Indus River Valley

The Indus River Valley, located in modern-day Pakistan, is bigger than Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia squashed together.

 

Unfortunately, archaeologists have to use a lot of guesswork when studying the Indus River Valley. Why?

 

Nobody has yet decoded the language of the Ancient Indus civilization. So we don't know about their gods or whether they had any. Their language appears pictographic but we don't know what words they represent. Most sentences/words seem pretty short.

 

Also, there seems to be no temples in the ruins of the Indus River Valley. This could mean that they made the temples out of wood, may have worshipped outside, or maybe did not believe in gods.

 

We do know that the Indus River Valley people could make metal, lead, and tin, domesticated camels, pigs, traded with the Sumerians, and wore colorful cotton robes.

 

Like the Ancient Egyptians, the women of this civilization wore lipstick; they lived in houses of one to two stories high with private bathrooms, sewer systems, carts with wooden wheels; and had primitive dentists.

 

We're also pretty sure that they had engineers with mathematical skills who planned out their cities. We know that they have mathematical skills from their system of weights and measures.

 

They had figurines of dancing girls, monkeys, bears, and cows. Swastikas have also been found in designs.

 

During the British occupation of India, the British tore down an entire ancient city just so that they could use the rubble for building railroad tracks.  

 

Nobody knows what really happened to this civilization. There are many theories, but there is a lot of controversy over which of these theories are correct.

Today's Vocabulary

Winsome-- charming

"The girl gave the poodle king a winsome smile, hoping that this would prevent him from decapitating her."

 

Voluble-- speaking a lot, talkative

"Trevor was quite voluble, he would never shut up."

 

Sportive-- playful

"The lion roared in pain as the sportive cub bit him on the tail."

 

Solipsism-- belief that oneself is the only reality

"Arthur's solipsism meant that he treated others as though they didn't exist, which tended to annoy them."

 

Sentences

The five-year-old gave a winsome curtsy immediately after her speech, prompting many of the audience to say, "Oh, isn't that cute!"

 

Beastie was incredibly voluble and chattered on and on about monkeys, sewage disposal, Britney Spears, her role model Bobby Jack, and Katie's hair, even after class was done.

 

The sportive president installed working showerheads above the heads of his unsuspecting cabinet so that he could spray water all over in the name of fun.

 

Masag's solipsism made him ignore other people, even when his brother shouted that Masag's tent was on fire.

Today's Vocabulary

Today's Vocabulary

Svitak, Adora

 

We're going to be continuing the serial we presented on January 11th. Below are today's vocabulary words.

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Ignominious-- disgraceful and dishonorable

"I was quite horrified to discover that my ignominious Uncle Herbert had been invited to dinner."

 

Impecunious-- poor, having no money

"After the stock market crashed, many former millionaires found themselves impecunious."

 

Palisade-- a fence made up of stakes

"The tall iron palisade loomed menacingly around the poodle king's palace."

 

Quagmire-- 1. [literal definition] marsh

                 2. difficult situation

"Adrianna put off her homework for a week and found herself in a quagmire." 

 

Recalcitrant-- Resisting authority or control.

"I tried to make Beastie go to bed at time but she was recalcitrant and through a loaf of bread at my head."

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Below is the continued serial. Go to http://seedsoflearning.blogspot.com/2008/01/today-vocabulary.html to find the previous installment.

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Cornelia poured a jar of smelling salts upon the unfortunate Duchess's face. Hearing the great clatter Cornelia made in this process, the footmen and ladies-in-waiting and the Duke himself all came to see what was the matter.

 

"You're upon the floor with your legs showing, my dear! How ignominious!" the Duke boomed. "Rise at once!" He then turned to Cornelia, who was standing defiantly by the Duchess. "Who are you?"

 

"She is just an impecunious little girl," the Duchess said, waking from her swoon. "Her father is only a peddler and does not make much money. But she wants to smelt our ore!"

 

"What? That's our main source of finance! Take her away, quick!" the Duke said, gesticulating wildly. "You footmen! Take the girl away."

 

The footmen grabbed Cornelia by the arms and began dragging her off, but Cornelia was recalcitrant and began kicking and biting viciously. The footmen agreed to throw her over the palisade. Just as Cornelia went flying over to the other side, her skirt caught on a sharpened stake. Without hesitation, Cornelia made a great leap and tackled one of the footmen.

 

"Give me eighty coins or else!" Cornelia threatened, holding onto the footman by his ankles.

 

"The Juvenile Detention Superintendent has come to inspect the odd behavior of the girl named Cornelia!" an approaching herald said importantly.

 

"You are in no position to make unreasonable demands, young lady!" came Cornelia's father's voice.

 

Cornelia shivered. Now she was in quite a quagmire.

Test Tips: Trigger Words

Trigger words leave you a clue to help you fill in the word that comes after. For example,

 

"You're beautiful, but you're _______"

 

When you see a word like "but," you know that the second half of the sentence will contradict the first.

 

"You're beautiful, and you're ________"

 

A word like "and" lets you know that the second half will agree with the first.

 

When you see a trigger word in a test, make a note of it. Decide whether it will contradict or agree with the first part. For instance, a word like "but" will contradict. A word like "and" will agree.

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Trigger Words:

Although, despite, rather, however, yet, even though, on the contrary, in contrast, not only, and, in fact, indeed even

 

Examples:

"Although he was very intelligent, he slept through most of his exams."

 

"She persevered despite warnings from her parents."

 

"It was not a fancy place; rather, it was a bit rundown."

 

Carthisinidge thought his birthday cake was horrible; however, the guests loved it.

 

She had received a 100 on her exam, yet Anna continued to weep. 

 

Even though he had never read a book, he claimed to be a bookworm.

 

The minister of traffic thought the plans would work wonderfully; on the contrary, they were horrific.

 

The princess was sallow and moody; in contrast, her sister was fair and pleasant.

 

Sir Ethapewrnose was not only brilliant, he was kind.

 

The lady was perky and peppy.

 

The lake appeared tranquil; in fact, the only noise to be heard on its banks were the lightly swishing waters.

 

P'awetra appeared upset, indeed even depressed.

Early Capricacia (My Imaginary Country)

Early Capricacia was extremely mountainous, with mountains dividing the country. In early times, hunter-gatherers assembled in bands to hunt the Capricacian yak, a valuable animal both for its hide and for the meat. They typically attacked the yak by surprise with bare hands, but as the hunter-gatherers advanced they began using tools made of flint. Hunting on the treacherous mountain paths, where the yak wandered, was very dangerous, so women would usually scout ahead to see whether trails were safe or not.

From wooden carvings made by early hunter-gatherers, we can assume that the death rate while hunting was fairly high. Many carvings show figures falling off mountains or being trampled by yaks. As time went on, the yak population decreased. There are multiple theories to explain this; the most likely are that interbreeding caused a strain of yak virus, or the population decreased because of overhunting. Some historians believe both.

Capricacian jackals, fierce predators of the yak, began pursuing the yak over the mountains. Some hunter-gatherers followed the yak and continued a nomadic trek across the borders of Capricacia, but the majority stayed in the foothills and stayed in crude huts of some sort. When these residences were destroyed, most likely from a wildfire, the Capricacians built more permanent residences from rock and mud.

Over time, descendants of the hunter-gatherers who had followed the yak returned. They attacked the “civilized” Capricacians. Realizing the need for defenses, the Capricacians surrounded themselves with giant heaps of manure and sharpened wooden stakes to discourage the enemy from entering. Their war was soon won, and the Capricacians turned to agriculture and livestock.

The Capricacian yak, which had mated with the Ankarran goat, returned over the mountains. The Capricacians began domesticating the yaks, and soon after designed the first chariots. The Capricacians used the yak for milk, meat, and clothing. The tail was used in necklaces and bracelets. Its bones were used for needles.

The Capricacians began making decorative ceramics using mud. One vase, preserved extraordinarily well, is covered in decorative flourishes. The Capricacians also began rudimentary mining, digging shallow holes and finding diamonds, topaz, and gold. They used these resources in jewelry.

Scene from Ancient Egypt

Scene from Ancient Egypt

Svitak, Adora

 

It was a cool day. The breezes from outside blew into the kitchen as fig leaves rustled outside. Ankhar bent down and rubbed dough between his fingers. Ankhar was the baker's assistant's son, and his father truly did all the work. At least this was what Ankhar thought.

 

"Get on with that!" his father said gruffly to Ankhar and Ankhar's friend, Nef. "The time you two spend talking could be spent in better things." Ankhar sighed and jumped on the dough vehemently. His father nodded in approval. 

 

"Your father isn't looking now," Nef said once Ankhar's father had gone. "Do you want to go and see Nefthis?"

 

Nefthis was Nef's sister. She was a servant to the Pharaoh Ramesse's Hittite wife and always had some funny story to tell Ankhar. I wish I could be her, Ankhar thought enviously. All I am is a lowly baker's assistant's son.

Ankhar came back to reality and nodded to Nef. The two jumped out of the dough tub with slow deliberateness and crept along the hallway clinging to the walls. It still smelled of flower buds from last night's feast.

 

"Off! Get off!" They heard shouts down from the hallway. "Nasty thief!"

 

Nef looked pale, but Ankhar recklessly rushed ahead. Four men were trying to wrestle a torn pouch of lapis lazuli from one of the scribes, and barely noticed Ankhar. Shards of glass lay on the floor. Ankhar smelled beer and camel dung and figs.   

 

"What are you doing?" Ankhar exploded, tripping up on the scribe's arm as he skidded to a halt.

 

"None of your business," one of the men said roughly, and put his hand over Ankhar's mouth. Ankhar tore away and raced down the hallway as fast as he could until he slammed into Nefthis.

 

His mind was a jumble of thoughts. He realized that Nefthis was wearing a ceremonial dress and a headdress and that he had knocked a vase of water out of her hand. That meant she was preparing to accompany Ramesse's wife to the temple with holy water--and, as he noticed his father marching down the hallway, that he was in big trouble.           

Today's Latin Roots

Pot -- 1. drink

        2. powerful 

(1. potion, potable 2. potentate, potential, potent, omnipotent, omnipotence)

 

Reg -- King

(Regal, regent)

 

Vol -- Wish

(voluntary, malevolent, benevolent, volition)

 

OUR OWN WORDS MADE WITH LATIN ROOTS

 

Senregphobia-- Fear of old king

 

Potvol-- Drink wish (sort of like eating your words)

 

Potregphobia-- Fear of powerful king

 

Potpyrophobia-- Fear of powerful fire

 

Potvolposphobia-- Fear of powerful fox

 

Potnecrophobia-- Fear of powerful dead

Today's Vocabulary

LATIN ROOTS

 

Vor--eat

(devour, carnivore, omnivorous)

 

Sol-- Sun

(solar, parasol, solstice)

 

Sol-- Alone

(solitude, soliloquy, solo)

 

Spir-- to breathe

(respiration, respire)

 

Sen-- old

(senior, senile)

 

Morph-- shape

(metamorphosis, anthropomorphic)

 

WORDS OF MY OWN MADE FROM LATIN ROOTS

Soltropos-- Turning of the sun

 

Vorcaput-- Eating head

 

Vorvolpos-- Eating fox

 

Vornecro-- Eating dead

 

Vorzoon-- Eating animals

 

Vorzoonphobia-- fear of eating animals

 

Solphilia-- Loving alone

 

Vorpyros-- Eating fire

 

Sensol-- Old sun

 

Solsol-- Alone sun

 

Spirpyros-- Breathe fire

 

Spirsenphilia-- Breathe old love

 

Senmorphphobia-- fear of old shape

 

Solphobia-- fear of sun

cool blog post

Check out this neat post from Jennifer's blog.

activity

Activity 1:

You have an evil twin. It comes in handy sometimes... After all, you can get more stuff done when you assign some tasks to your twin. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out as planned. You told your twin to write a thank-you note to your grandma, and, now, looking at it, you’re not sure your grandma’s going to understand a word of it.

Your mission: translate the following e-mail into grandma friendly terms and send it back to your teacher for review. It’s okay if you change some words or change word order.

Sup G-ma?

Thnx for the cell. It’s frickin’ sweet! Srsly! Now I can make my BFF, Kate, totally jealous. JK! OBTW, I tried to call you to thnk u B4, but the line was busy. Guess you were OTP. IDK when we will make it out to visit B/C mom tells me nothing! LOL! Don’t worry, we’ll be there B4YKI.

TTYL

Today's Vocabulary

 

Pert -- Bold and lively

"pert beauty contestant"

 

Paucity -- Scarcity, lack

"a paucity of intelligence"

 

Rococo -- very highly ornamented

"a rococo palace"  

 

Smelt -- to melt metal in order to refine it.

"smelting ore"

 

Vocabulary Serial

We'll be releasing the following story in installments as we learn new vocabulary words. Check out http://seedsoflearning.blogspot.com to see the latest updates.

______________________________

A pert little girl with a mind of her own, Cornelia marched into the House Rothingford despite her father's warnings.

 

"What in the world are you doing here, my dear?" the duchess of Rothingford asked from behind a pillar. Cornelia knew the Duchess from chapel and answered quickly, 

 

"Just doing some errands for my mother, Lady." The Duchess looked skeptically at Cornelia, but Cornelia did not pay attention. She was too busy staring at the rococo columns of marble and moldings of Cupid along the wall.

 

"What a paucity of manners," the Duchess said to herself as Cornelia drew her fingers in wonder across a statue. "I wonder if that little girl has ever learned proper etiquette." Out loud, the Duchess said, "So what errand brings you here, Cornelia?"

 

"I must get some iron ore to smelt," Cornelia said hastily. The Duchess gasped and put her hand to her heart, looking absolutely terrified.

 

"Oh, please don't touch the ore! Take the statue! Take the pillars! But leave us our ore," the Duchess said, pale white. And Cornelia, afraid that the Duchess would faint, fetched some smelling salts at once.  

Activities

1. Write a new blog post. Describe a recent event or topic that reminds you of a memory.

For example:

Yesterday after school, we drove out to the U-pick orchard to pick apples. My mom likes to get u-pick apples for making apple butter because they are cheaper. I don’t mind going with her—I know it’s for a good cause—apple butter (which is really, really good) and the orchards smell sweet at this time of year. Actually, the smell reminds me a lot of being a little kid when we lived on my Grandpa’s farm, which may be why I like it. Sometimes I miss living in the country.

Constitution for My Imaginary Country

Constitution for My Imaginary Country

Svitak, Adora

Today in class we're creating constitutions for our imaginary country. As you should know by now (hem hem), my imaginary country is called Voledads. Here's the preamble to Voledad's Constitution.

Preamble

To meet the challenges of life as we know it and to create a more organized nation, we the citizens of Voledads declare laws for the benefit of the people. To present a better structure, we do establish laws regarding the common health and education; global trade and foreign relations; defense and the keeping of peace; justice and human rights, to better the lives of every Voledadian person to the very limits of our powers.

 

today's activity

Write to Learn: Constitution

Adora's Activity: The Constitution of....

In Adora's Words: Did you ever feel like laying down the law? Well, now is your chance! Today we're going to create constitutions for our imaginary countries. First, let's review some constitutional basics.

Vocabulary:
constitution-a system of governance that establishes the rules and principals by which a nation, state, corporation, or society is governed.

In other words, the constitution is a sort of map for organizing a government. It states the purpose of a government, explains how the government will be organized, allots certain powers to each branch of the government, and defines the rights and liberties of the citizens.

Activity: Today we will be creating the main body of our country's constitution. We will write our constitution's preamble, or introduction, and write the articles, or the part of the constitution that explains how the government will be organized, and how power will be allotted. Because we are basing our organizational structure on the U.S. Constitution, first take a look at the summary of the articles of the U.S. Constitution.

new blog

I enjoyed reading Kit-kat's blog post about her imaginary country's creation myth on her blog at http://idkschool.blogspot.com/. Her creation myth is inventive while at the same time reflecting some of the themes we discovered in our study of creation myths from various cultures around the world.

Early Capricacian Creation Myths & Pantheon of Gods

The following is a creation myth and a pantheon of gods from the imaginary country Capricacia.

When all the world was young, it was round and soft, and all the planets stood still in the sky. Many thousands of years later, the world froze in the coldness and became brittle. One day, a great noise shook the planets from their positions, a noise so loud that it would keep all the planets moving for trillions of years to come. This noise came from the cracking of the surface of the world. One day later, a star, Cpelckan, shot out of the top of the earth, leaving behind a trail of fire and ice, so that the center of the world was hot, and the North and South poles were cold. The star shot out with such force that the ice at the top of the world, Npthshar, gave birth to organisms of all kinds. Thus the world began.

A Pantheon of Gods and Goddesses

Cpelckan-- After shooting out from the earth, Cpelckan turned into a man, taught the first humans of the earth how to make fire and clothing, then when his mortal self died, he dove to the bottom of the ocean and there began a kingdom of the dead from where he ruled the world.

Npthshar-- The ice. Gave birth to the first organisms and, in human form, came with Cpelckan to the bottom of the ocean as Queen of the Dead.

Lariadf-- The fire. God of war and destruction.

Calandra-- Daughter of Cpelckan and Npthshar, and most beautiful human in the world, who taught the humans how to craft jewelry.

Mcaek-- Son of Npthshar and Lariadf, a very aggressive person, who taught the humans how to make armor.

Capetr-- An idle god, son of Npthshar and a wooly mammoth, very fat, and patron of drunkards.

Qak-- God of complaints, who receives complaints from humans and passes them onto Kjla for judgement.

Kjla-- Goddess of judgment and law. Punishes law-breakers, and beat Capetr with a rod of ice for twenty hours for stealing a vase from Npthshar.

Today's Vocabulary

Posted by Adora Svitak

Vocabulary Definitions

titan a person of colossal stature or achievement

"Mark Twain is a titan of American literature."

zealot someone passionately devoted to a cause

"Adrianna was a zealot about animal rights."

voracious having a great appetite

"The behemoth was voracious and ate Adora and her entire family."

salubrious healthful (good for your health)

"Rundown and sickly, Rita hoped the mountain air would have a salubrious effect on her health."

pugnacious quarrelsome, eager and ready to fight

"The serene eighty year old used to be a pugnacious troublemaker in her youth, but she is softer now."

Vocabulary Exercise - salubrious vs. pugnacious

Mr. Puck Bradley walked down the street with a pipe jammed up his nose and his pants on in the entirely wrong way.

"Bradley, good man! What in the name of all things on earth are you doing in that backwards fashion?" the bartender asked as Bradley stumbled into the tavern.

"What are you talking about? You're only an ol' bartender. How could you know about my highly respected fashion decisions?" Mr. Puck Bradley demanded. "In fact, I don't know how you could even think about it! What's the world comin' to? Somebody ought to get knocked down, tell him right."

"Have some salad to clear your mind," the bartender said, offering Bradley a plate heaped full of lettuce and chard. "You need something or the other. I thought you were nearly dead last night when you had so much whisky."

"Whisky! Ha, that don't do a single thing to this ol' body!" Mr. Bradley said proudly. "Matter of fact, I don't know how you could think it!" And with this, he dealt the bartender a mighty punch to the nose.

"To clear your soul of sins, refrain from violence," the bartender said primly.

"Violence! That ain't any violence," Mr. Bradley said, taking a great swig from a fine glass bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. "Ech! This stuff is awful." He hurled the whole bottle against the window, where it took a sizable piece out of the pane and broke into shards on the sidewalk outside. "Hey, you bottle! I ain't takin' any insolence from you!" He began catcalling at the bottle in a most odd manner, and pedestrians began to stare.

"Nor any insolence from you!" Bradley roared, and blindly dealt blows to whoever was within immediate reach of the window.

"Please eat some salad," the bartender pled again, attempting to drag Bradley away from the window. "Breathe deeply." Ignoring the bartender, Bradley tried to grab ahold of the lightbulb and instead fell onto a hardbacked chair.

"Sit straight, don't slump. It's bad for your spine," the bartender cautioned. Bradley snorted like a bull and lifted up the whole chair and hurled it towards the bartender. It missed, instead flying into the wine cupboard and shattering a whole row of bottles.

general/specific

In this activity, we wrote paragraphs using only general words, and then switched off and rewrote each other's paragraphs using specific words. Jennifer rewrote mine.

The lady went through the garden, making movement as people took photos. People tried to stop her path. But no matter their efforts, the lady continued on--that was, until she was stopped by a thing, and fell. The people tried to get her, but she went under them before they could move and began to chew some plants.

Word Identification Strategies- posted by Beastie

Activity: Read for 20 minutes about your topic of expertise. Write down any words you don’t understand, and look them up. Write a blog entry about something new you learned during your reading. In addition, write about the new words that you discovered, and explain their meaning in your own words. Publish your post. As soon as you are finished, take some time to read a classmates’ post.

"Kimi ga yo" Japan's National Anthem,

Kimi ga yo is the Japanese national anthem. Its words are based on Waka, a poem written in the Heian period. It was sung as a melody and written in the Meiji era. The current melody was chosen in 1880, replacing an unpopular melody composed eleven years earlier. The people liked the current one better because it sounded nicer and it had a meaning that the people liked. To most people "Kimi ga yo" is translated to "may your reign last forever." To some people Japan has a lot of nice and cool things, but do you realize that Japan also has the shortest anthem in current use? The orginal lyrics are not a lot different from the hiragana but it is much different from the English and romaji.
Romaji - Kimi ga yo waChiyo niYachiyo niSazare ishi noIwao to nariteKoke no musu made

English - May your reignContinue for a thousand,eight thousand generations,Until the pebblesGrow into bouldersLush with moss.

Hiragana きみがよはちよにやちよにさざれいしのいわおとなりてこけのむすまで

Official lyrics 君が代は千代に八千代に細石の巌となりて苔の生すまで

Vocabulary List of Words I (Previously) Did Not Know

lime·stone –noun
a sedimentary rock consisting predominantly of calcium carbonate, varieties of which are formed from the skeletons of marine microorganisms and coral: used as a building stone and in the manufacture of lime.

pre·fec·ture
–noun
the office, jurisdiction, territory, or official residence of a prefect.

boast1 - to speak with exaggeration and excessive pride, esp. about oneself.

lin·guist - A person who speaks several languages fluently.

syn·the·sis - the combining of the constituent elements of separate material or abstract entities into a single or unified entity

posted by Katie