Making and using papyrus

One thing I remember pretty clearly from my grade-school years is the time I made my own "papyrus" for a school project. I don't remember it all THAT clearly, I guess, but I do remember that I used iris leaves, and it took a lot of experimentation to get them soft enough—seems like maybe I ended up using the blender? And then baking the sheets in the oven?—and it never really turned into great paper. But it was fun, I remember that! For this unit, though, I wasn't really planning on trying to make paper because we had done it recently when learning about Japan.

But…while we were gathering the reeds for our reed boats, we found some of these nice wide-leaved water plants which seemed like they might be kind of like papyrus…because they had white pulpy stuff inside, and seemed buoyant. So, we decided just to experiment a bit.

With real papyrus, you'd scoop out the pulp and just use that for your paper, I think. But we just wove the whole reeds into a kind of mat and then pounded it with a mallet. Seb quite enjoyed that part.

It got all pulpy and you could see the fibers sort of fuse together as it dried.

And once it was fully dry, it was possible to write on our "papyrus"…though not really easy. Still, it was fun to visualize the process a little better by doing this activity.

I also ordered some actual papyrus so the children could see and feel what it was like. Much nicer than our "homemade" version, of course! And it was fun to write on it with brushes. We attempted to write our names using hieroglyphs, though the more we learned about that written language, the more we realized how complicated it was and how we didn't really "get" it with our letter-for-letter Western view of things! Still…fun to try it.

Here's an overview of the Egyptian numbering system we used, too.

Sound and language

Image from here

Here's an interesting article about different words for sounds in different languages

This explains why some words are so similar in all languages. I was first introduced to that idea when I read these lectures by Leonard Bernstein, and it was an amazing realization for me. I felt like my mind had opened to all these new concepts!

We also talked about onomatopoeia in, among other works, Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells".

Japanese calligraphy

Once our handmade paper was dry and ready to use, we got out ink and brushes and tried to write on it. I don't know if that can be called true "calligraphy." We don't know at all what we're doing, obviously, but some of our books showed us the proper order of strokes to write kanji characters, and we looked others up online. There are sites like this that will show you a character with an animation to show the stroke order.

Mostly, though, we just wanted to get a feel for the technique of using a brush to write with, and see if we could get characters to look good on our handmade paper.

Japanese is a really hard language to learn, we read, because of the three alphabets and the huge number of kanji in use, but we all learned to count to 10, and we liked this site that explained how some kanji characters came to be. We also watched this Begin Japanology episode about one of the alphabets, hiragana. Really interesting. (I thought this article about gendered speech was interesting too.)

I thought writing the numbers was quite fun. They are much simpler than some of the other characters! :) And I love the thick-thin strokes you get when you're using a brush.

Shakespeare passages for children to memorize

Shakespeare has so many great speeches for memorizing---and many are good even for children. My children especially wanted to learn the "To be or not to be" soliloquy, but all of these passages are good ones to have in your memory, or at least to recognize and be familiar with. Yes, they're all well-known, but I picked these specifically because they are just parts we all really liked. Some are funny, some are stirring, and some are sad, but all are so beautiful! I think having lines like these going around in your head is one of the most enjoyable things about reading Shakespeare! (And the shorter ones are just things the children love to quote whenever they get the opportunity. You'd be amazed how often that is. Even Junie's always spouting off "Alas, poor Yorick!" at the drop of a hat.) Sometimes I put the line numbers on these and sometimes I just didn't bother. They're all easily look-up-able, though.

And I linked this earlier, but don't forget to watch "A B, or not a B?" from Sesame Street. :)

From A Midsummer Night's Dream:

(Flute, as Thisbe, in the "play-within-a-play" section):

Asleep, my love?

What, dead, my dove?

O Pyramus, arise?

Speak, speak. Quite dumb?

Dead? Dead? A tomb

Must cover thy sweet eyes.

These lily lips,

This cherry nose,

These yellow cowslip cheeks,

Are gone, are gone!

Lovers, make moan

His eyes were green as leeks.

*****

Jack shall have Jill,

Naught shall go ill,

The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.

*****

I go, I go, look how I go!

Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.

From Twelfth Night:

Act I Scene 1, lines 1-8

If music be the food of love, play on.

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, 

The appetite may sicken and so die.

That strain again! It had a dying fall.

O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound

That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odor. Enough; no more.

’Tis not so sweet now as it was before,

*****

Act II Scene 3, lines 48-53

What is love? 'Tis not hereafter.

Present mirth hath present laughter.

What's to come is still unsure.

In delay there lies no plenty,

Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty.

Youth's a stuff will not endure.

*****

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

*****

Do you think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

*****

From Sir Andrew's challenge to Cesario. I include this because the children think it is the funniest thing in the world. They LOVE this section of the play.

I will waylay thee going home, where if it be thy chance to kill me, thou killest me like a rogue and a villain.

Fare thee well, and may God have mercy upon one of our souls! He may have mercy upon mine, but my hope is better, and so look to thyself. 

Thy friend, as thou usest him, and thy sworn enemy, 

Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

From Macbeth:

Act V Scene 5, lines 18-28

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

*****

Is this a dagger which I see before me?

*****

Out, damn'd spot! Out, I say!

*****

If it were done, when 'tis done

'twere well it were done quickly.

From As You Like It:

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages.

From Hamlet:

Act II Scene 2

     I have of late, but wherefore I know now, lost all my mirth, forgone all my custom of exercises, and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestically roof, fretted with golden fire—why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors.

     What a piece of work is a man; how noble in reason; how infinite in faculties; in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel; in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

******

Horatio: my lord, I came to see your father's funeral.

Hamlet: I prithee, do not mock me, fellow student.

I think it was to see my mother's wedding.

Horatio: Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.

Hamlet: Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage table.

*****

O that this too, too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

*****

That he is mad, 'tis true, 'tis true 'tis pity

And pity 'tis 'tis true.

*****

I am but mad north-northwest; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.

*****

How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!

*****

Polonius: Though this be madness, there be method in't.

Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

Hamlet: Into my grave.

Polonius: Indeed, that is out of the air.

Polonius: My honorable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.

Hamlet: You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal—except my life, except my life, except my life.

*****

A hit, a very palpable hit.

*****
(This is an especially great speech taken all the way to the end, but my children only learned this section of it):

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause…

From Romeo and Juliet:

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

*****

Juliet:  O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? 
Deny thy father, and refuse thy name; 
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, A
nd I’ll no longer be a Capulet. 
Romeo [Aside]:  Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this? 
Juliet: ’Tis but thy name that is my enemy; 
Thou art thyself though, not a Montague. 
What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, 
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O! be some other name: 
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose 
By any other word would smell as sweet; 
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, 
Retain that dear perfection which he owes 
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name; 
And for that name, which is no part of thee, 
Take all myself. 
Romeo: I take thee at thy word. 
Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptiz'd
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

*****
Sampson: Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.
Abraham: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Sampson: I do bite my thumb, sir.
Abraham: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Sampson: [Aside] Is the law of our side, if I say ay?
Gregory: No.
Sampson: No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.
Gregory: Do you quarrel, sir?
Abraham: Quarrel sir! no, sir.
Sampson: If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you.

Bird Poetry

We read and discussed three poems about birds (there are, obviously, dozens of good ones to choose from): Gerard Manley Hopkins' The Windhover, Carl Sandburg's From the Shore, and David Wagoner's Peacock Display. They aren't easy poems, but they're beautiful. And I love talking about poetry. I think the main thing I'm trying to teach the children about poetry is a sort of comfort with it---a willingness to guess at meanings and a realization that symbols and interpretations can be multi-layered. (Very useful lesson to learn about the scriptures, too.) We talk very basically about form (I always have them point out alliteration, rhyme, and repetition; and Abe can figure out rhyme schemes) but mostly I just like to discuss language: why did the poet use that word? What do these lines make you think of? What picture do you get in your head when you hear this?

I think they do really well with the right questions. For example, I asked what they thought the poet was trying to do with the repetition in the lines "Out over the darkness it wavers and hovers/ Out into the gloom it swings and batters,/ Out into the wind and the rain and the vast,/ Out into the pit of a great black world." Abraham said "It sounds like wings flapping up and down in the wind" and Malachi said "It sounds like the ocean waves." I was impressed. If they can be confident drawing varied meanings out of language, they can read and learn to enjoy any poetry! It's okay if I have to point them toward what is important, at this point.

Their favorite poem was the Peacock one. They thought it was SO funny. It's such a great description of the way the peahen ignored the peacock display we saw at the aviary last year. I asked them if they thought female humans ever ignored male humans showing off that way, and they said no. I said it depended on the female human. :) We also really liked the word "amphitheatric."

Seb (who has been semi-obsessed with drawing peacocks ever since our India Unit) made me this pop-up card during his free time the other day. You open a flap on the front and peer through the hole . . .

where you can see the peacock displaying his tail feathers in the background, and the unimpressed peahen, pecking at seeds (just like in the poem) in the foreground.

Bird Calls and Birdsong in Music

One of the first sources you'll find when looking for bird information is probably this site, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It's awesome. Our favorite section was the one on bird calls and birdsongs, where you can look up individual birds and listen to their calls. We usually started here at the bird guide, where once you reach a given bird's page, you can hear its calls and songs as well as see other information about it.

I also have a really good iPad app called iBird Pro, which I got because it was on sale for .99 one time (regular price $19.99 or something)---but I love it because you can search for birds based on only what information you have ("it's brown, it's small, it's in Utah") and it has great photos and information too. And it also has bird calls to listen to. Having used it, I think I'd now pay even the $19.99 for it---it's certainly as useful as a good bird book. We'll definitely have to do another unit on birds sometime in the summer when we have more birds around (and more inclination to go out hunting for them) because it's really fun to see what we can identify.

We had a good book about the language of birds and all the different meanings they can convey through their various sounds. Fascinating!

This site has a little memory game you can play, matching birds to their songs. (It's free, but you have to create an account.)

We also listened to a bunch of classical music that incorporates birdsong (either imitative, or interpretive) and talked about why birdsong has been so inspiring to composers throughout history. I really loved doing this.  I always love it when we get to talk about something I have some background in (I love it when I get to learn something new, too, but it's just so fun to share my interests). I thought maybe I was getting a bit carried away by introducing the children to Messiaen, but they liked his music and were quite interested in his efforts to provide literal transcriptions (though transposed and adapted to the limitations of orchestral instruments) of birdsong. This isn't simple music by any means, but it's so interesting!

This site has clips from several good (and more traditional) bird-related pieces (e.g. Peter and the Wolf, Handel's Cuckoo and the Nightingale organ concerto). I also thought this was an awesome idea for a science project, but for children a bit older than mine. Still, it lists lots more ideas for music about birds!

Then I also played sections for the children from Olivier Messiaen's Réveil des Oiseaux and Oiseaux Exotiques. What cool, challenging music. Messiaen is quite fascinating. Did you know he came to Utah and wrote a piece called Des canyons aux étoiles… inspired by Bryce Canyon? That one has birdsongs in it too. Sebby and Abe really liked the parts of it we listened to---it's eerie and modern and very evocative.

And one more thing we did: I read the story of the Emperor and the Nightingale (Hans Christian Andersen, you know) out loud, and then we listened to the Stravinsky tone poem of the same name. (Or I guess it's called "Song of the Nightingale.") It's a great piece---not traditionally tonal, but I don't think it's one of those really strange pieces that's hard to listen to. The children were easily able to identify the "robotic" sound of the sections where the mechanical nightingale sang, and hear the more traditional beauty in the real nightingale's song. In fact, they liked the whole thing and asked to listen to it again the next day.

Oh! and then we also found a few YouTube videos of talking parrots doing amazing things like singing "How Much is that Doggie in the Window," to our great amusement. It was even funnier because most things Junie says these days sound exactly like a parrot talking. We laughed and laughed. Here are two videos we liked.