Part Twenty-Eight--Knights of the Periodic Table 2001-2002

Hail, Knights of the Periodic Table!

Karen, Deena, and I wrote this school year. Deena and I wanted to do a lot of science, especially chemistry and Karen wanted a King Arthur school year because this was her son's last year of school and she wanted to read the Howard Pyle King Arthur books to him. 

We didn't know how to put those two ideas together into one theme but decided to think on it. (Personally I didn't think it could be done, but I didn't worry about it much since I knew Karen was thinking about it). One morning Karen called me and said that while in the shower she thought "Knights of the Periodic Table"!  It was brilliant and it was immediately settled as the title for our school year.

Karen painted my poster for me because I was in the hospital just before school started.

You can't really read the names of the three main components at the bottom of the poster, much less the topics within each one. When Karen drew this year's mind map she decided to make an entire composition, not just parts of a mind map. I liked the effect but we didn't really learn the names of our components and topics this year!   

YEAR OUTLINE

Mini component:

Put on the Whole Armour of God

Warts and Quarts (physical chemistry)

What's a Matta You? (Matter Math)

Elementary My Dear Wart (Elements, Atoms)

Merlin's Molecular Magic (Molecules, Compounds, Reactions)

Jousting Genes (organic chemistry)

Nervy Knightly Nuclei (cells)

Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue? (genes)

Blood and Guts (Systems)

Galahad's Gallant Galactic Gamut, Guaranteed Great!(inorganic chemistry)

Tristan's Terrestrial Tales (Earth)

Black Holey-Grail (stars)

Quasar Quest (Galaxies, universe)

Explanation about the above.

Wart is the name of the young King Arthur, from the novel, The Once and Future King. 

What's a Matta You is from the silly song Shaddap You Face!

(Listen to Shaddup You Face)

What'sa matta you, hey
Gotta no respect, whatta you think you do
Why you looka so sad?
It's-a not so bad, it's-a nice-a place
Ah, shaddap you face!

Of all these silly titles, the only one Karen and I can remember from year to year is the Galahad one. When we were naming the components and topics we were pretty tired one night. It's always best to find kid-grabbing names at about midnight because it brings out the silliness and that's what you need for to loosen up your brain sometimes. We were giggling and being overly silly when we began putting all these 'G' words together.

SONG

The music for our song came from Man of La Mancha's Knight of the Woeful Countenance

I rewrote some of the words--instead of 'woeful countenance' we sang

'periodic table.' This became one of my children's favorite school songs.

We sang it over and over for many years afterwards.

Even Giselle who was only six years old at the time remembers this song very well. 

HOWARD PYLE KING ARTHUR BOOKS and ARTWORK

Karen introduced me to the Howard Pyle King Arthur books. These are the books she wanted to make sure she read to her son before he left home. The language is lofty and the ideas are heroic. If I ever want to read about King Arthur and his knights, these are the books to read.

I used some of the beautiful artwork from these books to house great quotes from the same. Very few of my computer files exist, but I got a lot of use out of the artwork in these books over several years. Here is one of the quotes that I typed out and hung up for us all to read and added to my thought book:

For any man may be a king in that life in which he is placed if so be he may draw forth the sword of success from out of the iron of circumstance. Wherefore when your time of assay cometh, I do hope it may be with you as it was with Arthur that day, and that ye too may achieve success with entire satisfaction unto yourself and to your great glory and perfect happiness. Amen.

I used this knight for the background of lots of school items,

including the poem, scripture and hymn of the week--

This was the first year we learned the Kings and Queens of Britain poem too--

CHARTS

 This is the background of the older kids charts for the year--

Giselle's simple chart

  

The rest of the kids had super-complicated charts. At the beginning of the school year I put these crazy charts together and asked the kids if they were interested in earning money according to the number of points accrued each week. My children already were responsible for paying for half their clothing by the time they were twelve and all their clothing when they turned sixteen. Because they had the chance to earn more money with these charts, they would be responsible for buying everything, including their toiletries. 

They could earn extra points for eating certain amounts of fruits and vegetables, having a good attitude, memorizing the scripture of the week, setting goals for the week, and having lights out by a certain time at night. These were pretty crazy, intense charts, but Hal IV, Chase, and Autumn Heather rose to the challenge.

  

PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD

One of the first things the children this year did was to design their own coat of arms and create a poster board shield. These hung in their rooms for several years.

Autumn Heather designs her shield

I helped Giselle transfer this griffin to her shield and she colored it.

Chase's shield

  

Hal IV's shield

The Bradley breakfast table with school decorations--

Autumn Heather's shield is on the left; a periodic table is next; I think that spiral above Hal's head is a model of DNA, a knight's helmet is to the left of Hal IV's head,

and Chase's shield is on the right.

  
OTHER SONGS

We sang this song and watched the movie it came from. The movie now looks a little corny, but it tells a poignant story about why we have to be vigilant and keep our armor on. I found the movie clip with song here: The Whole Armor of God
(Ancient, Roman-type soldiers are a metaphor for modern day teenagers--we all have to keep our armor on or suffer the consequences)

The Whole Armor of God

1. What soldier enters life’s battle field,
 without a sword, without a shield?
I take my sword and shield each day
 when I kneel down and humbly pray.

2. I take my place in the ranks of youth.
I learn his word and I live the truth.
Prepared to do my part in this war.
I know what it is I’m fighting for.
With helmet in place, with sword in hand;
With the shield of faith, we are worthy to stand,
With the gospel of peace our feet are shod.
Valiant and strong in the armor of God.
We have on the armor of God

3. Sometimes I stumble beneath the blow.
 My heart grows troubled my courage
When fear whispers that I cannot win.
I put on His strength and rise again.
With helmet in place, with sword in hand;
With the shield of faith, we are worthy to stand
With the gospel of peace our feet are shod.
Valiant and strong in the armor of God.
We have on the armor of God.
With helmet in place, with sword in hand;
With the shield of faith we are worthy to stand.
With the gospel of peace our feet are shod.
Valiant and strong in the armor of God
We have on the armor of God.

Text:  Steven K. Jones

Music:  Merril L. Jenson

I recently found these songs as part of the ones we memorized that year:

 

THE PERIODIC TABLE

Hal IV, Chase, and Autumn Heather made a periodic table of elements poster.

I probably read to them while they put these together.

INQUIRIES/EXPERIMENTS 

  

The kids did several experiments individually and as a group. We did these first experiments on Twinkies. I don't think I ever bought Twinkies for my kids prior to this, so the kids were probably excited to try out the experiments and have some Twinkies left over to consume.

T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. stands for Tests With Inorganic Noxious Kakes In Extreme Situations.

You can find the Twinkies Project here.

  

Some of the experiments with the Twinkies were the radiation test, rapid oxidation test, solubility test, and the maximum density test.  

Chase, Autumn Heather, Giselle, Hal IV 

 

 

 

 

Another day of chemistry--experiments around the Kindrick table--

Autumn Heather and Ashley

 

Hal IV, Will, Chase

 

 

Giselle

Chase and Karen

  

We found some other fun science resources that year and experimented with several things. The kids shared their findings at various times and also gave formal presentations to our family.



  

  

  

 

 

  

  

MISCELLANEOUS

I took a few more photos this year than during other years,

otherwise I probably wouldn't remember all the things we did.

Chase and Autumn Heather 

Autumn Heather made this poster for our vocabulary, and we added to it through the year

I found this paper in my school binder and remember that we went through

"Seven Habits of Highly Effective Knights" together this year.

For writers' workshops I would sometimes write onto a white board a paragraph of a book we were reading or some key points. Instead of writing the sentences out exactly, I would misspell words and put in the wrong punctuation. Then the kids who were old enough to participate would each get a marker and take turns finding and correcting the mistakes until the sentences were corrected. I tried to trip them up and they loved the challenge! This was a fun group activity that taught skills as well as content.

TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

One aspect about this year that I must mention is the fact that even though I was the teacher, one of my pupils outstripped me in the subject of science. I remember coming out to the living room with a poster board of key points, but while I was going over these with the kids Hal IV taught us more about the subject I was sharing than what I knew at the time. He knew more just off the top of his head than I did after some study. This might seem incredible because by that time I had taken university biology and chemistry and my fourteen year old son still knew more about some of this than I did!

I should have handed the entire year over to him then and there, but at least he was able to enhance our learning that year. I don't think I ever really attempted to teach him much after that!

FIELD TRIPS

At the end of the year we went to the Renaissance faire, but this is the only photo I found. My lens was smudged but I didn't know what was the matter at the time. I have videos of the day but this is the only photo of some knights on horseback at a joust.  We had a great time all the same. 

Several times this year we went as a family to the Fleet Science Center in San Diego. Before school began we went there are a family and bought a year pass because I knew we were going to have a science year. This first trip to San Diego and the one at Christmastime that year, began our family's tradition of going to San Diego at Christmas time. 

Hal IV

Giselle

Chase

Hal, Jasmyn, Autumn Heather

  

Hal, Jasmyn, Giselle, Chase

Chase and Hal IV

Giselle and Hal



We had a lot of fun with all the science that year, but the most important message I wanted my children to learn was embodied in the song we sang almost every school day:

Oh, valorous knights go and fight for the right and battle all villains that be.

Clad in armor of God, holding fast to the Rod you're worthy of great victory!

Hail, Knights of the Periodic Table! Knights of the Periodic Table!

Wherever you go, people will know of the glorious deeds of the

Knights of the Periodic Table!