I thought this week was fun, even though the internet ran out part way through and we had to do without internet for **GASP** two whole days! I am so amazed that I survived! This week we studied the people who went on the Mayflower, called Pilgrims. They went to Plimoth. The end. Ha ha ha ha. Just kidding!
History
We made a movie about the inner light that the Quakers believe in. The Quakers believe that everyone has an inner light that lets them talk directly to God which, of course, means you can talk to God without the help of a priest or preacher. The Puritans, on the other hand, found this idea sinful and believed that they needed a preacher there to guide them in their relationship with God. Needless to say, the Puritans and Quakers did NOT like each other too much.
The Puritans also thought that they should purify the Church of England but unfortunately King James I disagreed. He liked the C of E just the way it was. So he made the Purtians' taxes go way higher than anyone else's. And did you know that King James I actually liked beef so much that he had a cow brought into his court and knighted it, "Sir Loin." That is actually true! (I think). Anyhow, the Puritans ended up leaving England to go to Holland where they could worship freely. But then they were like, "Oh shoot! Our children are losing their religion (Ed. note: unintentional REM reference). We better go to the New World!"
Okay, massive brain shift. The Dutch were in the New World, in New Amsterdam. They were, like, they had everything crazy in their town. And their cattle were running around loose. The Dutch got drunk a lot and ran around every day of the week. Even SUNDAY, which at that time was a big no-no. Then the Dutch West India Company started to get angry and sent over Peter Stuyvesant to be governor--OMG, I can never remember his name, but I can remember that he had a peg leg!
Peter Stuyvesant did a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing was he made the colonists be really good. He made them worship on Sundays, and he taxed beer and wine so that people would drink less. And he wouldn't let cattle run around wild in the streets anymore. The bad thing was, although he had built Wall Street to keep out the English, the English came anyhow and, well, it was like the wall wasn't even there. Charles II had announced in England that New Amsterdam belonged to the English and no one else. As a matter of fact, he even named it for his brother, the Duke of York! Get it? New York! (Sorry, I almost forgot that.) Then the English moved in, took over, and Stuyvesant totally let them! He surrendered his colony! So that was pretty much the end of the Dutch in New York City.
Math
I am still using Singapore Math and the Adapted Mind program together. I have done, according to Adapted Mind, almost 50% of the program for fifth grade! (Ed. note: The teacher, however, will not be stopping math once the blogger has mastered 100%-- Tian: "WHAT!?!??!") I don't like fifth grade math because I think it is really hard, especially the distributive and associative properties. My favorite thing in math so far has been learning mental math strategies. I find it so easy that I don't even have to learn it! (I am so EEEVIL!)
Language and Writing
This week I read Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, which was a fairly typical Purtian name. It was really good. I love the diaries about girls. I also read one in a previous week called, Diary of Clotee, Slave Girl.
I still don't like language as I do not like using the series, Building With Diligence but I have to do it. You know, come to think of it I wouldn't like any other curriculum either. I do like writing, though. This week I wrote a paragraph about the Titanic, which I had to plan, write, and type on the computer. On my own time I am writing a story on the computer. Maybe one of these days I will publish that.
Arabic
Today in Arabic we played bingo, which was really fun, but it was also confusing because there were words
there as well and I am not so great yet at reading Arabic. Cady, however, is pretty good at the reading, so I have to cheat off of her a lot. (Ed. note--I added this last part because I see it happen allthe time, but Tian insists that it is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE!) Here is a picture of some of the Arabic numbers we studied this week. Oh, Silas hates Arabic, but while I am dictating this he is in the background teaching imaginary children the numbers. I don't get him. He is so weird.
Science
We started the ozone layer depletion last week and this week we learned about the effects that that depletion is having on the world. We interviewed Greta, who is from New Zealand. She told us what it is like to live in a place where the ozone layer is so thin. She said that in the summers in New Zealand it takes just 2-5 minutes to get sunburned and that you can actually feel your skin burning as it is happening! As a result, Kiwis have to wear hats with neck guards all the time, and they have to wear sunscreen everyday. As a matter of fact, when they get up in the morning, they always apply sunscreen right away. It is just part of their routine. And if kids forget to bring their hats with them to school, they have to go home to get them and then come back to school. Ugh.
In Oman, the ozone layer must be very thick because we can be outside here for hours without burning, even though it is so hot.
Miscellaneous Comments
I am going to be Pocahontas for Halloween and I am making my own costume. And I will try to put up a picture of my costume when it is done. Tehva is going to be a ballerina and Silas wants to be Harry Pooter.
Videos
Here are the two videos we made this week. This first one is actually a commercial, but it's a little more than 30 seconds long. To make it we read lots of books about what Quakers and Puritans would have dressed like and then decided we would just have to make do with what we have here. We also read books on the Puritans and learned a little bit about the Quakers in history.
We created a story board also using http://users.altec.org/~scherrer/digi_dif/storyboard_wrap.htm. Then we filmed it and put it together.
Here is the other video, which is a visual representation of Remember Remember the Fifth of November, about Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot.
That is all for this week. I am sooooooo evil! Bye!
Tian
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