Classically Cool: Vivaldi Autumn Thanksgiving Day and Rockwell Freedom From Want

In this three part class learners will begin to develop a love for good music by listening to and moving to Vivaldi's 18th Century Autumun from his Four Seasons violin concerto.  They will also work on memorizing the famed 19th Century poem Thanksgivng Day, known for its opening line "Over the rivier and through the woods...."  Finally, they will study Norman Rockwell's famous 20th Century painting, "Freedom From Want," using the study techniques made famous by the pioneering educator Charlotte Mason.

Each of the three classes will be structured as follows:

In Class 1, we will start with memory work, saying lines from the poem Thanksgiving Day. in funny and crative ways to get everyone interested in learning it.  Most learners will not finish learning it by the end of the week but will likely master the first couple of stanzas, especially if they practice them outside of class.

I will be attentive to the mood of the class and when everyone's attention starts to flag, we will move on to listening to Vivaldi's Autumn.  This is not a dance class but I will encourage learners to move and stretch as they listen to a portion of this piece.  Again, we will only listen to a portion of the piece, and will likely repeat it a time or two, talking about what it sounds like and feels like in between.  Again, I will be attentive to the learners' mood and will move on after they have had time to get the wiggles out.

We will then return to working on memorizing the poem, practicing with hand motions, repetition and other tools to help us learn more lines.

We will follow the same learning process during Class 2, making further progress in mastering the poem and reviewing the Vivaldi piece, talking this time about the ways in which the music reminds us of this time of year. 

During Class 3, we will once again begin by working on memorizing the poem.  When the learners tire of this, we will listen one more time to the Vivaldi piece. Then, we will conclude by taking time to look at Normal Rockwell's "Freedom From Want."  This is an important piece in American history and is an excellent introduction for young children to Rockwell's style. We will begin this portion of the class by looking at the picture and allowing the learners to get it firmly in their minds. Then I will take the picture off the screen and encourage the learners to describe what they remember from it. Finally, I will put the picture back on the screen and fill in details that might have been missed. 

Students do not need to have had any expereince with these materials in the past.