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.