Matroishka Dolls and Autobiographies

Neutron Art
This week’s art class visited another chilly country, Russia. After locating Russia on a map and identifying how close it is to Alaska (and the subject of our last art class, Inuit carvings), the neutrons were shown ‘Matrioshka’ dolls (borrowed from our very generous members!). Matrioshka dolls are wood crafted, egg-shaped, and usually brightly painted ‘nest egg’ sculptures. Matrioshka dolls carry inside them a nesting family and are based on the grandmothers, or in Russian~ ‘babushkas’, of the family. Folk art in Russia usually has elements of gold, flowers, and fruit elements included (we passed around a hand-painted bowl from Eastern Europe as an example). Using pre-cut oaktag shapes of different sizes, markers, and gold markers, the neutrons created their own Matrioshka dolls based on their families. Neutrons also finished their Inuit Scrimshaw tusks while looking at Inuit painting examples for inspiration.
Quarks Writers Workshop
Class started by using the Story Cards) to tell a round robin story about a missing golden button.
We read Tomie dePaola’s book, “The Art Lesson” and discussed how it was an autobiography and non-fiction.
The kids got out their writing papers and wrote their own stories.
January 22, 2015