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".

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.

Tree and Leaf Unit

Sebby said I shouldn't call this unit "Trees and Leaves" because leaves are already part of trees. He's right, but I'm calling it that anyway. And if this unit sounds like a gratuitous excuse to get outside at this time of year and see the Fall Leaves, it is. I love taking advantage of the season to learn about things we'd be wondering about anyway!

We discovered lots of interesting things during this unit. I remembered from my own school days that the autumn-colored pigments were in the leaves all along, just masked by the chlorophyll, but I learned for the first time that only the yellows and oranges (carotene and xanthophyll) are actually present all year. Red leaves appear when glucose is left in the leaves (from photosynthesis) rather than all used up when the weather turns colder. When the glucose is exposed to sunlight, another pigment (anthocyanin) is made, giving the leaf its red color.

We also learned that the largest living organism is a grove of aspen trees in Utah! Its name is "Pando," which means "I spread," which freaks me out just a little, but I'm okay.

The kids really liked this online quiz about things that come from trees.

This website has some interesting tree/leaf information. Every year I try to remember what kind of weather makes for the brightest leaves, but I always forget. So I was quite happy that this site told me:

A succession of warm, sunny days and cool, crisp but not freezing nights seems to bring about the most spectacular color displays. During these days, lots of sugars are produced in the leaf but the cool nights and the gradual closing of veins going into the leaf prevent these sugars from moving out. These conditions – lots of sugar and light – spur production of the brilliant anthocyanin pigments, which tint reds, purples, and crimson. Because carotenoids are always present in leaves, the yellow and gold colors remain fairly constant from year to year.  

The amount of moisture in the soil also affects autumn colors. Like the weather, soil moisture varies greatly from year to year. The countless combinations of these two highly variable factors assure that no two autumns can be exactly alike. A late spring, or a severe summer drought, can delay the onset of fall color by a few weeks. A warm period during fall will also lower the intensity of autumn colors. A warm wet spring, favorable summer weather, and warm sunny fall days with cool nights should produce the most brilliant autumn colors.

We enjoyed extracting the chlorophyll from leaves (see here)

And I had the kids memorize this poem, which is one of my favorites:

Gathering Leaves
by Robert Frost

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who's to say where
The harvest shall stop?