This month, we go to Ancient Egypt with the ballet, The Pharaohs Daughter! It’s a rarely performed, but highly revered, ballet with music by Cesare Pugni. The story resembles The Nutcracker Suite, in that it revolves around a dream. But here, the dream belongs to a man: English Lord John Bull. He goes to Egypt to study the pyramids and when a sand storm traps him inside one, he falls asleep by the mummy of a Pharaoh’s Daughter and dreams of loving her when she was alive.

Our STEAM homeschool activities are especially fun this month, and I hope you enjoy sharing these with your high-achieving, dancers!

Science: Sandstorms

As this may be your child’s first exposure to Ancient Egypt, a primer can be helpful. Note: I avoid the topic of mummification as it’s not developmentally appropriate. This said, children’s videos on the topic do exist: example here. Below, see a primer.

Sandstorms are a common weather events in Egypt. This lovely old documentary video shows soldiers braving the storm. We tend to call them Dust Storms in America (we have them in the dry states). Watch this wonderful meteorologist explain to a new first grader how sandstorms form.

Technology: The Nile River’s Boats

The Nile River is at the heart of all life in modern and Ancient Egypt: the River sources water for drinking, washing, watering crops and TRANSPORTATION. This wonderful video not only shows why the Nile was important, but also mentions NUBIANS, who are part of The Pharaoh’s Daughter, the ballet we study this month!

For good reason, Egypt is incredibly proud of their boats and the technologies they developed to work with the Nile in its seasons. This NatGeoKids adventure revolves around a Felucca boat and dips into different ports to sample the pleasures, including paddle boats! I highly recommend subscribing to NatGeo on Youtube!

Engineering: Pyramids

What spectacular cartoons we have online about how the pyramids were made. It’s a fascinating system of problems with remarkable answers. The following videos features some big words, but the visual demonstrations are just great! And so many projects can come from these lessons.

People have been fascinated with pyramids for centuries and some of us (kinesthetic learners) need to make things to understand things. This example of a kinesthetic learner figuring out pyramids is just wonderful: his medium is wood.

Art: Draw an Egyptian Boat of Pharoah

Math: Pyramid Block Project

Ancient Egyptians famously created many forms of measurement math which we use today–they came up with the 24 hour day and 365 Day Year. (The National Geographic primer on Ancient Egypt is FANTASTIC, but for older students.)

The pyramid crafts I direct you to (below) will work with children from Toddler to Pre-Teen because pyramids are magically efficient and vary from simple to elaborate; you choose what to do based on your abilities/interest. Below, find a collection of links to pyramids you can build with your child–or, set your child up with THE RIGHT NUMBER OF BUILDING TOOLS (math) and let them figure it out. All pyramids are made of single materials for simple counting.

Make your pyramid for what you have on hand!

Choose paper, legos, medium sized blocks, foam, matchsticks, bamboo skewers (careful, pointy!), play-doh, magnet balls (aka BuckyBalls), dominoes, cardboard, matches (hard!) and dollar bills. And, of course, origami pyramids. The PBS show NOVA made this cut out template as part of a pamphlet on pyramid excavation.

Craft sticks (aka popsicle sticks) pyramids often require crafters to cut the sticks (this isn’t safe or developmentally appropriate), but I found two videos that DO NOT require wood cutting, but still demonstrate 3-D values: 3-D simple Tetrahedron and Stacked Center “Temple” (video made by kids, adorable bloopers).

Watch the Ballet Online

You can see a lovely but older production of The Pharoah’s Daughter here. Please note: the video has a glitch (1:15-1:26) that causes it to repeat a little more than 10 minutes of content.

This classical ballet was recently revived by the Bolshoi with Svetlana Zakharova (my personal favorite dancer). Available on DVD (click the image).

Pharaohs Daughter Ballet Coloring Book

This month’s ballet is Graduation Ball! Set in Vienna in the mid 1800’s (for heightened nostalgia), it’s the story of a finishing school dance to which a class of cadets has been invited. This will be our dancers’ first exposure to Johann Strauss!

Our STEAM activity suggestions are playful and associative and I hope you enjoy!!!

Science: Physics of Fouetté!

The step we call the hardest in ballet is the fouetté, and towards the end of Graduation Ball, there is a contest where two tutu-ed dancers do 12 and then 24 fouetté in a row. The step is a pirouette (a spin on one foot) that ends with the dancer putting one leg out and using it to build momentum and pirouette again.

My dancers are not ready to fouetté on their own–they won’t even learn the preliminary step (pirouette) for a while, but when you see a ballet in its entirety you’re likely to see fouettés, which really does inspire awe and wonder! I found this darling TED video on the PHYSICS of fouettés!

Technology: Chandeliers & Gas Lighting

Part of the magic of Graduation Ball is the warm glow and the golden walls of the Ballroom. In this scene, we have both Chandeliers and Candelabra. Chandeliers are glass or crystal hanging lamps that contain flame and usually have dangling glass or crystal to refract the flame and light more space. In the image below you can also see candelabra (candleholder with arms for many candles) because a chandelier lights from above and a candelabra lights so people could better faces.

Children are familiar with candles–the wick catches flame and the wax fuels it. Lanterns also have a wick but instead of wax they use oil or gas as fuel. If your family celebrates Diwali, your child may already know oil lamps. They come in so many sizes and shapes! I’ll bet your child didn’t know Alladin’s lamp was missing a wick:-)

In the 1800s gas lines were built into the walls of houses. The gas (kerosene, etc) travelled from the wall through small pipes and into lanterns like these.

Chandeliers could use both gas technology and candles. The kind of lamp, lantern or chandelier you had depended upon the make of your home (if it had gas lines in the walls) and how much light you needed (a ball room needs a lot!).

There are plenty of online tutorials on making your own oil lamp. I find the ones about survival to be the most compelling, but this Mason Jar DIY is the simplest.

Engineering: The Drummer

In Graduation Ball, a drummer has a very springy solo. His jumps look like the drumstick as it bounces off the tight surface of a drum. Drums are simple instruments and there are many ways to make them. There are Drums made from wood, from scratch, from plastic cups, or even out of packing tape! But, for my druthers, the best to make at home is the TIN CAN drum. Have fun with it!

Art: Color the Parts of Temps Lie

This month we learn balancé. This step is commonly paired with waltz music as it has a 1, 2, 3, or down-up-up rhythm. For balancé, we shift weight from one foot to the other. In order to best support your child learning the most basic (and hardest) element of our beloved waltz step, I offer a coloring sheet. Coloring can provide a meditation on the position of the body which is very instructive and often soothing.

Math: The Waltz

Johann Strauss is the name associated with most famous waltzes, and while he wrote many, his most famous is The Blue Danube Waltz, which occasionally appears in this ballet but not in the version I’m suggesting to watch. I know it’s silly, but when I was young, I heard someone sing the Blue Danube with these lyrics.

“The Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss, the Louse.

He lives in a house, with Mickey Mouse.”

I realize this isn’t the apex of refinement, but the principle of waltz timing stuck to me so well after I heard that. Each line is 9 counts and completes a whole phrase (I hope I used that term correctly) so you have a sense of a 3 beat bar.

To count a waltz beat, you only have to say 1, 2, 3, with each number lasting the same amount of time, but to dance it, we tend to say “down, up, up” with more time given to the first (and preparatory) down beat. This wonderful balance video shows step timing and, therefore, waltz beat.

Watch the Ballet Online:

This magic fable gives us a chance to look at the build of a ballet production, the harvest of a farm, how to make our toys fly and how to paint a puppet!!!

Science: Plowing Earth

The Little Humpbacked Horse begins at Ivan’s family farm, where we see farm equipment, typically a scythe or a plow. A PLOW is a basic farming tool that pokes into the dirt to loosen it and make it easier for air, water and sun to fall on anything we plant there. This lovely little video shows a plow breaking up the earth and a farmer dropping seeds into holes he makes for them. Simple and easy to follow.

Technology: The Scythe

The SCYTHE is a basic cutting tool that helps the farmer cut wheat, grass or any tall crops so s/he doesn’t have to bend over and hurt his/her back in the process. The Gentleman Farmer calls it FarmFit and shows how to do it properly below.

Engineering: Pulleys

If you’ve ever seen someone “fly” onstage, you know they’re not really flying, they’re lifted by ropes. The people get into the air with the help of a PULLEY. I made this simple, silly video to show how a “Firebird Feather” can help Ivan Fly.

Art: Puppet Painting

For a while I’ve had requests for puppet painting workshops–I’m open to the idea, but I thought I’d commit the act to video first. Below find videos for painting both Ballerinas and Cavaliers. In my demonstration I use a bamboo rice paddle, but when I’ve done workshops in preschools I’ve given everyone plastic spoons and sharpies.

Math: Rows, Columns & Corps de Ballet

Corps (pronounced “core”) de ballet are groups of dancers who usually dance in unison. The word “Corps” means “body” and perhaps “Corps de Ballet” refers to the majority or heart of the company. For the dancers to move in unison means they are doing the same things at the same time, and to show that off, dance teachers put them into ROWS and COLUMNS. Costumes help as well. Can you see the unison?

When you have a class of 12 or 15 (common sizes) a dance teacher has to organize the dancers into rows. Here is a small video showing this principle using glass gems. Dancers think of it as choreography, but math teachers call it Array Division.

Hello, Moms & Dads! Below find easy EXPERIMENTS, tiny LESSONS and STEAM inspired ACTIVITIES for your dancers at home! PEER GYNT is born in NORWAY, takes a SHIP through FYORDS, and makes MONEY abroad. So, using something like a STEAM format, I’ve laid out these activities to support our learning in ballet!

This month’s ballet story is from NORWAY! National Geographic for kids has a wonderful page on the nation. Crayola’s Flag Coloring sheet is below. As with all coloring pages, click the picture to go to the link where the image should appear for printing.

I hope the extras are fun! I loved finding them for you:-) Thanks to all the homeschool families for their great work and resources! Sharing really is caring!

Science: Fjords

It’s good to re-address BIG and SMALL. Whenever we have a map we’re seeing something very big in a way to make it look small. A child can’t imagine the actual distance a map covers. Using household objects can help drive ideas home. Don’t have glaciers to show your child? I bet you have ice cubes, and the difference between the two (BIG and SMALL) is part of the learning opportunity.

Norway is part of Europe, and has a very rich culture and history. The map/coloring sheet below shows a wonderful jagged landscape on the water-facing side of the nation and coloring this can help your child make a connection between the land and the FJORDS described below! Look at all the “U-Shaped” cuts GLACIERS made!

Fjords (img below) are long, narrow bodies of water running between mountains. Watch a beautiful short video of Fjords here.

Do you see the curves in this fjord? These curves in the fjord are often shallow so boats and people can make their ways into the water. They’re made when glaciers rolls down the land and slowly change the land’s shape. Glaciers roll because the surface of the ice melts and moves the heavy ice above.

EXPERIMENT: When you hold an ice cube, the ice feels wet. This is because the place where the ice is touching your warm hand is melting. That makes the ice cube really slippery. The same thing is happening to a glacier. When a glacier touches the land, the surface of ice touching the ground melts and helps the ice slide down. This is how the fjords were made! Watch a great animation describing the process HERE.

Technology: Viking Boats

Remember when Peer runs away and gets on a boat? He sails all the way to Africa. Norway has a long boating tradition. Below you’ll see two versions of the “VIKING LONG BOAT.” The first has OARS. An Oar is a flat stick a person has to put into the water and row to push the boat through the water. This boat has six oars, so it will sail well in the fyords, but it is missing one thing.

Engineering: Viking Long Boats

Can you imagine the long fjords with a long boat in them? These boats have oars and SAILS. The oars help the boat when there isn’t much wind, but a sail catches the wind to help the boat travel at sea. Below, find a wonderful activity that shows you how to make a Viking Longboat with a sail!

Art: Cartoons, Music and Sculptures

Every time we learn a new ballet story, we learn a story people loved so much they repeated it again and again. Peer Gynt is a story like that. It was a legend, then a poem and then–most famously–a play by Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen asked Edvard Grieg to write music for it and that music has been used in symphonies, operas and ballet.

Peer Gynt makes selfish mistakes, which means his story features bad examples (lying, cheating, stealing, etc). There are plenty of animations about Peer Gynt that are more explicit than you’d expect for a cartoon, so if you find one I don’t mention here, you might want to preview it before you show your child. The warning even applies to music history/appreciation videos like this one: which is very charming and witty, but does includes some stuff you may have to explain.

This 30min Russian Claymation from 1979 is fascinating, but includes drinking and…the BUTTONER (the story’s Grim Reaper). This puppet version from Jim Gambler (25min) is geared towards children, but you might find the puppets occasionally creepy. The best and most renowned is still the MEL-O-TOONS version from 1960, but it’s in pieces like “Arabian Adventures” (including Anitra’s Dance), Hall of the Mountain King and “Storming Seas.”

Our ballet step progression includes arabesque with arms. Below is a coloring sheet. Coloring in the dancers, much like coloring in the curves of the map, helps reinforce the child’s visual understanding of the principles we’re trying to instill.

Math: Money

Most countries have different kinds of money and each kind of money has a different value. America has Dollars, India has Rupees, Japan has Yen, and Norway has Kroner.

The word Krone means “crown,” and one Krone is worth about ten cents, which means the 100 Kroner you see in the picture below is worth about $10 US dollars.

Maybe you’ve used this work at school? Each row is 10, each square is 100 and each cube is 1,000. This is counting like Krone!

Thank you for reading and I hope you found something here that could be fun to do while it helps support our learning with Peer Gynt!

I’m so happy to see my dancers online! I wanted to provide some at home learning for you, all inspired by our ballet of the month: Legend of Love!

The story takes place in ancient Azerbaijan!

Azerbaijan is not often represented in western culture and that gives us a special opportunity to learn with this story!

Click the flag to download an Azerbaijan Flag coloring sheet.

You can also use this one by Crayola.

The story of the ballet is inspired by a 12th Century poem–that’s more than 800 years old! The Poet who wrote this romantic poem was Nizami Ganjavi and he came from Persia. Persia is what we used to call Iran. Can you see on the map how close Iran is to Azerbaijan? How might a person get from one country to the other?

Do you also see Turkey on the map? The songwriter who turned the poem into a ballet story was from Turkey. His name was Nâzım Hikmet and he was quite important, but we don’t have a lot of his work in America because it hasn’t all been translated into English from Turkish. Just like Maria Montessori, Hikmet is famous for speaking out for peace!

Do you know what interests me? The water. In the ballet story, there’s a spring that gets clogged or stopped up by a rock. I’ll bet it would be be an interesting science experiment to work that out with rocks and water. I might see about that.

The Ballet and the Music are Modern

The Music was written by Arif Melikov; this is the name we practice after the puppet story. When you hear the music, you can tell it’s not melodious or gentle: it’s got a lot of hard sounds and it goes from loud to quiet and back quickly. You can also see, when you watch the ballet online, that the dancers are using their arms and legs in a way that looks like the loud and quiet changes in the music. See how they make their hands stick out? And see how they bend their knees where we’d usually stretch them straight?

This Month’s Step in Pieces: Pique Turn

This is the time of year when we try new things, because all of my students are older and bolder, so I thought we could try to learn Pique Turns! We’ll learn this in four parts. We start with 1. passe, then we 2. change weight from two feet to one, then 3. change feet and 4. pivot on demi-pointe.

The aspect of the step we’ll spend the most on is doing pique without the turn. It looks like this:

Adding a turn (pivot) is a big step. This is the first traveling turn we learn in ballet!

Here is a tutorial on the step in action. Notice how she travels across the floor.

Below is a simple coloring sheet. The arms are different on this dancer.

I mentioned this is a traveling turn, which means we do the step to get from one end of the room to the other. Often, when we do many pique turns across the floor, we change arms for our last turn. Here, the arms seem to say “tada.”

Below is another coloring sheet–you can see this dancer is shifting weights from one foot to the other. Notice she is on demi-pointe.

Making this resource page has been so much fun, I want to make them for all the ballets I’m sharing (only with my students) via youtube. I’ll make one for Coppelia and update you as it’s done.

Let’s make this as fun as we can!