Gods and Giants, Michaelmas Term, Block Two, Mathematics

Day Eight


~Welcome the Day


~Recorder Practise


~Morning Exercises


Spelling


boat – soap – road – oats – goals – coat


  • 1.Footballers try to score _________.
  • 2.Cars travel on the _________.
  • 3.Something we wear _________
  • 4.Used for washing our hands _________
  • 5.A small ship _________
  • 6.Horses like to eat _________.

soil – oil – boil – coins – join – point

  • 7.A kettle is used to _________ water.
  • 8.Money, but not banknotes _________
  • 9.A needle has a sharp _________
  • 10.Fasten together _________
  • 11.Put _________ on your bicycle to make it go better.
  • 12.Plants grow in the _________.

~Main Lesson


Let’s think about the cake again and write the ‘cutting it’ down in numbers: We had a whole cake at first – in numbers that looks like this 1 = 1


Then we cut it in half, that would look like this ½ + ½ = 1


Then we cut it into quarters ¼ + ¼ + ¼ + ¼ = 1


And then we cut it into eight pieces 1/8+1/8+1/8+1/8+1/8+1/8+1/8+1/8=1


So, now make drawings of the cake again at the beginning of the line, followed by the fractions. See the picture of this that I made (on the next page).


You can also cut a cake in three pieces or in five or six or seven… any number, really. So we’ll add some more of those pictures and fractions too, on the same page. You could make up your own, at the very end.

Fraction Addition

~Story Time


From ‘’The King and the Green Angelica’’ by Isabel Wyatt and Joan Rudel (pages 42 to 49: …said the princess.)

~Snack Time & Break

~Form Drawing

You guessed it – we are adding one more loop to the form this week. There are two loops at the top and two at the bottom – or, equally correctly described: there are two loops to the left and two to the right. The crossing points are outside of the loops, forming a little square.


Proceed the same way as before, beginning with a very gentle touch, and so on. Great!

~Form Drawing

Gods and Giants, Michaelmas Term, Block Two, Mathematics


Day Nine


~Welcome the Day


~Recorder Practise


~Morning Exercises


Spelling


May – March – November – October – June – July


September – January – April – August – December – February


  • 1.The first month of the year _________

  • 2.The second month of the year _________

  • 3.The third month of the year _________

  • 4.The fourth month of the year _________

  • 5.The fifth month of the year _________

  • 6.The sixth month of the year _________

  • 7.The seven month of the year _________

  • 8.The eighth month of the year _________

  • 9.The ninth month of the year _________

  • 10.The tenth month of the year _________

  • 11.The eleven month of the year _________

  • 12.The twelfthmonth of the year _________


~Main Lesson


The children went into the woods to pick blueberries. Both of them were planning to fill their 1-pound can. But once they found out how delicious they were, more went into their mouths than into the can… By the time they reached home again, both their cans were only 1/3 full. How many thirds did they have all together?


1/3 + 1/3 = 2/3


So, when we add fraction, we add the numerator, the number above the fraction line. The denominator stayed the same.


Can you add the following fractions on your own?


3/7 + 1/7 =


5/8 + 5/8 =


6/10 + 3/10=


7/16 + 8/16 =


6/7 + 1/7 =


Write them into your main lesson book, once you have solved them on in your exercise book:


ADDING FRACTIONS


When we add fractions, the denominator must stay the same!


1/3 + 1/3 = 2/3


3/7 + 1/7 =


5/8 + 2/8 =


6/10 + 3/10=


7/16 + 7/16 =


6/7 + 1/7 =


When the numerator and the nominator are the same number, it means that all the parts of the whole are there. That means we can write = 1


3/5 + 2/5 = 5/5 = 1


4/10 + 6/10 = 10/10 = 1

fractions fraction

~Story Time


From ‘’The King and the Green Angelica’’ by Isabel Wyatt and Joan Rudel (pages 49 to 52: …said the princess.)


~Snack Time & Break


~HandworkAs described.


And a few days from the summer term:


Gods and Giants, Summer Term, Block Four, The Human Being and the Animal Kingdom


Day Eight


~Welcome the Day


~Recorder Practice


~Morning Exercises


Reading & Reading Diary & Book Reports


~Main Lesson


Man’s Best Friend


As we heard yesterday, the Domestic Dog is adescendent of the Grey Wolf. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and pet animal in human history.


Dogs perform many roles for people, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship, and, more recently, helping handicapped people. This impact on human society has given them the nickname "Man's Best Friend".


Domestic dogs inherited complex behaviors from their wolf ancestors, which would have been pack hunters with complex body language. These sophisticated forms of social cognition and communication may account for their trainability, playfulness, and ability to fit into human households and social situations.


People have enormous benefit from the dogs associated with their camps in the olden days. For instance, dogs would have improved sanitation by cleaning up food scraps. Dogs may have provided warmth, as referred to in the Australian Aboriginal expression “three dog night” (an exceptionally cold night), and they would have alerted the camp to the presence of predators or strangers, using their acute hearing to provide an early warning.


"The most widespread form of interspecies bonding occurs between humans and dogs and the keeping of dogs as companions, has a long history. dogs were kept outside more often than they tend to be today (using the expression “in the doghouse” to describe exclusion from the group signifies the distance between the doghouse and the home) and were still primarily functional, acting as a guard, children’s playmate, or walking companionhave been changes in the role of the pet dog, such as the increased role of dogs in the emotional support of their owners.


The majority of contemporary dog owners describe their dog as part of the family – whereas the dog would see the dog-human family as a pack.


Another study of dogs’ roles in families showed many dogs have set tasks or routines undertaken as family members, the most common of which was bringing in the newspaper from the lawn.


Service dogs such as guide dogs, utility dogs, assistance dogs, hearing dogs, are wonderful helpers to people with disabilities.

Write about your favourite dog.


~Story Time


One morning Vixen and her mate seemed to decide that it was time the children knew something about the broad subject of Woodchucks, and further that this orchard woodchuck would serve nicely for an object-lesson. So they went together to the orchard-fence unseen by old Chucky on his stump. Scarface then showed himself in the orchard and quietly walked in a line so as to pass by the stump at a distance, but never once turned his head or allowed the ever-watchful woodchuck to think himself seen. When the fox entered the field the woodchuck quietly dropped down to the mouth of his den: here he waited as the fox passed, but concluding that after all wisdom is the better part, went into his hole.


This was what the foxes wanted. Vixen had kept out of sight, but now ran swiftly to the stump and hid behind it. Scarface had kept straight on, going very slowly. The woodchuck had not been frightened, so before long his head popped up between the roots and he looked around. There was that fox still going on, farther and farther away. The woodchuck grew bold as the fox went, and came out farther, and then seeing the coast clear, he scrambled onto the stump, and with one spring Vixen had him and shook him till he lay senseless. Scarface had watched out of the corner of his eye and now came running back. But Vixen took the chuck in her jaws and made for the den, so he saw he wasn't needed.


Back to the den came Vix, and carried the chuck so carefully that he was able to struggle a little when she got there. A low 'woof' at the den brought the little fellows out like schoolboys to play. She threw the wounded animal to them and they set on him like four little furies, uttering little growls and biting little bites with all the strength of their baby jaws, but the woodchuck fought for his life and beating them off slowly hobbled to the shelter of a thicket. The little ones pursued like a pack of hounds and dragged at his tail and flanks, but could not hold him back. So Vixen overtook him with a couple of bounds and dragged him again into the open for the children to worry. Again and again this rough sport went on till one of the little ones was badly bitten, and his squeal of pain roused Vix to end the woodchuck's misery and serve him up at once.


Not far from the den was a hollow overgrown with coarse grass, the playground of a colony of field-mice. The earliest lesson in woodcraft that the little ones took, away from the den, was in this hollow. Here they had their first course of mice, the easiest of all game. In teaching, the main thing was example, aided by a deep-set instinct. The old fox, also, had one or two signs meaning "lie still and watch," "come, do as I do," and so on, that were much used.


So the merry lot went to this hollow one calm evening and Mother Fox made them lie still in the grass. Presently a faint squeak showed that the game was astir. Vix rose up and went on tip-toe into the grass—not crouching but as high as she could stand, sometimes on her hind legs so as to get a better view. The runs that the mice follow are hidden under the grass tangle, and the only way to know the whereabouts of a mouse is by seeing the slight shaking of the grass, which is the reason why mice are hunted only on calm days.


And the trick is to locate the mouse and seize him first and see him afterward. Vix soon made a spring, and in the middle of the bunch of dead grass that she grabbed was a field-mouse squeaking his last squeak.


He was soon gobbled, and the four awkward little foxes tried to do the same as their mother, and when at length the eldest for the first time in his life caught game, he quivered with excitement and ground his pearly little milk-teeth into the mouse with a rush of inborn savageness that must have surprised even himself.


Another home lesson was on the red-squirrel. One of these noisy, vulgar creatures, lived close by and used to waste part of each day scolding the foxes, from some safe perch. The cubs made many vain attempts to catch him as he ran across their glade from one tree to another, or spluttered and scolded at them a foot or so out of reach. But old Vixen was up in natural history—she knew squirrel nature and took the case in hand when the proper time came. She hid the children and lay down flat in the middle of the open glade. The saucy low-minded squirrel came and scolded as usual. But she moved no hair. He came nearer and at last right overhead to chatter:


"You brute you, you brute you."


But Vix lay as dead. This was very perplexing, so the squirrel came down the trunk and peeping about made a nervous dash across the grass, to another tree, again to scold from a safe perch.


"You brute you, you useless brute, scarrr-scarrrr."


But flat and lifeless on the grass lay Vix. This was most tantalizing to the squirrel. He was naturally curious and disposed to be venturesome, so again he came to the ground and scurried across the glade nearer than before.


Still as death lay Vix, "surely she was dead." And the little foxes began to wonder if their mother wasn't asleep.


But the squirrel was working himself into a little craze of foolhardy curiosity. He had dropped a piece of bark on Vix's head, he had used up his list of bad words and he had done it all over again, without getting a sign of life. So after a couple more dashes across the glade he ventured within a few feet of the really watchful Vix, who sprang to her feet and pinned him in a twinkling.


"And the little ones picked the bones e-oh."


Thus the rudiments of their education were laid, and afterward as they grew stronger they were taken farther afield to begin the higher branches of trailing and scenting.


For each kind of prey they were taught a way to hunt, for every animal has some great strength or it could not live, and some great weakness or the others could not live. The squirrel's weakness was foolish curiosity; the fox's that he can't climb a tree. And the training of the little foxes was all shaped to take advantage of the weakness of the other creatures and to make up for their own by defter play where they are strong.


From their parents they learned the chief axioms of the fox world. How, is not easy to say. But that they learned this in company with their parents was clear. Here are some that foxes taught me, without saying a word:


Never sleep on your straight track.


Your nose is before your eyes, then trust it first.


A fool runs down the wind.


Running rills cure many ills.


Never take the open if you can keep the cover.


Never leave a straight trail if a crooked one will do.


If it's strange, it's hostile.


Dust and water burn the scent.


Never hunt mice in a rabbit-woods, or rabbits in a hen yard.


Keep off the grass.


Inklings of the meanings of these were already entering the little ones' minds, thus, 'Never follow what you can't smell,' was wise, they could see, because if you can't smell it, then the wind is so that it must smell you.


One by one they learned the birds and beasts of their home woods, and then as they were able to go abroad with their parents they learned new animals. They were beginning to think they knew the scent of everything that moved. But one night the mother took them to a field where there was a strange black flat thing on the ground. She brought them on purpose to smell it, but at the first whiff their every hair stood on end, they trembled, they knew not why, it seemed to tingle through their blood and fill them with instinctive hate and fear. And when she saw its full effect she told them


"That is man-scent."


~Snack Time & Break

~Form Drawing


Trace today’s form with you pointing finger a few times, get into the flow of it and become aware of how all the straight lines and curves are connected.Gently, draw the four curves in the four corners of the page, then mark the six points (two on the top, two on the bottom and one on each side).Then connect the points on the top with the points on the sides, and the points on the bottom with the points on the sides.Now connect the top left point with the bottom right curve, the top right point with the bottom left curve and, vice versa, the bottom left point with the top right curve and the bottom right point with the top left curve.All there is left now is to connect the top right curve with the bottom left curve, and the top left curve with the bottom right curve. Voila!Go over it many times, with hardly any pressure, really get into the flow of it, until you are satisfied that the shape is right and balanced.Establish the ‘over-under’ sequence and increase the pressure a little, to make the colours more vibrant and to determine the over-under sequence. Choose a second (and, maybe even a third) colour and make the lines wider, covering possible ‘mistakes’ you may have made earlier. Then with another colour, a block crayon, make the background and border.

form drawing

Gods and Giants, Summer Term, Block Four, The Human Being and the Animal Kingdom


Day Nine


~Welcome the Day


~Recorder Practice


~Morning Exercises


Reading & Reading Diary & Book Reports

~Main Lesson


Cows, Buffaloes and Bison, are all from the same family. They all have horns and the distinctive two-toed hooves and live in herds.


They are often described as cud-chewers because of the way in which they digest food. They have large, four-chambered stomachs. They eat grass and other plants; first they swallow and partly digest it in the rumen (the first chamber of the stomach). Then cows regurgitate, or bring up the coarse, fibrous parts of the food as small masses called cud. Then they chew and swallow it again, and it goes into the reticulum (the second chamber). The food then passes into the omasum and finally into the abomasum, where digestion takes place.The cow extracts all the nutrients from the food that way – and they are what we receive in the milk.


The bull, with his enormous strength and power, has helped man by pulling heavy ploughs and great big carts. And he has carried many heavy loads on his back. He has been an example to us human beings, to have inner strength and resolve like the bull has outer strength.

Write a poem about the bull and make a drawing.


Ox and Cow (by Margaret Morgan)


Ox and Cow,
Behold them now;
Behold what work they do.


The cow, placid and gentle,
She chews the whole day through.
All day long she chews the cud,
Working miracles for mankind’s good.


Ox and Cow,
Behold them now;
Behold what work they do.


The ox is a beast of burden,
He toils the whole day through.
Pulling the plough as best he can;
Bearing heavy loads for man.


Ox and Cow behold them now,
Behold what work they do;
Each give their gifts to help mankind;
Such selfless work they do.

cows

~Story Time


Chapter Three


Meanwhile the hens continued to disappear. I had not betrayed the den of cubs. Indeed, I thought a good deal more of the little rascals than I did of the hens; but uncle was dreadfully wrought up and made most disparaging remarks about my woodcraft. To please him I one day took the hound across to the woods and seating myself on a stump on the open hillside, I bade the dog go on. Within three minutes he sang out in the tongue all hunters know so well, "Fox! fox! fox! straight away down the valley."


After a while I heard them coming back. There I saw the fox—Scarface—loping lightly across the river-bottom to the stream. In he went and trotted along in the shallow water near the margin for two hundred yards, then came out straight toward me. Though in full view, he saw me not but came up the hill watching over his shoulder for the hound. Within ten feet of me he turned and sat with his back to me while he craned his neck and showed an eager interest in the doings of the hound. Ranger came bawling along the trail till he came to the running water, the killer of scent, and here he was puzzled; but there was only one thing to do; that was by going up and down both banks find where the fox had left the river.


The fox before me shifted his position a little to get a better view and watched with a most human interest all the circling of the hound. He was so close that I saw the hair of his shoulder bristle a little when the dog came in sight. I could see the jumping of his heart on his ribs, and the gleam of his yellow eye. When the dog was wholly baulked by the water trick, it was comical to see: he could not sit still, but rocked up and down in glee, and reared on his hind feet to get a better view of the slow-plodding hound. With mouth opened nearly to his ears, though not at all winded, he panted noisily for a moment, or rather he laughed gleefully, just as a dog laughs by grinning and panting.


Old Scarface wriggled in huge enjoyment as the hound puzzled over the trail so long that when he did find it, it was so stale he could barely follow it, and did not feel justified in tonguing on it at all.


As soon as the hound was working up the hill, the fox quietly went into the woods. I had been sitting in plain view only ten feet away, but I had the wind and kept still and the fox never knew that his life had for twenty minutes been in the power of the foe he most feared. Ranger also would have passed me as near as the fox, but I spoke to him, and with a little nervous start he quit the trail and looking sheepish lay down by my feet.


This little comedy was played with variations for several days, but it was all in plain view from the house across the river. My uncle, impatient at the daily loss of hens, went out himself, sat on the open knoll, and when old Scarface trotted to his lookout to watch the dull hound on the river flat below, my uncle remorselessly shot him in the back, at the very moment when he was grinning over a new triumph.


Chapter Four


But still the hens were disappearing. My uncle was wrathy. He determined to conduct the war himself, and sowed the woods with poison baits, trusting to luck that our own dogs would not get them. He indulged in contemptuous remarks on my by-gone woodcraft, and went out evenings with a gun and the two dogs, to see what he could destroy,


Vix knew right well what poisoned bait was; she passed them by or else treated them with active contempt, but one she dropped down the hole of an old enemy, a skunk, who was never afterward seen. Formerly old Scarface was always ready to take charge of the dogs, and keep them out of mischief. But now that Vix had the whole burden of the brood, she could no longer spend time in breaking every track to the den, and was not always at hand to meet and mislead the foes that might be coming too near.


The end is easily foreseen. Ranger followed a hot trail to the den, and Spot, the fox-terrier, announced that the family was at home, and then did his best to go in after them.


The whole secret was now out, and the whole family doomed. The hired man came around with pick and shovel to dig them out, while we and the dogs stood by. Old Vix soon showed herself in the near woods, and led the dogs away off down the river, where she shook them off when she thought proper, by the simple device of springing on a sheep's back. The frightened animal ran for several hundred yards, and then Vix got off, knowing that there was now a hopeless gap in the scent, and returned to the den. But the dogs, baffled by the break in the trail, soon did the same, to find Vix hanging about in despair, vainly trying to decoy us away from her treasures.


Meanwhile Paddy plied both pick and shovel with vigour and effect. The yellow, gravelly sand was heaping on both sides, and the shoulders of the sturdy digger were sinking below the level. After an hour's digging, enlivened by frantic rushes of the dogs after the old fox, who hovered near in the woods, Pat called:


"Here they are, sor!"


It was the den at the end of the burrow, and cowering as far back as they could, were the four little woolly cubs.


Before I could interfere, a murderous blow from the shovel, and a sudden rush for the fierce little terrier, ended the lives of three. The fourth and smallest was barely saved by holding him by his tail high out of reach of the excited dogs.


He gave one short squeal, and his poor mother came at the cry, and circled so near that she would have been shot but for the accidental protection of the dogs, who somehow always seemed to get between, and whom she once more led away on a fruitless chase.


The little one saved alive was dropped into a bag, where he lay quite still. His unfortunate brothers were thrown back into their nursery bed, and buried under a few shovelfuls of earth.


We guilty ones then went back into the house, and the little fox was soon chained in the yard. No one knew just why he was kept alive, but in all a change of feeling had set in, and the idea of killing him was without a supporter.


He was a pretty little fellow, like a cross between a fox and a lamb. His woolly visage and form were strangely lamb-like and innocent, but one could find in his yellow eyes a gleam of cunning and savageness as un-lamblike as it possibly could be.


As long as anyone was near he crouched sullen and cowed in his shelter-box, and it was a full hour after being left alone before he ventured to look out.


My window now took the place of the hollow basswood. A number of hens of the breed he knew so well were about the cub in the yard. Late that afternoon as they strayed near the captive there was a sudden rattle of the chain, and the youngster dashed at the nearest one and would have caught him but for the chain which brought him up with a jerk. He got on his feet and slunk back to his box, and though he made several rushes later, he so gauged his leap as to win or fail within the length of the chain and never again was brought up by its cruel jerk.


As night came down the little fellow became very uneasy, sneaking out of his box, but going back at each slight alarm, tugging at his chain, or at times biting it in fury while he held it down with his fore paws. Suddenly he paused as though listening, then raising his little black nose he poured out a short quavering cry.


Once or twice this was repeated, the time between being occupied in worrying the chain and running about. Then an answer came. The far-away Yap-yurrr of the old fox. A few minutes later a shadowy form appeared on the wood-pile. The little one slunk into his box, but at once returned and ran to meet his mother with all the gladness that a fox could show. Quick as a flash she seized him and turned to bear him away by the road she came. But the moment the end of the chain was reached the cub was rudely jerked from the old one's mouth, and she, scared by the opening of a window, fled over the wood-pile.


An hour later, the cub had ceased to run about or cry. I peeped out, and by the light of the moon saw the form of the mother at full length on the ground by the little one, gnawing at something, the clank of iron told what, it was that cruel chain. And Tip, the little one, meanwhile was helping himself to a warm drink.


On my going out she fled into the dark woods, but there by the shelter-box were two little mice, bloody and still warm, food for the cub brought by the devoted mother. And in the morning I found the chain was very bright for a foot or two next the little one's collar.


On walking across the woods to the ruined den, I again found signs of Vixen. The poor heart-broken mother had come and dug out the bedraggled bodies of her little ones.


There lay the three little baby foxes all licked smooth now, and by them were two of our hens fresh killed. The newly heaved earth was printed all over with tell-tale signs, signs that told me that here by the side of her dead she had watched like Rizpah. Here she had brought their usual meal, the spoil of her nightly hunt. Here she had stretched herself beside them and vainly offered them their natural drink and yearned to feed and warm them as of old; but only stiff little bodies under their soft wool she found, and little cold noses still and unresponsive.


A deep impress of elbows, breasts, and hocks showed where she had laid in silent grief and watched them for long and mourned as a wild mother can mourn for its young. But from that time she came no more to the ruined den, for now she surely knew that her little ones were dead.


Chapter Five


Tip the captive, the weakling of the brood, was now the heir to all her love. The dogs were loosed to guard the hens. The hired man had orders to shoot the old fox on sight, so had I, but was resolved never to see her. Chicken-heads, that a fox loves and a dog will not touch, had been poisoned and scattered through the woods; and the only way to the yard where Tip was tied, was by climbing the wood-pile after braving all other dangers. And yet each night old Vix was there to nurse her baby and bring it fresh-killed hens and game. Again and again I saw her, although she came now without awaiting the querulous cry of the captive.


The second night of the captivity I heard the rattle of the chain, and then made out that the old fox was there, hard at work digging a hole by the little one's kennel. When it was deep enough to half bury her, she gathered into it all the slack of the chain, and filled it again with earth. Then in triumph thinking she had gotten rid of the chain, she seized little Tip by the neck and turned to dash off up the wood-pile, but alas only to have him jerked roughly from her grasp.


Poor little fellow, he whimpered sadly as he crawled into his box. After half an hour there was a great outcry among the dogs, and by their straight-away tonguing through the far wood I knew they were chasing Vix. Away up north they went in the direction of the railway and their noise faded from hearing. Next morning the hound had not come back. We soon knew why. Foxes long ago learned what a railroad is; they soon devised several ways of turning it to account. One way is when hunted to walk the rails for a long distance just before a train comes. The scent, always poor on iron, is destroyed by the train and there is always a chance of hounds being killed by the engine. But another way more sure, but harder to play, is to lead the hounds straight to a high trestle just ahead of the train, so that the engine overtakes them on it and they are surely dashed to destruction.


This trick was skilfully played, and down below we found the mangled remains of old Ranger and learned that Vix was already wreaking her revenge.


That same night she returned to the yard before Spot's weary limbs could bring him back and killed another hen and brought it to Tip, and stretched her panting length beside him that he might quench his thirst. For she seemed to think he had no food but what she brought.


It was that hen that betrayed to my uncle the nightly visits.


My own sympathies were all turning to Vix, and I would have no hand in planning further murders. Next night my uncle himself watched gun in hand, for an hour. Then when it became cold and the moon clouded over he remembered other important business elsewhere, and left Paddy in his place.


But Paddy was "onaisy" as the stillness and anxiety of watching worked on his nerves. And the loud bang! bang! an hour later left us sure only that powder had been burned.


In the morning we found Vix had not failed her young one. Again next night found my uncle on guard, for another hen had been taken. Soon after dark a single shot was heard, but Vix dropped the game she was bringing and escaped. Another attempt made that night called forth another gun-shot. Yet next day it was seen by the brightness of the chain that she had come again and vainly tried for hours to cut that hateful bond.


Such courage and stanch fidelity were bound to win respect, if not toleration. At any rate, there was no gunner in wait next night, when all was still. Could it be of any use? Driven off thrice with gun-shots, would she make another try to feed or free her captive young one?


Would she? Hers was a mother's love. There was but one to watch them this time, the fourth night, when the quavering whine of the little one was followed by that shadowy form above the wood-pile.


But carrying no fowl or food that could be seen. Had the keen huntress failed at last? Had she no head of game for this her only charge, or had she learned to trust his captors for his food?


No, far from all this. The wild-wood mother's heart and hate were true. Her only thought had been to set him free. All means she knew she tried, and every danger braved to tend him well and help him to be free. But all had failed.


Like a shadow she came and in a moment was gone, and Tip seized on something dropped, and crunched and chewed with relish what she brought. But even as he ate, a knife-like pang shot through and a scream of pain escaped him. Then there was a momentary struggle and the little fox was dead.


The mother's love was strong in Vix, but a higher thought was stronger. She knew right well the poison's power; she knew the poison bait, and would have taught him had he lived to know and shun it too. But now at last when she must choose for him a wretched prisoner's life or sudden death, she quenched the mother in her breast and freed him by the one remaining door.


It is when the snow is on the ground that we take the census of the woods, and when the winter came it told me that Vix no longer roamed the woods of Erindale. Where she went it never told, but only this, that she was gone.


Gone, perhaps, to some other far-off haunt to leave behind the sad remembrance of her murdered little ones and mate. Or gone, may be, deliberately, from the scene of a sorrowful life, as many a wild-wood mother has gone, by the means that she herself had used to free her young one, the last of all her brood.

~Snack Time & Break

~Crafts


Felting a Mouse


It is moulded around your finger, so it ends up with a hold inside for gentle, finger puppet. A wonderful, soft, friend for the nature table too.First wrap some carded wool quite tightly around your pointer finger, laying some pieces down in different directions as you go along. When it’s quite thick, you can wet-felt it.Use a small bowl full of hot water, and some soap and wet the wool still on your finger, and work it vigorously with your other hand. You can always add smaller pieces of carded wool on top as you wet felt to fix really significant folds/ridges. Once you’re done, rinse the wool piece (still on your finger) in cold water, squeezing out the excess, and take it off your hand to dry standing up (open side down) overnight.


Next use scissors to cut off a narrow strip along the bottom: this not only makes the bottom edge straight, but gives you a narrow piece you’ll use for making the tail, and ears.Using most of the piece you’ve just cut off, needle felt a long skinny tail, and then attach it well (using needle felting) just inside the rim at the base of the mouse. Then take the remaining piece, divide it in half or so and fold up each smaller piece to make a sort of rounded ear. Needle felt those discs separately, then use the needle to attach to the top of the mouse’s head. You can use tiny wisps of black or darker brown (or even white) wool to needle in the eyes and nose tip.


And you have a mouse! And what a sweet mouse she or he is!

mouse

Gods and Giants, Summer Term, Block Four, , The Human Being and the Animal Kingdom


Day Eleven


~Welcome the Day


~Recorder Practice


~Morning Exercises


Reading & Reading Diary & Book Reports

~Main Lesson


The Bear


Bears are amongst the most dangerous of all creatures. Apart from the Chinese Giant Panda, who lives on bamboo shoots, all bears are carnivorous (flesh-eating).


They are heavily built and have a large head with surprisingly small ears and eyes (with poor eyesight). Their sense of smell is extremely keen. Their paws are huge and powerful and can kill enemies with one blow.


The largest is the Polar Bear; it stands ten foot tall and weighs more than half a ton.


Then there is the Grizzly Bear, who is also called the Brown Bear and the Kodiak Bear. He lives in North America, Europe and Asia. The females give birth to two or three cubs in their winter den. Grizzlies live on almost anything: spring shoots, autumn fruits, fish, animal flesh, and honey taken from the bees’ nests.


And then there is the Black Bear, a skilful tree-climber and fast runner (he can run as fast as 25 miles per hour). American Black Bears live in the forests and National Parks. They are not completely black, but dark or reddish brown. Only the Asian Black Bear is truly black.

Remember all that we said about the elephant yesterday, and write the following:


THE ELEPHANT


When one faces an elephant, one is surprised with the size of its trunk, its tusks, and its ears. The elephant’s body is so thick and large that the sensitive trunk and ears appear to belong to another creature.The trunk can smell the presence of an enemy, or food from a long distance away, and it can suck up water or dust for the elephant’s toilet or other creature’s harm.The elephant has a very good memory; an offence or kindness of many years ago, will be remembered and dealt with. The memory of an elephant can be likened to that of the human being, and man can learn from the animal wisdom.

Elephant

~Story Time

Read pages 87 to 91 (from Charles Kovacs’ book ‘The Human Being and the Animal Kingdom’.

~Snack Time & Break

~Painting

The Bull

Begin your painting with a lemon yellow wash. Then paint the grass with Prussian blue, leaving the shape of the bull yellow. On a piece of scrap paper, make some brown with orange and blue, and paint he bull with it.

Bull