A brief moment of fame.....

I believe I mentioned before that I have an interest (though sadly not much talent) in photography.  Well, the other day I posted a couple of the photographs that I had taken of our beautiful watercolour paintings, onto a web album.

It was with great excitement that I subsequently discovered a number of people in the outside world have made comments on these photos. 

Not, I have to admit, because there was anything particularly spectacular about my photographs.  No, they wanted to compliment two of our young artists on their talent!

Without further ado, therefore, I will share a screen shot of each so you can see for yourself.

Perhaps when either of these two girls, or indeed when anyone in our rather special class achieves fame (and fortune?) in later life you might remember the all-too-fleeting spell they spent in Class 2i!

Splat!

The day didn't start too well.  The plastiscine was too hard.  And my bright idea of letting it warm gently in the microwave for a mere few seconds turned it into a solid lump!  But fortunately we were able to find a most generous class teacher who had some to spare.

There then followed a therapeutic few minutes of rolling and stretching and squeezing as we found out what our task was to be.

Our question was, 'What happens to the size of the splat (that's what you get when you drop a ball of plastiscine onto the floor) when you change the height from which you drop it?'

This is what we would do:

• roll the plastiscine into a ball

• drop it onto the floor (from three different heights - at arm's length, from a chair.....

and from the desk)

• carefully paint just the flattened part

• squish that onto a piece of paper to print a mark in the shape of the flattened part

In between each drop, make sure you clean the plastiscine - and try not to get too blue! (I think that's Giulia's hand in the photo)

• compare the three 'splat' sizes

Now, what true statement can you make about what you found out?  Maybe using the words

higher

lower

bigger

smaller

will help.

Come with us to the Domaine de Penthes

We have us another map.....

I have a bit of a dilemma.  While I am very keen (having been working on it pretty much ALL day!) to share our latest achievement with you, I want you to promise me that you will try not to peek at it until after we have had a chance to put the previously mentioned Guide Books into action.  Promise?

Right then, here goes: Now that all the writing for the Guide Books is done; now that all the photographs and illustrations have been chosen and drawn; now that all we have to do (all she says!) is turn it from a muddle of loose pages into a set of logically arranged and expertly bound ready-to-use (weather - which at the time of typing is utterly atrocious! - permitting) booklets, it is time, I feel to turn our attention elsewhere.  To maps.live.com

Because, after all the work we did last week marking our chosen places of interest on a rather ancient map of Chateau de Penthes (remember those coloured spots?) I thought it would be an interesting idea to try and make a similar map using an almost up-to-date (I expect you will notice that the tennis courts aren't quite finished in the photo) all-singing, all-dancing online aerial photograph.

And that's where maps.live.com comes in.  I have uploaded the written descriptions prepared by each group, plus a suitable photograph and it is now possible to see Class 2i's Guide to Chateau de Penthes by clicking the link.

Similarly, if you go to the maps.live.com website and search for Chateau de Penthes, when you click on collections, you should come up with a list of places of interest in the area, which includes OURS!  All very exciting, as I am sure you will agree!

How to find all those interesting places in Chateau de Penthes

Today we took a closer look at a map of Chateau de Penthes.

 

Not a particularly good map, it has to be said; but the one that you see posted near the entrance.  Put there so that visitors can find their way around.  We think it was probably originally made from either a drawing or a painting.  And we think that the drawing was probably done some time before 1993.....(More of which later)

Like all good maps, it has a key.....

but that only shows buildings (such as the chateau and the military museum) and the car park.

We agreed that in order for it to be more useful to visitors, it should have a few extra places of interest added.  For example, as well as the chateau.....

we felt others might want to know how to find the tissue tree or where to go to smell the azaleas.

So first of all we compared our Chateau de Penthes map, with an aerial photograph of the same area.

That way we were able to work out fairly well just where all our interesting places were sited.

Once we were confident that we had orientated ourselves correctly, we then set about the task of marking our chosen places of interest on the map with a coloured spot.....

and then making a key so that we would remember what each coloured spot stood for on the map.

 

Once finished, these maps will be put into our guide books, along with

• the map and written directions on how to get there
• the written descriptions and illustrations or photographs of the places of interest

Just before I go, do you remember what I wrote at the start of this post about when we thought the Chateau de Penthes map was originally drawn?  (Scroll back if you have forgotten!)  If you look really closely at it and then compare it with the same spot on the inserted 'Virtual Earth' map, you may notice interesting something about one of the trees.

And here is my final clue.  In 1993 (October 6th, at 10.15 to be precise) there was a huge thunderstorm.  One of the trees was struck by lightning and it exploded, sending a shower of wood chips high and wide (as far as the US embassy, we believe!) 

All that remains is a jagged spiky stump.....

The 'S' word

Deep breath.....SOCCER.  There, I've said it!  FOOTBALL.  Euro 2008.  The beautiful game. 

It's very much in the news, especially, it seems, in Class 2i.  But interestingly from a number of different perspectives.   

First there was Giulia who told us the exciting news that she went to Berne to watch the soccer game between Holland and Italy.  "There were 32,000 people in the stadium and most of them were Dutch fans.  Italy did not score any goals but Holland scored three goals.  The Dutch fans were waving their flags.....

and I think that Italy lost because the best player of Italy has broken his ankle, so he can't play and someone will replace him. 

But I think it is also because Holland was a better team."

Next up Isabella, who tells us, "There's a man called Lukas Podolski.  He comes from Poland but he lived more than 20 years in Germany.  He played against Poland.  He scored the first goal and the second goal;  Poland had zero and Germany had two.

He was crying at the end because he was sad and happy at the same time."  Many of us could empathise with that feeling!

Justin wanted us to know about his team, Switzerland.  "It was Switzerland against Czech. 

It was one zero for Czech and the captain he got hurt and he was the best player and the Czech he laughed - and he got the yellow card."

"How did he get hurt?" asked Rekik.

"The Czech stamped on his foot.  He will be out for the rest (of the tournament)."

"In your body," explains Chris, "you have this thing holding your knee and first of all his leg was twisted and then he fell and one of those (ligaments) ripped."  Ouch!

"He had sticks, like when you have a fracture," Tanmay added.

And finally (how I relish writing those two words this week!) Naoya, who is not Swiss or German or (somewhat) Italian, just happens to live near the hotel where the Portuguese national team is staying.  He saw their bus!  And thanks to a bit of Internet research, so can we!