Learn with me!
While school was still in, I tried to learn stop motion animation. It was fun and I wanted to do more of it. When I was working on a habitat project, we talked with my mom about doing a short video about the habitat.
I love animals and I want to help protect the environment. We ended up deciding to make some videos about different environments around the world, problems threatening them and how to help. Last night, we posted the first one on my YouTube channel – this one is about coral reefs:
PE πββοΈ
Need to work on those arms!
Math ββββ
Day off from doing multiplications! Just make sure you remember them all!
Science π¬
Mount Everest
Yay! We got to the end of this series! This is the tallest mountain in the world, as measured from the sea level. It’s 29 029 feet (8848 meters) tall! It’s part of the Himalaya mountains, which are the tallest mountains in the world. They are located in Asia and go through multiple countries, including India, China and Nepal.
We call it Mount Everest, but locals have two different names for it. In Tibetan, it’s called Chomolungma and to Nepali, it’s SagarmΔthΔ. Personally, I think I will stick to Mount Everest…
Mount Everest is so tall that it’s in Death Zone. When you go higher up, air gets thinner (that’s why it can be harder to breathe when you travel to the mountains). Death Zone is so high up that a person needs to use an oxygen tank (that’s sort of air in a metal bottle) to breathe.
Do you remember who was the first one to get to the top of Mount Everest?
Social Science π©βπ
Lewis and Clark expedition
In 1803, the United States bought territory called Louisiana from France. It was much bigger than the state we currently called Louisiana and included a lot of central US. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson sent 33 men, led by Lewis and Clark, to explore the newly bought land. They drew maps and wrote detailed descriptions of everything they saw during their voyage. They even made it to the Pacific Ocean in 1806.
As a reward for the two explorers, the president made Lewis governor of the Louisiana Territory and Clark governor of the Missouri Territory.
There was another notable member of that expedition. Her name was Sacagawea. She was a member of Lemhi Shoshone tribe. She was Lewis’ and Clark’s guide and interpreter.
When Lewis and Clark were getting ready to go west, they hired Toussaint Charbonneau as their interpreter. That’s because he was married to Sacagawea and they were planning to go through territories of the Shoshone people. Along the way, the expedition ran into a tribe where the chief turned out to be Sacagawea’s brother. The explorers got horses and supplies from the tribe. Sacagawea was also helpful with directions, since she grew up in that area.
One of the most important things Sacagawea did for the expedition was actually just being part of the expedition. Back then, native tribes never brought women with them when they went to war, so her being there meant to the locals that Lewis and Clark were not there to start a war.
Trivia β
A group of lions is called a pride.
Word of the Day β
Notable – worthy of attention or notice; remarkable.
Activity πΊ
Watch this video about expedition of Lewis and Clark:
PE πββοΈ
Let’s do a leg workout today:
Math ββββ
I know that practice is boring, but it’s the only way to get really good at this!
Science π¬
Aconcagua
Andes are mountains along western part of South America. Aconcagua is the tallest peak in part called Principal Cordillera. At 22 837 feet (6961 meters), it’s the tallest mountain in South America. It’s only 190th tallest mountain in the world, which doesn’t sound so impressive. But here is the impressive part: 189 ahead of it are all in Asia (Himalayas are huge, aren’t they?).
Ok, so my mom loves this fact: Aconcagua is covered by glaciers and one of them is called Polish Glacier. It was named after a Polish team who paved a new route to the top back in 1934.
Andes were created when Nazca Plate (one of tectonic plates) went under South American Plate (that’s tectonic plate South America sits on). Aconcagua itself was a stratovolcano. However, during some other shifts in tectonic plates in the area, Aconcagua got lifted off of its volcanic base. So it’s no longer a volcano!
Aconcagua is the highest mountain that can be easily climbed, without knowing how to rock climb, as long as you go the easy route, which is from its north side. There is one challenge though: Aconcagua is so tall that you will most likely get altitude sickness.
Chimborazo
Like Aconcagua, Chimborazo is part of the Andes Mountains, but in Cordillera Occidental part. It’s 20 548 feet (6263 meters) tall. What makes Chimborazo important is that it’s the tallest mountain if you count from the center of the earth. You know how Earth is not a perfect sphere (ball)? Points around the middle of our planet are further away from the center. I think it’s kind of funny that Chimborazo is not even the tallest mountain in its own range!
Social Science π©βπ
I am excited about today’s explorers! They show up in books and movies!
Hernan Cortes
Have you seen Pirates of the Caribbean? Barbosa stole gold from Cortes. Yes, this Cortes.
Hernan Cortes was born in 1485 in Spain. His family wanted him to be a lawyer and sent him to school for it, but he wasn’t interested and lasted only 2 years. He heard about Columbus and discovery of the New World. He wanted to be rich and famous!
His conquests in the New World started when he joined Diego Velazquez in 1511 – they conquered Cuba. In 1518, Cortes set his sights on Mexico and the Aztec Empire. He heard that Aztecs had a lot of gold and tried to meet with Emperor Montezuma II to get it from him. The emperor was not interested in that, so Cortes decided to take it by force. He went to Tenochtitlan to get the gold. On his way there, he found out that tribes who lived there were not happy with the Aztecs and helped him fight. Montezuma gave Cortes gold, but the conquistador was not satisfied and wanted more. Eventually, Cortes and his army conquered the Aztec Empire and renamed Tenochtitlan Mexico City.
Juan Ponce de Leon
Juan Ponce de Leon was born in 1474 in Spain. From a young age, he was trained to be a knight. After fighting in wars in Europe, he moved to the New World. He first settled on the island of Hispaniola and later, he created first Spanish settlement on the island of Puerto Rico in 1508. He became a governor of that land.
Eventually, due to political changes in Spain, Puerto Rico got a new governor. However, the king liked Juan Ponce de Leon and sent him on an expedition north. Do you know what’s north of there? I hope you guessed Florida! At first, the explorer thought it was a HUGE island. Juan Ponce de Leon explored and mapped out a lot of the Florida coast.
The legends about Juan Ponce de Leon have him looking for the fountain of youth in Florida. That’s a stream that would make people young again. There is no proof though that this was his goal.
Francisco Pizarro
Like Juan Ponce de Leon, Francisco Pizarro was born in 1474 in Spain. He grew up poor and never learned how to read and write. He didn’t let that stop him. After hearing about how rich he could get in the New World, he became a settler on Hispaniola.
For a time, Francisco Pizarro got to explore Central America with Vasco Nunez de Balboa. In 1524, Pizarro set on first expedition where he was in charge. It was a total failure, but he went again 2 years later. This time, he got to the edges of the Inca Empire. Finally, in 1532, Pizarro managed to establish first Spanish settlement in Peru. Conquistadors brought to the Inca people diseases, like smallpox.
Francisco Pizarro kidnapped Inca emperor, Atahualpa. The Inca paid ransom, but he still killed the emperor. He wanted more gold and took over Inca capital, Cuzco.
Interesting: Pizarro was Hernan Cortes’ second cousin, once removed.
Trivia β
When Gulf of California was first discovered, it was called Sea of Cortes.
Word of the day β
Settlement – a place, typically one that has been uninhabited until then, where people establish a community.
Activity πΊ
Learn more about the Aztecs:
PE πββοΈ
Core workout today:
Math ββββ
Practice your multiplication:
Science π¬
Denali
If you ask grown-ups about Denali mountain, they may not immediately realize what you’re talking about. That’s because until 2015 it was called Mount McKinley and that’s what we learned in school. Denali is the traditional name used by the native people of the area. During the gold rush, a prospector named the mountain after a presidential candidate (who will become the 25th president of the US later).
Denali is in Alaska and is part of the Alaska Range. It’s the tallest mountain in North America. It’s also one of the tallest mountains when measured from base to the top. It’s much taller in that way even than Mount Everest, the tallest mountain above sea level.
The first person to attempt getting to the top of Denali was James Wickersham in 1903, but he failed. In 1906, Frederick Cook claimed that he got to the top, but this claim was unverified. It wasn’t until 1913 that somebody climbed to the top and it was confirmed! It was actually four men: Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, Walter Harper and Robert Tatum.
Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea is a volcano of island of Hawaii. Don’t worry – it’s dormant and it’s not expected to explode any time soon. At 13 803 feet (4207 meters), it’s not a very tall mountain. This height is measured from sea level. I just mentioned that Denali is bigger than Mount Everest because it starts lower. Well, both of these start above sea level. That’s not the case for Mauna Kea. It start far, far below sea level. When measured from its base, Mauna Kea is 33 500 feet (10 200 meters) tall. That’s well over 4000 feet more than Mount Everest!
Social Science π©βπ
Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly was the pen name of Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She studied to become a teacher, but she didn’t have enough money to finish school. When she was 16, she read a newspaper article and the way it talked about women made Elizabeth angry. She was so upset that she wrote newspaper’s editor. The editor was so impressed by her writing that he hired her as a writer.
As a reporter, she went undercover to a hospital for mentally ill and wrote an article about how horrible the hospital was. Her writing career was all about helping groups of people that were treated badly.
But how was she a famous explorer? Well, let’s start with this: have you ever heard of Around the World in 80 Days? She decided to beat that time. She set out on her trip on November 19, 1889. She had many adventures and problems on her way. She was running behind by the time she got back to America. One of the problems was that there were no planes back then and trains didn’t run too often. By this point, though, Nellie Bly was famous and everybody wanted to help her. Newspaper New York World rented an entire train for her to make sure she could come right back to New York. She completed the whole trip in 72 days!
Sally Ride
Sally Ride was born in 1951 in California. Growing up, she was a great tennis player, but when she was a teenager, she realized she wanted something different in life. She got a PhD in physics, specializing in astrophysics. When opportunity came, she applied to NASA. In 1983, she flew into space on board of space shuttle Challenger, becoming first American woman to go into space.
She actually got to go into space twice. And there are two schools in the US named after her! Another interesting thing she did: she is the only person who worked on both committees investing famous space shuttle accidents: Challenger and Columbia.
Valentina Tereshkova
If we mention Sally Reid, we can’t forget Valentina Tereshkova! She is not as well known in the US because he lived in the Soviet Union (currently Russia). Her greatest accomplishment: she was the first woman (of any country) to go into space. She went in 1963, so 20 years before Sally Reid! She was actually member of early space exploration. Neil Armstrong didn’t land on the Moon until 1969. First space mission for a human was only 2 years before Tereshkova’s mission. The first man to go into space was also sent by Soviet Union. His name was Yuri Gagarin.
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart was born in 1897 in Kansas. She tried different jobs and careers, but nothing made her happy. When she was 23, she got to be on board of an airplane at an air show for the first time in her life and that’s when she decided she finally found her thing.
In 1928, Amelia was a flight navigator (no GPS back then!) on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean. This made her the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. She wanted more though. In 1932, she became the first woman and second person over all to fly solo (that’s alone) across the Atlantic. Later, she was also the first person (man or woman) to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937, when she tried to become the first woman to fly around the world.
Trivia β
Hawaii was the 50th state to join the union.
Word of the day β
Pen name – an assumed name used by a writer instead of their real name.
Activity πΊ
Learn about Jade Hameister, kid-explorer:
PE πββοΈ
Finally! Soccer again! Enjoy π
Math ββββ
Last week we discussed multiplying two-digit numbers by a one digit number. But what about three-digit number? Or more? It’s similar to what we learned last week. For every number you move over, you add a 0 at the end. Here is an example:
Do you think you’ve got it? Try on this worksheet:
Science π¬
Mount Kilimanjaro
Mount Kilimanjaro, tallest mountain in Africa, is 19 341 feet (5895 meters) tall. It’s in Tanzania and it’s not a part of any mountain range. It’s a stratovolcano. Don’t worry though – it hasn’t exploded in over a 100 000 years!
Mount Kilimanjaro has 3 cones – Shira, Mawenzi and Kibo. The first two are completely extinct, but the last one is only dormant. That means that one day, it could explode again.
Europeans tried naming this mountain when they were colonizing Africa and called it Kaiser Wilhelm Spitze. We went back to calling it Kilimanjaro though, which means ‘shining mountain’ in Swahili (local languages).
Mount Kilimanjaro is relatively easy to climb to the top, at least when you’re talking about the tallest mountains on each continent. You can walk up to the top, like on Mount Kosciuszko. There are two big differences though. The road doesn’t get as close to the top, so it takes between 7 and 9 days to get to the top. The other thing is that the mountain is really tall and just being that high up can make you sick. It’s called altitude sickness and the way not to get sick is to spend some time higher up in the mountains.
Social Science π©βπ
Roald Amundsen
Roald Amundsen was born in 1872 in Norway. His family was full of ship captains and ship owners. He wanted to be a sailor, too, but his mom wanted to him to be a doctor and he went to school for that until he was 21.
Amundsen was fascinated by polar exploration and joined an expedition to the south pole as first mate and ship doctor. This trip was unsuccessful and they got stuck in ice. They were forced to stay there for several months. This was a scary and dangerous experience, but taught Amundsen many valuable lessons, which helped him make his other expeditions successful.
Do you remember Cartier and Hudson trying to find the Northwest Passage? Amundsen actually did! He was the first person to do so in 1903.
Amundsen planned to be the first person to reach the North Pole. However, he learned that somebody else has done it, so he changed his plans and put together an expedition to the South Pole. Thanks to his experience from his previous expedition to Antarctic, he was very well prepared and reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911.
Edmund Hillary
Edmund Hillary was born in 1919 in New Zealand. He and his Sherpa (local guide who carried a lot of their supplies) were the first people to get to the top of Mount Everest, tallest mountain in the world. He was also the first person to reach both North and South Pole.
Hillary’s life was about a lot more than just exploration. He was New Zealand’s high commissioner to India and Bangladesh and ambassador to Nepal. He also created an organization called the Himalayan Trust, which helped the Sherpa people. Through the Trust, he built many schools and hospitals for people in the Himalaya Mountains.
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong was born in 1930 in Ohio. He was only 15 years old when he got his pilot’s license! He got a degree in aerospace engineering before joining the US Navy and becoming a fighter pilot during the Korean War. He was also a test pilot, test-flying many new types of airplanes.
Neil Armstrong’s first mission to space was on Gemini 8, when he became the first person to successfully pilot a docking (that’s like parking) of two vehicles in space.
In 1969, Neil Armstrong commanded first flight to the Moon and was the first one to step on the surface of Earth’s satellite. He was soon joined by the other astronaut, Buzz Aldrin. Since there is no wind on the Moon, their footprints are still there.
Trivia β
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
Word of the day β
Expedition – a journey or voyage of a group of people for a particular purpose, especially that of exploration, scientific research, or war.
Activity πΊ
Watch this little video about Amundsen’s expedition to the South Pole:
PE πββοΈ
This week’s challenge: lay down on your back and lift your legs until your toes touch the floor behind your head. Hold it there for 30 seconds. Can you do it? Here is me and my mom doing it (and I’m not telling who failed – sort of):
Math ββββ
I hope you are getting a hang of this, because next week will be something harder (but based on this subect):
Science π¬
Question 1: What are three types of mountains based on how they got created?
Question 2: Why did people have a hard time believing in existence of Puncak Jaya?
Question 3: When is it summer time on Vinson Massif?
Question 4: Why is there a disagreement on whether Mont Blanc or Mount Elbrus is the tallest mountain in Europe?
Social Science π©βπ
Question 1: Why was The Book of the Marvels of the World important?
Question 2: Why was America named after Amerigo Vespucci?
Question 3: What was the name of the first explorer to circumnavigate the Earth?
Question 4: What or who was a privateer?
Activity πΊ
PE πββοΈ
Today, we will be doing a back workout. Make sure to stretch though – you will need it for the challenge tomorrow!
Math ββββ
Last day of practice. Tomorrow we will be having a test and next week, we will work on another way to multiply larger numbers.
Science π¬
Mount Elbrus
Mount Elbrus, at 18 510 feet (5642 meters), is the highest mountain in the Caucasus Mountains. It’s an inactive volcano covered by snow and ice.
Caucasus Mountains are the border between Asia and Europe, which leads to a problem with choosing tallest mountain in Europe: which side does Elbrus belong to? One way people choose to decide is into which continent water flows into from them (it’s called watershed). Based on that, Elbrus is in Europe.
Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc is in French part of the Alps. At 15 774 feet (4810 meters), it’s the tallest mountain in Europe if you don’t include Caucasus Mountains.
There is an issue with the height of Mont Blanc. The summit is covered by ice and snow, which melts in the summer and grows in the winter.
My mom told me that she once went to Mont Blanc during summer vacation (but she didn’t try going to the very top). They took an aerial lift to as high as it went and even though it was really hot at the bottom, there was plenty of snow at the top and people were even skiing!
Social Science π©βπ
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake was born in 1540 in England. He was a sea captain, navigator and a politician. He was hired by Queen Elizabeth I as a privateer (see definition in word of the day).
As a privateer, he spent a lot of time fighting against the Spanish. He was also a vice admiral in English navy and second in command in the fight against Spanish armada (that’s Spanish navy) in 1588.
As an explorer, his greatest achievement was being second person to circumnavigate (that’s sail around) the Earth.
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson was born in 1556 in England. He was an explorer who tried to find the Northwest Passage. That’s a way to sail around northern edges of America to get to China. He discovered Hudson Bay and Hudson River.
Jacques Cartier
Jacques Cartier was born in 1491 in Brittany, France. His most important work was in exploring Canada. Like Henry Hudson, Jacques Cartier started his exploration as an attempt (trying) to find a way to sail across northern ends of America and to Asia. He found many islands, rivers and natural harbors.
Amazing fact about Cartier: unlike other explorers, none of his ships sank during his 3 voyages. Remember Magellan? Only one of his 5 ships made it back home. Another interesting thing about Cartier was that he was the first one to formally say that America is a completely separate part of land from Europe and Asia.
Trivia β
African elephant is the largest animal in the world.
Word of the day β
Privateer – a privately owned armed ship permitted by its government to make war on ships of an enemy country; or a sailor on a privateer ship.
Activity πΊ
I want to see London. Do you think I could see the Queen? For now, we all have to stay at home, but we can still see London:
PE πββοΈ
Another core workout. I think I’m getting good at them!
Math ββββ
Practice multiplying two digit number by one digit number:
Science π¬
Vinson Massif
Second shortest mountain on the list of seven summits is Vinson Massif, tallest mountain in Antarctica. It’s only 16 050 feet (4892 meters) tall. It’s seems really tall when you think about yesterday’s lesson about Mount Kosciuszko, but it’s still not that big – the tallest mountain in the world in 8848 meters tall!
Vinson Massif is part of Ellsworth Mountains and is only 750 miles away from the South Pole. It’s so far away from where people live that its height wasn’t measured until 1969. It was named after senator Carl Vinson from Georgia, who supported expeditions to Antarctica.
Fun fact: because how close this mountain is so far south, the sun doesn’t set between November and January. That’s their summer!
Social Science π©βπ
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan was born in 1480 in Portugal. He worked for king of Portugal since he was very young. At court, he learned navigation, astronomy and how to draw maps. As a member of Spanish navy, he visited Morocco, India and a lot of other places.
Magellan really wanted to do what Columbus promised to king and queen of Spain: sail to Asia by going west from Europe. He left with 5 ships in 1519. He sailed across the Atlantic and then turned south to find a way to the other side of America. They eventually did. That pass is in Chile and was named after him: Strait of Magellan. Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to sail across the Pacific Ocean.
Magellan didn’t make it all the way to Indonesia, which was his plan. He was killed in the Philippines. His ships kept sailing west though. One of them, Victoria, made it all the way back to Europe, making it the first ship to sail around the whole world.
The Spanish Conquistadors
Word Conquistador is Spanish for conqueror. They were soldiers, explorers and adventurers. Those were men that Columbus or Magellan would bring with them on their great voyages.
The time of the conquistadors was between 15th and 17th centuries. They did exactly what their name says: they conquered lands they discovered. They have settled a lot of America and we call those territories Latin America now. They also conquered a lot of island nations in Asia-Pacific, like the Philippines.
This is just a quick overview of what the conquistadors were. We will talk more about them in the future – there were some really famous ones.
Trivia β
Suez Canal is in Egypt. It’s a way for ships to go from Europe to Asia without having to go around Africa. It was built in 1859. You have probably already noticed that explorers were trying to figure out how to sail between the two continents and finally, people just made a way themselves.
Word of the day β
Ease – freedom from difficulty or hardship or effort.
Activity πΊ
How about visiting the Yosemite Park?
PE πββοΈ
Time for leg workout:
Math ββββ
Multiplication is hard, so we will be spending the rest of the week on practicing:
Science π¬
Seven Summits
My mom said that using our time at home, she will talk up the stairs the height of each of the Seven Summits. She explained to me that this list includes the tallest mountain on each continent. There are different lists though and there are two mountains that sometimes show up on the list: Puncak Jaya (below) and Mount Blanc in Europe.
Puncak Jaya
Puncak Jaya is the tallest peak of Mount Jayawijaya in Indonesia. It’s 4884 meters (16024 feet) above sea level.
This mountain is on the continent of Australia and Oceania. When people talk about tallest mountain in Australia, they usually talk about Mount Kosciuszko (described below) because they only think of mainland Australia and they forget about Oceania.
The first European to see this mountain was a Dutch explorer named Jan Carstenszoon, but nobody believed him for over 200 years! It’s all because usually it’s hard to see that high up on that island and he talked about seeing snow. People just wouldn’t believe him that there could be snow in area that hot. What they didn’t think of is that the higher you go on a mountain, the colder it gets. That’s how extremely tall mountains, like Puncak Jaya, Kilimanjaro or Mount Everest, which are located in hot parts of the world still can have snow on them.
Fun fact: Jaya means in the local language victory, victorious or glorious.
Mount Kosciuszko
At 2228 meters (7310 feet), Mount Kosciuszko is a lot shorter than other mountains my mom has been talking about. It’s the tallest mountain of mainland Australia and is part of Snowy Mountains. Not a very creative name for the mountains if you ask me…
My mom always says the name of the mountain differently than pretty much everybody else I know. Apparently except for her Polish family. I asked her why and she was way too excited to explain! So this mountain was discovered by a Polish explorer Pawel Edmund Strzelecki (Polish names are sooo hard to say!) and he named it after famous Polish general Tadeusz Kosciuszko. There is more to the story to that general, including him fighting in the US, but we are talking science here.
Mount Kosciuszko is not only shorter than other mountains on the Seven Summits list, but it’s also easier to climb. I read that until 1977, you could drive your car pretty much all the way to the top! I have a feeling mommy is planning a trip there for the two of us…
Social Science π©βπ
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa (that’s currently in Italy). He is most famous for his attempt to sail to Asia by sailing west from Europe in 1492. As most of us know, he didn’t get to Asia. Instead, the land he reached was the Bahamas, part of North America.
Columbus didn’t know there would be land between Europe and Asia when you go west. He also thought it would be a lot closer. His ships were small for a trip that long and they didn’t bring enough food and water.
Since all of his voyage was based on Columbus’ guesses and estimates. It meant he had a hard time getting enough money to pay for the trip. He finally convinced queen Isabella I of Castile and her husband, king Ferdinand II of Spain. In return, he promised to bring back gold and gems. It was not as easy as he thought and Columbus’ crew stole anything they could from native people of islands they visited.
Columbus led two more expeditions to America and brought first settlers across the ocean. The reason people use Spanish in South and Central America is because of who paid for the trips – Spain. This meant that soldiers and settlers were Spanish and that’s the language they spoke.
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama was born in 1469 in Sines, Portugal. Like Columbus, he was looking for the best way to get to China and India from Europe. He was the first European to sail around Africa, passing Cape of Good Hope at the southern edge of the continent. This trip took place in 1498-1499. It was dangerous, both because of sailing and because people who they ran into on land were unfriendly and dangerous.
When da Gama got to India, he and his men were made prisoners in Calicut, a city in India. Eventually, he escaped and went back to Portugal. Three years later, he returned to Calicut. On the way there, he attacked all Indian and Arab ships he came in contact with. When he got to the city, he and soldiers on the ships conquered it. They established Portuguese colony there.
Amerigo Vespucci
I have never heard of him until mommy insisted that we include him in today’s lesson! And it turns out he was very important to America! My home continent was named after Latin version of his name.
Amerigo Vespucci was born in 1454 in Florence. He was an explorer, navigator and a cartographer (see word of the day for explanation). Like Columbus though, he got money for his trips from a different country than the one he lived in. His voyage was sponsored (meaning paid for) by king of Portugal. When he got to land we now know as Brazil, he realized that it’s part of the New World (that’s what he called the new land) rather than West Indies (as in part of Asia). I am pretty sure that the fact that Portugal paid for his exploration of the New World is why Brazilians speak Portuguese.
Trivia β
Lightning is hotter than the sun.
Word of the day β
Cartography – the science or practice of drawing maps.
Activity πΊ
They say that Great Wall of China is the only building you can see from space. It also shows up in a lot of movies. Mommy found out you can take a tour online:
https://www.thechinaguide.com/destination/great-wall-of-china
PE πββοΈ
Arms workout today:
Math ββββ
Multiplying numbers larger than 10
I hope you got good at multiplying numbers between 0 and 10 by each other! Today, we are going to learn how to multiply numbers larger than 10 by a number between 2 and 9.
Do you remember what happens when you multiply something by zero?
I hope your answer was ‘you get zero!’
How about when you multiply something by 1?
Yep, it’s the same number.
I also hope you figured out what happens when you multiply something by 10.
10, 20, 30, 40, 50… See the pattern? You just add 0 at the end.
Now that we covered the easy cases, let’s get to real work! Here is the simplest method (according to my mom):
Start by writing our numbers the same way we did when we were adding and subtracting larger numbers (I’m going to use 27 x 2):
2 7
x 3
You are going to start by multiplying 7 by 3:
2 7
x 3
2 1
Now, you are going to add a new line and write 0 under 1:
2 7
x 3
2 1
0
And now multiply the front number, 2, by 3 and write it down under 2:
2 7
x 3
2 1
6 0
The last step will be to add 21 and 60 to each other:
2 7
x 3
2 1
+6 0
=8 1
And now you know that 27 x 3 = 81.
Should we try another example? Let’s see:
1 6
x 5
Here are our steps:
1 6
x 5
3 0
Then:
1 6
x 5
3 0
0
And:
1 6
x 5
3 0
5 0
Finally:
1 6
x 5
3 0
+5 0
=8 0
So now you know: 16 x 5 = 80.
Let’s practice:
Science π¬
How mountains get created
Mommy has been using her time when we have to stay at home to pretend climb tallest mountain on each continent. We decided that it would be a good idea to discuss those mountains as my science subject over the next two weeks. She insisted that I first learn how mountains get created and that’s our subject for today.
There is one thing I think I should explain before I start talking about mountains, since it’s impossible to talk about creation of mountains without it: tectonic plates. When you look at Earth, it has layers in it. Towards the outside, there is a layer of molten (meaning liquid) rock, covered by solid pieces of rock. Those pieces are huge and they are called tectonic plates. They move around (very, very slowly) on top of the liquid layer.
There are three different ways in which mountains get created. They are:
Volcanic mountains – do you remember me talking about volcanoes? So they get created where two tectonic plates run into each other and the liquid layer comes up. Two of the mountains I will be talking about are volcanoes – Mount Kilimanjaro and Mauna Kea.
Fold mountains – when one tectonic plate gets on top of the other, it creates a higher area, called a mountain range. Top of the area is uneven and has many peaks. Majority of mountains you have heard about were created this way, including Mount Everest and Denali.
Block mountains – these mountains get created where a chunk of a tectonic plate breaks off and gets lifted together. That’s how Sierra Nevada mountains came about.
Social Science π©βπ
This week, I am starting a new series: explorers.
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was born in 1254 in Venice. He traveled around Asia and wrote about his exploration of China. His book, The Book of the Marvels of the World, inspired many others explorers.
Like his dad, Marco Polo was a merchant (see definition under word of the day) and they went together to Asia. This trip lasted 24 years. Venice was at war when Marco Polo came back. The explorer was caught and put in prison. He spent his time telling another prisoner, about his travels in great detail. The other man wrote them down and that’s how his great book got created. Many people read it, learning for the first time about Japan, India and China.
Marco Polo’s family drew maps of his travels based on the book and the stories he told. It included a lot of Asia and even showed the Bering Strait and land on the other side. If you haven’t heard of the Bering Strait – that’s the water between Asia and Alaska. We haven’t talked about Columbus yet, but you may have heard that he got to America in 1492. This means that this map was the first time Europeans showing America even if they didn’t know about it yet!
Prince Henry “The Navigator”
Prince Henry ‘The Navigator’ was the third son of king of Portugal and he was born in 1394. He didn’t travel himself, but he opened navigation school in Portugal and organized many voyages (those are long trips, usually by boat).
Prince Henry ‘The Navigator’ made sailing safer through the school, led to finding of first direct ways of getting from Europe to Asia by sea and started the Age of Discovery.
Trivia β
The African tree called baobab can store between 1 000 and 12 000 liters of water in its tree trunk.
Word of the day β
Merchant – a person who buys and sells goods especially on a large scale or with foreign countries.
Activity πΊ
Visit Machu Picchu: