Monday 16 January 2017

Mitchell Summer learning journey Day # 15 - Art History

Hey blog viewers! Today is Day 15 of the Summer learning journey. Today's blog post will be about Art history. Let's begin!

Activity 1 - Painting
Wassily Kandinsky. Swinging, 1925

When you walk into the local gallery, the first piece of artwork that you see is a painting by Wassily Kandinsky called ‘Swinging.’ While I am looking at it, a staff member at the gallery comes up to me and asks me for my opinion of the painting. 

What do I think of it? I have been asked to answer these questions on what I think about it: What do you think of this painting? - I think the painting is very open minded. Do you like it? - Not really, I don't really see any meaning. If you could buy it and give it to someone, who would you choose? - I would choose my Grandmother. I think she would really like it because she has heaps of paintings in her house.

Activity 2 - Kids 100 years ago
After exploring the gallery you decide to walk across the street to the national museum. It is an amazing place! There is so much information about the history of the country in this museum. It’s hard to know where to start!
After pwalking for a little while you come across a display with pictures of children that were taken in 1901 (over 100 years ago)! In this picture, the children are working on a local farm, milking cows. They are not going to school. Back in those days, children usually went to school until they reached the age of 12 or 13. They then left school and went to work. Imagine that you were alive 100 years ago. How would you feel if you had to leave school at the age of 12? Would you be happy or sad? On your blog, tell us how you would feel. If I had to leave school at the age of 12 I would be Sad. I would be sad because people won't learn anymore for the future. That would be very sad. 

Bonus - The battle
In Te papa museum in Wellington is a huge exhibition. It is called Gallipoli The scale of our war. I have been asked to tell you 3 things I learned about the battle.
1. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
2. Every ANZAC day some people remember the soldiers by wearing a red poppy.
3. The ANZAC solider landed on Gallipoli in 1915.

Thanks for reading 
By Mitchell M.
16/01/17







4 comments:

  1. Kia ora Mitchell!

    I enjoyed reading your blog post this morning. It was great to see you thought carefully about the Wassily Kandinsky painting. It is quite unusual, isn't it? I wonder what your grandmother will think about it. Does she have any other similar paintings in her house?

    My grandmother used to have a number of paintings in her house that remind me of 'Swinging.' My grandma loved bold, colourful prints. (I have inherited her taste in art!)

    Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away a few years ago. She was 85 and she actually served as a nurse during the second World War. Sometimes she would tell me stories about what it was like to take care of soldiers wounded in battle. She said that it was pretty difficult. I can imagine that many of our soldiers would have had a very difficult time fighting in both World War I and World War II. Many of the battles, including Gallipoli, were fought in cold, wet, miserable conditions. I am amazed that any of our men (and women) survived.

    I feel very grateful that we now live in a world free of world war and one in which we can choose to go to school right through our teenage years (and beyond, if we want to)! I can't imagine leaving school at the age of 12. I love school!

    I hope that you like school and that you're looking forward to going back to Pt England in a few weeks!

    I will see you early in Term 1 when I come in to hand out certificates and prizes for the Summer Learning Journey :)

    Cheers,
    Rachel

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  2. Hi Mitchell!

    I'm not sure if you knew this, but the last Kandinsky painting to sell was sold for over $30 million NZD. That's amazing right?

    1. What would you do if you had $30 million? I'm sure it wouldn't be buy a $30 million painting haha!

    I have a question for you about activity 2. If all the kids left school at 12 anyway, it would be normal, if it was normal would you still feel sad or not know the difference?

    That is a hard one haha!

    Good to see you still keeping up such a high level of blog!

    Mark

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  3. Hi Mitchell!

    I enjoyed reading your blog post! It was great to see you thought carefully about the Wassily Kandinsky painting. It is quite unusual, isn't it? Back in year 5 we studied some of his artwork, and the concept of abstract paintings continue to baffle me!

    Keep it up!
    Iisa

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