Tuesday, November 27, 2012

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

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

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.


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See you next time and keep checking the mail!


Ali








Monday, November 5, 2012

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!