Another fun fact about Fi is that she likes to read biographies more than any other type of book which means that we end up learning all about real people and the reasons behind why they are important to history. Two years ago, before a trip to Europe, Fi chose to read a book about Picasso and knew about his life and the way he used colors to represent his emotions in his art. We were lucky enough to visit The Musee D'Orsay while the special event was an exhibition of Picasso's blue and rose periods.
Fast forward to this year when we have plenty of time at home to explore whatever Fi is currently interested in, so I decided to let her study some artists in more detail because it's history, geography, and art all rolled into one! I generally spend about an hour a night setting Fi's school work up for the next day and researching activities to fill in all the gaps. I like to utilize Pinterest, teacherspayteachers.com, and education.com the most.
I found a great unit on Picasso here to go along with the picture of a craft idea a friend sent me! We did a few pages each day and Fi loved it! It led to many conversations such as "Why did Picasso choose to paint? Why is painting the thing that made his life feel complete?" She often throws me off with questions like this but it was great because we were able to contact two artist friends and discuss that question with them to help Fi gain some clarity on the subject.
To do the art project, you'll need a cardboard box, scissors, glue, a pencil, water cup, paper towel, paint and a paintbrush. We cut the flaps off of our cardboard box and drew out the shape of the head and shapes we'd use for the face and then cut them out.
Then we painted the faces with acrylic paint and worked on painting the face shapes while the face dried. Then we glued the pieces on and viola! Picasso inspired works of art!
Things that we can study over a period of a few days are always ideal because it allow us to explore the subjects in depth instead of just at surface level which unfortunately is what a lot of second graders are given as work these days. Fi isn't a surface level kind of kid so school work often times doesn't hold her interest so these longer units are perfect!