Monks and Monasteries

Dear Friend,

Today I'm doing some research on monks and monasteries. There are different types of people in the monasteries: 

Monks & Nuns: Monks & Nuns copied the books, made medicines and built the first hospitals. They also prayed and sang.

Abbot: Was in charge of a monastery.

Abbess: was in charge of a convent.

Watch the mail!

Ali

No computers!?

Dear Friend,

Did you know that before printing presses or computers were made that medieval monks in Europe had to write everything by hand!? First the monks would choose what to write.  There were not a lot of books in a library.  The choices were tales, poems like Beowulf, books about saints, the Bible and some history.  Most of the time they chose to copy the Bible and stories about saints.  They stretched animal skins to make parchment.  This is what they used instead of paper.  They used colored ink and wrote with quills made out goose or swan feathers.  They would illustrate the books with colored ink and gold.  Books were so special back then that they chain the books to their desk!  

Not mine

viking boat!

Dear Friend,
Hello!  As you saw in my other letters I was studying the Vikings and one of my projects I did was building a Viking longboat! Here's a link for how you can make one: http://www.looledo.com/index.php/viking-ship.html. I didn't use that web site but I think this would be a better one. well I have to go now keep checking the mail!


Ali




P.S make the boat, take a picture and post it down below in the comment box!

moody colors

Dear Friend,
In science I'm learning about octopuses. Octo means eight in Latin. And guess how many tentacles a octopus has! One of the many cool features an octopus has is that they change color according to their mood! So there's white for fear, red for anger, brown is the usual color. Let me show you a game that you can play:

Here's how you play:
I will post a couple pictures of octopuses and you comment below on what mood it's in.


1.

                       
2.

                    

3.

4.

         



See you next time and keep checking the mail!


Ali

What is it like today?

Dear Friend,
Sorry I haven't wrote you in a while. Well, I wanted to show you what Faeroes, Iceland, and Greenland looks like today:

                                            This is Faeroes,

                                                  This is Iceland,

                                               And this is Greenland.
I like Greenland because it looks cool.

Well I have to go now. Keep on checking the mail every day!

Ali

P.S. Comment down below on what you think! 

AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! VIKINGS!!!!!

Dear Friend,
Right now I'm working on vikings, and I wanted to give you something like a tour of what they did, what they ate, and where they lived,etc. So, let the tour begin!

 This is a virtual layout that we think a viking village would look like.

people rebuilt what their idea of a viking home, with a grass thatched roof.

This is a inside of a viking home. They put cots up for them to sleep on, a small table, and their clothes

This is a viking ship. They have spots for the rowers to sit and row. They had a lot of rowers to move the big   ship

They had a wood dragon head at one end of the ship.

This is what men would wear.

And this is what women would wear.

This is a viking helmet. Belive it or not not all viking helmets had horns.

This is some of the weapons that they used.

And last but not least (because they would die if they didn't eat) their food.

OK that was the tour! I hope you liked it! If you want to learn more about  vikings then click on this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/vikings/
Keep on checking in the mail!
Ali

King Arthur

Dear friend,
This time for history I decided to do a collage* on: King Arthur. OK this is short because I'm doing a collage but keep on looking out for my letter in the mail!
Ali  
* A collage is a whole bunch of pictures tell a story.