School report

(Mom’s notes which the kids read.)
We have been reading stories from Johann’s anthology book. Mom really likes the title of Unit 4 “One of a kind: What it means to be unique.” The story about Deadalus and Icarus was one we knew, but the story “Wings” was new to us. We talked about how important it is to stand up for others, like how the girl in the story stood up for the boy with wings. On page 25, she told the kids who were laughing at him to “Stop!” and “Leave him alone.” We wonder if kids at school tease other kids and if some kids tell them to stop.

We read “Hottest, coldest, highest and deepest” by Steve Jenkins. When we read about the coldest place being in Antarctica, Johann remembered the penguins he studied at Ed-Co and saw in the movies, like “The March of the Penguins.” This story talks about the physical features and the climate that we also read about in the science book. (See our Venn diagram where we compared the physical features of Colesburg, Iowa and those of where we are living here in France.)

The poem about Rocks reminds us of the rocks we found and threw in the sea at the beach in Collioure. Some of the rocks we kept and took back to our rental house.

We examined the rocks. We dipped them in water and watched their colors change. The big grey rock became darker in color. Some rocks are bigger and some are smaller. A lot of them are shiny and crystal-like. Karl let each person pick out their own favourite rock. Johann’s is light, not heavy. Karl wonders if Johann’s rock might have been a molar tooth from a whale shark. It can slide down the cover of the anthology book, if you tilt it enough.

Mom’s rock is smaller than Johann’s. Dad’s is bigger. Karl’s is smaller than Johann’s but bigger than Mom’s. Dad’s rock is the biggest, just like him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


We wanted to find out the mass (or weight) of our rocks for Lesson 2 in Science. We did not have a scale so we put all the rocks a jar and compared its weight with things in the kitchen. We wanted to find something that was about the same weight as the rocks. One person closed his eyes and held the rocks in one hand and other things in the other hand and he decided which was heavier. First, we compared the rocks with the box of pizza dough (it weighs 520grams). The rocks were lighter. Then we compared the rocks with the ketchup (it weighs 460grams). The rocks were heavier. So, we estimated that the rocks were in between the weight of the ketchup and the weight of the pizza dough. The rocks weigh about 490grams. We made a chart and we will get some sand to finish the experiment.