Patayan Inspired Intaglio ~ An Art Project

As Wes and I have been working our way through the different ancient people that are part of the 4th grade curriculum here, we have been incorporating art projects. This week we have learned about the Patayan people. Among the things we learned is that the Patayan left behind amazing intaglios. Here's a great article we found: America’s Nazca lines We decided to make intaglios of our own. The project was a lot of fun and very easy to do. So for all of you art teachers or arty moms, we'd like to share:

This is Westen's Intaglio. He wanted to see how many different symbols he could make. We gathered inspiration from a little book we have called Easy Field Guide To Rock Art Symbols of the Southwest.

I couldn't resist getting in on the fun. I made a big person and a little person who seem to be celebrating the sun and their thriving corn crop as the lizards dance by.

This was a very easy project to put together. We just cut out pieces of cardboard from a box. We used our hands to coat one side of the cardboard generously with regular white craft glue like Elmer's. Then we covered the cardboard with black craft sand that you can buy in most craft stores. Then we just let it dry in the sun. To create our intaglios which actually means "incised designs", we used the wood end of a small paint brush. The brush end came in handy to remove loose sand or we just blew on it. We had a really good time with this one so we wanted to share!

Pueblo ~ Paper Model Project

This week we have been talking about the Sinagua of the Sunset Crater region. It was time to build a pueblo representing their later structures rather than their earlier pit houses.

You can find this paper model and many more at my favorite publishing house: Dover Publications. Whenever you walk into a museum shop, you can bet a large percent of the literature and activity books have been published by Dover. Their prices are great. You can buy paperback books in so many genres for discount prices. It's a super resource for anyone and an awesome educational site. I'll add it to my favorites list for your convenience.

Oh, one more thing. You can get on an email list for free samples. Weekly you'll receive clip art, coloring pages, shorts stories and more!

Westen's Aztec Temple ~ Schedule Updates

We just finished studying the Aztecs. Wes chose a golden temple for his clay dwelling project.

Well, we are three weeks away from the end of our first quarter. It's kind of wild to think of most of the school children being on their 3rd day of the year. I have to say, I love this year round schedule our school district follows. Those long breaks between quarters go a long way to keep your brain fresh and to fend off scholastic burn out!

In the way of an update:

Math - We just completed a section on division finishing up with long division with double digit divisors and remainders; the works. I think we are both glad to be moving on. LOL! Long division is not one of Wes's favorite things. Now we are entering a unit on averaging so we haven't completely escaped division. Next we will be headed for geometry. Yea!

History - We are working our way through the list of cultures that the fourth graders are slated to study. We just started with the Sinagua of Northern AZ and still have the Patayan, Salado, Inca, and Maya to go. Needless to say, we only have enough time to get a small sense of the life these people led. We are keeping a time line as we go in addition to our clay dwellings. We are also making a poster page of each group on which we write all the interesting tidbits we can find. We will also take at least one more field trip to the Basha Museum of Native American Arts (I'm not sure if that is the actual name). At some point this year I would also like to go to the Heard Museum.

Vocabulary - We are currently studying prefixes. Wes is a happy camper this week because the prefixes are uni-, bi-, and tri- which are already familiar to him. Who doesn't like an easy week?

Science - We've been studying the environment and the earth's processes. Tomorrow we'll look at floods. We have also been saving recyclables for art projects.

Religion - Currently studying Judaism

Reading and Language Arts - Just finished up our section n fables although we will still read a few more tales of Native American Folklore. This week we made cards for the Grandparents as this Sunday is Grandparents Day. I don't even know if the Grandparents know about Grandparents Day, but they are about to find out! Fluency is still going really well. It's become a nice part of the morning routine and practically runs itself. We started a new work of fiction this week and are enjoying the story so far. We need to get a little more into the book before we can really start to discuss some of the literary elements. Of the literary elements that 4th graders are meant to learn, we've covered over half already. Now it's just a matter of reinforcing the concepts in the work we do.

Westen's Fable

The Iguanas and Chameleons that Fight and Tease

Once upon a time, the sun woke up and the sun can't wait to see what good things are happening in the forest. Something was happening in the forest, but it wasn't good. The iguanas and chameleons were fighting and teasing about who got to go up the tallest tree first. The iguanas think they are more clever and the chameleons think they are more special. They were so noisy that they woke up the cobras from their morning nap. The cobras couldn't take it, so they hissed with all their might, but the enemies kept on fighting. Then the lizards can't take it, so they wapped their tails, but it didn't stop the fighting foes. Then the hippo roared! It finally got their attention. "If you guys do not stop fighting, no one can have the tree!" the hippo shouted. The iguanas and chameleons felt bad about not getting the tree and disturbing all the animals so they decided to take turns. That night, the sun went to bed feeling happy and pleased that the iguanas and chameleons finally solved their problem.

Westen's Great House Sculpture

Westen's version of the Great House at the Casa Grande Ruins.

Field Trip to the Casa Grande Ruins

This week we began learning about the Hohokam. Since we are fortunate enough to live so close, we took a field trip to the Casa Grade Ruins. The is a Hohokam compound from the Classic Era around 1300 AD. There is a great house surrounded by smaller structures.

Here Wes is standing in front of a wall of one of the smaller buildings.


The Hohokam positioned certain round windows in the great house to align perfectly with the sun. There are windows marking both the Summer Solstice and both the Spring and Autumn Equinox.



Here's Wes in front of one side of the great house. The ancient setting inspired a "Walk like an Egyptian" pose.


Here's a picture I took leaning into one of the windows of the great house. I wanted to record the inside and what the floor and walls looked like. The house was built on a platform perhaps to protect it from flash floods.


This is my favorite photo of the day. I like the sense of depth and the contrast created by the blue sky.