Flora in Languedoc Rousillon

March 27, 2007

There are many kinds of plants in France. Everyday we see bamboo, mimosa, palm and fruit trees. We have palm trees in our backyard. Johann took pictures of a peach grove in blossom and an olive grove. Karl took pictures of mimosa, bamboo and the aloe plants.

Johann studied cork trees. Cork comes from trees. It is cut from the bark. The bark is thick and brown. They shape it into a cylinder and stick it into bottles so the liquid doesn't spill..

We studied two kinds of high desert plants: prickly pear cactus and Aloe.

The fruit on the prickly pear cactus is edible, the actual plant has sharp spines. The fruit is bright red on the

inside.

There are quite a few different kinds of aloe plants like the tiger and aloe vera. Some are at least 7 feet tall, while others are only a few inches. The color of the aloe is usually green - some are green and white or green and yellow. The inside of the aloe plant, which is clear gel, is ued for cuts and diseases. The outside of the plant has think, flexible skin that has pointers that stick out from the edges.

Chocolate Chip Cookies and the Capitol of Rousillon

We are researching Elne, a town with a population of 6,410. First we looked in the Table of Contents and then in the Index for the name of the town. Johann found a picture of a chateau (castle). According to our book, "at the end of the Roman Empire, it was the true capital of the Roussillon area."

For science class, we are making chocolate chip cookies. Our friends, the Kiskers, brought us chocolate chips from the United States (Les Etats Unis). We went to the pharmacy to look for baking soda, but she said to go to the Marche. At the Carrefour Marche we bought baking soda and vanilla. At home we began our project by washing our hands. Karl began smooshing the butter. Johann measured 1 cup of sugar (sucre) and added it to the butter. Mom added two eggs. We smooshed the egg yolks in with the butter and the sugar, added vanilla, baking soda, salt and flour. We stirred it up. Karl loves the smell of vanilla, but Johann does not.

While we waited for the first batch of cookies to cook, Karl did an experiment. He got a glass, added some baking soda and some salt mixed with sugar that was spilled on the counter. He put the glass in the sink. He added water, but nothing changed. He added vinegar, and it bubbled over! Dad asked, "Why?" and Karl answered, "Because they don't mix." Mom said, "But oil and vinegar don't mix, but they also don't bubble." Johann mixed some oil and vinegar to test it and it separated: the oil went to the top and the vinegar sank to the bottom. We talked about how it's like a piece of cork and a rock, the rock sinks to the bottom while the cork floats to the top, because the the cork is lighter than the rock. So the oil is lighter than the vinegar.

Karl is going to do the vinegar and baking soda experiment again. He used the same ingredients and just added more vinegar. this time it poured out more slowly, like a waterfall. The boys do the experiment again, but this time Karl begins with some liquid soap. Then he adds 2 teaspoons baking soda and finally some vinegar. This time there are hardly any bubbles and it's doing it even more slowly. So, we figure the soap is stopping the bubbles (the reaction). We dumped this and started over. This time, Johann started with some baking soda and then added vinegar. It exploded with huge bubbles. Karl added even more baking soda and a little cold water and it turned into foam. Finally, the boys mixed water and oil and saw that the oil sank to the bottom. So, oil is heavier than water.

"The cookies were really good," said Karl. We are going to give some cookies to Geoff and Maureen and our neighbors, John and Miriam.

A Saturday in Perpignan: Le Palais des Rois de Majorca

Le Palais des Rois de Majorque was finished in 1309, taking 33 years to build. Jacques II built the palace for the capitol of his kingdom of Mallorca, Perpignan.

The palace was built on a hill above the town and a thick wall went all the way around the town.

The king's quarters were on the north side while the queen's were on the south. They were connected by a narrow corridor. There were also two chapels, the top one for the king and the bottom one for the queen.

One of the queens had lions living in the dry moat around the palace and she let them eat the village's goats living on the pastures nearby.

A Saturday in Perpignan: At the market

On Saturday we went to the market in Perpignan, the major town 30 kilometers north of our village of Villelongue dels Monts.








We saw lots of products: honey, honey cakes, honey drops, anchois (anchovies), live baby crabs,







salted fish,

tomates, fruits

fruits de Mer(snails and such!)

and beautiful rolls of cloth. (Grandma would love this).





We bought some honey cakes, chocolat, abricot, noix and almond, and a bottle of muscat wine, for mom and dad.

Pain Rocatin

We go to the boulangerie Pain Rocatin every day. A boulangerie is where they bake baguettes and pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant), choisis au pomme (apple turnover), and pain au cereale. Our baker is named Philip. He has the best bread in the world.

This is what we say when we go in to buy bread:

'Bonjour, monsieur.'

'Bonjour Karl et Johann. Qu'est ce que voulez vous?'

'Puis j'avoir deux baguettes, s'il vous plait.'

'Un euro trente six. Merci.'

'Merci beaucoup, aurevoir' (pronounced oh'vwa.)

'Bonne journee!'

Conductivity

For science, we are doing an experiment.

1.First, we collected our materials: spoons made of wood, plastic, and metal
cups made of ceramic, glass, and plastic. The spoons felt neither hot nor cold to begin.

2. We heated up some water and poured some into the ceramic cup.

3. We put the plastic spoon in the hot water and after 30 seconds we took it out and it felt warm. The metal spoon got HOT after 30 seconds. The wooden spoon got warm, not hot. The ceramic cup felt very warm - you couldn't hold it for very long.

4. We poured hot water in the plastic cup. We put teh wooden spoon in the cup for 30 seconds (half of a minute). Next, we put the plastic spoon in the plastic cup and waited for 30 seconds. It felt warm, not hot. Then we put the metal spoon into the cup and waited 30 seconds. Johann said it felt hot. Karl said it felt pretty warm, but not hot.

5. We poured hot water in the glass cup and added the metal spoon for 30 seconds. It felt hot. The plastic spoon felt warm, but not hot. The wooden spoon got warm.

So, we learned that metal always gets hot, but plastic and wood don't get hot. So, we looked at the cooking tools in the kitchen drawer and noticed none of the handles were made of metal. We figured that was so you don't burn your hands when cooking.

(see 3rd grade book, p.F44)

Tauteval Man

TAUTAVEL CITY OF ANCIENT MAN!!!!!!!

ON March 8, we went to The Museum of Tautavel in Southeastern France.
In the Musee de Tautavel we saw a lot of skulls. One skull was from 500,000 years ago. The skulls were cracked and grey. The bone above the eyes came out, so their eyes were shaded. People only lived to be about 35 years old. The people lived in caves, wore animal skins and were very hairy.

They used tools for hunting. They hunted elephants, rhinos, horses, mountain goats and bears. Rocks were used as tools. They would smash the animal bones to suck out the marrow. With their own hands, they would break the live animal's legs. They ate only meat. That means they were carnivores.

The musee was small (petite), but it had lots of glass cases full of rocks. They had lots of dioramas - those are life-sized models of people and where they lived.




For more information, go to www.tautavel.com

L'ecole en France

Our French cousins came to visit us during one of their vacations. They taught us a few things about growing up French. Their school is different from our school. They go to school for 6-8 weeks and then get two weeks off. They go to school at 9am. They get out at 4pm. For lunch, they get two hours. They don't bring their own food. The school never makes pizza. Sometimes, they eat cheese for dessert. After school, some mothers meet their kids and give them a baguette and a chocolate bar for snack.

Our cousins usually eat dinner at 8pm. They go to bed at 10pm. When they visited, the kids ate first, then the parents ate later.

Our cousin Cedric goes to an international school. That means there are kids from a lot of different nations or countries that go there. Cedric has friends from Japan, China, England, Spain and Portugal. They speak English (Anglais) when they talk to each other. Our cousin Julien goes part-time to French school and part-time to American school. They don't get indoor recess, even if the weather is bad.

Of course, we had to have some fun with them at the beach!

L'art en France

Art is an important part of French culture. We went to two places where we saw French art. The first place was Musee d'art moderne (Museum of modern art) Got to http://www.musee-ceret.com/fr/presen2.html to learn more.

It is in Ceret, a town not far away from where we are staying. It was raining. We saw a video in there and lots of paintings. Some paintings were by Pablo Picasso. Karl bought a poster and I bought a postcard. We had to be quiet.

Then, we went to a glassblowers workshop. It is called Le Palais du Verre. In was in a village called Palau del Vidre. We saw two men wearing shorts and t-shirts who worked together to make glass vases. There was a glob of hot melting glass on the end of a long metal tube. One man would blow into the tube to make the glass bigger. He pounded the hot glass on the wood. The wood burned. There were three big ovens to melt the glass. It takes two days for the glass to cool. We bought pieces of glass candy (in French they are called bonbons).

In France, the food is carefully made and designed. In almost every town there are Pâtisseries, or shops where pastries and sweets are made by food artisans. For Karl's birthday, we went to two different patisseries to get two different cakes. One had chocolate flakes and small red currants on top. It was so sweet I couldn't finish it. The other one had a layer of cake on the bottom, chocolate mousse on top of that, and then on the very top there were sliced pears. We also had pieces of appetizer cake. Those were made of a thick layer of chocolate, then chocolate mousse in the middle, and melted chocolate on top. (YUM!!)