Christopher Columbus




Flat Earth Map

Apparently, Christopher Columbus had a secret life. Yep. His name was Grigori Esomethingorotherovich. You can read all about it here. We discovered this while having a discussion on the flatness of the world and how one's point of view could affect their willingness to hare off to parts unknown in order to map uncharted territory.

This discovery may lead to a discussion of the meaning of irony...

The Silk Road

We're studying Marco Polo this week, and in the process we are learning about the Silk Road. The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has an excellent website with all kinds of images (some of mummies, fyi) for kids to see. Quite interesting!

Michael Burgan's Marco Polo is a great read for grammar level students, and an 1845 copy of The Travels of Marco Polo is free on Google books for upper level readers who want to explore more of his travels.

These Shishi lions have traditionally stood in front of Chinese imperial palaces from the time of the Han Dynasty, and they would have been a familiar sight for Marco Polo in his travels. They always come in pairs, male and female, and are carved from stone or molded from bronze. The male has his paw on the world, and the female has a cub on her back. We are going to carve simplified versions from soap this week.

We will also be making their fried dough twists and some "silk" flags with block printing for an art project.

Copywork Week 6

"In merry England in the time of old, when good King Henry the Second ruled the land, there lived iwthin the green glades of Sherwood Forest, near Nottingham Town, a famous outlaw whose name was Robin Hood. No archer ever lived that could speed a gray goose shaft with such skill and cunning as his nor were there ever such yeomen as the sevenscore merry men that roamed with him through the greenwood glades."
~from Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle

Here's the link to a free copy for Kindle. According to Pyle himself, you should clap the book shut if you're not in the mood to be cheered by nonsense.

Stained Glass Windows

Stained glass has been adding splendor to the great cathedrals of Europe for a thousand years. The first one that came to my mind was Chartres Cathedral in France. Monet painted a series of paintings of Rouen Cathedral, but he did paint Chartres in 1830.

The windows at Chartres are typical of the cathedrals constructed during that time period. Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, as it is known in French was built mostly between 1193 and 1250. Today, most of the stained glass is original, and few changes have been made since the 13th century. Below are the modern view of Chartres from the southeast, and the rose window on the north facade.

Fascinating post on Chartres Cathedral here.

Click here for a detailed identification of the figures in the window.

"As a material stained glass is glass that has been coloured by adding metallic salts during its manufacture. The coloured glass is crafted into stained glass windows in which small pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together (traditionally) by strips of lead and supported by a rigid frame. Painted details and yellow stain are often used to enhance the design. The term stained glass is also applied to windows in which the colours have been painted onto the glass and then fused to the glass in a kiln." ~from Wikipedia.

For this project, we will be using Art Smart, by Susan Rodriguez. She suggests using squared black paper, folded in quarters to form the armature. Folding it like a snowflake would also work. After the shapes are cut from the paper, colored tissue paper or cellophane is glued to the back to color the work. It would be more visually appealing to cut two pieces of paper simultaneously and glue one to the back if the work is to be displayed in a window.

We have also made "glass" in colors that coordinated with our home and used them to stain the windows in the front door. We left them up for months and they provided privacy and a little bit of color. I took them down when I painted the outside of the front door red. Note to self: do that project again sometime. It was fun.

 
Updated 10/7/11 to include photos of finished projects.

More Split Rock Scenery

To the northeast.

A closer look.

To the southwest.

Another closer look.

Happy Birthday, Split Rock Lighthouse!

Split Rock turns 100 this year. It was completed in 1910, before a road reached the area. All of the building materials were shipped to the sight and hauled up the cliff, 130 feet above Lake Superior, by derrick. The U. S. Lighthouse Service operated it until 1939. At that point, the U.S. Coast Guard took command of the light until 1969 when modern navigational equipment made it obsolete. The State of Minnesota obtained the scenic landmark in 1971, and the Minnesota DNR operated it as part of Split Rock Lighthouse State Park for five years. At that point, the Minnesota Historical Society took over administration of the light and keepers' houses.

The light is kept in rotation by a 200 pound weight that drops to the floor and is cranked back up by hand. It even has a release mechanism that keeps the lens rotating while the keeper cranks the weight back to the top of the tower.

It has a third order Fresnel lens that was manufactured in Paris, France. (Fresnel lenses were ordered from one to six, with one being the most powerful and farthest reaching.) It was lit by an incandescent kerosene lamp from 1910 to 1939. In 1940 the kerosene light was replaced by a 1,000 watt electric bulb. The light is visible for 22 miles.

Once every 10 seconds, the light flashes as it rotates. And for 59 years, it kept its solitary vigil over the shore of Lake Superior north of Two Harbors, MN.