&&000 CANADA SCHOOLBOOKS Jan 2004 CA90304.TXT 3RD GRADE, 1990S EDITED BY DPH 1-17-2004 RE-EDITED BY DPH fixing Residual errors + 3/21/04 Re-edited 22 June 2005 &&111 Dear Diary, I'm writing to you now because I may not get another chance for a while. Dark clouds like I've never seen her coming in fast I know =Dad is worried because all the before are have been reefed that means made smaller to our =Sony shortwave radio for weather rep keeps listening ports. Dear Diary, I know it has been a long time since I wrote to you, but I couldn't see for almost a week. That's because I touched a medicine patch I was wearing and got some of the medicine in my eyes. Boy, I hope I never go through that again! Luckily the problem only lasted a week, and it wasn't permanent So, now I'll try to remember all the things that have happened lately. The best news is that =Charlie now has a friend. He was getting very lonely before and driving me crazy. Now we have a pet albatross following us. =Charlie has named him "=AlbertTrossie." He does wonderful tricks in flight especially for food, so we throw him all our edible garbage. =Charlie and I looked up "albatross" in our bird book. We discovered that these birds can live a long time at sea and are well known to oceangoing vessels. Albatrosses need strong air currents to fly and have incredibly long wings. They have been found as far away as =3200 kilometers from their babies-that's as far away as the distance between =Whitehorse and =Vancouver! The book also says that they nest on land in shallow grooves of mud or soil. Both the males and females incubate and feed their young. Albatrosses convert food that they eat into an oily substance in their stomachs so that it can be stored without deterioration for long periods of time. =Yuck! When albatrosses choose their mates, they do a spectacular courtship dance in flight and stay with that mate for life. So I guess that's why =Charlie spends his entire day on deck with =AlbertTrossie. =Albert's chosen =Charlie! "I know, but never mind! You can't guess! An automobile is coming through our town, and it will go right on to yours after!" "What?!" =Mary shrieked. Her father and brothers had been talking about automobiles for the last few months, so she knew what they were. A neat new invention, her papa had said, using some kind of engine to drive a little cart over the road with nothing pulling it. No horses of any kind. "When? Do you know what time?" =Mary asked, very excited. "About noon. It should be through your town around noon," =Iris said. "Got to go, Mrs =Cabots is ringing." =Iris rang off, and =Mary immediately began making phone calls. This was important. She had to warn the whole town. By noon everyone who could walk lined the streets. There were little kids, one of them her grimy little sister. =Mary had found one of her brothers in the general store and told him to go home and tell =Mama and =Papa, so her family wouldn't miss out on the sight. Shopkeepers had closed their businesses to watch the thing go by. More Incredible Inventions The compass was another important =Chinese invention. =Chinese scientists learned that a kind of rock called lodestone did a very strange thing. If a small bar of it was hung from a string, it would always turn until it pointed north and south. Then someone fastened a bar of lodestone to a bit of wood and floated it in water. It did the same thing. So did a steel needle that had been rubbed with a piece of lodestone. The =Chinese had found a way to tell direction, no matter where they were on land or sea. Paper money and printing block The =Chinese used paper in all sorts of ways. They invented wallpaper, and also made clothing and even armor out of paper. They also invented the process of printing words on paper using type-little blocks of wood or metal with symbols carved on them. The blocks were brushed with ink, then pressed on rolls or sheets of paper. The =Chinese also invented the world's first printed paper money. This new kind of money was so light that a breeze could blow it away. So the =Chinese called it "flying money." Floating compass We stop only to grab a bite-sweet potatoes and corn cakes that =Papa has brought along in his coat pocket. As I eat every crumb of my meal, I stare at the white mountain. Salt is heavy and rough. The shiny white crystals leave cuts on your hands, your arms, your legs, the soles of your feet. My arms ache from lifting the shovel, but I do not think about the pain there. I think about the hunger still in my head-reading. I have seen some people, young and old-do it. I am nine years old and I know, if I had a chance, I could do it, too. I think there is a secret in those books. In the chill of the evening, I follow =Papa and =John back up the road, stopping to catch a frog. The frog wiggles and slips, but I hold on tight and let go when I want to. Morning chores Together, Father and =John milked the cows, cleaned the calf pens, and fed the livestock. After giving his pet calf a quick pat, John returned to the house for breakfast. John takes a moment to pet his cow, =Daisy. =Daisy wonders if John has a tasty treat hidden in his hand. A hearty breakfast In the kitchen, =Mother and sister =Emily bustled around the fireplace preparing breakfast. Soon =Father came in, and the family sat down to a hearty breakfast of sizzling bacon, fried potatoes, hot buckwheat pancakes with sweet maple syrup, fresh bread and preserves, and donuts. Time for school =John and =Emily took the lunch box that their mother had prepared for them and walked the half-hour trek to school. There was a spelling bee that day, and =Emily's team won, as usual. No one could spell as well as =Emily. =John was happy when the day was over because he hated to see =Emily gloat! More chores After school, =John enjoyed helping =Father care for the animals. He spread fresh hay in the stalls of the cows, oxen, calves, pigs, and sheep so the animals could have soft, clean beds. He fed the animals and milked the cows. Finally, it was time for dinner. Settler children did adult work such as caring for the oxen. muslin bag. =Pettranella opened it and looked inside. "There are seeds in here!" she exclaimed. "There is a garden in there," said the old lady. "Those are flower seeds to plant when you get to your new home." "Oh, I will take such good care of them," promised =Pettranella. "And I will plant them and make a beautiful garden for you." So they left their homeland. It was sad, thought =Pettranella, but it was exciting, too. Sad to say goodbye to everyone they knew, and exciting to be going across the ocean in a big ship. But the winter storms were not over, and as the ship pitched about on the stormy seas everyone was seasick. For days =Pettranella lay on her wooden bunk in the crowded hold, wishing she was back home in her clean, warm bed. At last they reached the shores of Canada. =Pettranella began to feel better. As they stood at the rail waiting to leave the ship, she asked, "Can we see our homestead yet?" Not yet, they told her. There was still a long way to go. Before they could continue their journey her father had to fill out many forms, and =Pettranella spent hours and hours sitting on their round-topped trunk in a crowded building, waiting. So many people, she thought. Would there be room for them all? Finally one day the last form was signed and they were free to go, and as they traveled up a wide river and across the lonely land, =Pettranella knew that in this big country there would be room for everyone. So =Ivan decided to be a baseball star. He had a ball and glove. Movie stars had to move. Rock stars had to spend too much time inside. But a baseball star could play outside and be home for dinner. =Ivan took his ball and glove to the park. =Jessie, =Jamie, =Meredith, and two boys from =Ivan's class were playing a game of scrub. Stretch lay curled up on a blanket a safe distance from home plate. "=Yo, =Ivan!" =Jamie called. "Take left field." "Sure!" =Ivan called back. Now I'll be a star, he thought. But =Ivan had never played baseball. He'd played a little catch, but he'd never actually played baseball. Balls dropped to =Ivan's right. They fell to his left. In front of him. Behind him. One ball dropped on his head. When it was his turn to pitch, balls flew everywhere. =Ivan had an arm like a pea-shooter gone wild. Batting was even worse. =Ivan swung too soon. He swung too late. He swung at pitches inside, outside, high, and low. Once he almost hit =Jamie with his bat. But he never hit the ball. When the game was over Ivan stood alone out in left field. It was getting dark. A cold wind tugged at his shirt. He kicked the dirt with the toe of his shoe and slowly started walking home. I'll never be a star, thought =Ivan sadly, scuffing up dust clouds with every step. "Now then, I've got something for you," said Mr =Flinch. He cut a bunch of roses, trimming the thorns. "You come over again, now, eh?" he said, handing =Gita the bouquet. =Gita stared at him for a moment. Mr =Flinch didn't have monster eyes at all. They were soft and blue, like forget-me-nots. "I will," =Gita said. "Oh, Mr =Flinch, we're getting the First Rose for our garden today. I want one like this." =Gita pointed to the rose arbor. "What kind is it?" "It's an Explorer rose," said Mr =Flinch. "Grows great around here." He sniffed and rubbed his head. "Mind you, now, =Gita, you've got to start it right-dig the hole big and wide." "That's what =Naniji says," cried =Gita. "Oh, Mr =Flinch, would you come over and help me plant it?" A sudden breeze hummed past =Gita and set the wind chimes ringing. Mr =Flinch's face lit up as it had when he'd played the violin. He cleared his throat. "Well, now, if you'd like, I'll do that." =Gita smiled. She'd make new wind chimes and the =FirstRose would dig its roots down, down towards =Naniji's garden on the other side of the world. It would stretch its branches strong and high-maybe even dance over the fence to Mr =Flinch's violin. =Gita jumped down, heart hammering. Mean old man with his ugly squinty eyes. Always calling her boy, snapping at her. Once =Gita had wandered into his garden and he'd shouted, "Boy, how many times do I have to tell you? Out, I say, out." =Gita stuck out her tongue at the fence. You had to be really nasty to mind anyone just looking at your garden. =Naniji was always showing people around hers, giving away flowers. They grew better, she said, when they were shared. Mr =Flinch's flowers should all be dead. =Gita woke at sunrise the next morning. She could almost hear =Naniji strolling through the garden, singing. =Gita dressed and ran outside. A cool breeze murmured over the fence. What was that sound? Music? =Gita squirmed through the shrubs in the corner of her yard. She crept towards the rose arbor and peered through the roses. Someone was playing the violin. Soft and sweet, =Emma and Mrs =March were playing =Candyland when a car pulled into the driveway. "=Emma," said Mrs =March, "it looks like your daddy is home early.," =Emma jumped up. "=Yippee!" she shouted. =Emma's daddy had a very important job. He usually came home late. =Emma ran to meet him. =Daddy!" she cried. "You're home early!" =Daddy smiled, but he looked as if he wasn't feeling well. "Are you sick?" asked =Emma. "No," said =Daddy, "just tired." He turned to Mrs =March. "You can go now, thank you, Mrs =March," he said softly. "=Emma won't be needing a sitter for a while." Mrs =March nodded and left quietly. "Why not?" asked =Emma. =Daddy looked at Emma, but he didn't seem to see her. "What?" he asked. At the end of the park, I run up the long steps and cross over the harbor road. I can see our house on the water. I wave. Middle brother and little brother wave back as I run down the steps to the wharf. I put my school bag down, take off my shoes, and wait for mother to come. She poles our sampan to the water's edge. I step down into our little boat to go home. When we get there, I put my school bag away. I will not need it for a long time. Middle brother and little brother and I sit down on the floor. =Mother fills our bowls with congee and pours the tea. The night mist falls gently down as we eat. I go to bed early. I cannot wait for tomorrow. My father will come, back from the sea. Since the human eardrum is much more sensitive than a rubber balloon, moving air molecules are enough to make it vibrate. Rather than sending the sound waves through an empty cardboard tube, the ear sends them through a series of bones, tissues, and liquids. And instead of sending them to a candle flame, our ears send messages from the sound waves to our brains. How do we hear different sounds? When moving waves of air enter our ears, we hear a sound. The sound's pitch depends on how fast the molecules of air are moving. Fast moving sound waves make a high pitched noise, like a whistle or a mosquito's buzz. Slower-moving waves make lower-pitched sounds, like the beat of a big drum. Sometimes air molecules move too slowly or too quickly, and we can't hear them at all. The air waves made by the flap of a butterfly's wings are too slow to be heard by human ears. Some sounds, such as the cries of bats, move the air waves very quickly, making them too high-pitched for us to hear. Bats can hear them, though. Other animals, such as dogs, are also able to hear higher-pitched sounds than we can. That is one reason many hunters use dogs to help them find their prey. "I will never be a good shepherd," said =Dava to Bright Eyes. One day a terrible thing happened. =Papa and Uncle =Eban were repairing the stone wall. They were working fast because a storm was coming. Suddenly one of the rocks fell on =Papa's foot. =Dava could see that it hurt. He started toward =Papa, but Uncle =Eban stopped him. "I'll take your papa home, but you must lead the sheep back by yourself. Take them slowly, as you have learned." "But I can't," said =Dava. "The sheep won't listen to me." "Please try," said Uncle =Eban. =Dava watched =Papa and Uncle =Eban leave. The sky was getting dark, and the wind was rising. The sheep began to bleat. =Dava picked up the staff and swished it around. "=Hoy!" he shouted. "=Hoy, =Trud and =Bright But the sheep did not listen. Thunder echoed over the mountains, and the frightened sheep moved toward the broken wall. If =Dava didn't stop them, they would run into the desert. Sign Language in Action In many ways, the classroom I visited was just like any other Grade =3 classroom. But there was one big difference. Everywhere I looked, people were speaking with signs. Signing is the children's first language, the language they use to communicate in all their lessons, conversations, and games. Sign language at work. I watched their teacher, Mrs =Woodard, use sign language to explain something to =Theo about his work. Then, =Jessica read word cards by signing the words. Meanwhile, =Marlow and Mrs =LaFrance, the teaching assistant, used =ASL to talk about a math question. =Errol and =Radomir discussed a story they had read. At recess time, the children signed to each other as they hurried outside to play soccer, have fun on the equipment, or just talk to their friends. she noticed something on the bottom edge of =Angie's bedspread. She picked it off. Then another. And another. She wrote Clue =#3 Dog hairs. "I think Prince is the thief," said =Tracy. "Impossible," said =Angie. =Prince is big enough to carry a skateboard away in his mouth," said =Tracy. "Why?" said =Angie. "Jealousy," suggested =Tracy. "Have you been playing with =Prince enough lately?" "Let's start looking," said =Angie. The girls searched in every room, under beds, sofas, and tables. They couldn't find the skateboard. "You shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and accused =Prince," said =Angie. She went to the back door and whistled. =Prince came running inside. "I must go before it's dark," said =Tracy. "Perhaps while I'm walking home I will be able to put the clues together better and come up with another lead." Just then =Prince caught sight of some birds walking across the lawn. Barking loudly, he pushed his front paws against the back screen door. The door swung open. =Prince went chasing after the birds. "That's it," said =Tracy. "=Prince went to your bedroom while you were bathing, picked your skateboard up in his mouth, went to the back door, pushed it open, then went outside and buried it." In fact, everyone ran out for lunch, and =Jonathan was all by himself at City Hall. =Jonathan started to leave, but on his way out he heard a sound. Someone was crying, "=Oooooooh, I'm hungry." =Jonathan listened very carefully. He walked up and down the hall and found the room it was coming from. He went in, and there was a big, enormous, shining computer machine. The computer was going "wing, wing, =kler-klung, =clickety =clang," and its lights were going off and on. The voice was coming from behind it. =Jonathan squeezed in back of the machine and saw a little old man at a very messy desk. The man looked at =Jonathan and said, "Do you have any blackberry jam?" =Jonathan's mother went to get a can of noodles. She said, "=Jonathan, please don't make a mess!" When she was gone, =Jonathan stood in the middle of the apartment and looked at the nice clean rug and the nice clean walls and the very, very clean sofa and said, "Well, there is certainly no mess here." Then he heard a sound. It was coming from behind the wall. He put his ear up against the wall and listened very carefully. The noise sounded like a train. Just then the wall slid open and a subway train pulled up and stopped. Someone yelled, "LAST STOP! EVERYBODY OUT!" Then little people, big people, fat people and thin people, and all kinds of people, came out of =Jonathan wall, ran around his apartment, and went out the front door. =Jonathan stood in the middle of the living room and looked around. There was writing on the wall, gum on the rug and a man sleeping on the sofa, and all the food was gone from the refrigerator. A limestone cave, also called a solution cave, is the most common type of cave. Limestone caves begin to form when rain falls to the earth, collecting carbon dioxide from the air. As rainwater trickles through the soil, it picks up more carbon dioxide. The water and the carbon dioxide mix together to become an acid solution called carbonic acid. As this solution seeps through the limestone, it eats away at the soft stone, making small holes. Many years go by and the holes become bigger . and bigger and bigger. The solution keeps eating away at the limestone. =Katie found an old wooden shingle in the garage, took a red marker, and wrote on it: She climbed over the fence into the garden, pushed the shingle into the dirt, and went back to the house to finish the letter to her dad. =Curt stopped by one morning a few days later while =Katie was getting ready for school. "How are you doing with that chuck?" she heard him ask her mother. "He's still around," Mrs =Robinson said. "I saw him yesterday near the mailbox." "Did he try to dig his way under the fence?" "Oh, yes, he got in once right after you put it in. Then the strangest thing happened, he lost interest in the garden. I don't know why." =Curt chuckled. "He's real smart. Some animals know when you mean business." The mother brought a cup of pearl made by twelve jewelers, but it was not quite the right cup. The father brought a silver ring made by =twenty-four silversmiths, but it was not just the right ring. The grandmother brought dancing shoes embroidered by =forty-eight ladies-in-waiting, but they were not at all the right shoes. The grandfather brought a singing bird adorned and finely made by =ninety-six craftsmen, but that was all wrong too. "We have tried, we have done what we could, but we cannot make you happy," said the grown-ups. "You will have to do that for yourself." So the princess put on her hiking boots and packed some peanut butter and macaroni sandwiches, some licorice, pickles, and chocolate-chip cookies in a basket, and set out to find for herself what she required. She walked and she wandered for a long while. She arrived at the seashore where she saw some children. So the girl took all the sweet-smelling loaves of bread out of the oven. When she turned around she saw an apple tree who cried: "Help me! Help me! Pick my apples or my branches will break." So the girl picked all the ripe red apples off the tree. She walked on and came to the house of an old woman who lived up in the clouds with her cat. The old woman asked the girl to stay with her and do all her work for her. She said to the girl: "You must be careful how you shake my pillows. The feathers will have to fly and blow about. Then it will snow on earth. I am Mother =Holle." The children on earth knew all about Mother =Holle. They loved her and used to sing to her: shake your pillows make it snow Mother =Holle shake your pillows we love snow So the girl stayed with Mother =Holle for a long time, and she was happy. And so all the animals, except for the lion, who was king and lived in the jungle, walked across the flat, empty land. They walked and walked. After many days, they saw a small bump on the edge of the flat land. Then they saw that the small bump was a tree. And the tree was very tall. And the tree had fruit on it, such fruit as they had never seen before. It was as red as pomegranates, as yellow as bananas, as green as melons, as purple as plums, as orange as mangoes, and it smelled like all the fruits of the world. But the tree was so tall and the branches so high that even the giraffe couldn't reach the fruit. And the trunk was so smooth that even the monkey couldn't climb the tree. The animals sat on the ground and cried because the fruit smelled so good and they were so hungry. At last, when they were too tired to cry any longer, a very old tortoise spoke. "=O animals," she said, "my great-great-great-grandmother told me a story about a wonderful tree. The fruit of that tree was delicious and good to eat. But it could be reached only by those who knew the name of the tree." Now, =Rachel was not the least bit frightened when she heard that voice. In fact, she was angry-and even though she didn't know who she was speaking to, she said, "What good would it do if I arrived without the oil? No, thank you. I will get to =Grandmother's by myself." There was no answer. =Rachel drove on. But she had gone only a little farther down the road when she passed over another bump, and a little more of the oil spilled out. As =Rachel was wondering what to do, the scratchy voice piped up again, "=Rachel, I can get you to =Grandmother's in a wink, but you must give me all of your oil." Again =Rachel said, "No, thank you, I will get there by myself." And on she drove. She had gone only a little farther down the road when the cart struck a huge bump and almost tipped over. Nearly all the oil spilled out. =Rachel felt like crying. What should she do now? Again the voice spoke up, "=Rachel, I can get you to =Grandmother's in a wink, but you must give me all of your oil." By this time =Rachel knew that the voice was coming from one of the jugs. She became furious. "Where are you, you naughty thing? It was you who caused the oil to spill!" She began to pull the corks out of the jugs. There was nothing odd in the jug of milk, nor in the jug of honey, nor in the jug of wine. But when she pulled the cork out of the vinegar jug, poof! =Rachel suddenly found herself sitting in front of her grandmother's house. &&000