In our biology and botany studies we have been learning about the basics of plants and right now more specifically trees and leaves. While looking for an autumn art project on leaves, I found and fell in love with Eloise Renouf's style of drawing trees as first seen in this sketchbook project. We just had to do something with this!
We used white cardstock and black Sharpie pens. A basic straight-line tree trunk works fine, or you can add a thicker trunk. Choose multiple designs to repeat for the branches. (For inexperienced/unsure artists, practice on scratch paper first.)
Now it's time to paint! Watercolors add both color and additional shape.
Once the kids were done with theirs, they were to use their favorite finished piece as the setting for a new piece of creative writing.
I found creating fall images this way absolutely addicting and made page after page over the course of a few days.
Trees and/or scenes can be as simple or elaborate as each artist wishes, and all skill levels can give this a good go.
It's November. This is the month I've been both pushing to get to, seeing it as a summit, and also the month I've been dreading to come, a little sad about the view from the top once reached. It has been a full and busy fall with lots of plans and goals as well as many unexpected surprises. I've backed way off the blogging in an effort to spend time where it really needed to be spent this autumn. And now November is here. Today we dropped off our newest missionary at the Provo MTC and I'm feeling so many emotions I just can't give words to them all. Let's just say that I left a part of my heart in Provo and I'm really feeling it tonight. Even though this is the best decision my son could possibly have made and I am so proud, pleased and full of hope, faith, and gratitude, it's still a little hard to live with it.
As the calendar days have passed I've been looking forward to listening to my November Playlist. After arriving home from the MTC and feeling the need for some grace in my thoughts, I put on David Tolk's appropriately named album Grace which is my newest November Playlist addition.
The music was soothing and filling and then finally releasing. "I Need Thee Every Hour" broke the dam and I had a good, hard, mournful, grateful, prayerful cry.
Raising children is something of a paradox. You nurture and nourish, teach and train, love and lead, and give your whole soul to helping these children of God realize and reach their potential only to feel a little bit sad when they actually do. Wait. Success brings sadness?
It's just that you love these children so much and you love being a mother so much that you'd gladly hit replay and go through everything over and over again so you could hold on to every happy, hard, sweet, trying, silly, bewildering, wonderful moment with these amazing people you've been blessed to bring into the world and hold hands with.
Thank God for motherhood! The privilege! The challenge! The journey! The joy!
Inspired by an idea I saw by that artist woman, I came up with a plan for a timely, festive two-part project where we artfully created characters and settings for some creative writing.
First, I read a few picture books for example and inspiration...because picture books are awesome!
I'm not going to write an art tutorial because you can go here to find that. I did switch it up a bit, though, so I'll explain that. Instead of painted paper for the weaving, we used patterned scrapbooking paper as was originally done at Cutting Tiny Bites. And instead of a green frame, we used black so we could use pastels on a nighttime background to create our story settings. (I love, love to use pastels on black paper, so I'm always looking for a reason to do it!)
Here is a closeup of mine, all finished. I even add the Big Dipper to my sky!
Here are all of the finished characters.
I'm a huge proponent of CCCW--Cross Curricular Creative Writing. Go here to see another fun example perfect for this time of year.
It is torture to spend gorgeous autumn days stuck at desks (or tables) especially when learning can (and often should!) take place outside. Here is an outdoor math AND science lesson I created for our BIO studies. (A question I often get regarding unit studies is, "What about math?" We do have a separate math program we use daily, but I am always looking for ways to incorporate math into every single unit. It's important for children to see real world applications of math and to see that math is literally in everything.)
Above is the first page of the scavenger hunt I created. Download the full Biotic and Abiotic Dimensional Shapes Scavenger Hunt Worksheet here. Obviously, the science aspect is determining biotic (living) things from abiotic (nonliving), and the math is identifying shapes and their dimensions.
Below are a few photos from our scavenger hunt. We were actually able to find most shapes.
Parallel and perpendicular lines
Oval
Sphere
Cylinder
Oval
Trapezoid
Circle, or octagon, if you draw a line to connect every 3 petals
We listen to a lot of music at our house. During December (and often November or even October!) Christmas music is almost constant on the stereo. We love the sounds of the season and everyone keeps rotating in their favorite CDs in the CD changer and singing along as we go about our day. The past couple of years, however, I’ve sought to create a November playlist to specifically reflect and enhance the kind of thoughts and feelings I want to have in my heart this time of year. As much as I love Christmas, I don’t want Thanksgiving overlooked.
I’d like to share some of my favorite songs for November with you. In many cases you will likely already know the song, but I’ll tell you my favorite arrangements and performers as well.
Traditional
“All Creatures of Our God and King”— Paul Cardall has a lovely, peaceful piano arrangement. I love Stephen Sharp Nelson’s percussive cello performance. The upbeat a capella harmonies of the Eclipse 6 version are nice. And for an absolutely joyful rendition that makes one glad, electric guitar and all, check out West Coast Revival’s recording.
“For the Beauty of the Earth”—John Rutter, a brilliant British composer and conductor, has a beautiful arrangement performed by the City of London Sinfonia and the Cambridge Singers. Cantus does a stirring a capella version that is reminiscent of monastic music. John Schmidt’s piano arrangement is classically beautiful. And David Tolk combines this hymn with “Beautiful Savior” to make a happy, hopeful medley.
“All Things Bright and Beautiful” —Michael O’Brien’s recording featuring Joseph O’Brien is full of praise. John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers delight with another arrangement.
“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”—For an instrumental version, you cannot beat the reverent but fervent longing in Paul Cardall’s arrangement. Two good but very different a capella performances are from BYU Vocal Point and Insideout A Capella (the latter having a lot more bass).
“Simple Gifts”—This Shaker hymn is the epitome of gratitude to me. I love the Piano Guys’ reggae medley combining this and “Over the Rainbow” for a happy, thankful, feel-good song. Aaron Copland’s rousing orchestration of it as a part of his Appalachian Spring is, to be sure, more spring-y than fall-y, but it’s great music. The 5 Browns give a nice classical piano performance. Cantus sings a fantastic a capella version.
“Shenandoah”—Not really a song of thankgiving, but I love, love this stirring traditional folk song so much, and for some reason I like it even more in November. Peter Hollens sings it so fantastically that he’s my number one pick to listen to. If you like jazz, the Julian Waterfall Pollack Trio plays a truly delightful, carefree arrangement.
Seasonal
“Thankful”—Sung by Josh Groban
“Thanksgiving”—George Winston
“Colors/Dance”—George Winston
“Before the Last Leaf Falls”—David Lanz
“Leaves on the Seine”—David Lanz
“Gratitude” by Paul Cardall is the instrumental version of his vocal “Grateful.” “Grateful” is peppier and full of praise, while “Gratitude” is quietly reflective. I like them both.
Because
“Homeward Bound”—Written by Marta Keen Thompson and performed by BYU Vocal Point, this moving piece sounds like a traditional folk song but isn’t very old. Full of meaning and emotion, this is an amazing song.
“More Than the World”—Sung by Mindy Gledhill, this is not a Thanksgiving song per se, but it is about where happiness really comes from. The lyrics are incredibly poetic, the music perfectly compliments it, and I love it.
“Pictures at an Exhibition”—While original composer Mussorgsky is responsible for the main melody, The Piano Guys’ adapted arrangement finished what Mussorgsky started. This song is on my November playlist because it is so beautiful it makes me unspeakably thankful to be alive and able to hear.
I'm too tired to link everything. Sorry. But I'll add some videos of a few of these songs below. The video portions aren't much, but turn up your volume.
P.S. I wrote most of this earlier today but didn't have time to finish and post. I had to leave for a few hours and when I got home my kids had the stereo cranked with Christmas music. What'd I tell ya?
Unable to EVER get enough of autumn leaves, I wanted to try painting leaves for prints this year. It was awesome!
It's actually a pretty simple project.
First, obviously, collect all sorts of leaves. You want many different shapes and sizes. (Before painting, we actually did a leaf and tree identification activity as well.) You'll want to have leaves that aren't dry and brittle.
Have large pieces of black paper for printing on. We mostly used construction paper, but I did do one on cardstock and I liked that one the best. You could use any color, but the black really makes the prints pop.
We used acrylic paint. I've seen some people use tempera, but I don't like how tempera tends to crumble after it's dried.
Paint the BACK of the leaves, coating well, but not with so much paint that you have dripping blobs or puddles. (You can paint the front, but by painting the back the veins of the leaves are more prominent.) Put your leaf painted side down on your black paper, then take a piece of scratch paper and place it over the top so that you can press down and apply pressure all over the leaf to transfer the paint and make your print.
Remove scratch paper and carefully lift your leaf. Repaint the same leaf, or try another one.
This is one of my creations. This one was done on cardstock.
The kid who created this didn't want to use a black background. This kid always manages to get a smiley face into every art project.
Another child's creation.
The child who did this one wanted to paint a frame around the leaves.
Another of mine.
If something happens in the process to make the artist not like every bit of the full paper, don't fret. You can cut out the leaves that turned out they way you like them and glue them to a different background.
I had a couple of frames laying around so I decided to frame two of my creations for decoration. I taped everyone else's up in the school room.
When you're finished painting, the painted leaves make a lovely decoration, too.
I just have to share a recipe. It's so simple and so yummy and just what we needed today to go with our cheap cardboard-flavored pizza. You see, my house is--literally--a disaster area.
This is what happens when your dishwasher leaks slowly enough that you don't know it's happening, but with enough water that it damages everything in your kitchen, and even the floors in your dining room.
I currently have no kitchen sink or counters, but still have some hungry teen-aged boys to feed. I also have some trees loaded with apples needing eaten or preserved, so I'm trying to consume a lot of apples in simple ways, but with some variety so we don't get totally sick of eating apples. I made this with a plastic knife and spoon, sitting outside at my aluminum foil-covered picnic table.
Candy Bar Salad
10 medium apples, cored and cut up in bite-sized pieces
1 container of whipped topping
2 regular Snickers bars, chopped into little pieces
Mix it all together and enjoy. (Disposable bowls for me right now!) Perfect for an autumn lunch!
Oh, how I love autumn! I appreciate each season for every individual delight and couldn't live without any one of them, but I do have an especial fondness for autumn.
I also love the color red. Just as I like every season, I also like every color; there isn't a color that doesn't have a time and place where it is just right and a delight to my senses, but I do find red speaking to me quite often.
So, the perfect way to welcome and celebrate the official arrival of autumn was to get out in the mountain foliage bursting with both red leaves and red fish. The return of the salmon is always an awesome sight!
I love all four seasons and I would never want to live in a place that didn't have four distinct seasons. I welcome the changes and traditions of each season and always want to make the most of each. That said, autumn is my favorite. Every year I just cannot get enough time outside to soak it all up. It seems it's over as soon as it starts and I regret not having spent more time outside.
This year I was determined to spend as much time out in the autumn awesomeness as responsibly possible. I'm still not sure it was enough, but I'm so glad I made a conscious effort to not let the season pass me by. So, tonight, as the snow softly falls outside my window at the close of Thanksgiving weekend and the beginning of the Christmas season, I bid a fond farewell to a beautiful autumn and challenge myself (and you) to seize the day(s) during the coming winter season and not let it pass you by without enjoying it--whatever that means to you.
"Teaching children about the natural world
should be seen as one of the most important events of their lives."
-Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth-
"Along with milk and vegetables, kids need a steady diet of rocks and worms."
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you as as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you...
While cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
-John Muir-
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."
-Henry David Thoreau-
"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."
-Albert Camus-
"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."
-L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables-
"No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face."
