Read At Home 

Week 24 Day 1

The Colosseum

1. Vesperian Flavius ordered the building of a new amphitheatre which eventually became known as the Colosseum. 
2. The actual building was built by thousands of slaves.
3. The original name of the building was the Flavian Colosseum.
4. Sand was used on the floor of the theatre to soak up the blood of the people who were executed there and occasionally the blood of the gladiators who fought in the amphitheatre.
5. The Colosseum is almost fifty metres in height or the equivalent height of a twelve-storey building.

Additional Notes 

The word arena which now means a performance space has its origins in a Latin word meaning “sandy place”.

Slaughtered means to kill or butcher animals for food or to kill someone violently.

Interior is the opposite of the word exterior.

Day 2

1. Jaguars live in the countries of Central and South America. 
2.  Jaguars’ habitats are not as widespread as they once stretched as far north as the United States of America.
3. It is such a successful predator because its brain is not only designed to be good at hunting, but it also seems to enjoy it. Jaguars are the most ferocious of all cats and can kill in one leap.
4. They prefer to hunt at dawn and at dusk as the light at the beginning and the end of the day suits their camouflage.
5. The variety of its diet tells us how well adapted the jaguar is to hunt creatures on land, water and even in trees. Jaguars are fearless hunters as they have even been known to have eaten a type of alligator called caimen.

Notes 

Connections – we spoke about apex predators when we looked at food chains.

We will study rainforests later in the year and will return to the jaguars in the rainforests of Central and South America.

We also mentioned the destruction of many creatures’ habitats by the deliberate burning of rainforests to clear the land for farming. 

When The Earth Shakes -Seismology

1. About fifty earthquakes occur every day around the world.
2. Many earthquakes go unnoticed as they are simply tiny adjustments or movements of the earth’s plates.
3. A seismoscope is now used to detect even the smallest of earthquakes.
4. An Irishman called Robert Mallet helped develop this technology.
5. The Mallets proved that earthquakes could be measured by carrying out experiments on Killiney Beach. They created their own earthquakes using gunpowder and timed the vibrations of the detonations in the sand.

Notes

Connections – we studied earthquakes before Christmas. We learned that earthquakes are measured by seismologists and are recorded on the Richter Scale. It records micro and minor earthquakes at 2 and 3 points or less on the scale, moving up the scale to major earthquakes at 7 ,8 and 9 on the Richter Scale. 

Croatia’s capital city Zagreb was hit by an earthquake last weekend which was a magnitude 5.3 on the Richter Scale.

The earthquake which caused the tsunami which struck Japan in 2011 was a magnitude 9.0

Day 4

Best Potato Cakes Ever.

1. The basic ingredients are potatoes, plain flour, an egg, salt, pepper and butter.
2. Four variations are suggested by adding scallions, spices, cheese and ham or herbs.
3. You would need an adult’s help when frying the potato cakes in the hot pan.
4. A little butter should be served on each cake.
5. This is an economical recipe as it uses up leftover potatoes and very few other ingredients. Connections: (A recipe is a procedural form of genre writing.)