Lost in Space

Good cosmodog :)

FOUR LEGGED ASTRONAUTS: This morning we read "Hedgie Blasts Off," which Christian scored at Goodwill for 99 cents a few days ago. The book is about a hedgehog who works maintenance at Star Lab where, through a series of far fetched events, he is promoted to astronaut. Hedgie rockets to a faraway planet where space tourists have accidentally plugged up a showy volcano by throwing coins into it.

Faced with fixing it, Hedgie remembers something he'd seen a professor do involving a cork and a bottle and figures he could become a hedgehog cork, cause the volcano to build up pressure and help the volcano blow the coins out. (FYI Hedgie appears in a number of books by author/illustrator Jan Brett.)

When we finished to book we talked about the fact that it was a work of fiction. However, I let the kids know that non-human animals have, indeed, rocketed into space, starting with Laika.

We moved from the couch to the computer, where I had several Web pages cued up all about Laika, the canine astronaut who was launched into orbit on Nov. 3, 1957.

After reading up on Laika, we talked about the differences between fiction (Hedgie) and fact (Laika) - although I pointed out that some of the Laika 'facts' from the U.S.S.R. were fiction, as was often the case during the space race.

I then gave the kids the choice between writing about Laika's story or the Hedgehog book. They both chose Laika.

CJ wrote, "There is a dog called Laika. She went into space. She survived for four days. Russia lied that Laika survived (longer)."

Annabelle wrote, "Laika is a dog. Poor Laika lived only 4 days (in space). Laika was an astronaut. Laika had to be cage trained."

BALANCING ACT: The kids started a new science unit this afternoon - it's about balance and motion. They spent most of their hour experimenting with a a cardstock crawdad and two clothespins. The trick was to try to get the crawdad to balance on your finger on his side, his tail, his nose, etc., using the clothespins as counterweights. After class, we headed to the library, where the kids hung out with some classmates and played with the PhotoBooth feature on the iMacs again.

Today, CJ was creating characters from his face. Once when I walked by it looked like he was in a windtunnel. He was talking in a low/foreboding voice, saying something about being the master.
I asked him what his character's name was and he said "God of Death."

That's about as foreboding as one can get, I'd suppose ...

THE COUNTDOWN'S ON: Tonight after dinner, CJ reminded me it was time for them to start opening up the little windows on the chocolate advent/countdown to Christmas calendars. Man, December has come quickly this year.

I LEAVE YOU WITH THIS: I can't even remember how I stumbled across this at about 6 this morning, but boy did it capture my attention. It's a fascinating-sometimes mortifying-spot on verbal 'essay' delivered by Sir Ken Robinson, a world-renowned education and creativity expert to the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce about the current educational paradigm - and what's so woeful about it.