"In the Swing" Silhouette and Poem

Higher! Higher!

Up I go!

Now the spire,

Which I know,

Goes to where

The sky is blue;

Seems no higher

Than I to you.

High! High!

See me fly!

Lower, lower,

Down I swing;

Slower, slower, 

On the wing,

Gently sailing

To and fro,

Almost failing

Now to go.

Low, low,

Slow, slow.

The Three Bears Silhouettes

The above silhouette is very old and it's creator is unknown.

       There are now two sets of bear silhouettes here. Both are based upon the fairytale "Goldilocks and The Three Bears."

Draw a Landscape Using Vincent Van Gogh's Drawing Technique

      Both of these art teachers taught the same lesson. However, they gave their students different mediums and papers. The students in one class used oil pastels on black paper and the students in the other classroom worked with magic markers on white drawing paper. In both instances, their art teachers taught them how to use short choppy marks to define space, color and landscape, just as Van Gogh did when he drew landscapes.

Drawing by Vincent Van Gogh

      Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died aged 37 from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted (although no gun was ever found). His work was then known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still.

      Van Gogh began to draw as a child, and he continued to draw throughout the years that led up to his decision to become an artist. He did not begin painting until his late twenties, completing many of his best-known works during the last two years of his life. In just over a decade, he produced more than 2,100 artworks, consisting of 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints. His work included self portraits, landscapes, still lifes, portraits and paintings of cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers.

      Van Gogh spent his early adulthood working for a firm of art dealers, traveling between The Hague, London and Paris, after which he taught for a time in England. One of his early aspirations was to become a pastor and from 1879 he worked as a missionary in a mining region in Belgium where he began to sketch people from the local community. In 1885, he painted his first major work The Potato Eaters. His palette at the time consisted mainly of somber earth tones and showed no sign of the vivid coloration that distinguished his later work. In March 1886, he moved to Paris and discovered the French Impressionists. Later, he moved to the south of France and was influenced by the strong sunlight he found there. His work grew brighter in color, and he developed the unique and highly recognizable style that became fully realized during his stay in Arles in 1888.

      The extent to which his mental health affected his painting has been a subject of speculation since his death. Despite a widespread tendency to romanticize his ill health, modern critics see an artist deeply frustrated by the inactivity and incoherence brought about by his bouts of illness. According to art critic Robert Hughes, Van Gogh's late works show an artist at the height of his ability, completely in control and "longing for concision and grace". Read more . . .

• Recent news about Vincent Van Gogh
• Vincent van Gogh Gallery. The complete works and letters of Vincent van Gogh.
• Van Gogh Letters – The complete letters of Van Gogh, translated into English and annotated. Published by the Van Gogh Museum.
• Johanna Gesina van Gogh-Bonger, Memoir of Vincent van Gogh
• Memoir of Vincent van Gogh. By Johanna Gesina van Gogh-Bonger, Vincent's sister in law.
• Van Gogh's Letters, unabridged and annotated.
• Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
• Vincent van Gogh at the Museum of Modern Art
• Works by or about Vincent van Gogh in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Van Gogh at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., United States.
• Painted with Words: Vincent van Gogh's Letters to Emile Bernard – Facsimiles at The Morgan Library & Museum
• Union List of Artist Names, Getty Vocabularies. ULAN Full Record Display for Vincent Van Gogh. Getty Vocabulary Program, Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California.

Draw Mardi Gras Performers

      Draw a Mardi Gras street performer or parade participant then add some glitter and feathers and presto chango you've got a terrific celebration for your school's hallway!

Jack and Jill Silhouette

A silhouette pattern of Jack and Jill, rudimentary and charming.

Tangram Cats

      If more than one set of tangrams is used to make a single figure, the combinations are almost endless, but one set to each figure is the rule. Sam Lloyd, the famous puzzle man, managed to get some very fair representations of animals with them. Here are some of his ideas of what cats look like:

      Perhaps with this much of a hint, you will be able to arrange these little black forms so as to resemble a horse or a dog. To make a fox, with its sharp ears, something like a cat's should not be difficult. If you happen to get some outlines that you think are very good, Send us a link and let other youngsters have a look at them.

      Here are two more of Sam Lloyd's cats, which might be entitled "Before and after drinking:

"Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines"

Traian Vuia

      "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, Or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes" is a 1965 British comedy film starring Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles and James Fox, directed and co-written by Ken Annakin.

      Based on a screenplay titled Flying Crazy, the fictional account is set in 1910, when Lord Rawnsley, an English press magnate, offers £10,000 to the winner of the Daily Post air race from London to Paris, to prove that Britain is "number one in the air".

      In 1910, just a few years after the first heavier-than-air flight, aircraft are fragile and unreliable contraptions, piloted by "intrepid birdmen". Ardent suffragette Patricia Rawnsley (Sarah Miles), the daughter of Lord Rawnsley (Robert Morley), a newspaper magnate, strives to become an aviatrix. Aviator Richard Mays (James Fox), a young Army officer, and (at least in his own eyes) Patricia's fiance, conceives the idea of an air race from London to Paris, to advance the cause of aviation (and his career), and persuades Lord Rawnsley to sponsor the race.

      Rawnsley complains: "The trouble with these international affairs is they attract a lot of foreigners." Most of the contestants live up to national stereotypes, including the by-the-book, monocle-wearing Prussian officer (Gert Fröbe), impetuous Count Emilio Ponticelli (Alberto Sordi) whose test flights wreck one aircraft after another and amorous Frenchman Pierre Dubois (Jean-Pierre Cassel). In a recurring gag (suggested by Zanuck), Irina Demick plays a series of flirts: first, Brigitte (French), Marlene (German), Ingrid (Swedish), Françoise (Belgian), Yvette (Bulgarian), and Betty (British), pursued by the French pilot. Yujiro Ishihara is the late-arriving Japanese naval officer Yamamoto, whose perfect Etonian accent makes him sound more British than the British.

      Echoing the rivalries between their respective nations, the contestants are pitted in an aerial competition that deteriorates into a ridiculous balloon duel between the German and French teams, and the nefarious actions of baronet Sir Percy Ware-Armitage (Terry-Thomas), an unscrupulous rogue who "never leaves anything to chance." With his bullied servant Courtney (Eric Sykes), he sabotages other aircraft or drugs their pilots, and cheats by shipping his aeroplane across the channel by boat. More complications occur when the rugged American cowboy Orvil Newton (Stuart Whitman) falls for Patricia, forming a love triangle with her and Mays.

      Fourteen competitors set out, but, one by one, they drop out or (like Ware-Armitage) crash, until only a few land in Paris. Newton loses his chance to win when he pauses to rescue Ponticelli from his burning aircraft. Mays wins for Britain, but insists on a tie with Newton and shares the prize with the now-penniless American. Orvil's and Patricia's final kiss is interrupted by a strange noise. Those at the flying field look up to see a flypast by six English Electric Lightning jet fighters overhead as the time period reverts to the "present" (1965). Read more . . .

YouTube Movies

Find The Film:

• Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines at the Internet Movie Database
• Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines at the TCM Movie Database
• Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines at AllRovi
• Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines at Rotten Tomatoes

Pattern for Stamp box in Pyrography

This little shamrock pattern appeared in "The St. Paul Globe, Sunday, April 17, 1904.

A newspaper clipping of an early pattern for pyrography in 1904.

"Can you suggest a pretty birthday gift, one that I can make myself, for a friend whose anniversary occurs in the month of March?" writes a girl reader.

      In answer she will find the picture of a charming little pyrographed case for postage stamps or other uses--and the pattern, exact size, to be followed in making it.

      A box of the proper size can be secured anywhere where pyrographic supplies, etc., are on sale.

      Transfer the pattern given to the lid of the box, and scorch it in with delicate lines.

      The first step is to tint your box all over, using water colors.

      Commence by washing the wood with a very thin wash of burnt sienna.

      On this, before it is perfectly dry, let fall drops of very liquid pale green.

      Now, put it aside to dry, leaving it to chance to work out a good effect by the mingling of these two colors. 

      When perfectly dry put in the foliage which decorates the corners with a warm green.

      A rich pink is used for the little roses in the corners and for the petals of the eglantine, which forms the center of the the design. It is now complete, save for a light coat of varnish.

The original shamrock and roses pattern, 1904, for pyrography projects for those of you who would like to reproduce it.

Tangram Stencil

       One of the oldest and most fascinating puzzles comes, like so many quaint things, from the Far East where, over four thousand years ago, a learned Chinese man named, Tan, made the invention which forty centuries have been unable to improve or alter. Worthy of a civilization that invented Chess, Tan's puzzle has lived on unchanged through the ages, affording amusement and thought to men of such ability as Napoleon, who during his exile on St. Helena, used to spend hour after hour with the little black geometric figures.

        Print cut and trace around the Tangram pattern below using sharp scissors and black craft paper. Now you will be ready to assemble the Tangram figures below.

Tangrams, a recreation that appears to be at least four thousand years old, has apparently never been dormant,
 and has not been altered or "improved upon" since the original was first cut out the seven pieces shown above
 in diagram 1. If you mark the point B, midway between A. and C., on one side of a square of any size,
 and D, midway between C. and E., on an adjoining side, the direction of the cuts is too obvious to need
 further explanation.

       All these seven pieces must be fitted against each other, never overlapping, in order to make the figures of men, beasts, houses, or the like.

Where does the second man get his foot from?

The cocked hat puzzle with answer on the right.

Lady holding her skirts high puzzle and answer.

The representation of a depressed cat puzzle and it's answer.

The gentleman tired of life puzzle and it's answer.

Tan presenting a puzzle to his wife, answer just right.

Chinese tea set made from Tangrams

What Are Tangrams?

The 'Tangram Story'

      The tangram (Chinese: 七巧板; pinyin: qī qiǎo bǎn; literally "seven boards of skill") is a dissection puzzle. consistes of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap. It was originally invented in China at some unknown point in history, and then carried over to Europe by trading ships in the early 19th century. It became very popular in Europe for a time then, and then again during World War I. It is one of the most popular dissection puzzles in the world.

      The tangram had already been around in China for a long time when it was first brought to America by Captain M. Donnaldson, on his ship, Trader, in 1815. When it docked in Canton, the captain was given a pair of Sang-hsia-k'o's Tangram books from 1815.They were then brought with the ship to Philadelphia, where it docked in February 1816. The first Tangram book to be published in America was based on the pair brought by Donnaldson.

      The puzzle was originally popularized by The Eighth Book Of Tan, a fictitious history of Tangram, which claimed that the game was invented 4,000 years prior by a god named Tan. The book included 700 shapes, some of which are impossible to solve.

      The puzzle eventually reached England, where it became very fashionable indeed. The craze quickly spread to other European countries. This was mostly due to a pair of British Tangram books, The Fashionable Chinese Puzzle, and the accompanying solution book, Key.Soon, tangram sets were being exported in great number from China, made of various materials, from glass, to wood, to tortoise shell.

      Many of these unusual and exquisite tangram sets made their way to Denmark. Danish interest in tangrams skyrocketed around 1818, when two books on the puzzle were published, to much enthusiasm. The first of these was Mandarinen (About the Chinese Game). This was written by a student at Copenhagen University, which was a non-fictional work about the history and popularity of tangrams. The second, Det nye chinesiske Gaadespil (The new Chinese Puzzle Game), consisted of 339 puzzles copied from The 8th Book of Tan, as well as one original.

      One contributing factor in the popularity of the game in Europe was that although the Catholic Church forbade many forms of recreation on the sabbath, they made no objection to puzzle games such as the tangram.

      Tangrams were first introduced to the German public by industrialist Friedrich Adolf Richter around 1891. The sets were made out of stone or false earthenware, and marketed under the name "The Anchor Puzzle".

      More internationally, the First World War saw a great resurgence of interest in Tangrams, on the homefront and trenches of both sides. During this time, it occasionally went under the name of "The Sphinx", an alternate title for the "Anchor Puzzle" sets.

      The number is finite, however. Fu Traing Wang and Chuan-Chin Hsiung proved in 1942 that there are only thirteen convex tangram configurations (configurations such that a line segment drawn between any two points on the configuration's edge always pass through the configuration's interior, i.e., configurations with no recesses in the outline).

 

More Tangram Resources:

• Tangram worksheets by I.D.E.A.S.
• "Tangram" by Enrique Zeleny, Wolfram Demonstrations Project
• "New Tangram paradoxes" by Gianni A. Sarcone, Archimedes Laboratory Project

100 Dr. Seuss Resources

      Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for children's picture books written and illustrated as Dr. Seuss. He had used the pen name Dr. Theophrastus Seuss in college and later used Theo LeSieg, and once Rosetta Stone, as well as Dr. Seuss.
      Geisel published 46 children's books, often characterized by imaginative characters, rhyme, and frequent use of anapestic meter. His most celebrated books include the bestselling Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Horton Hatches the Egg, Horton Hears a Who!, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
       Numerous adaptations of his work have been created, including 11 television specials, four feature films, a Broadway musical and four television series. He won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958 for Horton Hatches the Egg and again in 1961 for And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Geisel also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for Flit and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for PM, a New York City newspaper. During World War II, he worked in an animation department of the United States Army, where he wrote Design for Death, a film that later won the 1947 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. Read more . . .

• Seussville site Random House
• Dr. Seuss biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia
• Dr. Seuss Went to War: A Catalog of Political Cartoons by Dr. Seuss
• The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss
• The Register of Dr. Seuss Collection UC San Diego
• Eugene Hotchkiss III (Spring 2004). "Dr. Seuss Keeps Me Guessing: A Commencement story by President Emeritus Eugene Hotchkiss III". lakeforest.edu. Archived from the original on August 14, 2004. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
• Dr. Seuss / Theodor Geisel artwork can be viewed at American Art Archives web site
• Dr. Seuss at the Internet Movie Database
• A Tale of Two Cartoonists, Hugh Turley, Hyattsville Life and Times, April 2009
• Register of the Dr. Seuss Collection, UC San Diego
• Wisdom of Dr. Seuss

About Dr. Seuss and Video:

• Dr. Seuss: Rhymes and Reasons Video: * part one * part two * part three * part four * part five * part six * part seven * part eight * part nine
• Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches Video
• Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who Video, Part One and Part Two
• Seussville site Random House
• Dr. Seuss biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia
• Dr. Seuss Went to War: A Catalog of Political Cartoons by Dr. Seuss
• The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss
• The Register of Dr. Seuss Collection UC San Diego
• Eugene Hotchkiss III (Spring 2004). "Dr. Seuss Keeps Me Guessing: A Commencement story by President Emeritus Eugene Hotchkiss III". lakeforest.edu. Archived from the original on August 14, 2004. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
• Dr. Seuss / Theodor Geisel artwork can be viewed at American Art Archives web site
• Dr. Seuss at the Internet Movie Database
• A Tale of Two Cartoonists, Hugh Turley, Hyattsville Life and Times, April 2009
• Tim Tebow Reads Green Eggs and Ham to Kids 
• If I Ran the Circus - Dr. Seuss by Oceanhouse Media 
• Yertle The Turtle

Dr. Seuss Lesson Plans & Activities:

• The Sleep Book 
• Horton Hears A Who
• 20 Fun Dr. Seuss Themed Writing Prompts!
• Dr. Seuss at The Virtual Vine
• Initial and Final Sounds With Dr. Seuss' Hop on Pop
• Bartholomew and the Oobleck
• You've Got A Wocket Where?
• Meeting and Reading Dr. Seuss
• "I Can Lick 30 Tigers TodayD!" lesson plan
• Read Across America - Dr. Seuss
• Teaching With Favorite Dr. Seuss Books
• 10 Apples Up On Top
• Dr. Seuss Themes for Preschool 
• 30 Dr. Seuss Quotes that Can Change Your Life

Dr. Seuss Organizers, Printable Worksheets & Coloring Pages:

• abcteach has printable worksheets about Seuss books
• Printables from Random House Children's Books
• Pre-K Fun Dr. Seuss Printables for bulletin boards
• Connect the Dots with the Cat in the Hat!
• Do You Like Green Eggs & Ham?
• Free Lorax Printables for Literacy Units

Games About Dr. Seuss Characters:

• Activities & Games from Random House
• On Beyond Zebra Hopscotch 
• Ring Toss Gack 
• Dr. Seuss Photo Booth 

Dr. Seuss Party Ideas:

• How to throw a very Grinchy Christmas Party
• Dr. Seuss Baby Shower 
• Dr. Seuss Activities for Kids 
• Read Across America & Dr. Seuss'
• My Life as MaMa: It's The Cat in The Hat
• Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss! 3 Fun Food Ideas for a Healthy Seuss Party  
• Cat in The Hat Birthday Ideas
  

Dr. Seuss Lessons:

• Lessons: The Lorax
  

Dr. Seuss Crafts:

• Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat Craft
• Truffula Trees craft
• Cat in the Hat Hats from TP Rolls 
• Upcycled Baby Blocks
• Sock Vase + Painted Branches  
• Egg Carton Turtle Craft 
• Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Yertle the Turtle 
• The Cat in the Hat Clothespin Craft 
• The Cat in the Hat craft by Rebecca 
• The Lorax and Truffula Trees 
• Thing One and Thing Two Hats 
• Dr. Seuss Creations: Tizzled Topped Tufted Mazurkas 
• Cat in The Hat Portraits 
• Dr. Seuss Activity Blocks Tutorial
• Horton Hears a Who Hat
• Cat in The Hat from a milk carton
• Cat in The Hat masks 
• Lorax Moustache Straws 
• Dr. Seuss craft: Lorax felt storyboard 
• Make a Fox in Socks Tweetle Beetle Battle Bottle
• Make your own foot book
• Thing Pencils
• Truffula Tree Pencils
• Thing 1 & Thing 2 Clothespin Dolls
• Library Card Frame
• Green Eggs and Ham Snack Tray
• Dr. Seuss Shirts and Hair Clips
• One Fish, Two Fish and Fox in Sock Paper Bag Puppets  
• Cat in the Hat Hats/Puppets from toilet paper rolls 
• The Cat in the Hat Pasta Puppet

Dr. Seuss Sweets and Recipes:

• Cat in The Hat Summer Snacks
• Two Plus Jilly: Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! 
• Dr. Seuss marshmallows 
• Muffin Tin Monday: Yertle The Turtle 
• Yertle The Turtle fruit bowl 
• Trix Krispies "Truffula Snacks"
• The Lorax Bento 
• Green Eggs and Ham Cake 
• Dr. Seuss Cookies 
• Dr. Seuss Treats for School Celebrations  
• Lorax Desert Table

Dr. Seuss for The Classroom Bulletin Board etc...

• Birthday quote, Cat's hat
• 10 Facts About Dr. Seuss Books 
• Classroom crafts about Yertle the Turtle
• Dr. Seuss Doors  
• Truffula Tress for the Classroom
• Save The Truffula Trees Bulletin Board  
• "Cat in The Hat" bookshelf for a child's nursery or classroom
• Seussville directional signs 
• Thing 1 and Thing 2 Corner Plus Cabinet 
• Horton Hears a Who Door
• Dr. Seuss Inspired Reading Chart 
• Dr. Seuss Themes for Early Learning Centers 

Dr. Seuss Toys:

• Seuss toy from the 60's and here Dr. Seuss Zoo
• Horton Hears a Who! from Super Rad Toys
• Manhattan Toy Dr. Seuss One Fish Fish Bowl Toy
• Horton Blanket  
• Dr. Seuss Merchandise
• Early Moments - Dr. Seuss book club

Buster Brown Silent Films

The above silent film is of Buster Brown in 1904, "Buster and Tige Put a Balloon Vender Out of Business."

More films:

• Buster Brown and Dude
• Buster Brown Makes Room for his Mama at the Bargain Counter
• Buster Brown's Revenge on the Tramp
• Buster Brown's Dog to the Rescue