Have you any rats, mice, polecats, or weasels?

... so goes one of the songs we learned from Shulamit Kleinerman, founder of Seattle Historical Arts for Kids, who visited us Friday to share music, songs and dances from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

We had a great time learning about some different instruments used in those days - the vielle and the viola da gamba. Shula showed us the differences between the vielle and the modern violin - namely the straight back, the "C" holes and the straighter, less curvy body. We learned about the "gut" strings made from intestine, bows made of horse-tail hair, and glue made from hooves used to make these instruments.

We learned a fun dance to a hopping fiddle tune that demonstrated that the "dark ages" were not entirely gloomy and unhappy times, and we learned songs that the town rat catcher and chimney sweep would have sung to advertise their services.

We especially admired the dedication and skill of Shula's two student apprentices, Nick and Tess, two very accomplished young musicians. They were all in town for their weekend performance of the Christmas Revels - I hope some of you got to see the show, because our little preview was wonderful to experience!

Serious Science

      We dived head-long into the scientific process this week, with lots of discussions and experiments related to weather and matter.

       We looked at what air is made of by trapping some air in a glass placed in a bowl with water, lighting a candle and watching the water rise inside the glass, replacing the oxygen, until the candle went out because the oxygen burned away.

      We looked at and learned about the different types of clouds, and crushed a bottle with air (filling it with hot water, capping it, and then pouring ice water over it) to understand how air pressure works and how cold/warm fronts can cause movement in the atmosphere.

      We talked about the states of matter - solid, liquid, gas - and timed how fast we could melt an ice cube. We then refined the experiment into a comparison based on how we could prevent an ice cube from melting using different materials.

     The Spirits, I find, are seriously science-minded! One student said this week was the most fun he had ever had in school. Science IS seriously fun. And to prove it, our joke of the week:

"Never trust an atom. They make up everything."

Up next: watch out, periodic table, here we come!

Dick Whittington and his Cat

      Last week, as an extension of our medieval studies, we went to see the Seattle Children's Theater performance of Dick Whittington and his Cat. This English folktale is based on the real life of Richard Whittington, who lived during the middle ages and was three-times mayor of London. This story was first told in the 1600s, and there are many versions of it. We listened to/watched a filmed reading of one version of the story, then compared that to what we saw in the play. We talked about what makes a story so compelling that people have been telling it for hundreds of years, and talked about how it relates to our overarching concept of "quest," and what other stories we know that follow the same rags-to-riches theme. As an extra added bonus, we also enjoyed a sunny picnic lunch at the Seattle Center and some time playing on the grass!