Columbus

Coumbus was a boatman.  When he was young a pirate ship attacked him.  He floated to shore on a piece of wood.  He floated to Portugal.  Portugal was good at boating and he learned from them.  He became a god boatman and a sea captain.  He wanted to go on trip but he didn't have the money, so he begged the king and queen of Spain.  They kept saying no because they had been in a war and didn't have much money.  But finally after a few years they agreed and he got the money.  He got three ships called the Pinta, the Nina, and the Santa Maria.  He left.  He was trying to get to India but he was going west instead of around Africa.  He went to an island and he saw some people there and he called them Indians because he thought he was in India, but he wasn't.  He went back to Spain and they thought he was amazing.  He went back three times still trying to get to India, but he didn't ever get there.  Columbus discovered a new land.  It wasn't really India.  It was America.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Prince Henry lived in Portugal.  He wanted to the Indies by sailing so he could get spices.  He wanted to find a quicker way than on foot, going by ships instead.  But he didn't have the right stuff.  He built a school and a library.  There he improved the compass and he improved other sailing tools.  He brought good ship people to his school and they helped each other learn more.  They helped try to figure out how big the earth was and how they could get to the Indies.  He worked at it for a long time but never actually got to sail before he died.  He also helped make a different kind of ship.  It was kind of ship that Christoffer Columbus sailed in later.

Leif Erikson

Leif Erikson was a Viking.  He wanted to go to a place that a guy told him about while Leif was at his house.  He went and tried to find the place.  He landed on an island that was really rocky so he went on.  He found a second island that was very rugged, and he still went on.  Finally he found a third place.  It was amazing.  It had trees and food and sand.  He built houses and explored and stayed there for a year.  Then he sailed back to Greenland where he lived.  He wanted to go back but he never got to before his life ended.  He was the first European to go to the American Continent.

Robert Frost

Robert Frost's dad died when he was 11.  So his mom went and lived with his grumpy grandpa.  Robert worked as a bobbin boy at his grandpa's place.  They moved because his grandpa was being so grumpy to them.  They moved to a farmhouse.  His mom taught school.  Robert had a job, too.  Later, Robert taught school with his mom and his sister.  When he was a school teacher he married a girl named Elinor White.  They had a son.  Robert went to college so he could be a teacher at college, but he got sick and so did his son.  His son got so sick he died.  Then Robert quit college.  His wife begged his grandpa to pay for a farm for them to live on.  His grandpa said okay, but Robert had to work on the farm for 10 years.  They had 4 more kids.  Robert wrote poems and worked on the farm.

Then he sold the farm and moved to England.  In England they accepted his poems.  Then the people in America saw how good his poems were and wanted him to come back, so he did because his book was there.   He turned into a famous poetry writer and people loved him until he died.  And they still love him.

The Pasture

I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;

I'll only stop to rake the leaves away

(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):

I sha'n't be gone long.—You come too.

I'm going out to fetch the little calf

That's standing by the mother. It's so young,

It totters when she licks it with her tongue.

I sha'n't be gone long.—You come too.

by Robert Frost

Ellie's poem, based on The Pasture

I'm going out see the horses

Run and play and stop

And look at me.

I sha'n't be gone long.--You come too.

  

Nests

Book read:  A Nest Is Noisy, by Dianna Hutts Aston

Nests are all different shapes and sizes.  Some are stretchy and some aren't.  Some are huge.  Some are made pokey and some are made soft.  Not only birds make nests.  Other animals do, too.  Chimpanzees and platypuses make nests.  Most of the time nests are noisy, but when the babies leave, it's quiet.  I would like to see the nest of a bee hummingbird.  It is so tiny and cute.  It is stretchy.  It is wrapped in spider silk so it can stretch for when their babies get bigger.

Snowflake Bentley, by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Ever since he was a boy, Wilson Bentley liked snow.  He wanted to find out what snow looked like, but he wasn't quick enough with his mom's microscope.  One day he read about a camera that had a microscope on it, but he didn't have enough money to buy it.  One year his parents put their savings together and bought the camera for him.  He made amazing pictures with his camera.  Nobody was interested in them at that time.  Even when other kids were building forts, snowmen, and snowballs, he was taking pictures of snowflakes.  When he got older he did slide shows of his snowflakes.  And he shared his snowflakes with as many people as wanted to see them.  His pictures inspired people to think more about snow.  One day when he was old he walked home in a blizzard to make more pictures.  He got pneumonia from walking in the blizzard and died two weeks later.  Now there is a monument in Jericho, Vermont, telling about him.
I liked how he wanted to find out about snow, so he did.  He went to work on it.

Good King Wenceslas

December 10, 2015

Today I learned about Good King Wenceslas.  His dad died when he was 13.  His grandma had taken him into her care and taught him about the gospel.  His mom didn't like that.  So she had the grandma strangled to death.  Then she took him into her care again.  But he still prayed and lived how his grandmother taught him.  They banished his mom because of what she did and he became the king.  Because he was so kind he let his mom come back and forgave her for what she did to his grandma.  He was a really nice king.  He served everybody.  He took people food and helped them.  He gave clothes to poor people and he freed slaves.  One day his brother invited him to a party.  People warned him that his brother might hurt or kill him, but he still went.  His brother raised a sword against him, but he didn't kill him.  He forgave his brother.  Then some other people attacked him and stuck swords into him and he died.  He is remembered because he was so nice to everyone.  He died in 929 A.D.