French Fare: Crepes

Some of the scouts’ favorite foods come from France: Brie cheese, croissants and crepes! So we already know about these tasty French creations, but we learn about so many more French ovations from an interesting book called Look What Came from France.

We learn that three major French inventions were the stethoscope, pasteurization and braille. The French must love to travel because they also came up with the hot air balloon, the parachute, scuba gear, the bus and ambulance, the steam carriage (thought to be the first car), and the Concord, the world’s fastest jet plane. The fashionable French were the first to make lace, high-heal shoes (and they were only worn by men), neckties and suits. They also must know how to have a good time because they brought to the world: ballet, the french horn, movies with sound, photography, tennis, playing cards, and our favorite: April Fool’s Day!

We get a feel for France by reading these lovely story books (lots of poodles!)

And then play Madeline in Paris…

Now on to the crepes. We start by blending roasted hazelnuts, chocolate chips and a bit of oil into a rich sauce.

Next we make the crepe batter by mixing together:

• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 tablespoons melted butter

Heat and coat with butter a shallow pan and then carefully ladle the batter on to the pan, swirling it to get the batter to cover it evenly.

Cook crepe about 30 seconds on one side and then flip and cook an additional 10 seconds.

And Voila!!

Paint me a Picasso

From the art and architecture of Ancient Rome we fast forward many centuries with the help of a very cool book called Paint and Painting that allows us to touch and feel various media favored throughout the ages.

Today we focus on the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and we start by reading a colorful book for children called Pablo Picasso: Breaking All the Rules. Picasso had a very long career, creating over 20,000 works of art in his 91 years, and he also had a very long name–Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cirpriano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso! His style evolved with time and this 1907 painting was one of the first to show a distinct approach that would make him famous all over the world.

The kids study several examples and then try this approach for themselves. They use a mirror to help with self portraits.

HZ is feeling unusually critical of his own work. He says something is missing…

…and then adds a cast to one arm!

AZ is happy to try to “break the rules” like Picasso did

CZ focuses on the angles…

Next we move on to Guernica (1937), one of Picasso’s most significant paintings. It’s easy to see the raw emotion of this work. We admire how free Picasso is in his paintings and the kids realize that it’s not so easy to achieve this.

We try to get there a different way. They close their eyes and try again to do a self portrait.

The results:

Next we read about the Cubist movement that Picasso and artist Georges Braque started. This portrait inspires the kids to give it a try.

We use a statue of a lion as a subject.

AZ works with the lion head on.

CZ takes the side angle.

HZ focuses on the paw!
And finally we read about Picasso’s use of color. During some periods his paintings were very muted and in others they were quite vibrant. His color choice reflects his mood at the time. He also explored all different media and created ceramics, statues and even theater sets. He began to combine media and stick things like paper and fabric on top of his paintings which created a whole new style of art called “collage.”

We explore his use of color…

AZ calls hers “Chicken Feet”

CZ likes Picasso’s idea that you can look at an item from two different angles at the same time.