Onomatopoeia in Gotham City

We decorated the conservatory with Gotham City for Reuben's birthday.

 Today we made a few more super heroes for the city.

Then I cut out some spiky shapes for the children to write sound words related to the sounds that you would hear in Gotham city.

Onomatopoeia -The use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.

ker-pow, ker-wiz!

Sounds that begin with cl usually indicate a collision between glass or metal, clang, clatter, clink, clank.

Words that end in -ng are sounds that resonate,

bang, clang, ding.

Words that begin with th usually describe dull sounds,

thud, thump.

Fwoosh, whoosh, whizz, whirrr

The sound of the batwing helicopter hovering.

 A very noisy Gotham City!

Onomatopoeia

"Onomatopoeia every time I see ya

My senses tell me hubba

And I just can't disagree.

I get a feeling in my heart that I can't describe. . .

It's sort of whack, whir, wheeze, whine

Sputter, splat, squirt, scrape

Clink, clank, clunk, clatter

Crash, bang, beep, buzz

Ring, rip, roar, retch

Twang, toot, tinkle, thud

Pop, plop, plunk, pow

Snort, snuck, sniff, smack

Screech, splash, squish, squeak

Jingle, rattle, squeal, boing

Honk, hoot, hack, belch."

by Todd Rundgren

World Snooker Championship 2013, Sheffield

Sheffield famous for ...

steel.

But for two weeks each year, 

the cameras move in as Sheffield becomes home to world snooker.

The winter gardens is where the commenters chat between each frame.

The presenters compiling notes ready to go live.

We managed to get to the front and get on Tv!

It was really interesting to see how the program comes together how the cameras move and work. I found the lighting really interesting, blue filters on the lights which shone on the presenters and audience and coloured filters shining on to the plants and surrounding area.

 Display boards showing the match results and prize money.

 Working out places on the World Snooker Tour Structure.

 Outside the chance to play street snooker.

Snookered!

I love home education days like this 

when we see and experience so many things organically in real life.

Dancing in the kitchen...

We always have a favourite song of the moment, a song that we sing at the top of our voices and do wild dance moves to. When the first few lines are played the kids appear and a few minutes of anything goes.



Recently Jessie J price tag came on the radio, that was one our old favourites that's now passed and I realised we'd almost forgotten. So from now on I'm going to try and keep track of our favourite tunes.
At the moment we've got two clear favourites, Bruno Mars - When I was your man and...

As usual we only know one line of Mr B's song!

What are you dancing to at the moment? We' love it if you'd leave a comment or post the song on your blog and we'll come and listen.
Let's get the world dancing!

Peter and the Wolf and The Royal Albert Hall London

Back in March we went down to London. Our first port of call was The Royal Albert Hall for the Schools Classical Spectacular.

Before our trip we introduced Reuben and Rosanna to classical music through Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. Firstly we read the book by Ian Beck. Then we listened to the music.

The Royal Albert Hall.

When The Royal Albert Hall was built the acoustics weren't very good.

It is 41 metres from the top of the dome to the floor.

The acoustics of the Hall were improved in 1969 with the addition of 135 disc shaped mushrooms filled with fibre glass wool which hang from the ceiling.

The classical spectacular combines well known pieces from the classical repertoire with fantastic laser and light displays. 

The concert is performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Band of the Welsh Guards.

Reading and listening to Peter and the Wolf really added to Reuben and Rosanna's enjoyment of the concert. They were able to recognise many of the  instruments and their sounds.

Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss

Other pieces included Liberty Bell by Sousa,  Also Sprach Zarathustra by Strauss, Bolero by Ravel and two operatic songs. The conductor pointed out things to listen for in the music, in the Bolero he pointed out the importance of the drum beat.

 Last night of the Prom style

Pomp and Circumstance No 1 by Sir Edward Elgar

1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky, with cannons

 and fireworks.

An amazing show that I can highly recommend and I hope we get to make a return trip next year.

Here is the link to the  Royal Albert Hall educational resources

From Titus Salt to David Hockney

We passed Saltaire on our way to Haworth back in January, and since then we've wanted to go back and visit.

 Saltaire is a UNESCO world heritage site.

 

  It is named after Sir Titus Salt who built a textile mill 

and the village on the River Aire.

'In 1833, Titus spotted a consignment of Alpaca wool stored in a Liverpool warehouse.  No one else was interested in it but Titus thought it was worth experimenting on.  Alpaca was very difficult to weave but his persistence paid off and he found the wool could be transformed into the finest cloth if woven on a cotton or silk warp.  This was innovative and was the key to his lasting success and immense wealth as a textile magnate.  By the late 1840's Titus had five separate mills, was very rich, and had the means to improve the lives of his workers who were still living in sickening conditions.' 

Source Saltaire world heritage site

 Salt moved his buisness from Bradford out to this new site and built Salt mills.
The mill was a masterpiece of its time and was hugely productive, turning out 18 miles of worsted cloth a day on 1200 looms attended to by 3000 workers.

 

 He also built house for his workers, with a supply of fresh water, sanitation and a gas supply.

The community became self sufficient with its own shops, hospital, school, library, park and church.  There were alms houses for the poor and elderly, public baths and wash houses.

 

We headed for the park, which is by the side of the river. 

 However, the kids didn't want to stay in the park for long, 

as on the way there we'd spotted...

 an ice cream boat!

 The mills were used until 1986 when they finally went out of buisness.
They were bought by Jonathan Silver in 1987, a friend of David Hockney, he thought it would be a great place to exhibit David Hockney's paintings.

 The mill is huge and some parts of it are in bad repair and not used.

Where it has been developed, the inside of the mill is amazing, retaining lots of original features and lots of interesting objects, beautiful books to look at and buy.

 

 Rosanna loved this 'real princess chair'.

 

  An old dentist chair.

 

 Lots of interesting art books by many famous artists and good quality art materials to buy.

There are many David Hockney's works on display, including Yorkshire landscapes, potraits of family and friends and 

Hockney's recent work on ipad and iphone.

 27 foot long pictures of Bessingby Road, Bridlington.

 The shop sells David Hockney poster prints. There are really interesting children's books for sale, many that I'd not seen before. There are also small shops within the mill, one selling gorgeous furniture, furniture which has a price tag with three zeros. We spent so long in the mill that there was no time to explore the village, or church. You can find out more about the mill since 1986.
Saltaire is a small Yorkshire town, but a venue such as this wouldn't be out of place in a capital city.
We left Saltaire feeling like we had had a 'proper' day out, and we will definitely be having another visit, in fact I think it's going to be my new favourite place, replacing Robin Hood's bay.