China History Co-op. Week 10 - Song Dynasty

Week 10: We made ink and landscape paintings.

We began the history co-op with a review from a previous dynasty. The kids each received a fortune cookie and had to decide if the fortune was most in-line with Confucianism, Buddhism or Daoism.

There were many inventions during the Song Dynasty; gunpowder, the compass and landscape paintings are a few. During this time period landscape painting and calligraphy were held in very high regard. Landscape paintings were balanced images from nature. Bamboo and cherry blossoms were the first items professionals would learn to paint.

Chinese calligraphy and landscape painting kits are referred to as The Four Treasures. A kit contains;

1. Paper
2. Brushes
3. Ink Sticks
4. Stone

One of the members of our history co-op had a set, which the kids got to use for this lesson. They are also available on amazon.

First the kids placed a few drops of water on the ink stone. Can you see the tiny spoon?

Then they rubbed the ink on the stone until it was as dark as they wanted. This required a bit of testing to see what shade of grey to black the ink was.

When they had ink, the brushes were used to practice writing the Chinese character for tree.

The printing kit came with a chop. A chop is a Chinese signature stamp for works of art. Each child was able to finish their work by marking it with the chop.

At home we read The Lost Horse and Liang and the Magic Paintbrush. The Lost Horse is a legend about how a twist of fate can save a life. It is set during the Mongol invasion of China. Liang and the Magic Paintbrush is an ancient Chinese legend about how strange things happen when a poor wandering boy gets a magic paintbrush.

This post is linked to:
We Made That

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