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► family school ... various assignments

A few of our recent projects are shown below, along with a link to other school-ish photos.

• Short story structure (10/06)
• Measuring temperature (6/06)
• Silk, from Ancient China study (9/05)
• Summer Day (9/05)
• The Kitten, Joyful Soup (8/05)
• Other Family School photos (password = family)

Or click here to go back to the current summary of our "schoolwork."

October 2006
Short story structure
After learning about basic story structure, ~A~ and ~C~ composed a story based on a collage of images each had chosen at random from magazines.

~A~ made this collage, and subsequently wrote the following story:

Gilbert’s Great Job
By Addie Coldiron

 There once was a brick maker named Gilbert, who lived 100 years ago in China. One afternoon, Gilbert was making bricks. Suddenly he sat up and said, “I want a new job.”

 He just didn’t want to make bricks anymore. His hands were hurting from holding a wooden-handled hammer, hitting at the base of the bricks. He ran to the marsh to wash his hands in the cold water. Suddenly he began to think, “Why can’t I grow water lilies for my new job?”

 So he began to grow water lilies. He also visited aquariums and cleaned the fish poop from the bottom of the tanks to fertilize his water lilies. Since he liked flowers and fish life, he thought that this was the most perfect job he could ever have.

 Gilbert settled down to his new job just fine. He was very glad to be rid of that horrible hammer.

~C~ made this collage, and subsequently wrote the following story:

The Bird and Dog Story
By Carmen Coldiron

Once there was a family of dogs, and their names were Bob, George, Melissa, and Mom. They lived on a farm, and were lying down in the sun, watching for danger. Suddenly, they heard a chattering sound.  

They looked up and saw a bird chattering at another bird. The dogs barked and howled, and the mama bird knew that danger was near.

The mama bird flew away with her babies, high in the air.

Then she settled down in her nest. Her babies were safe now. The mama bird learned never to go far from her nest.

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June 6, 2006
Measuring temperature
Each girl drew a thermometer, which I scanned into the computer and duplicated. We then measured various items and locations, and the girls marked the temperatures on their own thermometers.

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September 15, 2005
The Story of Silk (part of Ancient China study)
~A~ drew and described the steps involved in making silk.

"The female finds a safe place to lay her eggs. She lays her eggs with a drop of sticky fluid to help them attach to the leaf. After laying several hundred eggs, she leaves them to hatch."

"After hatching, the caterpillars are hungry."

"The caterpillars eat a lot on the mulberry leaves they hatched on! When it is a fully grown caterpillar, it hangs from a leaf to start its cocoon."

"Silk coming from its mouth goes from the top of its body to the very end. After spinning their cocoons, the caterpillars wait for a long time while changing into a moth in a pupa within the silk. If left on the branch, the moth when fully developed comes out of his or her cocoon by biting a hole in the silk."

"Even though the moth is out of its cocoon, it can't fly yet. Its wings must get bigger and dry. When it's wings have been pumped up, hardened and dried, it will fly away like his or her mother did when it came out of its cocoon."

"Or if someone wants to make a silk cloth, she will pick the cocoon before the moth comes out. Then she will drop the cocoon into boiling water so that the thread can unloosen and she can kill the caterpillar inside."

"When the cocoons are ready, she will take the threads and twist them into one yarn, usually from four or five cocoons. When the yarn is made, she will weave it on a loom with many other yarns."

"When it's all woven, there's a beautiful cloth. And it came from cocoons!"

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September 7, 2005
"Summer Day"

Use similes and comparisons to show contrast between a hot summer day and a cool evening. A, (with help from C's "bat's wings") came up with...

 
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August 15, 2005
"The Kitten" and "Joyful Soup"

Descriptive phrases, including color, activities, and metaphor, describe a couple of photos we clipped from a magazine. Click here or on the reduced graphic to see the finished product. Words are shown below.

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