Vincent Van Gogh

The next instalment of our European Union project was Holland / The Netherlands. We briefly discussed Holland as a country but focused mainly on Vincent Van Gogh, his 800 paintings in his short lifetime and his impact on the art world, in terms of his Post-Impressionist style and impasto technique.

The children mixed acrylic paints with cornflower to produce heavy, thick texturised painting which is known as impasto painting.

Monkey Girl brought a boat to life.

Panda Girl and The boy painted a copy of Van Gogh's Mulberry Tree

Ballet Girl experimented with his motion techniques.

Leprechaun Traps

To finish our miniature look at Ireland in our  European Union project we had a fun morning making leprechaun traps!  Because we can!

We also found time for our extra work...

...and for hours of outside play. They've totally wrecked the grass but whoop for fresh air!

Eire

Back to our European Union Thematic Unit this week, the children spent the morning learning about Ireland.

The two littlies played 'Hot Potato' to some super traditional Irish music.  I made them some chocolate creams for prizes and they had to be holding the potato if the music stopped, in order to win a prize.

Green sparkly play-dough for fun.

Painting to understand the difference between The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Maths disguised as fun with gold at the end of the rainbow.

Literacy disguised as letters at the end of the rainbow.

The two eldest took notes on a documentary about Ireland...

...and wrote up their findings.

The rest of the afternoon was for Mapwork, more Maths and Nature Study.

 Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl sewed their names into their dance costumes for their shows this weekend.

Panda Girl spent some time doing jigsaws...

...and The Boy spent some Lego quality time with Mummy's cousin who is visiting from Australia, before trampolining this afternoon.

Winter Half Term Break

I had an extra eight kiddies in the house at one time or other during our week off.  How nice that play-dates are now much more independent cases of running about in the field or playing spies in the garden.  The children have had a relaxing and fun week with their friends, broken up by some extra activities that I organised for them.

The children made some lovely otter riverside homes at the forest centre.

Shrove Tuesday meant pancakes...

...and also pancake races in the garden.

Panda Girl requested ingredients to make 'Get Better Jelly' from her book.

Our local English Heritage site had Rifle Drill Training for mini soldiers.

Monkey Girl discovered that she can identify most of the statues in the gardens, including Mercury who she explained was also Hermes in Greek Mythology, Hercules, Athenia, Aphrodite, Leda and the Swan, Neptune and Zeus.  I'm very proud of my Monkey Girl!

Library-ing with the cousins.

The wet, windy, grey persisted but we were very British about it and got completely bedraggled in the rain.