Aug. 31, 2007
Art and Music...
Posted in Homeschooling
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Art Fraud Detective Spot the Difference, Solve the Crime! by Anna Nilsen, A Kingfisher Book My daughter is having so much fun with this book that my other children haven't had a chance to get into the book yet. The book begins with a mysterious caller contacting the old security guard, Mr. Bassett, at the Museum of Art. The caller alerts the guard that 30 of the gallery's paintings have been stolen and replaced with fakes. There are four gangs of art forgers who are suspects in the thefts and you get to be the "clever private detective" to find out which paintings in the gallery are forgeries. Using a magnifying glass (included in the book), and the "Museum of Art Catalog" (which contains photos of the 34 original works of art on display in the museum) you must compare the originals in the catalog to the art work in the museum. You have to look for symbols that link the artwork to one of the 4 gangs of forgers, and the number of differences you find between the forgery and the original determines the gang member who forged it. All of the information you find is recorded on a chart (which you will make by following the example in the book). When you've examined all of the artwork and charted your findings you will have solved the mystery. Answers are in the back of the book if you need help. Degas, Van Gogh, Monet, and Da Vinci are just a few of the artists featured in this book. MY RATING:  for...keeping kids interested giving them an up close experience with 34 of the world’s art masterpieces providing some information on the artists and their style of painting providing background on the paintings Other books by this Author: I haven’t had the opportunity to look at these books, but found through some searching on the internet that Anna Nilsen has written other art books, so here they are: The Great Art Scandal: Solve the Crime, Save the Show! By Anna Nilsen Art Auction Mystery by Anna Nilsen Now for something you can use for music history! Last year as I was surfing the web I came across a wonderful site for the kids to learn about composers and the orchestra. On this site there are links to audio stories about the lives of many of the great composers throughout history. The stories are available to listen online (we have slow dial-up and don't have any problems listening online to these stories), and are usually broken down into 4 or 5 parts so you can listen in short periods of time. As well as audio stories, they have a good collection of music from these composers as well that can be heard online. There are also games for the kids, information about the orchestra, and more. My kids have loved listening to these online stories, and sometimes when they are doing their independent work I will play some of the music softly in the background. It's a great site for learning about the composers and their music! Here is the link: |
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