UNIT 8: BREATHTAKING CATHEDRALS

Gothic architecture is a way of planning and designing buildings that started in Western Europe in France in the 12th century as an evolution of the Romanesque architecture. Gothic architecture spread across Europe and lasted until the 16th century, when Renaissance architecture became popular.

The important single feature of Gothic architecture is the pointed arch, which is the main difference from Romanesque architecture which had rounded arches.

But there are other differences between Romanesque and Gothic architecture:

Many of the great cathedrals of Europe are Gothic architecture. It is also the architecture of many castles and important buildings. And many of them are listed with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as World Heritage Sites.

Here you have a few examples of Gothic buildings in Spain:

Burgos cathedral

León Cathedral

Palma de Mallorca Cathedral

Segovia Cathedral

We have admired the greatness of these buildings from the outside, but...

What makes these buildings so beautiful also in the inside?

Look and guess...

Huelgas Monastery in Burgos

Santa María del Mar Church in Barcelona

Burgos Cathedral

León Cathedral

And the answer is... THEIR STAINED GLASS WINDOWS!!!

They are key to such beauty. Now let's watch a video to understand their importance whithin the Gothic Architecture:

Now, it's your turn to become Medieval artisans and create your own stained glass windows. But watch this tutorial first to learn the technique:

UNIT 7: LIGHT AND SHADOW

During our stay in New Jersey we have learnt about "Heat & Light." Now that we know a lot about these two energy sources, let's experience with light to create shadows and provide perspective to our drawings.

To begin with let's see how, depending on where the beam of light comes from, the object will project its shadow in different directions.

Now it's your turn to reproduce what you have just seen. Will you be able? We are sure you will!!!

Finally, let's see if you can apply what we have learnt about shading to a more creative work. You will do a mini poster with your name or a word that is meaningful to you in shaded lettering.

Here we leave you a few tutorials on shading low case and capitals. You will be able to watch them carefully on your tablets and follow them to learn the technique you like most.

We are eager to see the results!

UNIT 6: POP ART & THE CONSUMER SOCIETY

Now that we are in Abu Dhabi, we are very much aware of the consumer society we live in. It seems everything can be bought or sold. Everything has a price but at the same time everything is available for everybody. This new concept of society born in the 1950's was reflected by an art movement called POP ART. Let's learn about it:

Yes... this is what POP ART is all about... making culture accesible for everybody and at the same time make art out of ordinary objects... using which technique?? Mainly simple lines and bright colours. This is the reason why we are going to learn first about COLOUR THEORY before we become a POP ARTIST.

Now it's your turn to create your own colour wheel to understand how to combine colours so that your composition looks nice.

We will post them soon...

UNIT 5: ECOSYSTEM MODELS

We are in Australia learning about the different ecosystems...

But finally we have studied more than the ones we can find in this country.

To represent them we have created models with different materials and techniques...

You can see here the results of our team work and creativity...

5th A models	The savannah
The coral reef	The pond
The Arctic	The desert

5th B models	The savannah
The coral reef	The pond
The Arctic	The rainforest or jungle

5th C models	City
Pond	Sea
Rainforest	The Arctic

UNIT 4: ZILLIGE

Being in Morocco, we can't but admire the beauty of their mosaics decorating homes, mosques and public buildings in general.

Their repetitive patterns and intense colours are engaging... Let's see a few examples:

Front door of the Royal Palace in Rabat

Interior view of Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca

Exterior view of Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca

Kasbah of Telouet, near the Atlas mountain range

Fountain inside Medina in Fez

This technique of creating mosaics with tiles of different colours following geometrical patterns is called "zillige". Let's see a video to understand how they are created:

Now, it's our turn to create a collaborative mosaic by means of tessellation... that is, each of you will create a tile and then we will put them together to form the final pattern using the "zillige" technique. Our tile is going to follow a four-fold symmetry, that is, we will divide our circle in four equal parts.

But let's start first drawing a circle inside the square provided in your worksheet:

Once we have the circle inscribed in our square, let's divide the circle into eight equal parts. In order to do this, let's watch the video again from 2' 27'' to 2' 50''.

Now, trace the star shape with a black pen or marker, erase the extra lines and you will have your four-fold pattern.

Finally, it's time for you to add colours!! Make them beautiful so that we can post the final result...

And here we are...

5th C zillige mosaic

UNIT 3: NEW ANIMAL SPECIES

Explorers of all times are famous to have discovered new animal and plant species in their journeys...

Here you have a couple of examples of recently discovered animal species in the Amazon rainforest:

New type of Titi monkeys found on an island in the Amazon rainforest in 2011

Unknown orange-red mantis found on the banks of the Amazon river in 2013

Now, let's explore the Amazon and see if you can find more...

Congratulations!!! You have proved to be excellent explorers... Here we can see your discoveries...

UNIT 2: WATERCOLOURS

Now that we are in Luxembourg, let's meet one of its most important artists...

Sosthène Weis

He was born in 1872 in Luxembourg. He studied Civil Engineering in Munich and became a famous architect, but he is more well-known for being an artist. He loved painting landscapes with watercolours. Most of his pictures are of the city of Luxembourg:

but he also painted scenes from the mining towns near Luxembourg and the valleys and mountains around the city and from other countries he visited like Turkey or Greece.