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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.