Unit-Study: Sacred Architecture

We wanted to do something special for lent without totally departing from our World Architecture study. This is what we came up with:

Sacred Architecture and Symbols of the Church:

Gothic Cathedral: Using the David Macauley book, “Cathedral”, as a spine we will explore, using various activities, the architectural elements of the time, including the gothic arch, vaults, flying buttress, gargoyles,and the cruciform floor plan (and its parts). We will also make our own gargoyles. From that we move on to…

Stained glass: we will take a look at designs and symbols in stained glass work as well as how it is constructed and installed and learn the geometry of the famous rose windows. We will study stained glass as an art form and as a means of communicating the faith.We will make our own stained glass windows, both using the tissue paper method, and then using the real thing (luckily, my Mom does this for a living, so it just means a trip to grandma’s shop).

Our Church: we will study the history of our own hometown church, and then do a study of the stained glass windows there, looking for the symbols and stories we have learned from our glass study. We will either sketch or photograph each window and then write about the symbols and pictures in them. We will also find and identify symbols throughout the church building.

Illuminated Manuscripts: If we have time I’ll adapt these lesson plans from the Getty Museum on Illuminated manuscripts.There are some well-thought-out lessons, and some beautiful images at the site, including the ability to page through some lovely illuminated books. We also have the Dover “Book of Kells Stained Glass Coloring Book” . If we can’t fit it into our Lenten study, we will fit it in somewhere else for sure!

We are also lucky to be attending Superboy’s Godfather’s wedding (Superboy is in the wedding party) in Miami,Fl this month, so we will get a chance to check out the architecture of various churches there.

Throughout the study we will be referring to the lovely book The Symbols of the Church by Maurice Dilasser which is just packed full of incredible pictures and information.

In addition, we have begun our wonderful new religion book-St. Patricks Summer, which we will read and follow rabbit trails from. We read the first chapter this week (on St Patrick and the Shamrock) and it led to a a wonderful morning spent sketching and doing watercolors of clover leaves picked from the yard and discussing the Blessed Trinity.

We will continue to read our Saint of the day from Catholic Culture and any that strike Superboy’s fancy will be added to his timeline or religion notebook.

JBug will be working alongside us as always. She will enjoy the stained glass crafts and will be watching the video of David Macauley’s “Cathedral”. I will make her a rose window puzzle to put together and we will build cathedrals out of legos. For religion she will be focusing on learning the Hail Mary and doing her “Going to Church” coloring book. At our church we will take digital photos and she will be making a little picture book of our church and learning the names of the different things in church, such as altar, baptismal font, confessional, etc.