Geography

Volcanoes

Earlier this year we spent a good bit of time investigating volcanoes and how they worked. One thing we did was to build this model from Canon as well as the inevitable Vinegar Volcano.

We had a lot of fun with various aspects of this topic including examining how the world was formed by making a plasticine landscape and filling it with water to watch mountains become island, something that tied in nicely with our sea project.

Another place to that two interests tied together nicely was with the Romans and Pompeii. We plan to revisit this soon as we want to do more on the Romans and also read this book as part of the winter “sofa-ed”

Pompeii: Buried Alive

We are also going to read (again! its already been popular!) a book from Sonlight called Hill of Fire which is about the volcano El Monstruo or Paricutin in Mexico which erupted in a field and grew to a full sized volcano in a matter of days. Its been extremely popular here! (Rather more so than in Mexico i imagine!)

Some books which have been invaluable have been

Incredible Earth (Inside Guides) a truly impressive book which taught me A LOT neverm ind the kids and

Volcanoes Blow Their Tops: And Other… which is part of a series of books that answer great questions. We also used

I Wonder Why Mountains Have Snow on Top:…

and

I Wonder Why the Sea Is Salty: And Other…

My brother is a geologist, (with a volcano fetish) and has spent time with the girls playing with pieces of lava and giving them “guided tours” of volcanoes he has visited. he has promised me photos of his exploits for MuddlePuddle soon. In the mean time, here are some links he found for me.

3D Panoramic views of loads of volcanoes – this is an amazing site.

Italys Volcanoes

Volcano World

A fabulous place to visit is Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. This is a walk through experience of Earth since the dawn of time. i don’t have photos of the exhibits, because it was too interesting to bother but i have fond memories of the shuttle back through time, the incredible explanation of evolution, a huge lump of ice, the rainforest and of course, the play area afterwards!!!!

A great day out, hugely worth the money!

Egypt

These facts come courtesy of my friend Bev – being from Newcastle she has a way of putting things that makes me giggle so much that i left this almost all in her own words… hope you enjoy them – and Bev – I hope for your sake they are true or I’m coming to GET YOU!!!!

*The modern name for Ethiopia comes from the name of the race (not the other way on!) and Ethiopian translates from Ancient Egyptian as “those with burnt faces”

*If you pulled the Great Pyramid of Khufu to bits, you could build a wall 3 metres high around France, and Napoleon sat in its shadow and worked that one out.

*Napoleon once spent the night sleeping in the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid for a bet, and came out the next morning pale, white and shaking. He refused to tell anybody what happened while he was in there. He looked like he was going to on his deathbed, then he said “what’s the use, you’d never believe me” (but in French obviously….) and died.

*There’s a great big lump of natural rock inside each pyramid that forms some of the core to save on building stuff.

*If the cat died the family would shave their eyebrows off and have a week’s mourning. If your RELATIVE died you let your beard grow (for a bloke….I hope….) or cut a lock of your hair off (for a woman) and you didn’t do all the weeping and wailing yourself, you employed a bunch of paid professional mourners who’d tear their clothes, throw dust over their heads, and make that freaky shrieking noise called ululating. I can’t do it so don’t ask.

*If you weren’t married by the time you were 9, you’d be seriously left on the shelf. You’d be some kind of embarassment if you hadn’t had your first kid by the time you were 12.

*Mothers breastfed kids till they were 5. They’d be breastfed one day, and get a job the next…..kids would be employed (like proper jobs!) from about 5 in the fields, picking up grain.

*The pyramids were built without the wheel- that showed up about 1000 years later….people never think of that one….

Mandarin for Kids

Mandarin

Countries Spoken – China and ?; Continent – Asia

With very grateful thanks to Laura who took an enormous amount of trouble over these.

Mandarin is a very literal language and a lot of what you say is explained simply by context and by little ‘add-on’ sounds within sentences that mean it is a question or is referring to something that has already happened etc.For example we would say, “It’s a hot day isn’t it?” The Mandarin would say “Day hot + sound to show it wasn’t hot before + sound to show this was a question”

Mandarin is a tonal language so you have to adjust how you say a word to mean something completely different; For example take the word “qing”

If you say “qing” in a high, level voice it can mean “clean, clear and pure”.

If you say “qing” with your voice rising like a question it can mean “feelings and affection”.

If you say “qing” dropping your voice low and then flicking it up slightly at the end it can mean, “to ask”.

If you say “qing” with your voice falling sharply like giving a dog a bossy command to sit, then it can mean, “to celebrate”

These are the four main tones and then there is a neutral tone, which is as it sounds. When you are learning Mandarin then you write a symbol for the tone over the top of the word so you know how to say it – just be aware if anyone is practising some of these words they may not be saying exactly what they think they are!

Numbers

One	Yi	Eleven	Shi Yi	Twenty One	Er Shi Yi
Two	Er	Twelve	Shi Er	Twenty Two	Er Shi Er
Three	San	Thirteen	Shi San	Thirty	San Shi
Four	Si	Fourteen	Shi Si	Forty	Si Shi
Five	Wu	Fifteen	Shi Wu	Fifty	Wu Shi
Six	Liu	Sixteen	Shi Liu	Sixty	Lui Shi
Seven	Qi	Seventeen	Shi Qi	Seventy	Qi Shi
Eight	Ba	Eighteen	Shi Ba	Eighty	Ba Shi
Nine	Jiu	Nineteen	Shi Jiu	Ninety	Jui Shi
Ten	Shi	Twenty	Er Shi	One Hundred	Yi Bai

The number rule for 21-29, 31-39 etc is as follows…

Rule for twenty and above: number of tens + number

eg. 47 is Si (4) Shi (10) Qi (7) Si Shi Qi
83 is Ba (8) Shi (10) San (3) Ba Shi San

Alphabet

Where N/A is put in, no equivalent to the English exists in this language. The sounds are phonetic.

A	B	C	D	E
	as in Bun	Hard ‘s’ tongue behind the teeth to make a ‘ts’ sound	as in Dog	short as in jerk
F	G	H	I	J
as in Food	as in Good	as in Hut but with a breath out to make it a soft sound	as in bee*	as in Jump
K	L	M	N	O
as in Kick	as in Log	as in Mouse	as in Nice	‘oh’ as in go
P	Q	R	S	T
as in Panda	Hard ‘ch’ with the tongue behind the teeth to make a ‘tch’ sound	very guttural and slightly rolled like a Scots accent	as in Sing	as in Tag
U	V	W	X	Y
as in too**		as in Wing	Aspirated ‘sh’ tongue in roof of mouth to make a ‘hsh’ sound
Z	CH	SH	ZH	Yi
Hard ‘z’ to make a ‘dz’ sound	as in Church	as in Shout	almost as in Jump but with a slight buzz	As in Bee
EI	AO	OU	AI	EN
as in hay	as in cow	as in show	as in tie	as in olden times
IE	IAO	IU	IAN	UI
ee-eh as is bee-enter	ee-ow as in bee cow	ee-oh as in bee go	ee-en as in bee-ben	oo-ay as in too-way

*Except after these Zh, Sh, Z, C, S, R when it is short as is jig

**(except after ‘y’, ‘yu’ is pronounced like “see you jimmy”, when spoken with a strong Glaswegian accent)

Other end sounds are either a combination of the above or as they would be in English but often with a real nasal twang

eg. ‘Tang’ would be a longer nasal sound ‘tahng’

Sounds to practice because they are so similar:

She and Shi

Ji and Qi

Chong and Zhong

Chang and Zhang

Days and Months

January	Yi Yue	Monday	Xing Qi Yi
February	Er Yue	Tuesday	Xing Qi Er
March	San Yue	Wednesday	Xing Qi San
April	Si Yue	Thursday	Xing Qi Si
May	Wu Yue	Friday	Xing Qi Wu
June	Liu Yue	Saturday	Xing Qi Liu
July	Qi Yue	Sunday	Xing Qi Ri
August	Ba Yue
September	Jiu Yue	Morning	N/A
October	shi Yue	Afternoon	N/A
November	Shi Yi Yue	Evening	N/A
December	Shi Er Yue	Night	N/A
Month	Yue (moon)	Week	Xing Qi

In the case of Sunday, Ri does mean Sun rather than being a number.

Greetings

Hello	Ni Hao
Goodbye	Zai Jian
How are you	Shen-ti Hao Ma
Good Morning	Zao Hao

Please is Quig Ni

Thank you is Xie Xie

The old ways of greeting people which go back to when many people did not have enough to eat or clothes to keep out the cold were

Have you eaten yet? Ni Chi Le Mei You

Are You Cold? Leng Bu Leng

Relations

Mummy	Ma Ma
Daddy	Ba Ba
Elder Sister	Jie Jie
Younger Sister	Mie Mie
Elder Brother	Ge Ge
Younger Brother	Di Di
Uncle	Bo Fu
Aunt	Bo Mu
Baby	Ying Er
Grandma	Zu Mu
Grandpa	Zu Fu
Cousin	Tang

Flag of China

Colours

Red	Hong Se
Yellow	HuangSe
Blue	Lan Se
Green	Lu Se
Purple	Zi Se
Orange	Ju Se
Pink	Fen Hong Se
Brown	Zong Se
Grey	Hui Se
Black	Hei Se
White	Bai Se

The word for colour is Se

Size and Shape

Small	Xiao
Large	Da
Tiny	Ji Xiao
Huge	Ji Da
Square	Fang Xing
Rectangle	Chang Fang Xing
Triangle	San Jiao Xing
circle	YuanXing
oval	Tuo Yuan Xing

Directions

North	Bei Fang
South	Nan Fang
East	Dong Fang
West	Xi Fang
Left	Zuo Bian
Right	You Bian
Up	Shang
Down	Xia
High	Gao
Low	Di

Question starters

I have included these but with Lauras rider that they do not translate well, due to changing with situations.

When	Shen-me Shi-hou
Where	He Chu OR Zai Nar
Why	Wei Shen-me
How	Zen Me
Who	Shui de OR He Ren
What	Shen-me Yang

Some China associations and names

– to be expanded!

China Zhong Guo ( means the central kingdom)

Chinese Han Yu ( as in Chinese language)

Chopsticks – Kuai Zi

Panda – Xiong Mao

Rice – Mi Fan

China Resources

Animals of China

Chinese Matching Cards

Simple World Map Outline

China Map Outline

Fantastic Panda Facts

The following facts have been produced by reading SandiegoZoo‘s Panda Site. This site is well worth visiting as it has lots to look at, including a PandaCam!!!!

Pandas are bears, although very different to other types and are classified quite differently by biologiests.

Pandas use chemical scents (smells) to communicate and have the equivalent of noticeboards where they go to “read” messages from each other.

Pandas are quite solitary animals and seem to dislike too much company. A female will climb a tree to avoid a male if she is not interested in him.

There are “about 1000” Pandas left in the World, but no one knows the exact number. There are about 110 Pandas in captivity.

Pandas eat bamboo and each patch of bamboo will only have a few Pandas within it.

Nobody knows why Pandas are black and white – its probably not camouflage as they have no natural predetors but it may be to help them spot one another or their large patch-like eyes may be to ward off other animals by appearing to have larger, more frightening eyes than they have really.

These facts have been gleaned from reading ChinaUnique. This site has some lovely stuff – check out Panda fun and the panda dance. I just giggled!!!!!

The two kinds of Panda are the black and white, or Great Panda and the Red Panda, sometimes known as the Lesser Panda.

In ancient China, Pandas were believed to ward off evil spirits.

There are 15 types of Bamboo but Pandas prefer the shoots.

Pandas do not hibernate because their diet does not allow them to build up fat stores.

The Chinese use the word “Xiongmao” for Panda which means Giant Cat Bear.

The Red Panda lives in China and also in Tibet, Burma, India and Nepal. It is more like a Racoon, spends time living in trees and eats acorns and roots as well as Bamboo.

A couple of panda pictures to colour in or maybe print out on very thin paper so that you can stick them on your window and see the sun shine a panda in at you! This week we are going to make a little panda habitat – i’ll do instructions with pictures when we have played!