TOS Review~ Sculpture Technique Construct from ARTistic Pursuits Inc.

We enjoy learning about different art techniques in our house and love doing art. My kids learned a lot from the ARTistic Pursuits Elementary 4-5 Book 1 we reviewed last year, so we were excited to be chosen again to review a new book from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. This year, we were asked to review one of their new books, Sculpture Technique Construct. I was excited about this new book. As an art major in college, I never took classes in sculpture so I was eager to try something new and expose the kids to a new artistic technique. 

If you've been homeschooling for awhile you have heard of ARTistic Pursuits Inc. They are a leader in the homeschooling art curriculum world. They offer students and families a variety of books that gets kids involved in art while teaching them how to observe the world around them. The textbooks teach students about observations skills, art history, art appreciation, art techniques, and how to be creative. The books teaches art techniques and art vocabulary while allowing the kids to have fun creating wonderful works of art. ARTistic Pursuits Inc. offers books for students in preschool to high school. This homeschool art curriculum is a great way to have students grow in their artistic skills and knowledge. Students will be able to grow each year as they progress through the books.

For this review, we received a physical copy of Sculpture Technique Construct by Brenda Ellis. The book is 83 pages and is a comb binding style. The cover is very durable. We have had no issues with the cover or pages getting worn out. The books list price is $47.95. Prices are subject to change, so be sure to check the website for the latest information. Sculpture Technique Construct is geared for children ages 11-18. You do not need to have done any of the other books from ARTistic Pursuits to complete this book. You do not need any prior knowledge to complete this book. Students with a variety of skill levels can complete these projects. Sculpture Technique Construct introduces young artists to three dimensional art. The book teaches students art construction methods using paper-mache, cardboard and wire, and paper making. The books is broken up into 4 units. Unit 1: Creating Form in Papermaking Unit 2: Creating Planes with Cardboard Unit 3: Creating Motion with Paper-Mache Unit 4: Creating Volume with Wire While going through the different units, students will learn about form, planes, motion, and volume. With each unit, students will create a new art project while learning a different element and using a variety of materials. Student will get to work with wet and dry paper. They will get to work in 2-D and 3-D forms. They will get to see their 2-D works of art become 3-D models! How we used Sculpture Technique Construct?

We added it to our weekly schedule. We worked on the various projects over the past few weeks. We did start with Unit 2 since we were waiting for the supplies I order online for Unit 1. I was able to find all the supplies for Unit 2 at a local craft store (or I already had them in or supply).

 The kids loved working with different papers. We worked on Unit 2 for a few weeks. We read and talked about a different section of the unit each week. The kids worked on a different art project each week. The first few projects the kids worked on lead up to a larger project for the end project. In Unit 2, the kids were able to see how a 2-D piece of artwork could be changed to become a 3-D model. They could see their own piece of artwork come to life!

What we thought of the book? We loved it! We enjoyed the lessons. The kids loved creating a different type of artwork. They thought it was neat to work with a variety of materials. I liked how the kids were exposed to a new artistic style. My kids have plenty of opportunities to work with the traditional art supplies (paint, pastels, pencils), so this book was great at introducing them to a media that we have not worked with before or have used very little. ~Pros~  Book is very well organized Lessons are clearly written and projects are explained well Projects can be adapted to a variety of skill levels Detailed pictures help students see what they are learning and creating Colored pictures Detailed supply list ~Con~  Material can be hard to find locally. We were unable to find some of the material for the first unit locally. I had to go online and search for them. Thankfully, all of the items were able to be found on online site.  We would definitely recommend this book to other homeschoolers.  In fact, I plan on using this books to teach a homeschool art class with our local co-op next year. The kids were very excited about learning about sculptures, models, and 3-D forms! Find out more about ARTistic Pursuits Inc. and all the great art curriculum books they have to offer.
ARTistic Pursuits Inc. Website Facebook

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Wordless Wednesday

~A Holy Kitty~

She realized that the Holy Water fonts in the house have water in them.

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TOS Review~ Music Appreciation: Book 1 for Elementary Grades from Zeezok Publishing LLC

Learning about music and the great composers has always been important to me. Sadly, we often don't get arounsd to learning about the composers. We just listen to their wonderful works of art in the car, when we are cleaning, or when we are creating our own works of art. Well, today I get to tell you about a wonderful music program called Music Appreciation: Book 1 for the Elementary Grades from Zeezok Publishing LLC. We have been using this fantastic program for the past few weeks. It's amazing! It has everything!

Zeezok Publishing LLC is a company that focuses on offering quality homeschool curriculum for families. The company started back in 1993 and has continued to grow over the years. There goal is to offer products that will complement the curriculum that families have already chosen. They offer a variety of items ranging from music, great composers, history, great literature, government and economics. They offer products for the well rounded student.

For this review, we received the Music Appreciation Book 1 for Elementary Grades Collection. This collection of materials is amazing. We received the following items..... One Student Activity Book Music Discs Lapbook CD Seven Composer Biographies Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini, and Schubert
The set comes with everything you need to study for the entire year! For a 35 week school year, you'd spend about 5 weeks learning about each talented composer. The Music Appreciation Collection costs $169.99. The price is subject to change, so be sure to check the website for the latest information. The Music Appreciation set is geared for children in Kindergarten to 6th Grade. With this music curriculum, students will learn about 7 different composers from 1685- 1828. If you buy the complete set, you will get 7 books based on the biographies of the composers. The stories are well done and introduce the students to the composer's childhood and adult life.  A collection of music CD's helps introduce the students to works of each composer.  To help the students learn more about the composers, a student workbook is included. The composers are placed in the student book in chronological order. The student book is filled with lessons and activities that help the students learn about the composer and his time period. The students will learn about geography, history, instruments, music vocabulary, character traits, and of course the composer. The student book is filled with a variety of hands-on activities like recipes, map work, hand writing practice, and timelines.  The set also comes with a wonderful Lapbook CD. The CD contains printable pages to make a lapbook for all the composer. Each composer will get his own lapook. At the end of the year, students will have created 7 lapbooks for the seven extraordinary composer. The lapbook provides a wonderful collection of projects for the end of the year.

So How Did We Use the Music Appreciation Set?

There was no way we could get through all 7 in a few weeks, so we focused on Handel. 

George Frideric Handel

1685-1759

We read a chapter (or two) a week about the life of Handel. We had no idea he was such an amazing composer at such a young age. He was a talented young boy and extremely dedicated to learning all he could about music. He would practice in a cold, drafty attic. We listened to the suggested music tracks while enjoying this charming tale. The kids even listened to the CD when they were working on their science biome boxes and artwork for the week. We worked through the student workbook together. Since the program is geared for the elementary grades, I had Therese work through the book. We did most of questions verbally so Michael could join in. Michael just listened and answered questions when we discussed a topic from the book. Therese would work on filling in the answers in the book. Along with the student workbook, the set comes with a lapbook Cd.

Both, Michael and Therese worked on the lapbook. They have enjoyed making lapbooks in the past, so this was nothing new to them.

The lapbook Cd has a lapbook fro each composer. The lapbook is very easy to do. It's really just cutting and pasting. It would be great for children in the lower elementary grades. M kids found  the lapbook rather easy. It was a little young for them. 

What we thought of Music Appreciation Book 1?

We really enjoyed the Handel story we read and reviewed. The story was interesting and the kids learned a lot of information about Handel. The chapters are a little long for younger kids, so I would recommend breaking the chapters up into a few different sessions. We can't wait to read the remaining books. The student workbook is great.  It has so much in it. For younger kids, you could easily build an entire homeschool curriculum around the different composers and the student workbook. You could have language arts, geography, history, music, and more all wrapped up in one curriculum. We felt the lapbook was a little young for us. I have a 5th and 6th grader, so they were on the top age range of the program. It would be great if they could offer a more detailed lapbook for the older elementary aged kids. Having them write some of the information into the booklets would make it a little more interesting for them. The lapbook as it is, is a great visual tool for younger kids. 

Overall the program is great. Zeezok Publishing LLC is already working on a program geared for older kids. I can't wait to see what they come up with.

Learn more about Music Appreciation.....

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Classically Catholic Memory~ Delta Year Week 4

Geography~ South America

Source~ Wikipedia

We labeled the CCM map with the wonderful stickers they provide. We located the countries on our wall map. Over the next few days, the kids colored their map and flag coloring pages for each country. They colored in the country on their South America map as they learned about each country.

Blank Map of South America

Maps & Coloring Pages for the Following South American Countries

French Guiana
French Guiana Flag
Suriname
Suriname Flag 
Guyana
Guyana Flag
Venezuela
Venezuela's Flag 
Columbia & Bogota
Columbia's Flag 
Ecuador
Ecuador's Flag


Latin~
Please see my general post about how we teach Latin.


Religion~ The Holy Eucharist

We read the Catechism Lesson on the Holy Eucharist.

Holy Eucharist Lesson Ideas

Younger Children Worksheets
Worksheet #1
Worksheet #2
Worksheet #3

For Older Children
Lesson Plans and Questions

The kids completed this Eucharist Worksheet from The Catholic Toolbox.

Michael and Therese both created a Monstrance.

We used basic supplies we found at Walmart

Supplies needed.....

Gold Foil Dollies (I found these at a local craft/hobby store)
Gold Ribbon
White Paper
Colored Pencils
Picture of Jesus to go under the Eucharist

Simple and easy to do!



Great Words~

Source~Wikipedia

This week the kids starting working on The Gettysburg Address. I read the entire poem to them at first. We then read the poem together. After reading the poem together, I had the kids read the first two lines. They read it a few times. When they were done reading it a few times, I had them write the section into their writing notebook. This helps with memorization and I get to see their handwriting!
I encourage them to read the section we are learning daily. I find this helps with the memorization.
To further our knowledge of The Gettysburg Address, I picked out a few books from the library to read together and separately.


   

To fun but short reads for the kids to discover are......


                         

All of these books will come in handy when we get to the Civil War later on this year!

For younger kids, you could have them create Abraham Lincoln's hat! My kiddos are a little too old for that now, but I remember doing that with them around his birthday. It was a fun activity.


Science~ Vascular Plants
This week, the kids went on an adventure outside to find three types of vascular plants! Living in the woods made this rather easy.

They searched for ferns, angiosperms, and gymnosperms. They found all three!

I found a wonderful lesson online that went over the differences. It included a worksheet for the kids to do. You can find it here.

 

We did a fun experiment to show how vascular plants receive their nutrients and food. We used colored food dye and celery. The purple showed up better than the blue. The kids thought it was pretty neat to see the dye move up the celery stalks.

This project does need to stay out for a few days to see it. I word of caution if you cats be prepared for them to have funny colored tongues. Our mama cat liked the blue water. Her tongue was blue for a few days.

History~ Native Americans

This was an important week for us. Since we have Native American ancestry I wanted the kids to know what they Native Americans had to endure during this time period.

A few years ago while visiting The Great Smoky Mountain, we visited Cherokee, North Carolina. We spent the day on the Cherokee Indian Reservation. While there, we visited the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. It's a beautiful museum that tells the story of the Cherokee people. 

After out tour of the museum, we spent the afternoon picnicking along one of the creeks that runs through reservation. We enjoyed a wonderful hike to a very tall waterfall called Mingus Falls.

To learn more about the Cherokee Indians and their sad journey, The Trail of Tears, we checked out a few books from the library.

We worked on a unit study called Trail of Tears Unit Study from Tina's Dynamic Homeschool

I found this lesson online about The Battle at Little Big Horn.

Lessons on Wounded Knee
Lesson #1
Lesson #2 with a worksheet

HomeschoolShare.com has a variety of lessons, unit studies, and lapbooks to learn all about the Native Americans. They have options for all ages.
Some are favorites are....
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush for younger kids
Sign of the Beaver for older kids

I did find a wonderful lapbook all about the Plains Native Americans and for older students I found some great writing prompts for them all about the Plains Native Americans

Another cute lapbook I found was the Native Americans lapbook. It's FREE!

And if you have a daughter, who loves American Girl dolls, you have to do a lapbook or unit study on Kaya! Homeschoolshare.com has a free template to use!


Need a few more ideas to learn about the Native Americans, check out The Homeschool Mom website. There are tons of fun ideas suggested for all ages, preschool to highschool!

Till next time, 

~Monique

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Happy Homemaker Monday~ May 2nd

Good Morning everyone! It's been a long time since I've joined Sandra's Happy Homemaker Monday. So I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Before I get into my Happy Homemaking, I would love to ask you all for prayers for a wonderful, homeschooling family that lost everything in a house fire last week. Many of you may know Lisa from Home to Our 4 Kiddos. Last week, their new house was destroyed by a fire. They lost everything, including their sweet little cat. If you can do more than just pray, I know this loving family could use your help.

A Go Fund Me page has been set up if you able to donate a few dollars for this family to take care of their basic needs right now. 

Another easy way to help them out is shop Lisa's Affiliate page through Amazon. When you browse, shop, and purchase your goods her family will be blessed with a percentage from the sale. It doesn't cost you anything but you will be be helping this family out. It's a win win for everyone!

They have also set up a Facebook page to share prayers and to find out the families immediate needs. If you liked to add your prayers or can help in other ways, you can find on the page. Thank you for keeping them in your prayers.

The weather outside......

was frightful. We had a horrible thunderstorm last night and it was pouring when I woke up this morning. Sheets of rain! Now as I'm sitting her enjoying my morning cup of coffee the sun is shining and it's beautiful out. 

What's for breakfast......

Coffee of course and fresh eggs from our hens.

As I look outside right now......

I see vibrant green leaves on the trees. The last few days of rain and warm weather has made the leaves really pop out. My purple and blue irises are blooming filling the front garden with different hues of blues and purple. 

It adds a beautiful contrast between them and my white azalea bushes. I love spring with all the colors that fill the yard. It's rainbow right here in my yard.

Right now I am.....

Drinking my coffee while the kids eat their breakfast and do their morning chores. I have a very cute doggie resting her head on my lap. It makes it a little difficult to type though.

As I look around the house......

I see baskets of laundry that need to be folded and put away. A dinning room table filled with the kids Biome boxes they've been making for science. Mess after mass. We really need to do a spring cleaning.

What I am working on this week......

Not much this week. We have been on the go that last few weeks, so this week we are getting back to our school work. I am going to try to conquer the mound of laundry downstairs in my laundry room.

On my to do list for today and this week.......

Science co-op is this week. We are going to try and get to the church to weed the flower beds if the rain holds off. I need to weed my flower beds here and get more flowers planted. I love all the colors!

What I'm reading.....

Gardening books and the books we are using next year for school. I am working on preparing lessons for next year, so I guess I should have put that under my to do list for the week.. My goal is to have it done by the end of May.

What's on the menu this week.....

Cat fish is for dinner tonight. They are leftovers from last night. I have no idea for the rest of the week. I guess I better plan that.

Please Note~ This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to click on a link, add it to your cart and complete your purchase, I will receive a small percentage. We are very grateful for this additional source of income. Thank you. 

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