Windmills, Art and Weather

While searching for resources for our weather studies, I found several windmill-themed paintings, many by famous artists. This seemed like a great way to incorporate art and science.

Back in the early 1900s, primary teachers used a lot of classical art for picture studies, even in the wee grades. Early exposure to art history is akin to early exposure to classical poetry - valuable and important! What better way to spark interest and ideas than to see what great and creative people have done in the past -- to get an idea of what is possible!

Studying "windmill" art might inspire:

poetry

creative writing

architectural drawing

engineering

-- even farming or sailing! 

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The following two pictures would be wonderful for a weather-themed compare and contrast lesson:

Windmill at Zaandam by Claude Monet

And View of Amsterdam by Ivan Aivazovsky

Questions you might ask:

How are they the same?

How are they different?

What is the weather like in each picture?

What do you notice about the clouds?

What time of day?

What might be the reason for windmills near the shoreline?

If you could choose to be in one of these places, which would it be, and why? 

What kind of paint do you think was used to paint each picture?

For Further study: 

Study the artists: Read their biographies. Look at their other paintings. What do you notice?

Choose one painting: Write a poem to illustrate the scene.

Write a letter: Imagine you are a sailor on the ship, or a person in the rowboat. Write a letter to someone telling about your day.

Be an artist: Paint your own windmill picture!

Another Monet, though a bit more cheery!

And a poem by Dennis Lambert.

Windmill

Even the whisper of a wind
Will woo these wind-catchers
To creak and groan, round and round,
Moaning above tulips, red and yellow.

And when one great dipping arm catches me
I soar screaming into baby-blue sky,
With wide and wild eyes
Stirring color to a blur.

“Hang on, hang on, hang on, ”
My laughing heart sings,
“Like love it lifts you
And brings you round,

And like a poem,
Dancing you
High above familiar ground,
It never wants to put you down.

Poem found on Poemhunters

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This next piece is a little bit of Americana. The article tells the importance of this wind-powered technology, and the basics of how it works:

The Windmill

Early Texans thirsted to move west, yet the thorns, sand, and heat of the West Texas wasteland kept them at bay. Because there was too little water, traveling -- much less settling down -- was well-nigh impossible, and worse, a new encumbrance called barbed wire barred most farmers and ranchers from the few existing trickles of creek. Unbeknownst to them, the Ogallala and Edwards aquifers lay in cool promise a hundred feet underground, waiting for discovery.

Enter the windmill. By tapping West Texas' hidden resources, the wind-activated water pump opened up for small-scale farming and ranching a good half of Texas once thought uninhabitable. On the heels of civilization came diversification, as the windmill and its successor, the electric pump, allowed ranchers to increase the size of their herds and farmers to expand from dryland crops to irrigated ones like corn.

In age the windmill is a piker next to an aquifer, yet the windmill has existed for more than a thousand years. Today's classic sunflower shape appeared only in 1854, created by Daniel Halladay, a Connecticut mechanic. When Halladay discovered that there wasn't a market in the Northeast for his sturdy, self-regulating pump, he headed to Chicago, where the burgeoning railroad industry realized its value: The windmill could enable steam locomotives to cross the dauntingly dry Great Plains. Dozens of manufacturers jumped in on the act, producing oddities like an umbrella mill that furled its slats protectively when the wind became too fierce and decorator mills with elaborate gingerbread, fancy paint jobs, and wrought-iron froufrou. But only Aermotor, 101 years old, is well known today. In 1986 the company bowed to the inevitable and moved to Texas, its major market. Its San Angelo factory produces a thousand or so every year.

A windmill works this way: A breeze spins the slats of the wheel, which moves a shaft; the shaft in turn moves gears connected to a guide wheel; that moves a rod up and down, drawing water into an adjacent tank (so-called -- usually the tank is just an earthen pond). Look closely, and you can see the moving rod, the on-off lever, the ever-present bullet holes in the vane or tale, and possibly a tin cup hanging on a nail to serve a passing cowboy...

Texas Monthly Jan 1990
Page 112

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Here are two paper projects for children fascinated by windmills:

Just print out and follow the instructions shown. This looks like a fun windmill to make!

Primary Education, Vol. 19 - 1911

This windmill refers to another volume of Primary Occupation Work, which is not online, so you will have to envision the description of how to make the base, or be creative and design your own!

Title: A Year of Primary Occupation Work, Vol. 2
Author: Etta Merrick Graves
Publisher: Educational publishing company, 1911

Or, you just might want to make a pinwheel, to simulate how wind power can be harnessed -- like we did in our earlier post! They are great fun for the youngsters.

Thunder Mist and Wagon Wheels

Image from jsorbieus on flickr

When I first read the following poem, by Hilda Conkling, I immediately envisioned something like the picture above.  And then I thought this might be a fun exercise in visualization. If you are a fan of Nature Walks - Charlotte Mason Style, this might be a fun "picture-painting" (scroll down at link) extension activity. This activity would also be great for reinforcing "focus and listening" skills:

Read the poem aloud, pause, read it a few more times, then have student(s) illustrate their own mental scenes:

Another weather exercise, (probably best for fourth grade up) this one from Intermediate Language Lessons, Book 2, includes dictation and composition (click to enlarge):

Shrinking Wheels? Dangerous Tires?

From the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center:

All four wheels had iron "tires" to protect the wooden rims, and they were likewise constructed of hardwoods to resist shrinkage. Nonetheless, many emigrants took to soaking their wagon wheels in rivers and springs overnight, as it was not unheard of for the dry air to shrink the wood so much that the iron tires would roll right off the wheels during the day.

If you really want to challenge students, you might ask them to pretend they are living during the time of Henry Ward Beecher, and set their composition, "A Wet Season" as if they were writing it during that same time period.

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Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.   ~Henry Ward Beecher - 1887

Let's Draw Owls - We Did It!

A few days ago, I posted about using owls (Let's Draw Owls) as a subject for a "directed drawing" activity. Well, we did it! Rosetta had a little experience (in kindergarten) with directed draw. I think her teacher taught the class how to draw trees using this method. Two years later, and she still remembers her teacher's exact reasoning for using the directed draw method. I was impressed! Obviously, she was a  good listener.

Funny that -- I first learned the directed draw method in one of my credentialing classes, but I can't  remember the name of the lady who taught it. All I remember is that we drew parrots.

Anyway, I used the above step-by-step provided by Spittin-Toad, since I don't have any real experience drawing owls - or much of anything, really.

For an even simpler version, this is the owl drawing steps provided in the Legends of the Guardians packet I linked in the original Let's Draw Owls post:

Our materials -- We used brown paper bags (one side, with a handle for hanging) and oil pastels similar to the ones above. To do the initial drawing, we used light colored pencils so they would show up on the brown paper.

 

The Method -- After discussing how important it is to be a good listener and observer, I began the step-by-step drawing. I drew my eyes, then  the little voyagers drew theirs, and so on, until the owl outlines were complete.

 

 

The little voyagers watching, then drawing.

 After the outlines were complete, we used the oil pastels to color them in. (Hm, Spiderman seems to have switched hands to color!)

Here are the finished pieces of art:

This is Rosetta's owl. She added a nest and some eggs to her drawing.

This is Saralina's owl. I love how her owl is looking to the side. 

She added the sun and sky to her drawing.

This is Spiderman's owl. Now, he is only three years-old, so he asked Mama Voyager for some "help," and she obliged, but you can tell this is really "his" owl because it is so colorful, just like Spiderman!

Oh, yes! Almost forgot our newest poem for the week -- another owl poem:
 

The Wise Owl
The wise old owl
Sat in an oak.
The more he saw,
The less he spoke.
The less he spoke,
The more he heard.
Why can't we be like
That wise old bird?

All in all, I think this activity was a great success! This is a great activity to use for developing listening and focusing abilities, which are two skills we are working on this year.

Who Has Seen the Wind?

 NOTE: Click to Enlarge Poem

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What Robert Louis Stevenson said about this poem - from the University of Toronto:
 

"I had an extreme terror of Hell, implanted in me, I suppose, by my good nurse, which used to haunt me terribly on stormy nights, when the wind had broken loose and was going about the town like a bedlamite. I remember that the noises on such occasions always grouped themselves for me into the sound of a horseman, or rather a succession of horsemen, riding furiously past the bottom of the street and away up the hill into town; I think even now that I hear the terrible howl of his passage, and the clinking that I used to attribute to his bit and stirrups. On such nights I would lie awake and pray and cry, until I prayed and cried myself asleep" (Graham Balfour, Life of Robert Louis Stevenson)

Audio version of the poem - Listen at Reely's Audio Poems 

"WHO HAS SEEN THE WIND?"
 

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you;
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I;
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

Christina Georgina Rossetti

The Wind's Work.

The busy wind we cannot see
At its work or play,
But it turns the weather vane
East and west this way.

The busy wind we cannot see
At its work or play,
But it blows the windmill's fans
Round and round this way.

The busy wind we cannot see
At its work or play,
But it lifts the kites on high
As we run this way.

The busy wind we cannot see
At its work or play,
But it blows the leaves about
To  and fro this way.

The busy wind we cannot see
At its work or play,
But it bends the forest trees
And they bow this way.

 

Title: A Year Book for Primary Grades: based on Froebel's mother plays
Authors: Etta Merrick Graves, Amelia Warfield Watkins, Rupert W. Graves
Publisher: M. Bradley company, 1908
Pages 159-160

NOTE: The Wind's Work - Daily Printing Practice - See below the jump (end of post)*****

Image from Ethnobotany wiki

THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY

There's music in my heart all day,
I hear it late and early,
It comes from fields are far away,
The wind that shakes the barley.
Ochone!

Above the uplands drenched with dew,
The sky hangs soft and pearly,
An emerald world is listening to
The wind that shakes the barley.
Ochone!

Above the bluest mountain crest
The lark is singing rarely,
It rocks the singer into rest,
The wind that shakes the barley.
Ochone!

Oh, still through summers and through springs
It calls me late and early.
Come home, come home, come home, it sings,
The wind that shakes the barley.
Ochone!

Title: The Wind in the Trees: A Book of Country Verse
Author: Katharine Tynan
Publisher: Grant Richards, 1898
Pages 57-58

 

THE WIND

The wind, the wind,
The mourning wind!
It comes and grieves
About my eaves
It knocks and groans
It cries and moans,
And the chilly moon
Rides aloft at noon
In the mourning, mourning wind.

The wind, the wind,
The raining wind!
Thro' dripping sprays
And grass-wet ways
It winds and lifts
It weaves and shifts,
And I walk apart
Where the storm-rills start
In the raining, raining wind.

The wind, the wind,
The summer wind I
In idle ease
Thro' weeds and trees
It wafts and woos
It soothes and sues,
And I fall asleep
Where the grass is deep
In the summer, summer wind.

The wind, the wind,
The thieving wind!
It whisks and starts
It scuds and darts
It whips the vanes
It shakes the panes,
And the apples fall
Where the weeds are tall
In the thieving, thieving wind.

The wind, the wind,
The winter wind!
It sweeps and soars
It howls and roars
It drives the snow
It piles the floe,
And the drifting sky
Runs gainless and dry
In the winter, winter wind.

The wind, the wind,
The midnight wind!
When night hours wane
And star-hosts reign
In monotone
It moves alone,
And nobody knows
Where the dead world blows
In the midnight, midnight wind.

Title: Wind and Weather
Author: Liberty Hyde Bailey
Publisher: Comstock Publishing Co., 1919
Pages 17-19

NOTE: The Wind - Vocabulary Work - See below the jump (end of post) *****

THE PIPER ON THE HILL
A Child's Song

There sits a piper on the hill
Who pipes the livelong day,
And when he pipes both loud and shrill
The frightened people say:
"The wind, the wind is blowing up
'Tis rising to a gale."
The women hurry to the shore
To watch some distant sail.
The wind, the wind, the wind, the wind,
Is blowing to a gale.

But when he pipes all sweet and low,
The piper on the hill,
I hear the merry women go
With laughter, loud and shrill:
"The wind, the wind is coming south
'Twill blow a gentle day."
They gather on the meadow-land
To toss the yellow hay.
The wind, the wind, the wind, the wind,
Is blowing south to-day.

And in the morn, when winter comes,
To keep the piper warm,
The little Angels shake their wings
To make a feather storm:
"The snow, the snow has come at last!
The happy children call,
And "ring around" they dance in glee,
And watch the snowflakes fall.
The wind, the wind, the wind, the wind,
Has spread a snowy pall.

But when at night the piper plays,
I have not any fear,
Because God's windows open wide
The pretty tune to hear;
The Wind and the Moon
And when each crowding spirit looks,
From its star window-pane,
A watching mother may behold
Her little child again.
The wind, the wind, the wind, the wind,
May blow her home again.

Dora Sigerson Shorter

Image from The Baldwin Project

THE WIND AND THE MOON

Said the Wind to the Moon, "I will blow you out
You stare
In the air
Like a ghost in a chair,
Always looking what I am about—
I hate to be watched; I'll blow you out."

The Wind blew hard, and out went the Moon.
So, deep
On a heap
Of clouds to sleep,
Down lay the Wind, and slumbered soon,
Muttering low, "I've done for that Moon."

He turned in his bed; she was there again!
On high
In the sky,
With her one ghost eye,
The Moon shone white and alive and plain.
Said the Wind, "I will blow you out again."

The Wind blew hard, and the Moon grew dim.
"With my sledge,
And my wedge,
I have knocked off her edge!
If only I blow right fierce and grim,
The creature will soon be dimmer than dim."

He blew and he blew, and she thinned to a thread.
"One puff
More's enough
To blow her to snuff!
One good puff more where the last was bred,
And glimmer, glimmer, glum will go the thread."

He blew a great blast, and the thread was gone.
In the air
Nowhere
Was a moonbeam bare;
Far off and harmless the shy stars shone—
Sure and certain the Moon was gone!

The Wind he took to his revels once more;
On down.
In town,
Like a merry-mad clown,
He leaped and halloed with whistle and roar—
"What's that?" The glimmering thread once more!

He flew in a rage—he danced and blew;
But in vain
Was the pain
Of his bursting brain;
For still the broader the Moon-scrap grew,
The broader he swelled his big cheeks and blew.

Slowly she grew—till she filled the night,
And shone
On her throne
In the sky alone,
A matchless, wonderful silvery light,
Radiant and lovely, the queen of the night.

Said the Wind: "What a marvel of power am I!
With my breath,
Good faith!
I blew her to death"—
First blew her away right out of the sky—
Then blew her in; what strength have I!"

by George MacDonald
 
Title: The Home Book of Verse, American and English, 1580-1918, Volume 1
Compiled by: Burton Egbert Stevenson
Edition: 3
Publisher: H. Holt, 1918

(Google book link)

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CLASSIC LITERATURE

Title: The Wind in the Willows
Author: Kenneth Grahame
Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1915
(Google book Link)

Title: Old Mother West Wind
Author: Thornton Waldo Burgess
Publisher: Little, Brown, 1913
(Google book Link)

Title: Mother West Wind's Animal Friends
Author: Thornton Waldo Burgess
Publisher: Little, Brown, 1912

(Google book Link)

 

Daily Printing Practice and Vocabulary Work -- Below the Jump

DIY Friday: Wind Engineer Project #3

Up, Up and Away!

We couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to make kites -- because Spiderman absolutely loves kites!

NASA has a super easy version of our kite. Theirs in a bit smaller and uses straws, rather than wood sticks/dowels/skewers, like the ones we made. Get the NASA instructions HERE.

The Experimental Aviation Association has their own instructions for a sled kite. We more or less followed their instructions, with minor materials substitutions. Not only do they have great Sled Kite instructions, they also have a bunch of other cool activities to try! See for yourself HERE.

Here is one of the three kites we made; almost ready to go -- just waiting on the tails.

And here is Spiderman's kite - flying high!

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These sled kites are awesome, because they are easy to make -- and easy to fly.

The little voyagers give them six thumbs up!

Let's Draw Owls!

Our little voyagers love owls! And why not -- owls have such fascinating personalities, whether in real life or artistic creations. Even Picasso and Van Gogh depicted an owl or two in their work.

Owls are great subjects for "directed draw" activities. They are fairly simple to draw, yet the artist's own personality easily comes shining through. I found several neat posts detailing variations of what I had in mind:

Spittin-Toad has a step-by-step how-to for using the directed draw approach. It is a must-read if you want a really good idea of how it works.

Next up, at Art Projects for Kids: How to Draw an Owl - Simple, step by step (larger image on the website) instructions.

At Deep Space Sparkle - This is activity #2 for a directed draw-based owl art project. The original activity started with directed draw for the basic owl, then used collage to fill it in. See the results HERE. Great step-by-step drawings at the second link.

This next website, How to Draw,  has a really cool feature, especially if your budding artists are a little older. Follow the steps (images on the left) and draw along in the box on the right. The box scrolls down with you!

Need some real live owl inspiration? Go check out the live owl cams at Owl Channel Live. These owls live in nearby Chula Vista, Ca. They are so fascinating to watch! From wooing to egg-laying, then hatching and learning to fly. Oh, yes, and even seeing them eat fresh-caught mice and other rodents!

The National Wildlife Federation has a whole pdf packet packed with great activities, called Legends of the Guardians (to go with the movie.)

Oh, we have an OWL surprise, too! We joined the Give a Hoot Giveaway Hop and will be giving away this travel art wallet. Isn't it adorable? Mama Voyager made it especially for this giveaway. Now your little one can draw owls on the go!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

National Handwriting Day

 Here is a blast from the past for National Handwriting Day:

 Children upon first entering school should, for at least three months, do all writing upon the board. It is the safest and most pedagogical place for the little folks to take initial steps, because writing done there is larger, freer, easier, less exacting than pencil or pen writing.

Counting serves to restrain the tendency of some pupils to scribble and acts as a stimulus to the habitually slow, and thereby regulates extremes in movement.

As a rule, it is best to count for either each down or each up stroke. The use of different expressions that will constantly change the pupils' minds with the various phases of position, form and movement to be acquired, will be found to be effective and productive of good results, provided the rhythm is retained.

Suggestions on the Correlation of Music with Penmanship Practice

The fascinating, stimulating and compelling influence of a good march, two-step, schottische or waltz with a well pronounced rhythm is a generative source in promoting muscular relaxation, freedom and ease, lightness of touch, continuity and fluency in arm movement, uniformity in speed, regularity in spacing, slant and size, confidence and power in execution.
 

The rhythmic response of the arm and hand movements is the result of the reaction to the music stimuli produced by subconscious mental and motor associations and co-ordinations.
 

Rate of speed or tempo of the music, should be well timed or regulated in accordance with age and capacity of the pupils. 

Tenth Regiment March (Youtube)

Title: Manual of Fundamentals in the Teaching of Handwriting in the Public Schools
Authors: Tom Sawyier, Francis Bail Pearson, Ohio. Dept. of Public Instruction
Publisher: The F.J. Heer printing co., 1918
Music - pages 33-35

 

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