Nov

29

Making A Rose Window For History

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

November 29, 2007 |

st john the divine cathedral

Image: St John the Divine Cathedral, New York

Eons ago, when the older kids were studying the middle ages we did lots and lots of projects. Maybe it has to do with having fewer children, or being younger, or just more enthusiastic..I don’ t do so many projects now. I need to get back at it.

Anyway, one of the coolest projects we did was to make rose windows for our scrapbooks. The rose window is the big, round, stained glass window that is found in cathedrals. You can make them easily with some scissors, glue stick and colored tissue paper.

Basically you want to take black construction paper and cut it as if you were cutting a snowflake from paper, but keeping the actual shape round…most of the open spaces should be in the interior of the circle. Open up the “snowflake” and you have your outlines for the rose window.

Now, take small pieces of brightly colored tissue paper and use a glue stick to glue the to the black frame. Let dry, turn over, and VOILA! a beautiful rose window. Hang it where the sun can shine through it!

No one really knows how the rose window became popular. It is suggested that the crusaders brought the designs back from the middle east and they became popular. In any case, no study of medieval architecture is complete without a study of these beautiful designs.

More fun with Rose Windows

Gothic Geometry

Pages of images of Rose Windows

Cathedral

Blogs I love today:

Much BrighterHomeschool - this is a mom of 5’s blog about homeschooling, Her writing is comfortable to read and inspiring as she learns with her children, some of them having various degrees of autistism.

Liberty and Lily- be sure to read the post about the Mona Lisa!

And..I have been forgetting the celebration part!

Nov 29th - Well Novemeber is National Pomegranate month; I remember the first time i had one, it was actually at school and my fourth grade teacher brought some for us to try…share this experience with your kids.

Nov. 30th is Stay Home Because You Are Well Day

Great day to rent a movie (have you seen Ratatouille yet? WOW!) and cuddle beneath quilts and eat popcorn. Or, if you’d rather, grab a book and read aloud. Be sure to make memories, these are the only moments we have.


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