Germany: Life is Beautiful

I watched this movie for extra credit, and encourage you to watch it! Here is the preview:

This is a heart touching movie, and yet it shows an amazing sacrifice because on a relationship.

Returning to Germany: Past and Present in One Week

This week we are having the snow treasure colloquium.  This is when we have just finished a book, and each come up with a discussion state based on the book.  This book Snow Treasure is a great easy read for history and even just for fun!  We will also be starting our liberty pulse for Germany this week.  We will be doing it differently this time, and all our ratings will be presented in videos!  Afterwards we will discuss them.

Hopefully I will be able to put links to the presentations in my blog later on!

MIDTERMS WEEK!!!

It’s pretty nice to get a week of school just for two tests! That’s what we had for our midterms week.  Our STEM midterm will be an online test.  This time for Humanities though, we will be writing at least a one-page essay on Liberty.  This will be an interesting piece, and I hope we will be able to read my other classmates’ views afterwards!

On to Europe: Art

Any idea which artist created this painting? Now we're leaving India to visit Europe! First stop, Germany.

 

We are going through famous artists and master pieces.  We should have a test on them coming up soon!  Just a few of them will be:

open on Thursday through Monday ONLY.

Girl with a Pearl Earring, c. 1665
By: Johannes Vermeer
One of Vermeer’s masterpieces. Can you tell what he uses as the "focal point" or the place he would like us to focus in the painting? (If not, take a look at the title of the painting.) This painting is sometimes known as “the Dutch Mona Lisa” or “the Mona Lisa of the North.”

School of Athens, c. 1510
By: Raphael
Raphael was commissioned or "paid" to create this painting. This is a room of famous philosophers gathered together in Athens, Greece. The painting is filled with meaning and symbols about learning. Plato and Aristotle appear to be the central figures in the scene (in the middle). Many of the other philosophers lived at different time periods and different places all over the Europe, not just Athens. This painting is considered Raphael’s masterpiece and is considered the perfect example of High Renaissance period of art.

Mona Lisa, c. 1519
By: Leonardo da Vinci
The Mona Lisa is possibly the most famous painting in the world of all time. No one is exactly sure why it has become so famous. Many think it's the look on the woman's face that pulls you in. How would you describe that look? I kind of feel like she knows something interesting or funny that I don't know!

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884-1886
By: Georges Seurat
Believe it or not this is entire painting is made of nothing but dots!! Seurat uses a technique called pointillism(points or dots) which consists of contrasted color dots that form a single hue through viewers’ eyes. Seurat spent over two years on this piece. He would practice his form repeatedly at the park, concentrating on the use of colors, form, and lighting.

(The first picture is Starry Night that I put at the beginning of my post.)

The Starry Night, 1889
By: Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh did not try to create art that looked realistic. Instead, he tried to capture his personal "impression" of what things looked like. He tried to portray the feeling of what he saw in his pictures. An entire movement of art was named after this style called "Impressionism". This work is considered to be his very best. It portrays his "impression" of the sight outside his room at night.

The Pietà, c. 1499

By: Michelangelo Buonarroti (We often call him just "Michelangelo") It is Michelangelo's masterpiece of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion laying in the arms of his mother. Look at the folds on the fabric of his mother's clothing. Look at Christ's knees. Are they very accurate?

India: Culture Night

How can you have a trip to India without experiencing some of it’s culture?  Although it is hard to do when you are not ACTUALLY there, but we still did it. 

We started with some Bollywood dancing which I will not post a video of because it looked ridiculous with me doing it.  Next we had a WONDERFUL curry dinner.

Here is my DELICIOUS plate!

I had fun setting the table as you can see.I made name cards in Arabic for each of my family members. (I handwrote them!!!)

 

 

We ended with watching Gandhi.  It really showed how much just standing up can make a difference.  He did SO much and all he didn’t do was back down.

India: BRIC Countries

The BRIC consists of four countries who are quickly rising into power.  These countries are Brazil, Russia, India and China.  As you might have guessed these will not be anything like America, and are rising to power because of powerful governments.

India: Alive and Colorful

Now we have moved on to India.  We will be buzzing through this country in a week, and trying to be as spongy as we can and soak it all up.  We will not be doing a liberty pulse for this country however. This was one of our questions for the week: What are the "BRIC" countries and why are they on the rise?  So we are learning about the BRIC countries, which I will create another post on.  We will also be watching the movie Gandhi and making an Indian meal.