How Does La Primavera Mirrors Society During the Renaissance?

La Primavera was made by Botticelli in 1482 during the Renaissance. It is an oil on canvas and it is based purely on fantasy. This piece of art work mirrors society because it shows how men in the Renaissance thought about woman and how woman entertains people. This painting shows how men thought about woman because you see Venus (the goddess of love and beauty), you also see cupid, three woman dancing and a beautiful background. Venus shows that men want love and beautiful woman. The background is beautiful and it looks like the woods where Adam and Eve lived in before the got kicked out, this shows that men in the Renaissance where not only religious but they fantasized about stories in the bible. Cupid, who is the god of desire, further shows that Renaissance men thought about love and lust. It also shows how woman entertained them selves and others by three woman dancing . The three woman dancing wore a sort of silky god-like dress giving the impression that they where suppose to bewilder the people who watched them dance. La Primavera shows how men in the Renaissance thought about woman and how woman entertained people and this mirrors society because men probably would have been thinking about woman a lot and the dancing not only showed how they danced but how they kept people entertained.

The Driving Forces of the Renaissance

I believe that knowledge and curiosity is the most crucial part of the renaissance because without rediscovering ancient knowledge the renaissance would not have existed as people would still be in the power of the church. Near the start of the renaissance, Raphael painted a painting called, "The School of Athens." This painting shows some people gathered round in Athens, sharing and righting down each others knowledge of the world. It is later discovered that most of the people in the painting are philosophers (Plato and Aristotle), Raphael also painted himself in the painting in the right top corner. That shows that people must have been curios enough to go, learn and read more about the philosophers and their findings and it was this act that started and was the most crucial part of the renaissance.

Charges are Hard

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Mohandas Gandhi

I believe that changing is hard no matter how small it is. When I cycled home from school on that Tuesday afternoon. Something has changed, I can feel it in the air. I parked my bike at the bottom of the hill and started to walk up the hill to our house. School has just started and the sun is shining on my back but I'm feeling cold. As I opened the door to my house it was dark inside, I heard noises from up stairs. I have felt this atmosphere before, it was when I was nine my grandfather died and the whole house felt wrong. This is the same feeling, the feeling that something has changed. I ran up stairs and shouted, "who died?" My parents looked at me like I was mad. It turns out that no one had died but my soul did a little, when I learned that we were moving. Moving to Malaysia. Moving away from home.

I went up stairs to my room to cry. I knew this was coming, we talked about it a few months ago. My parents must have heard me. The walls were so thin in this house, in my home. My dad came up to my room and gave me a hug, when he figured out that it wasn't working he took me to the local gas station for a muffin.

"It's not fair," I said to my father, "we just moved here a year ago and we moved houses again a few months ago, and now we're moving to Malaysia!"

I was right. I knew I was. The next day I told all my friends at school. They were almost as surprised as I was, you see I was suppose to stay here for 3 years not 1. A few weeks later we started packing. The days were going by so fast and time is running out. My friends came round every now and then to help, my best friend did this the most, she lived up the road from me and before I go home I usually go to her house for an hour or two and then go home but now it was the other way around.

The days were going by quickly, too quickly. Soon it was the last week in Norway. I was moving on the Saturday. My friends and I spent as much time together as we possibly could. But time was still going too quickly and soon it was my last Friday at school. I remember saying goodbye to my friends but I wasn't crying like I thought I would, I was stronger than I thought. My best friend and I cycled to my house for the last time. We hugged each other for the last time as I went up to my house.

When I arrived in Malaysia it was hot and sticky but it was also exciting to go and explore the new cultures and make new friends. Now I have adjusted well to the school and fit in well with the crowd. I still talk to my old friends but I also have new friends to talk to.

Moving to Malaysia was different to what I thought it would be, but it was still hard to let go of my friends. People go through many challenges in their lives and it changes the person for better or for worse. I hope my story has shown that even though your life may be changing, it will be okay and you will pull through it.

Picture

The battle of Hastings game- BBC

1. The game is about playing either Harold Godwinson or William the Duke of Normandy during the battle of Hastings. Each player has questions to answer so that they can win the war! The answers are multiple choice and need to be answered quickly or a new question will come up.
2. I enjoyed the game a lot because it lets you play on the winning side and the losing side and see the problems and difficulty of winning a war.
3. I learned what problems and strategies each side has. I also learned about the stress in a war and how many choices you must make rapidly to stay alive.
4. On the 14th of October, 1066. William arrived in England and terrorized the saxons, while Harold was just finished fighting in the north of England. Harold had to walk around 200 miles to reach William. On the way his soldiers were dying from dehydration, hunger and infected wounds from fighting Harald. With the lack of troops Harold picked up local peasants from their fields so he would have more men. When he finally reached the south of England he set up a shield wall around a hill and in the middle were the peasants with axes and scythes. William had his army ready too, first he got the archer to shoot at Harold in the middle and then he sent the soldiers both those that have horses and those on foot. After a while the Normans were still having trouble looking for Harold to kill him. Then a there was a commotion between the normans, they thought that William was dead and they started to retreat. While they retreated the saxons began to run after them. Then William stopped the commotion, he wasn't dead and the normans began to fight again. They managed to kill hundreds of saxons before they got organized. William realized that if they kept doing it then they would manage to get through the shield war and cut down Harold, after six hours of war he finally did.
5. The game shows how much pressure was on both sides during the war.

The Middle Ages were Hard for Girls

The book Catherine, Called Birdy is a historical fiction novel righten by Karen Cushman. It is set in The Middle Ages were the church ruled the land. The main character is Catherine, a fourteen year old girl who dreams of freedom from her family and equal gender rights. Catherine is religious, as shown when she painted heaven and hell in her perspective. But she is also fearful of the church power, as shown at the end of the book when she realizes that life is dangerous for a girl, she was fearful that she would get excommunicates if she doesn't act right. She is also fearful of her family because if she didn't obey her parents then she would get beaten. She hated her life and she wanted to break away from her family and be free. She also hates the unequal gender rights. She wants to make choices in her life and spend her life how she wants to, But her greedy father thinks other wise. All in all The Middle Ages was a hard time to live in especially for a girl.

image link

Holocaust Web Quest

Got to: http://www.ushmm.org/education/forstudents/

Click on Nazi Rise to Power

Read the article

1. What is a Reichstag Fire?
2. When did Adolf Hitler get appointed as chancler?
3. What was Hitler's policy?
4. When did they start eliminating Jews from governmental agencies?
5. What did the Nazi also attempted at the same time as question 4?
6. Look at the election poster, Why are there so many exclamation marks?
7. Why are some things underlined?
8. Go back to Nazi Rise to Power, What month were the Nazi party the only political party left in Germany?
9. Why did the people obey without question?
10. Why do you it Hitler took so long to make his plan work?