02 April 2015

Be SURPRISED at MIA this year during its birthday celebration

Expect fun when you check out the Minneapolis Institute of Arts this year.

It’s their 100th birthday year, and they’ve ramped things up to celebrate.

It’s a year of surprises. During our recent visit, we most loved the surprise party exhibit in the Fountain Court. SURPRISE! Suddenly the lights dim and there’s a disco ball sending light dancing throughout the room!

And what’s not to love about the SURPRISE horse-drawn carriage rides around the block, and a pop-up performance of music by Mozart on the opening day of “The Habsburgs: Rarely Seen Masterpieces from Europe’s Greatest Dynasty?”

In fact, there will be a surprise every week all year long. Check them out at http://new.artsmia.org/100/.

The Surprise Party disco light show was #12 of 52. This installation by local artist Aaron Dysart is the first of several artist-designed birthday surprise projects to happen throughout the year. It’s only on view through April 19 — so you don’t want to miss it! It’s an immersive installation that, like the museum itself, only comes alive with your participation. When you pass through the room, an infrared sensor detects your movement and triggers LED lights to blast the slowly rotating 24-inch disco ball suspended from the ceiling.


SPECIAL EXHIBIT


Enticed by opulance? Fascinated by knights and fair ladies? Intrigued by how art connects and with history? Bring the family to “The Habsburgs: Rarely Seen Masterpieces from Europe’s Greatest Dynasty” exhibit there now through May 10.

It’s truly an exhibit you don’t want to miss.

This spectacular show features masterpieces and royal objects spanning nearly 600 years of world history. The majority of the artifacts — include a carriage used for 200 years! — have never been in America before.

It is the most comprehensive display yet staged for the collections from these Holy Roman Emperors, who owned palaces from Ukraine to Mexico. Gowns, rifles, suits of armor, sorbet cups, gilded knickknacks and artworks by luminaries like Rubens, Titian, Velazquez, Tintoretto and Holbein have come from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Artifacts span history from the late Middle Ages through the early 20th century.

The art collections have been Austrian government property since World War I, when the empire collapsed and the dynasty was banished. As reported in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/arts/design/the-habsburgs-treasures-at-the-minneapolis-institute-of-arts.html?_r=0), Sabine Haag, general director of the Kunsthistorisches, said she was eager to lend to American institutions, partly because after World War II, United States soldiers made sure that the Kunsthistorisches received back what Nazis had stolen.

“This tour is a late thank you gesture to the Americans, who helped us rescue everything,” she said. Haag hopes this will inspire visitors to make the trip to Vienna to see the collection in person and to discover even more of the treasures.

The exhibition next heads next to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and then the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

Give the kiddos an idea of what to expect by scrolling through the online timeline. Using pictures and short stories, it connects the Habsburgs with what was going on in the world over the course of 600 years. Remember Spain’s Queen Isabella I of Castille, the one who sponsored Christopher Columbus’ voyages to the New World? Her children married two of the Habsburgs, Philip and Margaret, which led to the Habsburgs ruling Spain for 200 years. Inbreeding eventually led to a lack of sons, and they lost Spain.

I learned so much about history by walking through this exhibit and reading through things.  

- Historical highlight: Maria Theresa — the sole female Habsburg ruler, who reigned for a remarkable 40 years beginning in 1740. Because her father had only girls, he finagled things so that a daughter could rule.

- Painting highlight: The Four Elements by Giuseppe Arcimboldo. He was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books. His artwork looks modern, but was made 400 years earlier!

-Clothing highlight: The ceremonial dress of Crown Prince Otto as a child that he wore for the Hungarian Coronation in 1916, just two short years before 600 years of sovereignty came to an end with the close of World War I. My 2-year-old was fascinated by its small size.

DON’T MISS THE FUN
There are a number of fun activities for kiddos.

Be sure to don a robe and snap a photo near the “carriage.”
Make your own family crest.
Be inspired by Arcimboldo and move magnets so that they resemble portraits.


IF YOU GO
Reserve Tickets for the special exhibit: $20 Adult / $16 MIA members
Regular admission: Free every day
Hours: Closed Mondays. Open Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Address: 2400 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis

01 April 2015

FIAR: Tracking animals while reading 'Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening'

The fun of snow is seeing the tracks animals leave behind - and making our own! One winter day we headed up north to traipse through the woods and look for whatever animal tracks we could find. We also kept our eyes peeled when we walked through our own city lot, and when we took a field trip to the children's area at the UofM Arboretum in Chanhassen.

What a packed down deer trail!
In addition to tracks, we found some deer scat!




WE READ:
- Best Foot Forward: Exploring Feet, Flippers and Claws by Ingo Arndt
- Big Tracks, Little Tracks: Following Animal Prints by Millicent E. Selsam
- Crinkleroot’s Guide to Animal Tracking by Jim Arnosky
- Wild Tracks by Jim Arnosky
- Crinkleroot's Guide to Giving Back to Nature by Jim Arnosky
- Crinkleroot's Nature Almanac by Jim Arnosky

I found a few resources to help guide our discovery.

• Animal Tracks Match-Up Game
Whose Footprints are These?
• Montessori for Everyone: Animal Tracks flashcards

We also loved reading the many Field Guides on topics such as Winter Birds, Surviving the Winter, Snowshoes and Snow put together by the Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre in Canada.

FIAR: Stopping By The Woods on A Snowy Evening

I am so attached to Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost after rowing through the edition by Susan Jeffries. I think it is one of my most favorite poems now. I can't hear my daughter recite it enough. Rowing through this book and Katy & The Big Snow brought us so much delight during a time of winter that is typically pretty dreary.

WE READ:
- Winter Trees by Carole Gerber
- Best Foot Forward: Exploring Feet, Flippers and Claws by Ingo Arndt
- Big Tracks, Little Tracks: Following Animal Prints by Millicent E. Selsam
- Crinkleroot’s Guide to Animal Tracking by Jim Arnosky
- Wild Tracks by Jim Arnosky
- Crinkleroot's Guide to Giving Back to Nature by Jim Arnosky
- Crinkleroot's Nature Almanac by Jim Arnosky
(and a few other Arnosky books that didn't have anything to do with winter but were lovely!)
- Winter Lullaby by Barbara Seuling
- Snow by Uri Shulevitz
- The Mitten & The Hat by Jan Brett
- The Log Cabin Quilt by Ellen Howard
- Emily by Barbara Cooney
- Antler, Bear, Canoe: A Northwoods Alphabet by Betsy Bowen
- Marven of the Great North Woods by Kathryn Lasky
- The Winter Gift by Zagwyn
{poetry books}
- A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children by Caroline Kennedy
- A Swinger of Birches
- Sing a Song of Popcorn (book of poems for young people)
- The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems
- Animal Tracks: Wild Poems to Read Aloud by Charles Ghinga
- Crazy Like a Fox: A Simile Story by Loreen Leedy

WE LEARNED ABOUT ROBERT FROST:

Who he was - where he lived - what his family was like... We learned all these things. Here's a great web site with information: http://www.frostplace.org/ 

We enjoyed watching these videos:

• Robert Frost reading "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening:

• Robert Frost, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" read by Susan Sarandon:

Find a great lapbook for Stopping By The Woods on A Snowy Evening over at Homeschoolshare.com. Activities in the lapbook include: Jingle Bells copywork, Stopping by the Woods copywork, Rhyme Scheme & Poetry handout, Animals in the Story, New Vocabulary Words, Poems I Read list, and New England Winter Weather Facts.

We talked about Tree Skeletons, using Winter Trees as a jumping off point.

We did a bunch of activities regarding animal tracks. See blog post that focuses on that here.

We also did tons of weather-related experiments. See post here.

What's a unit on poetry without a little art too? The Girl was inspired by looking at images of birch trees in the moonlight, as well as a cat on a swing. Can you see it?

We built snowmen out of paper.
- Snowman Mobile
- Free Olaf printable: http://www.thepurplepumpkinblog.co.uk/2014/12/free-olaf-printable.html
- We also found an Olaf states of matter mini book, which was a great thing to use when we melted and then refroze snow (see post on Katy and the Big Snow). I plan to take it back out during our study of states of matter when we row through Mike Mulligan.

POETRY FOCUS
We really focused on poetry, reading lots of Robert Frost as well as other poets. I can't say enough great things about three books:
- A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children by Caroline Kennedy
- A Swinger of Birches
- Sing a Song of Popcorn (book of poems for young people)

I love poetry, and I insist on good poetry. These three books have that.

We wrote our own WINTER acrostic poem. Find link here: http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/seasonal-acrostic-winter/

But possibly the most important thing we did was memorize Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening.

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