Monticello

Music Appreciation

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Art Appreciation

Analyze the painting shown below.  Check out the details.

• What do you notice?
• What do you think is happening?
• What caused the scene in the painting?
• What might happen after the scene shown?
• What does this piece make you wonder?

First Things First

Look at the house at Monticello (above left).  Then look at Jefferson's original drawing of the house (above right). How are they alike?  How are they different?

Let's take a look around.  Take this 360-degree tour of the Thomas Jefferson's house at Monticello.

Home Sweet Home

Jefferson designed his house with style in mind.  Note that he "hid" the slave population from the general public. The the wings, the location of the kitchen, the all-weather passage, and the dumbwaiter in the dining room are all ways in which Jefferson demonstrates a kind of embarrassment for owning slaves.  The teacher can explain more.

​Here is a lot of information in one chart.  Study the chart carefully to make some inferences about the residents of Monticello.

Brick by Brick

Have you noticed the material Thomas Jefferson used in his house?  Unlike George Washington's Mount Vernon, Jefferson chose brick for the construction of Monticello.

​Colonial Williamsburg has a page about brickmaking. We will use that page to help us learn more about text structure.

Write a narration to go with the slides in this slideshow.

We, too, get to do a little brick laying in the classroom today.  Let's get a feel for the bricks:

• Measure each edge.
• Calculate each surface area.

• Find the surface area of the whole brick.
• Calculate the volume.

End to End and Side by Side

​Now let's go further:

• Lay out two bricks, end to end.  Calculate the exposed surface area and the volume of the total number of bricks.
• Find the same information for three bricks laid end to end.  Four bricks.  Five.
• Do you find any patterns?  If so, you may be able to predict the surface area and the volume for 10 bricks. Fifty.  One hundred.
• Do the calculations change if the bricks are laid side by side rather than end to end?  If so, why?

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Up and Up

Finally:

• Make a "pyramid" of three bricks, two on the bottom layer and one on the top.
• Use three more bricks to add a third layer.  How many bricks have you used in all?
• How many bricks will you need to make a pyramid four layers high?
  
• Without building any further, how many bricks would you need for a pyramid ten layers high?   Twenty?  Seventy?  One hundred?

Step By Step

Not only can a person find patterns in the brickwork, but Jefferson also enjoyed a good parquet floor. 

It's time for us to use pattern blocks to create our own parquet designs (We'll also use them for other activities.). 

Then we will learn how to make tessellations.

Finally, the teacher will introduce you to Pascal's Triangle and some exercises to go along with it.

Monticello's Parlor Floor

While We're On the Subject

What Is Pascal's Triangle?

​Pascal's Triangle Worksheet
​(to accompany Wonderopolis