ZOO DAY!!!

So today I went to the zoo with Aunt Bethy and John-boat.  We went to the Portland Zoo.  It's on the top of this hill so it was extra cold and windy there.  There was nobody there though so it was great, we got to run around and see all the animals without have to wait for people to move.

My favorite animal this time was the cheetah.  It was patrolling its cage and came up to the window to see what I was.  I stuck my hand out and it jumped against the window and tried to bite my hand off.  It was GREAT!!!  It was way better than the lazy lions who were freezing their tales off.  They were all on this heated rock in the middle of their enclosure.

I was sad because we didn't get to go see the tigers.  I don't know if they would have even been out in their enclosures though.  They were too far away and Maddy and John-boat were getting tired and cranky.  This is why I put up a picture of a tiger.

I liked going with Bethy and John-boat.  They're lots of fun.

Benjamin Franklin

So today in Famous American we studied Benjamin Franklin.  We studied all the different things he invented and all the thing he did in his life.  I think him inventing glasses is pretty cool.  So is the lightning-rod! This makes me wonder how much electricity is in a lightning bolt.  He also invented a new type of fire place and chimney.  He's so cool that he has a couple of scientific institutions named after him!

What's also cool is that he was home-schooled. His father could only afford two years of school for him, so after that he taught himself everything he needed to know.

Finally he's cool because he pretty much invented the way we do the post office.  They had mail before him, but he created a system and a governmental department to take care of it.  I wonder how many stamps the Post Office has for Benjamin Franklin?

My Trip downtown

So today I had a field trip downtown to the shops.  We were looking for sewing materials for my projects for sewing and PE.  Sewing is going to substitute for some of the other art projects.  I want to learn how to sew so I can make things and can sew things like my cub scout patches and fix my jeans.

PE hasn't been working out for me, so mom and Dad have bought me a book for home-school PE games and sports.  Lots of these take a bean-bag.  My first sewing project is going to be to sew the bean bags for PE.  This is going to be GREAT, because I get to make something that I can use.  Then every time I play games with my bean bags I'll know that I made them.

So back to about the field trip.  We went to the thrift stores downtown to get material the bean bags.  We did this because they always have great bits of fabric for cheaper than Joann's.  We also don't need tons of fabric or really nice fabric since I'm just making it into bean bags.  Finally we finished our field trip with a trip to Bob's.  They have a big store full of hunting and camping stuff, but they also have a small store full of kitchen stuff and toys.  We got some Hula Hoops for the PE games too.  I wish we would have had time to look at all the camping stuff, but I had to get back home to do some more homework.

Oh this picture of Longview is a picture from the 60's or 70's but the downtown looks the same except the cars and some of the signs have changed.

Charles Darwin

Today we started studying Charles Darwin in Biology.  He was born in England.  The year was 1809.  He went to college at the University of Edinburg to study medicine, but he didn't like it.  After two years he dropped out.  His family sent him to Cambridge to become a pastor.  He did not want to do that either. After Cambridge, he went aboard the HMS Beagle and was a naturalist.  Darwin published a book call On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle For Life.  However, he was not the first person who came up with the hypothesis in his book.  His book was the one that got people talking about it, though.  It still causes lots and lots of arguments today.  I will be learning more details about Darwin's work and the theory of evolutionary change in the next few weeks.

Suburban Communities

Today for Social Studies we learned about suburban communities.  The town we studied was Levittown, NY.  It was once a potato farm.  The Levitt family bought the land and started construction.  They included schools, parks and churches in their plans.  When they were done, there were more than 17,000 homes in Levittown, which was originally called Island Trees.  I learned that highways were one of the primary reasons that suburban communities grew.  People would not move there if they could not get to and from their jobs in the city quickly.  They were designed around people owning cars so sometimes suburban communities are not very good for getting around in if you don't own a car.  This picture is an aerial photograph of a part of Levittown.  It kind of looks like a circuit board to me.

Dreams

So today in Phonics we had to read a dumb poem out of the Phonics book about Dreams.  It wanted us to learn that the word Dreams has more than one meaning.  Sometimes it means what your brain does when you're asleep.  But other times you can use it to mean what you hope to see happen...like I dream of having a wii.

Dad and Mom thought I should hear a good example of the word dream being used as a synonym for hope.  I got to hear the whole I have a dream speech from Martin Luther King Jr.  I think that he certainly had a point and that he was giving this speech to help black people like him have true freedom. I liked that he quoted Thomas Jefferson and said all men are created equal.

Dad explained again about the Jim Crow laws.  They made it so that if you were black you couldn't go to school with white people, or use their drinking fountains, or ride on the  buses with them.  I looked at the date this speech was given and noticed that my Grandparents were alive when this happened.  I don't know if any of them remember it because Old Guy was only like 6 when it happened.

My Adinkra Cloth

Today I decided to post about my own Adinkra cloth.  I have one symbol so far.  The symbol is two crescents forming a circle with three lines: one going down, one going across to the right and one going across to the left.  They all lead out from a star in the center.  This symbol represents bacon.  I chose bacon to be in my Adinkra cloth because I love it.  I am working on some more symbols.  My goal is to reach ten symbols.  Once I have ten, we will go to the fabric store and pick out some fabric to work on.  I'm not sure yet if we will actually dye anything or if maybe we will just use fabric pens or paint to make the cloth.

General Robert E Lee

So we missed a couple days of famous Americans so I got to read a couple different stories.  I wanted to tell you all about Robert E Lee.  Lee is was born in Virginia.  His family was a very old and famous family in Virginia.  He was even married to George Washington's one of great Granddaughters.  When he was 18 he went to West Point.

What makes him cool is that if he had been born in a different place or time, he probably would have been President. Because he was born in Virginia during the Civil War he ended up going to the Southern Army.  Lee loved being in the United States Army and was really sad when he had to leave because he wouldn't fight against people from his own state. I think that might have been a wise choice. I wouldn't want to fight against my neighbors either.

Another thing that is interesting is that his horse  "Traveler" is almost as famous as he was.  It got buried at Washington and Lee College alongside Robert E Lee.

Biology

So science for third graders doing Calvert pretty much sucks if you know anything about science.  So mom and dad got me a different curriculum for science.  I wanted to study Physics but I couldn't do multiplication good enough to do the problems in a book that had science ideas I hadn't seen yet.  My next choice was Biology.

Today in Biology we studied about what makes something alive, and the Scientific Method. I think that the section on what makes something alive sucked compared to other books I've read.  What was cool was that it listed the six elements that must be present for something to be considered alive.  Those are Hydrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, Nitrogen, Sulfur, and most important CARBON.  Here's an interesting idea though, by most definitions of what makes something alive Fire is alive.  The part on the scientific method was much better.  I thought is was cool though that it talked about what happens if you don't do the process all the way, or don't like the results you get from your experiments.  Dad said he hadn't seen a text book yet that admitted that researcher bias exists, but this one does.  It makes me wonder how often people publish the actual honest data without changing it to make it fit their hypothesis.

AHHH SPOKANE

So, I took some time off from my blog because I was reviewing for a unit test, and then we had to get ready for Thanksgiving.

I went to Spokane this Thanksgiving!  We got to stay at my friend Kim's house in downtown.  Kim is one of my three best friends from Spokane.  She's the only one that I still hang out with after the move.  So I got to go on walks around downtown Spokane with Kim every night we were there.  We went to some pretty cool places, but mostly it was fun to run around with my friend Kim. The picture at the top is of the Looff Carousel.  Kim and I got to walk around it at night.  Then, the day after Thanksgiving we go to ride it a couple times!

So I went over to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving lunch.  I got to eat my weight in biscuits and a few pieces of turkey.   So dad's biscuits are pretty good, but Grandma's are amazing.  They make dad's taste like sawdust.  So if you get the chance you have to eat as many as you can.  What was also cool was that Grandma let me watch some MacGyver.  What was also cool was Old Guy's physics toys. He has a remote controlled air plane and these rocket-launch helicopters.

Adinkra Cloth

Reading this week is a story call the "Talking Cloth".  It's a story about a girl who's aunt has collected wonderful things from her travels around the world.  The girl in the story likes to go to her aunt's house to hear the stories about the different things.  This story explains about a type of Adinkra Cloth.

Adinkra Cloth originally was only worn by Royalty and Religious leaders.  It is the richly dyed and printed cloth from the people of Ghana.  Most of the shapes are symbols with special meanings.  Also the colors were important.  White meant Joy, while Red meant Sadness.  Blue meant Love and Green meant Growth.  The shapes were put on the cloth by putting a wood cutting into ink and stamping it on the cloth.  This meant that they could say lots of things based on the color and symbols on the cloth.  I've included a picture of some of the different Adinkra Cloths.

One of my projects for reading application and art was to come up with an Adinkra Cloth of my own pattern. I'm still working on what symbols I'd have one it, but I know I would want it to be green.  I think I would change what green means though.  I want green to mean Excited!  I also have been thinking about the shapes. I think anything with a square outline should mean sneaky. Circle shapes should mean Joy or happiness.  I also think that I would want to have metal string woven or embroidered into the cloth like in some of the really expensive cloths written about in my book.

Mitosis

This week for science I'm waiting on a new book.  The one for third grade is way to easy for me.  So Dad is teaching me about different types of cell replications.  The first one we learned about is Mitosis!  In Mitosis there are a whole bunches of phases.  There's Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase, and Cyto-kinesis.  I want to tell you what happens in all the different phases.  But that would take WAY too long.  So I'm going to pick my favorite phase and tell you all about it.  If you write back and ask questions about the other phases I'll tell you what happens there too.

My favorite part of Mitosis is actually not considered part of Mitosis.  I like Cyto-kenesis the best.  I like it because after the new nuclear envelope has formed and all the chromosomes are turning back into chromotin, the cell is pulled apart into two daughter-cells, that are EXACT COPIES!  I also like this because the name makes sense after my study of Physics.  Kenesis comes from the same word we use for Kenetic Engergy.  So it makes sense because the cell is actually moving during this phase.

If I had to choose a different phase as a  favorite where something was actually happening to the DNA,  I would choose PROPHASE.  I like Prophase because the nuclear envelope actually blows up in this phase.

So Dad and I got to watch this amazing video on youtube about Mitosis.  I'm going to share it as a link and hope you all can watch it.  It's great.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGV3fv-uZYI

Veterans Day !!

                                                            HAPPY VETERANS DAY
  So today is my favorite non-religious holiday of the year.  I like it because it celebrates all that the men and women who are in the military have done to keep us safe, and give us freedom.

   I want to thank some of the veterans I know.  First I wanna thank Jeff Dobson.  Most of the time when my dad talks to his friend Jeff, he spends some time talking to me too. Jeff is in the Army and gets to do all sorts of cool stuff.  He can't tell me what he does, but he can tell me what it's like to be in Army, and use different weapons.

  Next I wanna thank my Great Grandfather.  Great Grandpa Zemke was INVITED to be part of the Army in World War II.  Thankfully for him he got to build the Al-Can Highway.  I didn't get to meet Great Grandpa, but I get to hear fun stories from Dad and my Uncles about him.  Somehow I get the idea he wasn't as excited about the invitation as the Army was.

   I saved some of my favorite Veterans for last.  Capt. Vance and his wife Meghan are both in the Army too. I want to thank them for all they do to keep our country safe, and keep us free.  I also want to thank Vance for keeping me on track while I'm at school.  I have a picture of him at my desk to remind me to get my work squared away.

   Thank you to everyone who has served in the military and has fought to keep us safe and free.

Chariots of Fire?

Today I learned about the myths of Apollo and Artemis, and why the Greeks believe they were special.  They were special because the Greeks believed that they got to drive the Sun and Moon Chariots for the god Helios.  I think this would be a very interesting job.  This was extra special because they weren't gods, but they got to do a god's job.

I think this is just another time where the Greeks got it wrong and makes it hard to believe what they say. We orbit the sun, and the moon orbits the Earth.  That's what makes them rise and set, not someone riding on a chariot.  I wish the Greeks could have had a telescope maybe we'd get better myths, or know more about space than we do now.  But this does explain why NASA used Apollo to name all their early space-craft after.  My favorite Apollo mission is Apollo 13.  Partly because it's the first I learned about (thank you OLD GUY!!!) and partly because they had to fix the machines and computers while they were in space.

Veterans Day!

My favorite non-religious Holiday is Veterans Day.  I love the fireworks from 4th of July, but I like Veterans Day better.  When I grow up I want to be in the Army like my Cousin Cpt. Vance.  Although I wanted to be a Civil Engineer.  Now I'm thinking that I might want to be a Special Forces Medic or Nurse.  So I noticed that tomorrow is the Marine Corps birthday.  I thought I might take a moment and tell everyone when the different services birthdays are.

The United States Navy's birthday is on October 13th.  They've been around since 1775.
The United States Marine Corps Birthday is on November 10th.  They've also been around since 1775
The United States Army's birthday is on June 14th.  They've also been here since 1775
The United States Air Force's Birthday is on September 18th.  They're new and have only been around since 1947.

That means that the Army has been around the longest and is the oldest.  I knew it was best for a reason.  So in closing I'll leave you with a little music. One for the Army and one for the Marines (since it's their birthday).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSsya6IgrwM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJlNw0myBG4&feature=related

Government at work part II

  So last night I went to the Central Committee Meeting of the Cowlitz County Democrats.  I found out that they are having trouble with keeping their budget strait.  Most of the talk was about the election today.  Lots of the talking about about schools and buses. They were also talking about that elected officials don't like it when people e-mail because they get TONS of e-mail.  So if you really want to talk to an elected official send a real letter to them.

    So here's something else I learned.  It was kind of boring when some of the people talked.  It seems that the more boring what they're talking about is, the longer they talk about it.  Maybe that's why nothing happens in the real Government they're all too bored to listen to each other talk.

Government at Work?

As part of studying Social Studies I'm learning how Government works. My Uncle Landis and Aunt Carrie like to go to the Cowlitz County Democrats Central Committee meetings each month.  My mom usually goes with them.  She says it's fun to see Landis and Carrie, and to see how the government works.

I'm excited, because mom says I can go to this meeting.  I can't wait to see where it is, and see how the government is set up.  I'm hoping that the talking tonight is going to be really interesting.   I think I'm going to hear about the election tomorrow.  I hope I get hear about how everything is going in the Judicial Branch in the government and maybe state congress. I'm tired of seeing and hearing about these traffic cameras.  I bet they're going to put cameras on the Nutty Narrows Bridge before too long.  I think they should work on making Longview a better and safer place for bicyclists.

Winter Snacks.

I'm going to keep writing about topics I talked about for winter for my blog post today.

   I want to talk about cookies and snacks that we have around the winter time.  There are two different types of Gingerbread.  I like gingerbread men and houses better than the actual bread type of gingerbread.  What I like most about them is that you can dip them in Egg Nogg.  I also like decorating them.

   I also like Winter because Christmas candy comes out into the stores. I like Candy Canes, but my favorite type of candy are those plastic candy canes filled with different types of candy.  The ones with Reeces-minis are my favorite.  Dad likes these things called chocolate covered cherries, which I think are disgusting.  They remind me of chocolate dipped caramels, which I love, but then you're stuck with a nasty cherry and this goo that squirts out into your mouth.

Sledding

So as part of the composition process, I'm supposed to take one of the ideas that I talked about in my last post and talk about it more.  I chose sledding.

    Sledding is an awesome activity in the Winter.  I used to have a bullet shaped sled that was yellow tie-die.  When you go sledding you climb to the top of a hill, sit on your sled and ride down.  To go faster you lean backward.  To slow down you lean forward.  Sometimes when you go to fast you fly off and crash.  It might sound scary but this is an important skill to learn.

    When we went sledding before we moved Dad thought I was too little to steer my sled by myself.  He always sat in the back of the sled to help me steer.  Now that I'm big enough to steer myself I'm sad I live in a flat valley that never gets any snow.

    I have big plans for later this winter.  I'm going to see if I can get my Mom and Dad to take me up to Old Guy's house so I can go sledding.  Maybe if she wants to come I'll take Ezri with me.  If not it'll just be me and Old Guy...maybe I'll let Dad come too.

My Favorite Season

I love the season of winter.  I love the snow because of all the things you can do in it.  You can sled, or ski/snowboard.  You can have snowball fights.  And you can even build forts.

I also really like the food from winter.  I LOVE EGG NOG!  I also love hot cocoa and Christmas Cookies too. Also there are holidays in the winter and people always make good types of meat that that I like.  My favorite is Ham...well really it's bacon, but no one seems to make bacon in large enough quantities for my liking.  So ham is wonderful and turkey is pretty great too.  It's way better than the summer meats, people always make hamburgers (which have NO HAM) and hot dogs (which I HATE) in the summer.

The last reason I like the winter is my birthday is in the winter.  This means that I get presents and I get to stay older than Hoodie!

I miss winter in Spokane.  Winter in Longview only gives you two days of snow and rain everyday.  It's so warm that you can't even have a slush-ball fight, because it melts before you can make a ball.  I'm including a picture of how winter is supposed to be, like winters back up in Spokane!

Hermes

Today I studied about Hermes.  He was the Greek God that was supposed to do everything for the Gods. Hermes had the best stuff though.  He had winged shoes and a hat with wings on it that could make him fly.  He could also change shape when he wanted to, and he had an invisibility cloak too.  Sometimes it sounds more like he's Harry Potter than a Greek God.  I wonder if J K Rowling got some of her ideas for magic and wizards from the Greek Myths.

Jefferson Davis

Today I learned about Jefferson Davis.  Even though Jefferson Davis was from the south later in life he was born in Kentucky like Lincoln.  His family moved to the south for better farm land.  He went through school and finally graduated from West Point Military Academy.  He served as both US Senator and War Secretary before the Civil War.  During the Civil war he was elected as the President of the Confederacy.

What's interesting is that because of his Military Service to the United States, and his time in elected offices; when the Civil War ended he only went to Jail for two years for treason.  Most of the time people convicted of treason are killed.

Abraham Lincoln

Today I studied about Abraham Lincoln.  I learned that he was born in a pioneer cabin in Kentucky On Feb. 12 1809.  Abraham Lincoln was very skilled at using and ax, that's why they nick-named him rail-spliter.  Before he became a famous Lawyer and Politician he worked for a store and lived in a room in the back.  This didn't work out for him though, because his partner died and left him in huge debt.  What's most amazing is that Lincoln paid them all back even though he didn't have too.

When Lincoln was elected President the States were starting a civil war over States Rights.  The main issue in this though was slavery.  The United States won the war against the Confederacy, because they had more men, food, supplies, and guns than the South.

Five days after the war ended President Lincoln was shot in the head when he went to a play.  Lincoln managed to stay alive till the next day, but it eventually killed him.  Lincoln is remembered as a great leader and speaker.  We have a monument in Washington DC for him.

5 Themes of Geography

So today in Geography I learned about the 5 themes in geography.  They are Location, Place, Place/People, Region and Movement. To help understand this I filled in a web-diagram about Spokane, so I'll share the definition of each term and what I said about Spokane.

Location: Talks about where exactly on the map it is.  For Spokane I said "...on the Spokane River in the State of Washington near the Idaho Border.

Place:  Talks about what it looks like there.  For Spokane I said "...a small city in a valley with a tall downtown on the river and beautiful parks and forests.

Places and People: Talks about how people have made it look.  For Spokane I said "...two wonderful parks made by people River Front Park and Manito".

Region:  Talks about what Part of the country and world it's in.  For Spokane I said "... Spokane is in Washington in the Northwest region of the country in the Inland Empire".

Movement:  Talks about how much transportation goes through there.  For Spokane I said "... Spokane has a busy internationl Airport and has both major rail-lines and I-90 running through it".

And Here We Have Idaho

So, today we learned about different resources in Social Studies.  Resources are pieces or places of information when you are studying something. To practice this I called Grandma and interviewed her about one of the states that she knows a lot about.  Here's my interview:

J How many state parks are there in Idaho?
G I'll have to look on my special map..there are 28 state parks in Idaho.
J How many museums are there?
G I don't know, but probably every city has one.
J Well than how many cities does Idaho have.
G  It depends one what you consider a city, but the map says there are 35 cities in Idaho.
J How many memorials and statues does it say Idaho has?
G It doesn't say anything about that, but it does list historical trails on the map and it says there are 16 of  those though.
J How many State Parks have you been to in Idaho?
G  I have been to 12 of the 28.
J Which is your favorite state park?
G It's probably a tie between Round Land State Park and Hayburn State Park.
J Well which have you been to more often?
G Probably Round Lake.

This was a pretty good way to learn about stuff.  And this resource was really reliable because because Grandma has this map that she could look at when she didn't remember exact facts.  And I know that she wouldn't lie to me.  So I put up a picture of Round Lake State Park so everyone could see Grandma's favorite park in Idaho.  Thank you Grandma!

Driving Through Nowhere

This last weekend we drove from Longview to Spokane.  We had a great time in Spokane, but got sick on the way home.  What wasn't great was the drive.  We started in the forests near the coast, and spent forever in the desert.  Yakima is in the middle of the desert.  We had to go through Yakima to get to Moses Lake, which is also in the desert.  The desert is VERY boreing.  I found out there is an Artillary School for the Army outside of Yakima.  I was disappointed that there were no shells making the scenery a little better.  I also thought that it might be okay if a B-2 dropped a bomb in the middle of the desert there too.  Maybe the crater would stop all the stupid tumble-weeds.

I looked out of my window and wondered why there are no cactus plants growing out there.  I got the unlucky window and got stuck looking at the rock-faces of the hills in the desert.  Madelyn got to look out of the window and see a little river that runs through Yakima. Rocks are fun to examine for science, but really boreing to look at for scenery.

Thomas Jefferson

So, today I studdied about Thomas Jefferson.  I found that he had a very good education growing up.  When he was young he liked fishing, hunting, and canoeing.  He helped with the Revolutionary War, even though he wasn't a soldier.  He found other ways to serve.  He wrote nasty notes to King George, and inspirational letters to the Americans.  If America would have lost Thomas Jefferson would have been executed immediately by the British.

He's most famous for the declaration of independence and being President. He was the first President to ask people to shake his hand instead of bow when they met him.  He was also important because he made the Lousiana Purchase from France.  This was important because it helped us grow to the size we are now.  Before this the National boundry was the Mississippi River, now it's the Pacific Ocean.

My Plant Clipping

For science today we studied plants.  We have have English Ivy growing along the house.  We are learning about other ways that Plants can reproduce other than just seeds.  Our experiment was to take a plant clipping and put it in water and watch it reproduce.  I predict that it will take about 4 months for it to start to develop roots.  I'm wondering what kinds of root systems these plants have. I'm also wondering how many days until it starts to run low on nutrients.  Dad says it has all it needs with just water and sunlight for right now, I'm pretty sure that's untrue.


This a picture of ivy that we found online, we couldn't find any pictures of Ivy clippings in water, so you'll just have to imagine these vines in a canning jar near my window.

Journal: George Washington

Yesterday I read about George Washington, the first president of America.  I learned that he was part of the British army.  After serving for a while he went back home and was asked to join the army.  But it was a special army.  Back then the American groups were part of England so they were fighting to get independence from the Brits because they were doing the stamp act still.  He opted to join and after the war he returned home to Virginia.  In Virginia he was elected president of the Virginia Club.  It was like their city council.  Then he was elected the President of the United States.  He led for a while then came back home.  Two years later he died of old age.

Note: This is a free writing journal entry, not a factual report of what Jonathan learned.

Jonathan: A Brief Autobiography on Food

Food is an important part of my life. My favorite foods are rainbow sherbet, pizza, eggnog and, of course, bacon! All these foods I love make me hungry. There are some foods that I will turn down, though. Here are some I hate: tuna, mashed potatoes, eggs, and all fruit, except red grapes. I hate these foods because of their flavor or texture. Just seeing them make me lose my appetite. If I have to eat them, I have to work hard not to throw up!

Organic and Geometric Shapes

Today for Art I learned about the difference between lines and shapes.  Then we talked about organic and geometric shapes.  Organic shapes are copies of things you see in nature such as leaves, flowers, trees and clouds.  Geometric shapes are used in math.  They have certain rules that decide what kind of shape it is.  Some examples of geometric shapes are rectangles, triangles, squares, circles, cylinders, cubes, spheres.  After we talked about the difference, I drew some shapes in each of the categories.  I noticed that the rules are very important in geometric shapes.  For instance, if you were trying to draw a hexagon but only put in five lines, then you wouldn't have a hexagon.  You would have a pentagon.  With organic shapes, there is more freedom.  If you put an extra bump on your cloud, it is still a cloud.  You could use geometric shapes as a part of a larger picture including organic shapes.  A picture of a flower might use a circle as the center.  Then you might add petals which would probably be organic shapes.

Molly Pitcher

We read about Molly Pitcher in my Historical Figures book.  Molly Pitcher's husband was in the Army and was part of an Artillery Battery.  They fought in the Revolutionary War.  She started by doing the laundry and doing household chores.  By lunchtime it was really hot out.  Some of the soldiers had passed out.  Molly went to the stream to get them water.   When her husband died in combat she took over doing his job in the Battery.

This is important because she was one of the few women who fought with the male soldiers.  Women weren't supposed to fight in combat back then.  It is important to hear these stories because men didn't think that women were their equals and so they didn't often write down what they did.  My last post was about Mulan.  Mulan is another example of how women weren't thought of as equals.  She had to pretend to be a man to get to fight for her country.  And at the end when they found out that she was a women they couldn't believe it.

Mulan

In Reading we read the Ballad of Mulan. I think it's an excellent story.  I've also seen the Disney movie, which is almost nothing like the story we read in our book.  I'm not sure which one is true.  I think the story is more true than the movie.  The movie has her training. The story has her in combat.  I think it's important to hear the Ballad of these Chinese stories because they're the History of China.  I have posted about John Paul Jones, he's an American Historical figure like Mulan is too China.  I think the whole point of teaching 3rd graders this is so they learn good history and understand how important it is.

That Dam Trip!

     Today I went to Bonneville Dam!  First I need to say THANK YOU to Uncle Landis and Aunt Carrie for taking me. For the longest time Bonneville was my FAVORITE DAM, but now it's my second favorite, only being beat by Grand Coulee Dam.  Bonneville is different because it crosses the Columbia where it's the boundry between Washington and Oregon, so each side has a different visitors center.  The Oregon side has a fish Hatchery, while the Washington side has a fish ladder.

    For our field trip we went on a short tour of the dam and then went to the fish hatchery on the Oregon side.  The fish hatchery had a machine that would push the fish into the spawning tanks.  Spawning is another way to say laying eggs.  It was funny to watch because they kept swimming banging their heads into the wooden doors because they think they're in a stream, and wanted to keep swimming upstream.

     This tour was different than most of the ones I've been on in dams.  Usually we look at and talk about the power generation of the dam and watch the turbines hummmmmm.  This time we didn't even get to watch the Dam movie!  If I was there independently I would have wanted to get scuba gear and go through the fish ladder.  If I was indestructible  it would be fun to go through the turbines to see how they work too.

John Paul Jones

I read about John Paul Jones in Reading today.  He was the captain of the Bonnehomme Richard.  He had a great battle against one of the best trained British ships, called the Serapis.  The Serapis shot some big holes in the Richard, crippling it.  One of the crew members went to lower the flag in surrender, but Captain Jones threw his pistol at him.  When the British captain asked if they were ready to surrender, Captain Jones yelled, "I have not yet begun to fight!"  In the end, the crew of the Serapis surrendered after six hours of hand to hand combat.  The Americans held the ship for ransom from King George III.  That's why Captain Jones is called the Father of the American Navy.

The Stolen Ring

For Composition and Spelling, I wrote a paragraph about a stolen ring on a thick chain.  I used nine of my spelling words when I only needed to use five.  I forgot to underline the word something.  That's also one of my spelling words this week.  I did my best handwriting work.  It took me 25 minutes but I worked very hard on it.  Dad said it was my best handwriting work ever.

My Favorite Marketplaces

We are studying economics in Social Studies.  Today I am learning about markets and what they do for my community.  I named three interesting markets that I like and what I like about them.

My favorite marketplace in Longview is Bob's Sporting Goods.  I like to look at their guns, fishing gear, and Boy/Cub Scouts uniforms.  I especially like the taxidermied animals displayed there.  I also like their archery equipment and camping gear.

The next marketplace I enjoy is Target.  I like their Nerf Guns and their cheap DVDs.  They have a good Hot Wheels selection.  They have good clothing for boys and I like to play on their video game testers.  I also enjoy looking at their music section.

The last place we talked about is Your Marketplace.  It was a grocery store that closed last month.  Some of my favorite things to get from there were seafood, Brach's Butterscotch disks, Hot Pockets, Tiki Punch and Heavenly Doughnuts.  My dad really liked their meat department because they actually knew how to butcher.  I am very disappointed that they are closed.

Getting Started with Spanish

I am just starting to learn Spanish.  I have only completed one lesson but I wanted to show off how much I am learning.  Here is a video of me using a few of my new words and phrases.

 

The Monticello Convention

My lesson for Social Studies today talked about museums and memorials.  We talked about memorials in our area.  In Longview there is a memorial for the Monticello Convention.  It is located by the Civic Circle in the middle of Longview.

I went online to learn more about the Monticello Convention.  I found this website that talks about it.  Not all websites have accurate information on them.  I think this is a good website to use because it is from the State of Washington and they probably know all there is to know about the history of Washington.

The Monticello Convention was when a group of people got together in Monticello, which was about two miles away from what is now the center of my city.  They met on November 25th, 1852.  They asked Congress to make a new territory with the land north of the Columbia River.  It was signed by the governor of Oregon Territory because Washington was a part of Oregon back then.  They wanted to call the new territory the Columbia Territory because of the river.  Congress agreed to making a new territory, but they called it Washington instead of Columbia.

Vegetable Vote Results

 
Yesterday I made a list of five vegetables and asked people to vote for their favorite one on the list.  Today we took the results and made a tally chart and a bar graph.  My tally chart showed that there were 18 total votes.

Mom helped me draw the axis and I learned about picking a scale.  We labeled the scale with units.  The unit I used was votes.  My scale was two squares for one vote.  Looking the the chart shows me which vegetables of the ones I asked about are the favorites.  The most popular vegetables on the list are potatoes and tomatoes.  The least popular are celery and radishes

I also learned how to put the data in a spreadsheet and use that to make a pie chart.  It gives the same information but shows it in a different way.  It lets you see how many votes a vegetable got in relation to how many votes were cast in total.








This project helped me with my math and spelling because we used words with consonant blends that I am working on right now.

The Golden Age

This morning I started reading about Greek mythology.  Today I learned about the Golden Age and was introduced to Zeus.

People in Greece believed that gods and goddesses ruled nature.  They believed in many gods instead of one god.  The gods and goddesses lived in palaces on Mount Olympus.  Cronus was the king of the Titans.  His son Zeus became king of the gods after throwing Cronus in prison.  His brother Poseidon was in charge of the sea and Hades rule the underworld.  I think they called it the Golden Age because people were fighting for gold and there was lots of war and killing.

Vote for your Favorite Vegetable!

I am working on a project and I need your help!  I need to make a tally chart and then use the results to make a graph.  I have picked five vegetables.  Please pick your favorite vegetable.  I will use the answers to make my graph.  Thank you for taking the time to answer.


Voting has ended, thank you for your help!  Click here for the results!

My First Field Trip!

I went to OMSI yesterday with my father and other CVA students.  I woke up at 5 in the morning.  I was excited to go, even though it was still dark outside when we got on the bus.  It was a lot of fun.

The first thing we did was we went to the Turbine Hall.  It had a model of one of the return shuttles from one of the Apollo missions.  Next we went over to some robots that play Connect 4.  They were big yellow robots and they could only move left and right. They could drop the ball too.  Then we went to the Physics Lab.  We had a lot of fun there playing with generators and telegraph machines.  Next we went upstairs and played with a robot with a vacuum arm.  It could move up, down, left and right.

Next we went outside to tour the submarine.  It was awesome!  It was the last diesel submarine in US service.  It was in the Willamette River.  The outside of the submarine was painted black.  It was a hybrid.  That means it has an electric motor and a diesel engine for going fast and deep.  The bad parts were that it couldn't go under water because they cut doors in the side and we couldn't go into the sail to see the control bridge.  We got to see everything else, even the torpedo room.  We were warned not to touch any switches or buttons because they had a torpedo loaded and ready to fire.

I had a great time at OMSI.  I learned a lot about telegraph machines that I didn't already know.  I am excited to go again and maybe even participate in some of their science camps!

Welcome to my CVA World!

My name is Jonathan and I am 8 years old.  I am attending Columbia Virtual Academy (CVA) for 3rd grade this year.  This is not a regular school.  It is a homeschool program.  I am not going to a regular school anymore because I was getting picked on a lot and I wasn't learning enough.  I am very exited about CVA.  I get to go on all sorts of fun field trips.  I get to help pick what I learn about.  I'm even going to try fencing for PE this year!

I am using this blog to tell my family and friends about what I'm doing in school.  I'm also using it as a part of my social studies and my science instead of writing in a notebook.  I have a fine motor delay.  It makes writing hard for me.  I am learning to type this year.  Until I am good my mom and dad will help me type but I tell them what to say.