First, we showed her what we already knew about the time periods by using messenger pigeons (well actually they were balloons.) Our groups brainstormed what we knew and one person wrote that information on our pigeon. Then we *sent* our pigeons over to partners on the other side of the room to relay our messages. Those partners read what we knew aloud. Turns out we knew a lot already!
Then Elmo filled in our knowledge gaps with a quick lecture about the art of those eras...
After that we showed Elmo what we learned by participating in a team answer-game competition. We had to slap in our answers using feather dusters and the the top two teams won glow-stick bracelets!
At the end of the lesson we learned about the jobs of apprentice artists and even did one of their jobs: paint making. We made our own paint using 1 spoonful of water, 1 spoonful of liquid starch, and 2 drops of food coloring. At the bottom of our paintings Elmo asked us to write one thing we found interesting about her lecture.
One of us thought it was funny that because it wasn't acceptable to have female models in the Renaissance time period, a lot of women were portrayed pretty "manly" in art.
One of us thought it was pretty crazy that Medieval people thought that CATS caused the Black Plague!
