As the students prepare for the Barton House living history trip, we had a class discussion on popular slang or phrases that people of the time period might have said. Thousands of words and phrases in existence inthe late 1800s have drifted away or
changed their forms.Just as many new phrases have been added or
are being added into our modern day English language every day.
Some of favorite Victorian Slang/Expressions:
Butter Upon Bacon: Extravagance. Too much extravagance. “Are you going to put lace over the feather, isn't that rather butter upon bacon?”
Chuckaboo: A nickname given to a close friend.
Gas-Pipes: A term for especially tight pants.
Start a Jolly: To lead applause.
Students created various classroom skits to showcase these expressions. Classmates had to guess what each student was talking about and how it related to modern day expressions.
(Rain Napper Skit)
Students were not sure how these Victorian phrases ever fell out of fashion, but we propose bringing some back!
Our first field trip this year will be to the Barton House. All gifted students in K-8 grade are invited to join us for this event. Please contact me via my school email if your student did not bring home a permission slip!
As we prepare to do this living history event, students are studying life in America around 1855. Today's lesson involved making a toy from back then, the thaumatrope. A thaumatrope is a toy that was popular in the 19th century. A
disk with a picture on each side is attached to two pieces of string.
When the strings are twirled quickly between the fingers the two
pictures appear to blend into one due to the persistence of vision. Examples of common thaumatrope pictures include a bare tree on one
side of the disk, and its leaves on the other, or a bird on one side and
a cage on the other. They often also included riddles or short poems,
with one line on each side. Thaumatropes were one of a number of simple,
mechanical optical toys that used persistence of vision.
Students will be teaching children visiting the fairgrounds how to make these fun toys!
Our first gifted classes have been rather fun. Students were assigned seats this year. Each of their names were written in a secret code. It took the class under 3 minutes to figure out exactly where to sit! Great job kids.
Information about Diagrammatic or Pigpen Ciphers
A diagrammatic cipher, used by many children in school, substitutes
symbols for letters instead of other letters. This system is, in
essence, the same as the letter substitution system, but it's easier to
remember than 26 randomly picked letters. It uses the tic-tac-toe boards
and two X's as shown below.
The exact origin of the cipher is uncertain, but records of
this system have been found which go back to at least the 18th century.
Variations of this cipher were used by both the Rosicrucian brotherhood and the
Freemasons, though the latter used it so often that the system is frequently
called the Freemason's cipher. They began using it in the early 18th century to
keep their records of history and rites private, and for correspondence between
lodge leaders. Tombstones of Freemasons can also be found which use the system
as part of the engravings. One of the earliest stones in Trinity Church
Cemetery in New York City, which opened in 1697, contains a cipher of this type
which deciphers to "Remember death" George Washington's army had
documentation about the system, with a much more randomized form of the
alphabet. And during the American Civil War, the system was used by Union
prisoners in Confederate prisons
Even though it looks like undecipherable outer-space alien text, this
would take an arm-chair cryptologist only about 10 minutes or less to
figure out. Why? Given enough ciphertext, certain patterns become
obvious. Notice how often the empty four-sided box appears: six times
out of a total of 29 characters or about 20% of the time. This would
immediately indicate that the empty box was almost certainly the symbol
for "E," the most frequently used letter in English. Other letters can
also be determined by their frequency and by their association with
other nearby characters (see "Frequencies"). Almost all substitution
ciphers are open to this kind of analysis.
I am happy to announce that we will be continuing the
tradition of living history at the Barton House on the Bloomsburg fairgrounds
this year.Students in grades K-8 will
have the opportunity to research and learn what it was to be a child in the
late 1800s. They will dress up in period clothes, play games, and hear stories
from the time period. Our unit will culminate with a visit to the Barton House
in Bloomsburg, PA. Students will interact with visitors that day teaching them
all they learned about life in antebellum America. Parents, Grandparents, and
friends of the family are encouraged to come visit your student while they
prefer their living history.
Students in Grades 2nd- 5th grade will
attend the fair on Tuesday September 23rd*
Students in Grades 6th-8th grade will
attend the fair on Wednesday September 24th. Please note attached
schedule. The Barton House does not operate if it is raining out. If the
weather forecast does not look good for one of the days, we will ask that all
students come on the day that does have sunshine. We would call parents the day
before to make them aware of any changes.
Students are asked to wear period style clothing and pack an appropriate bagged
lunch for the day. Students will NOT have permission to visit any attraction at
the fair during our visit at the Barton House. Students will be escorted at all
times to the bathrooms during the day. We plan to leave school at 8:30 and leave the
Barton House at 2:00 to return in time for afternoon dismissal.
If you have any questions or interests in helping chaperone this event, please
email me at school!
We look forward to a wonderful day reliving history!
It is said in Nigeria, “Art is frozen music.” We learned to appreciate this sentiment, when we had a very special classroom visitor.
Yesterday we were very honored to be visited by the United Nations Ambassador of Art from Nigeria, Ibiyinka Alao. Ambassador Alao's artworks are characterized by bright colors and they express many themes including hope, joy, peace and love - a reflection of his West African roots.
Ibiyinka preformed a presentation to our 3rd through 6th grade students at Southern. Students learned songs in his native African Tongue and how to dance. Alao shared his artwork and meaning between each piece.
In between his presentations, he did multiple workshops with our middle school gifted students. The students created a piece of artwork and writing piece. Mr. Alao also took time to answers student questions, and discussed his world travels.
Our greatest lesson learned from the ambassador is to be like the oyster. As you know, a pearl comes
when a bit of sand goes into the oyster. In its discomfort, in its suffering,
the oyster secretes a substance that covers the sand and which eventually
becomes a pearl. If we pour love and respect at people that might irritate or annoy us, we might turn them too into pearls. This global message of caring is one that will stick with us.
Thank you so much for teaching us about Nigeria, Art, Music, and humanity! We will treasure your visit with us always.
Welcome back to school dear students! I am so excited to be working with you all again this year. Last year was such an amazing adventure. I am so proud of everything you accomplished.
This year we will be working on many new projects. We will also be offered to attend some of our annual events such as BTE plays, Computer Fair, STEM Challenges, and other academic events.
We will be starting out our year with a visit to the Barton House. Information about this field trip will be sent home over the next few weeks.
Enrichment classes will resume on September 4th. I am currently working out the schedule with our teachers. Remember to feel free to contact me this year with any questions. This blog serves as window to all the great things that you do.
We had a wonderful time at our "Dinner with the gods" Greek Festival event last week.
Students had spent the last few months researching and learning about classical Greece.
For this event students had to dress up as a character from mythology. We were visited by so many neat figures including Hercules, Apollo, Zeus, Aphrodite, Hades, Medusa..... and even a centaur showed up. We started out our show with a brief play introducing each character. We had a special performance from a few musically talented students before our Greek festival began.
After the play, our students invited their families and friends to play some games. 8th grade created a QR code scavenger hunt and managed the stage performance.
7th Grade worked on golden apple relay races, and all of the decorations for the event. Weary about your future? A visit to our oracle would tell what path you should be on. Our 7th grade gentleman performed at the Dionysus Piano Bar, and gave a presentation on why the planets and constellations are named after various mythological characters.
Sixth grade created the popular shoot the cyclops in the eye game. 5th grade created a hydra game, Spartan Spear Toss game, and a computer quiz that determined what Greek God or Goddess you are most like. 4th grade manned many booths including pin the snake on Medusa, Pegasus Ball, the Labyrinth, and create your own mythological origami. Our youngest students managed the Underworld (keep the grapes away from tantalus), dress like a Greek station, and the Argus lollipop game. We ended the night with a Greek Feast that included items such as spanakopita, baklava, moussaka, and a few lightning bolt cookies.
A huge thank you for all the students and parents for all your hard work and donations. Special thanks to our student coordinators Casey Winters and Emily Wolfe for all their dedication. Without you all we couldn't have had some a memorable night.
