The Girl

I loved reading stories but my master was wanting me to be a slave. I was not so sure, yet he was my master. I begged to give me back my book but the more I begged him the more he refused. Which made thing a lot worse. He put the book in a drawer and locked it up, and demanded me to make the furnaces hotter. I worked and I worked!

A few months later..

Oh I wish I didn't need to sweep the chimney again.  GRR!

Oh stupid clod… hey what about my hair clip. Why yes, that's how!!!...

Holiday Signs

This huge sign board (left) at Toulouse Airport tells you what you can get, and do, in the boarding area of the airport.  It would be useful if there was a toilet sign too.  No matter what language somebody speaks they must surely understand these pictures.







This lock sign (left) is often used for staff members at the airport to access high security areas which are non-accessible to the public.  Staff members need to swipe their identity badge in front of the key sign to enter.





This sign is occasionally found on beaches.  Weston-Super-Mare is famous for having this sign and for its treacherous sinking mud flats.  Each year at least one or two victims are claimed by the mud.  I think anyone who ignores this sign must be crazy!!!

Smoking and Fire

These signs show you that there are fire extinguishers near by.

 This no smoking sign is often found at petrol stations because petrol is very flammable.

This fire alarm is to make sirens go off everywhere in the building.

The Monster

In the novel Varjak Paw, by SF Said and Dave McKean, Varjak needs to find a dog, which he has heard is big, like a monster. Only problem is, when he sees cars, he assumes those are dogs. We wrote poems about what these dogs seemed like to him:

Some of us made slideshows of our poems:

Curious Japanese Numerals

My Mummy worked in Japan when she was younger and I am getting interested in it.

Japanese has numerous different ways to count, but the most commonly taught in primary school Japanese classes are the Japanese pronunciations of Chinese numbers. Two sets of pronunciations for the Chinese numbers exist in Japanese: one is based on Sino-Japanese (on’yomi) readings of the Chinese characters and the other is based on the Japanese Yamato kotoba (native words, kun’yomi readings).

The most typical way to teach Japanese numbers to young children is using the ‘on’yomi’ way of reading numbers.  Here they are below.

To me the numbers look like words, each has a straight line or more than one.   Number six looks like a man, number eight looks like a wigwam and four looks like a house without a roof or a door.

Here below are the numbers one to ten thousand.

A hundred looks like an airport radar.

Do they paint them with a small brush or a big brush? 

The Mysterious Electric Ghost

Once upon a time in a house in Lokahama in the forest of Oh Wa Hoh there was a see-through house with see-through furniture and a clock which told the wrong time in December.  The ghost is called Marcus and he spells it like this: marcus .  He can slither through everything and become invisible but cannot fly through clouds and through running water. A bad professor came to his house and was killed by Marcus’s strong electric shock. Marcus is kind-hearted, friendly and loves tea parties. He is always cheerful and adorable when he is at the parties.  Everybody likes him.  He loves sewing cuddly toys of himself.             

                             

Felix's 16-hedron

Felix made a 16-hedron out of just triangles.

Here's another picture of it, form the Internet:

All of the faces are triangles. We wondered what kind of dice it would make. Would it be fair?

We weren't sure. There are eight faces at the end, like a pyramid and eight round the middle. Would the dice land on the end ones and the middle ones equally? 

Felix knew. He showed us that the shape would not stay on the end triangles; it overbalances.

Apparently, Felix's shape is one of eight "deltahedrons" - solid shapes made of these triangles that can land on any face separately. We're searching for the others...

4G's Hundred Word Stories

We've been writing some hundred-word stories. We looked at Paul Klee's A Young Lady's Adventure, and noticed all sorts of things. Then we made up stories, all different kinds of stories. Some of our stories are going to be continued later, some finish in exactly a hundred words!
(You can see 4B's ones here.)

How many flowers are there?

Can you estimate how many Buddleia flowers are on here?  We planted it to feed butterflies and insects in our pool garden.

Click here to find out how I estimated the answer...

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill was British prime minister from 1940-1945 and again between 1951 and 1955.

He was best remembered for successfully leading Britain though World War Two.

He was famous for his inspiring speeches, and for his refusal to give in, even when things were going badly.

Leaf Haiku

Yellow like lemon

Torn and uneven, ripped, holed

Rippled like water.

My estimate for my estimation challenge

Imagine a circle on just a quarter of the flowers
Count the flowers in the circle... there are about fourteen

Times by four for the whole picture
DON'T forget to double it for the other side of the plant!
Answer... about 112 flowers!

Back to the question