Exploring the Middle Ages Class Summary 11/24/14

with Kim Rodgers

More Haikus

Today students shared haiku poems that they had finished writing last week. A couple of
examples are below:

Fall
Blowing hair in breeze
Leaves falling on the houses
Yellow leaves fall down

Wolves
Wolves in the winter,
Howling at the moon at night,
Hunt small animals.

Australia and New Zealand

After we shared our notebooking and map work we jumped into our topic of the day: Australia and New Zealand. We learned that nomads, referred to as aborigines due to the Latin words ab origine which means “from the beginning”, inhabited the continent. A day in the life of a typical aboriginal boy probably included a lot of hunting and gathering, as it was so much work just to survive day to day.

During the Middle Ages the Maori came to the islands of New Zealand. It’s speculated that the Maori sailed to New Zealand from out in the Pacific Ocean, possibly the Polynesian Islands. The people here were great explorers and made canoes from all sorts of items found on the islands. It’s possible that they took an extra long trip to make their way to New Zealand, where they named their new home Aotearoa, “Land of the Long White Cloud”.

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What Comes Around Does Not Always Go Around!

In honor of all the hunting the aborigines must have done, we made boomerangs. We learned that a boomerang strikes an object with more force than a stone or stick. Most of the boomerangs we’re familiar with are supposed to return to the thrower, but the ones the aborigines used were shaped like a cross and non-returning. We took two rectangular sticks and used sandpaper to smooth the edges. We formed them in the shape of a cross, similar to the American Red Cross, and secured them with rubber bands. Before trying out our boomerangs we needed to get in the mood. So, the students painted their faces in likeness of a Maori warrior. Outside we tested the launching capabilities of our boomerangs. The wind was whipping up a bit, so it really took our boomerangs for a ride. One even ended up on the roof of the church! Our fierce warriors can take some time to practice with their boomerangs this week. Just make sure they aren’t near anything that is breakable!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I’ll see you on Monday!

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