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If you like a good book
filled with wacky characters you will enjoy Chasing Vermeer
by Blue Balliett. The book is illustrated by Brett Helquist who also
illustrated A Series of Unfortunate Events. The
illustrations hold clues to solving the
mystery. |
 If
you liked Chasing Vermeer, you will also like...
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The Unseen by
Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The
Lady Grade Mysteries by Lady Grace Cavendish
The Beekeeper's Apprentice by
Laurie R. King
Chasing Vermeer
Homepage
 Math Connection
(1) Calder carries around a set of
Pentominoes and even dresses like an �F� for Halloween. Use the
Internet to learn more about pentominoes. You can also play
pentominoes online!!
 History Connection
(2) Petra was named after a famous city. Visit
Petra: City of Stone at the Natural History Museum in NYC. http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/petra/
Be ready to discuss what you have learned. You can find some related
sources on the web to go along with the site. Click here.
Glance over these activities and plan to do one at home to share with the
class.
Visit the site of the archeologists that are
uncovering Petra: The
Great Temple
(3) Historical Letters There are many
letters mentioned in Chasing Vermeer. Read the famous letters,
print one of them in its original format.
Letter
to George III 1765
Letters
Between Meriwether Lewis and Thomas Jefferson 1803
Letter
from Fidel Castro as a young boy 1940
President
Lincoln to Senate 1964
Letter from the Civil War
1865
Letters
from the Prairie 1870
Beatrix
Potter's Picture Letters 1893
Mrs.
Roosevelt to D.A.R. 1939
Albert Einstein's
Letters to President Roosevelt 1939
Letters from WWII
1942
Letter from Jackie
Robinson 1950
President
Roosevelt's Letters to his Children
Fred-Ted
Letter 1890
Alexander
Graham Bell's Letter to Children 1887
Elvis
to President Nixon 1970
President
Nixon's Resignation Letter 1974
Writing Connection
(4) Ms. Hussey talked to her students
about letters. Take a look at some of the letters below. Write
a letter to your parents about Chasing Vermeer. Explain what has
happened so far and tell them what you think of the book. You can
include any questions that might be forming in your mind. You can use the
site below to write your letter.
Letter Generator http://readwritethink.org/materials/letter_generator/
materials/letter_generator
Literature Connection
(5) Petra found a book in the giveaway bin.
She read a few paragraphs and noticed that the author discussed the
raining of creatures from the sky (page 42). She notices the author
is Charles Fort and the book is called Lo! You can find the
Lo! on the Internet but it is very hard to decipher. Read the
article Raining Cats and Dogs and Fish and Frogs�to find out more
about this weird phenomenon. http://www.wormwoodchronicles.com/lab/raining.html
/lab/raining.html
 Art
Connection
(6) While
looking for something Calder thought might be art, he uncovered a box his
grandmother had given him. On the front of the box was a famous
painting by Vermeer called The Geographer. You will visit two
websites to learn more about this painting. Be ready to discuss what
you have learned.
http://www.mystudios.com/vermeer/27/vermeer-geographer.html
,
http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/geographer.html
catalogue/geographer.html
(7) Calder was thinking about The Geographer (page
73) and he learned about Vermeer�s life. Go to this site and choose
the section Vermeer's
Life. Be ready to discuss Vermeer's life.
(8) Petra�s Halloween costume came
from one of Vermeer�s painting called A Lady Writing. She later
found out that the painting had been stolen in transit. Do an
interactive analysis of this painting at this site. http://essentialvermeer.20m.com/catalogue/lady_writing.htm
lady_writing.htm
Art Mysteries
(9) Ms. Hussey was talking to her class and mentioned
the 1990 art theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner in Boston. Go to this
website and hear an interview with the producer of a new documentary
called Stolen:
The Search for the Lost Vermeer.
The
Theft of the Mona Lisa
(10) Some people think Vermeer used a
�camera obscura� Use the sites below to learn about this camera and
decide for yourself whether you think Vermeer used a camera
obscura.
http://www.grand-illusions.com/vermeer/vermeer1.htm
http://www.vermeerscamera.co.uk/loadingpage.htm
Big Question
(11) In the letter (page 108), the art thief says that
only 26 of the works attributed to Vermeer are actually his. He goes
on to say the �real� Vermeers were done between 1656 and 1669. Take
a look at all the Vermeers and decide why you think the thief thought
that. http://essentialvermeer.20m.com/
 A Real
life Mystery
A Treasure's Trove
Some students are reading Michael Stadther's
book, A Treasure's Trove. Readers decipher clues with in the words
and illustrations in the book. These clues lead to jeweled
brooches "In order to claim a jewel, one must find one
of the twelve 18K gold tokens, each one redeemable for one jewel, that
Stadther has hidden in twelve separate locations throughout the
continental USA. "The tokens are not located in caves or underwater,
or on mountaintops, or on private property. Nothing has to be moved or
lifted to find them. They are hidden in places accessible to everyone,"
Stadther says."
Below find related links to this
mystery!
Treasure's
Trove Homepage
Tweleve |
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On this website you will find all kinds of
activities to do while we are reading Chasing Vermeer. Notice
that the activities are numbered and you will be asked to do different
activities on different days.
You can also further explore mysteries as you
take a look at science mysteries, art mysteries, and history
mysteries.
Comprehensive list to use in
your project
Unsolved
Mysteries
 History
Mysteries
Amelia Earhart
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Easter
Island
Easter Island
King
Tut's Curse
Mystery of the Black
Death
Roanoke: The
Lost Colony
Mysteries of
�atalh�y�k
The Shroud of Turin
Japanese Pyramids
Mysteries of the
Nile
Salem Witch Trials (see list
above)
Roswell/Area 51 (see list above)
Sc ience Mysteries
Online Science
Mysteries
Crop
Circles
UFOs
Mysteries of Deep Space
Loch Ness
Monster
The Lost
City of Atlantis
Tour
the Bermuda Triangle
Monsters of
Mystery
Medical Mysteries
TUNGUSKA: The
Cosmic Mystery of the Century
SETI Institute
Marfa
Lights
Bigfoot
Creature
Feature
Bermuda Triangle (see list
above)
Egyptian Pyramids (see list above)
Black Holes (see list
above)
Jersey Devil (see list above)
Vermeer on the Web
Essential
Vermeer http://www.essentialvermeer.com/
About Johannes Vermeer Art http://www.about-vermeer-art.com/
Vermeer--The Complete Works http://www.mystudios.com/vermeer/
Mysteries on the Web
Kid's Mysteries
Two Minute
Mysteries
Unexplained
Mysteries
Fin, Fur and Feather
Bureau of Investigation
Museum of Unnatural
Mystery
Classics
Sherlock Holmes http://www.sherlockian.net/
Read Sherlock Holmes http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/d/doyle/arthur_conan/
Agatha
Christie http://www.agathachristie.com/
Nancy Drew http://nancy-drew.mysterynet.com/
Hardy Boys http://www.hardydetectiveagency.com/
Crime
FBI for
Kids
Who
Dunnit?
Crime
Lab
Famous
Fakes
What is Art?
(12) One of the things Ms. Hussey
wanted her students to think about it "what is art"? Today you are
going to take a look at the work of different artists and determine
whether you think what they do is "art". Before you start looking at the
art read this article What is
Art? and open this Word
document.
Art Cars
Harrod Blank Art Cars
Art Cars in
Cyberspace
If you would like to design an art car using
Microsoft Paint open this image.
Right click on the image and and click COPY. Find Microsoft Paint
under PROGRAMS and choose ACCESSORIES and choose MICROSOFT PAINT. Choose
EDIT and PASTE the car into Paint. Once the car is open in Paint use
the program to rotate the car. After you finish your designing you
will need to save the image as a GIF or a JPEG, do not save it as a Paint
image. After the image is saved open a Word document and INSERT you
picture. Send to the color printer.
Anamorphic Art
The Art of
Anamorphosis
Anamorphic
Art
 The
Ambassadors by Holbein is one of the most famous examples of
Anamorphosis. To learn more about the scientific instruments in this
painting go here.
Complete the online
lesson (do not use this link) about The Ambassadors. You will need to
open this
Word document. To do this right click on this link; save the
document on your "H" drive. When you are prompted to open--click on
that. Fill in as many answers as you can.
The Well by
Istv�n Orosz
Mysterious Island
The
Anamorphic Art of Kelly Houle
Ambiguous Art
Amazing Art
Hidden Images
Amazing
Art
How to See in 3D
(without the glasses!)
Hidden Nature
Paintings
Impossible Images
Amazing
Art
Optical Illusions
Click here to see a PowerPoint
of Ambiguous Art, Hidden Art, Impossible Art , Mysterious Art, trompe l'oeil, Anamorphic Art
(permission for use pending) |
