Thrifty Scissors

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Mr. Roger's Neighborhood Resources

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (often shortened to simply Mister Rogers) is an American children's television series that was created and hosted by namesake Fred Rogers. The series originated in 1963 as "Misterogers" on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) television and was later debuted in 1966 as Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on EEN, followed by its US network debut on February 19, 1968, and it aired on NET and its successor, PBS, until August 31, 2001. The series is aimed primarily at preschool ages 2 to 5, but has been stated by PBS as "appropriate for all ages". Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was produced by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA public broadcaster WQED and Rogers' non-profit production company Family Communications, Inc.; previously known as Small World Enterprises prior to 1971, the company was renamed The Fred Rogers Company after Rogers' death. Read more . . .

About Mr. Rogers General Media:

PBS Kids: Official Site
The Fred M. Rogers Center
The Fred Rogers Company (formerly known as Family Communications)
Kit and Morgan Benson (Feb 27, 2003). "Fred Rogers". Educator, Television Show Host. Find a Grave. Retrieved Aug 18, 2011.
Fred Rogers Interview at Archive of American Television
The Music of Mister Rogers -Pittsburgh Music History

Activities & Lesson Plans Inspired by 'Mr. Roger's Nieghborhood':

Reviews & Books:

Saturday, June 1, 2013

What's In a Name?

A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name (surname). A given name is purposefully given, usually by a child's parents at or near birth, in contrast to an inherited one such as a family name. A given name is sometimes legally changed through a name change.

Given names are often used in a familiar and friendly manner in informal situations. In more formal situations the surname is used instead, unless it is necessary to distinguish between people with the same surname. The idiom "on a first-name basis" (or "on first-name terms") alludes to the familiarity of addressing another by a given name.

The western style of having both a family name (surname) and a given name is far from universal. In many countries it is common for ordinary people to have only one name (a mononym).

In most European (and Europe-derived) cultures, the given name usually comes before the family name (though generally not in lists and catalogs), and so is known as a forename or first name; but the family name traditionally comes first in Hungary, parts of Africa and most of East Asia (e.g., China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam). In China and Korea, even part of the given name may be shared among all members of a given generation in a family and the family's extensions, to differentiate those generations from other generations.

Under the common Western naming convention, people generally have one or more forenames (either given or acquired). If more than one, there is usually a main forename (for everyday use) and one or more supplementary forenames; but sometimes two or more carry equal weight. Beyond preceding the surname there is no particular ordering rule for forenames. Often the main forename is at the beginning, resulting in a first name and one or more middle names, but other arrangements are quite common.

The term Christian name is often used as a general synonym for given name. Strictly speaking, the term applies to a name formally given to a child at an infant baptism or "christening".
I've included below a handful of decorated names by young students in the school where I work. An introduction to illuminated manuscripts usually proceeds this kind of an art project. These decorated names were drawn by second graders.

Addie.

Alexis.

Leo.

Olivia.

Carlos.

Sarah.

Aetani.

Erica.

Riley.

Losan.

Atharv.

Bronte.

The Alphabet 100 Ways

More Related Content:

"How to Draw Graffiti Letters - Write Jacob in Cool Letters - Name Art, Cool letters, Jacob"

Thursday, May 23, 2013

"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!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Jack and Jill Silhouette

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

Friday, May 17, 2013

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:

Thursday, May 16, 2013

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.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

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

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