Welcome to our very first virtual field trip. To take this trip, you must pack your bags (your computer) with Google Earth, Quicktime, and Real Player. These are all free downloads. In addition to Google Earth, you will be visiting various website stops along the way.

The purpose of this field trip is to explore the world of the characters of Calder, Petra, and Tommy from the books we are reading the books of the author, Blue Balliett.  Go to Blue Balliett's website by clicking here to learn more about this author. Her first book is Chasing Vermeer . This book is about two children who attend the University of Chicago Laboratory School. Petra loves words, Tommy loves collecting, and Calder loves Pentominoes.  To learn about them and play this game go to this link and make your own  - Pentominoes.

The children help to solve the mystery of the theft of a valuable painting by Johannes Vermeer entitled A Lady Writing. This is a book of fiction but the school is real and the author, Blue Balliett, was actually a teacher at this school for a few years. Johannes Vermeer was a painter from Delft, Netherlands in the 17th Century.  Go to this site - Delft, Netherlands to see where Vermeer lived.

· To see the actual school where the setting of the book takes place, go to this Google Earth site - University of Chicago Laboratory School.

· To visit the actual University of Chicago Laboratory School website, click here.

· To learn more about Vermeer, go here and to see the painting of The Lady Writing, go here.  Observe how the actual painting compares to the illustrations and Petra's dream in the book.

• In the book, many of the names of the buildings have been changed. To see what their actual names are, go to this link. From this page you can match the fictitious names with the real names of the buildings. Do they look as you imagined in the book?

On the University campus, the building that is mentioned most often is Delia Dell. This building became the center of the mystery and is really called Ida Noyes. Watch this Quicktime Movie of pictures of the actual building by clicking here.  By seeing these pictures you can imagine just how the children felt as they were walking around it in the night.

Balliett’s second book is, The Wright 3. In this book, Tommy joins Calder and Petra and they help save the Robie House built by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright from destruction.  Robie House is an actual home in the Hyde Park neighborhood where the children lived.  To see the Robie House, click here.  Find the actual rooms where the mystery takes place.  Imagine how they may have felt when their adventure takes place.

Now that you have explored the world of Calder, Petra, and Tommy, you may choose from the following as project to show what you know -

1.  Create a travel brochure using Publisher for The University of Chicago Laboratory School and surrounding neighborhood of Hyde Park.

2.  Create a Movie Maker presentation or PowerPoint presentation of what you have learned about the world of Calder, Petra and Tommy.

Just for fun ——-

DID YOU KNOW????? Do you know which famous person’s children attended The University of Chicago Laboratory School (until they moved to Washington, D. C.)? Go here to find the answer.

For a full virtual trip using Google Earth, click on this here.

To learn more about the author, watch these videos –

Credits

Picture Famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.. IRC (2005). Retrieved March 12, 2009, from Discovery Education: http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/

Various lip art from [2009] Jupiterimages Corporation through Animation Factory

Book art from Amazon.com via Associate Program