Our Galaxy
I use this sentence↓to help me remember my planets:
Martha
Visits
Every
Monday
and (asteroid belt)
Just
Stays
Until
Noon
Period
The first letter of every word represents a planet.
For example: the “M” in Martha is represents Mercury, the first planet. And the “E” in every stands for Earth.
Central Park
Last Thursday we took a train into NYC, and then a subway to 72nd St. We walked three blocks east, to Central Park ↑.
First we went to a playground that had a little water park.
Then we looked for the bathrooms.
Then we went to a huge water park at Heckscher Playground. There was a lot of kids and we had a lot of fun.
Then we met my Mom, and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant.
Then we and took the train home.
A Wimpy Kid
This is a series that I’m reading.
The first one is a movie, but the rest of them are not.
I might see the movie.
But I will have to be good.
I know every movie has a villain.
Well, the the villain isn’t a person.
In this movie, the villain is actually a dairy product.
How Many Seconds Are In A Century?
Today I asked my dad how many seconds are in a century.
So he took out a piece of paper and we figured it out.
And here is our equation:
60sec/1minute · 60min/1hour · 24hours/1day · 365days/1year · 100years/1century = seconds in a century
This is called the factor-label method. All those fractions after the first one are actually equal to one.
When we multiply it out, most of the labels cancel out:
60sec/1minute · 60min/1hour · 24hours/1day · 365days/1year · 100years/1century = seconds in a century
Now we have to do the arithmetic:
60 · 60 · 24 · 365 · 100 = seconds in a century
We tried doing it on a calculator, but the answer was too big!
So we factored it:
36 · 24 · 365 · 104
And multiplied the first part on the calculator:
315,360 · 104
Then we added four zeroes:
3,153,600,000
There are over 3 billion seconds of in a one hundred year period!
Gadgets!
I added fun new gadgets to my blog.
They are on the right margin and you might need to scroll down a little to see them.
Move your mouse over the “fish” one, and they will try to eat your cursor. Left-click to leave food.
Use the mouse to strum the “guitar”, or you can click on it play it with the keyboard.
And you can click the the strings on the guitar.
Have fun!
My New Instrument
This is my guitar ↑. It is acoustic, not electric.
It cost $99 at Guitar Center.
It has 6 strings. This is how it makes music:
The vibration of the strings causes the soundboard (top) of the guitar to vibrate in a similar manner. The vibration of the soundboard then causes the air inside (and around) the guitar to vibrate…the vibrations of the air is what you hear and what you hear is known as a sound wave or sound waves.
My 14 year-old cousin knows how to play; and he’s going to teach me a little bit.
Summer Camp
Yesterday it was my first day of camp.
The school bus came to pick me up.
The ride was very long and I made a new friend named Tyler who sat right next to me.
I was part of the yellow tag group.
And I was on the the green table.
And I made a windmill for a craft.
Rate * Time = Distance
If you go 70mph for one hour….you’ll go 70 miles.
If you go 70mph for two hours….you’ll go 140 miles.
If you go 70mph for half an hour…. you’ll go 35 miles.
The rule is:
rate * time = distance
In my algebra book sometimes they mix it up.
Sometimes they give the distance and the rate and have to solve for time.
Sometimes they give the distance and the time and have to solve for rate.
That is easy:
rate = distance / time
time = distance / rate
Another thing they want me to do is to find the average speed:
average speed = total distance / total time
New Computer
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Me and my sister have a new Dell computer. It cost $635.
First to get all the folders on this computer from my dad’s old computer, we had to use this thing called the data key.
After we did that, my dad set up me on a website called time4learning. It costs $20/month.
I already finished the first science unit and I also finished the 4th grade money unit.
Our computer has a webcam and we use it to Skype our relatives.
Now I can go on my computer whenever I want.
A Famous House
Yesterday I went to Sagamore Hill.
That is Teddy Roosevelt’s old house.
Teddy was the 26th President.
He was very good at hunting, horseback riding, and other outside activities.
First I went to the museum, then I did a quiz, and when I finished it I got a junior ranger badge.
Then we had lunch and then we went on a tour in Teddy Roosevelt’s house.
The Longest Day Ever!
In 2 more days it’s the summer solstice.
That means it’s the longest day of the year.
The sunrise is at 5:24am; and sunset is at 8:30pm.
So there are 15 hours and 6 minutes of daylight on Monday.
After that, the days get shorter everyday until the winter solstice.
On December 21st, the shortest day of the year, there are only 9 hours and 15 minutes of daylight.
After that, the days start getting longer again!
Moving
I was born in North Carolina.
When I was 8 months old I moved to Massachusetts.
2 years later, I moved to a different house in Massachusetts.
We stayed there for almost 3 years.
But last month we moved to New York.
I will miss my friends from Boston (see above), but I will make new friends down here. Plus I have my cousins close by in New York.
Ludwig Van Beethoven
He was born in Germany in 1770.
He started to play the piano when he was 4.
Then he started to play the violin.
His dad was teaching him all the time.
Then he started to compose his own music; that means he wrote his own songs.
He wrote songs so complicated that he needed lots of instruments to play them.
They were called symphonies they were played by orchestras.
Here is an example:
Encyclopedia Brown
I just finished the first Encyclopedia Brown book.
It was about a 10 year-old boy who wants to become a detective.
Do you want to know why they call him “Encyclopedia”?
Because he knows so many facts.
There were 10 cases & he solved them all!
There were 2 stories about bank robberies.
There was one about a stolen necklace and 7 other cases.