece of white paper.

The end products looks awesome! 

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