Cowboy Class

Tall Tales and an engineering challenge? Yup! As we TRANSITION into our studies of Westward Expansion, I figured it was time to read about that rooting' tootin' cowboy, Pecos Bill, and his blushing bride, Sluefoot Sue. We read a version that describes how Pecos Bill's wild horse tosses Sue out of the saddle and she bounces between the moon and the mountaintops until he lassos her out of the sky.

So, of course, we had to try to make our own lasso. The challenge: Can you create a working lasso out of 4 plastic grocery bags?

We cut and tied, twisted, and cut and tied some more...

Then we tested...

Then we added a few more twists and other finishing touches, and finally we lassoed!

Yee haw!

What we noticed about our success (or lack of): "It worked!" "It stayed together." "I was not successful because my lasso was not strong enough." "My lasso was not heavy enough." "The hoop of my lasso was too small."

What we thought was most difficult: "Lassoing the chair!" "Making the loop because you had to tie the plastic bags." "Making the rope was the most difficult part because we only got four bags."

What was the best idea you came up with? "A short lasso with a huge hoop." "A powerful throw!" "My best idea was to tape the rope." "Making it super thin so it would be easier to make a rope from it."

What did you learn? "Building with bags is hard. The bag drifts and doesn't go straight." "use strong materials to make things." "Next time I will tie it [to make it heavier and easier to throw]." "You need more than 4 bags. If I had more, I would have made a wider lasso loop." "It is super hard!"

"I learned that you can make anything out of anything."

Our questions: "Can you make lassos out of other things?" "How can I improve it?" "How could I have made a better rope?" "How long is a real lasso?" "How are lassos made [tied] with rope?""How do you make a lasso with a hoop that can be both small AND big?"

We're cool at the pool ...

Swimming is going, well...swimmingly! What a bunch of fish!

Exploring Color

Ms. Head showed us how to blend color using pastels this week while we learned about color and the color wheel. I just love how these look!

Western Art at the Tacoma Art Museum

During our visit to the Tacoma Art Museum, we learned that what constituted "the West" changed over time as the country continued to expand westward.

We looked at line in this painting, Supreme Moment of Evening, by Curt Walter and discussed how we could tell what the artist felt about his subject, the Grand Canyon, and the different tools he used to make it look so dramatic. We noticed the colors and the light, and paid particular attention to the horizon line.

 
We made a diagonal line with our bodies to show the line separating the foreground from the background in this painting:

 Then we looked at this painting, Rain and Runoff, by Ed Mell, and compared and contrasted the  portrayal of the subject and the different styles and overall feelings conveyed in the two paintings.

We also looked at When The Plains Were His by Charles M. Russell, and noticed the details of the Native American dress and discussed what was happening in this painting (the displacement of Native Americans) and why this was happening.

We ended our time in the gallery with a kind of scavenger hunt, looking at other art works. My group was drawn back to Charles Russell's sculptures, which we had studied previously with Ms. Head at school.

 We discussed the following questions as we looked:

Then, led by a very congenial group of high school students from the School of The Arts, we tried our hands at our own western landscapes using watercolor pencils.

 These turned out beautifully (not that I'm biased or anything.)

Here are the things that made the biggest impression, as we wrote our thank you letters:

I'd heard the western collection at TAM was pretty amazing, and it truly is! Thank you, Tacoma Art Museum, for sharing it with us!