Today we started a brand new journey back in time. This time we are reading “The Little House in the Big Woods”, which we were excited to discuss. The class was fascinated about how the book was based on the author’s actual life and thinking about how different the world was 150 years ago. Yianni noticed a gun on the cover and was very confused. Timo asked if they didn’t know that guns were bad and it was bad to kill things that long ago, but Niki pointed out that they needed to protect themselves. As we read about the wolves outside the cabin, Tove thought that maybe the wolves were wanting to come inside, so the rifle made more sense. We even read about how Pa shot some deer for food, which led to a pretty involved discussion of whether it is right to kill and eat animals. I can’t wait to see how the class reacts to this kind of historical text.
Today, as both part of our painting studies and our intro to Black History Month, we discussed Aaron Douglass’s “Song of the Towers” and the Harlem Renaissance. Tove started us off by outlining the person she saw in the center of the piece, which Max thought might have been digging for the gold on the lower right corner. Teddy thought that, since he could only see the outlines of the people, they must have been shadows; however, he thought about where the shadows were falling and reasoned that there must have been another glowing mountain behind us (the viewer) to cast the shadows away from us. Sokrates thought the shape in the light down in the right corner was another hand, pulling the person back down, which was a powerful image, while Juniper interpreted it as a bush in front of the leg, another skillful interpretation of perspective. Rebecca interpreted the lights as fires, while Gia thought it looked like grass growing, two very different understandings of the painting. Paolo wondered if the entire waterfall behind the figure was a cascade of gold, something he found very appealing, and Tove added that she thought the shadow in the waterfall showed a cave behind it. Juniper noticed that the figures weren’t standing on a staircase, they were standing on a gear. Max wondered if it was turning, and Anja pointed out how that would be helping them climb higher up the mountain. This was an incredibly nuanced and insightful discussion, which was further kindled by the quick looks we took at Douglass’s other paintings. Keep up the great work everyone!
