Week 14: Supplemental and Review

 

The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger

 

Art Study

This week we learned about the thought-provoking painting by Hans Holbein the Younger. Here is an excellent video that goes into detail about the painting. Highly recommend watching, about six minutes long.

Before painting The Ambassadors, Holbein had made a name for himself for illustrating a popular book by Erasmus (which we will learn about next week), and for his Dance with Death Renaissance woodblock prints. Here is a page with all the images and information about it. Highly recommend, but preview if you think it is too morbid for your students. He did each one on tiny woodcuts. (My boys were very interested in these woodblock prints. It was interesting to look at the different types of people, and how Death comes for them all. My kids were inspired and were making their own drawings after looking at these. Also, we listened to a reading of the Challenge Poem---see below---for the Form II class, and we took a line from the poem, "Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce," we went back to the woodcut prints and talked about whether Death came with a crawl or a pounce in the different prints.)

Scripture

We are memorizing the first two paragraphs of the Proclamation to the World on the Family for this Recollection (cycle) in place of a scripture. We are using the Read Aloud 50 times method. I recommend if this will be too easy for your students to expand the excerpt and have them memorize a longer passage, or if you already have the first two paragraphs memorized, to work on memorizing a different passage from the Proclamation. Here is a copy with a table to check off each time it is read aloud. The key is for the student to read it or recite it aloud and not just listen. 

 

Poetry

Frank Lebby Stanton's, Keep a-Goin'! This is an easy poem to learn. Here is a cheat sheet with the First Letter Technique and images. I printed copies for all the students, and will bring the copies again at our next meeting. In a couple weeks we will encourage students to write an additional verse to the poem. Here is a variation of the poem from a film. 

Since the Stanton poem is easy to memorize, the Form II class has an optional Challenge Poem to memorize, Edmund Vance Cooke's, How Did You Die? They can choose to memorize both poems or just one. I have printed copies for the older class, but you can print it off from here if you need a copy before next week. When I introduced the poem to my kids, I had them read along and listen to this excellent reading of the poem. (Searching the poem's title on YouTube brought up things I wouldn't want my kids to see, so take care.) 

 

Here is a First Letter cheat sheet for Edmund Vance Cooke's, How Did You Die? Fold in half and flip back and forth to practice. (I asked my kids what does the narrator mean when he asks that question at the end?) I recommend having students write out their own cheat sheet to help them practice, since writing it out by hand can make a huge difference. This poem also pairs well with our Plutarch life.

 

Plutarch 

We didn't do any Plutarch this week because of absences, but we did discuss potential Plutarch projects. (We want to keep projects completely kid-made, as much as possible, with little parent intervention with the actual creation of the project.) Here are a few ideas to help with the brainstorming:

• Create a timeline of Eumenes' life.

• Create a timeline that depicts what was going on elsewhere in the world (Book of Mormon, Bible) while Eumenes was alive.

• Dress like Alexander's sister, Cleopatra, or dress like Roxana, Alexander's widow. Read a letter from one of those characters' points of view, begging Eumenes for help. 

• Create a diagram of one of the battles, or of the siege at Nora, with Eumenes' ancient treadmill to exercise the horses. 
  

• Act out a scene from the life of Eumenes. 
  

• Write a poem about Eumenes' character, and his noble qualities. 
  

• Draw a portrait of Eumenes or some other scene. 
  

• Draw a map of  the division of Alexander's Empire after his death.
  

• Make Ancient Grecian armor or weapons from paper and cardboard. 
  

• Sculpt a bust of Eumenes out of clay.
  

•  Write a brief story from the point of view of a soldier in Eumenes' army.

• Write a short essay about different ways we can be more like Eumenes, and why.

For Future Recognition

Our last week, we will display Plutarch projects, but we also want to let every student bring something they have been working on this year. Maybe an art project, a drawing, a poem, a notebook, any sort of tangible project that we can put on a table for display. We want to recognize and celebrate some of the work our students have been working on in their homeschools even if unrelated to what we have been doing at Lux.

 

 Hymn

 

For our Hymn we are learning, "My Redeemer Lives."  

 Science Experiment

 

Here is a short (less than two minutes) video explaining DNA.

 

This week we attempted to extract the DNA from strawberries. We weren't very successful, but after watching the following video, I think out strawberry extract wasn't filtered enough, and the isopropyl alcohol needed to be ice cold. If you are looking for a science experiment to do this weekend, try it out! If you are able to preserve the DNA, I can give you microcentrifugse and some yarn to make a necklace. Here is the video (less than three minutes). 

Here is a longer video from the same channel that goes into greater detail about the experiment and DNA in general. Very well done. He tries eating the DNA.

 

 Utah Counties

 

A reminder to go over Utah Counties. The goal is to have all counties memorized the next few weeks. Some students are off to a great start!

Catechism

 

We went over the catechism (see the student booklet). Elder Renlund's recent General Conference talk is applicable to both our Scripture memory work, and to the Catechism. He said, "Reason cannot replace revelation."

 

Composer Study

 

We didn't have time for Composer Study. Try listening at home. The composer is Dvořák. We are to listen to the 4th Movement of his 9th Symphony this week. We will learn more next week. Great for car rides.

Folk Song 

 

We also didn't have time for the Folk Song. We are learning, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. 

 

Here is a link to a playlist that has all of the videos linked above.