Kalimera (Hello in Greek)

Today was a very productive day in the classroom!

We started off with homophones this morning and we discovered that there are plenty of words in the English language that sound the same but have different meanings.

• A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but it is spelt differently and it has a different meaning (Example: 'flour' and 'flower')

It can be a little confusing at times but the girls seem to have mastered it and have a fun crossword of homophones to complete at home. I came across this poem a little while ago and it does explain why the spelling of English words can be so complicated sometimes! (It is a variation of the poem entitled "Chaos" by Gerard Nolst Trenité)

The English Language

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead -
For goodness sake don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose -
Just look them up - and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart -
Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I'd mastered it when I was five!

Ons het ook ons onvoorbereide mondelings vandag gedoen en hulle was almal baie goed. Die leerlinge het interessante woorde onder die tema "Buitekant" gekies, soos 'Somer', Die Tuin', 'Die Strand', en 'Blomme'.

During our double Science lesson we learnt a little more about Earth and its movements. There are two ways in which it does this:

• It rotates on its own axis (an imaginary line that runs through the middle of the Earth and is tilted at a 23,5 degree angle). This takes 24 hours and results in day and night.
• It revolves around the sun. This takes 365 and a quarter days (one year) and results in the four seasons.

It is quite a difficult concept to understand, especially when using lots of different-coloured lines on the board, a stress ball and various volunteers spinning and turning around each other to act like the sun and the Earth! So, we needed to visit 'youtube' (http://www.youtube.com/) to watch a few video clips. It was much easier to understand when we could see the movements of the Earth from space. Now that's some cool Science!

There are plenty more available to watch, so click on the following links to learn a little more about day, night and the seasons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9hawBb3wbk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8ZXdP635N4&feature=fvw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuiQvPLWziQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taHTA7S_JGk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni7S0PMMaZw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IinlmnaZ0Tc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEe8vzJjj3M&feature=related

We also started our new History module today...Ancient Greece. We loved learning about Ancient Egypt last term, but as Haseena pointed out, the ancient Greeks seem even more exciting with their interesting influences and inventions. We only covered the location and build of Greece today. Greece is a country made up of lots of little islands and peninsulas, so it is surrounded by sea. For this reason, the ancient Greeks spent a lot of time on the ocean and travelled far and wide to trade in goods as well as ideas. We have lots more to learn. Visit the following websites if you want to learn some interesting facts about Ancient Greece:

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/
http://greece.mrdonn.org/

Interesting Fact: Last week, we learnt that the climatic region in which we live is called the Mediterranean region. It was given this name as we experience a similar climate to the places in the Mediterranean area...probably much like Greece.

A busy day, but we certainly know a lot more than we did when we arrived at school this morning!