Christopher Columbus

Hi my name is Reed.  You probably know Christopher Columbus. he was an early settler.  He was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451.  His parents named him after Saint Christopher the protector of travelers.  Having the name Christopher would mean that he was chosen by God to travel the world.  Which he did.  When Christopher was young little did he know where he was going to spread his religion would lead him.  He would be one of the greatest explorers of all time.  When Christopher was maybe about 14, he sailed from Genoa, Italy to other cities.  Some people say that when he was on the sea, pirates attacked his ship.  He swam to shore and found himself in another European country called Portugal.  The best sailors and explorers are in Portugal. He was going to go to the Indies. A lot of people want to go there.  He was going to cross the Atlantic Ocean.  Explorers in the 1400s were going to find patrons which means to find people to pay for their equipment then pay them gold if they find any.  He asked 1 king and queen .  They said no.  Then he went to Spain and that king and queen said yes if he brung back gold.  They ordered three ships to sail with him.  Their names are the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The Santa Maria was a kind of ship called nao. It was about 117 feet long.   The Nina and the Pinta were about half the size of that which is about 58.  The Nina and the Pinta were called caravels.  Each ship has a large sail and a small sail for better sailing.  The ships were loaded with guns for self defense.  Christopher brought many different people with him.  Even Chinese people with him.  They had to have an interpreter which is a person who can translate to English.  They also took a doctor, a record keeper, and a scribe which is a person whose job is to copy books by hand, and they have many gromets who are young boys on the ship's crew who cooked and kept track of time.  They kept time by hourglass which is an instrument used to measure time with either sand, mercury, or water.  As soon as Columbus ship left Spain  in August in 1492 the crew began to panic.  The water looked like it stretched on forever.  They were afraid they'd be lost at sea.  Some sailor threatened to kill Christopher if they didn't go back. To calm the sailors he reminded them what the reward was.  They were looking for land the queen would give a prize who found land first.  Soon a sailor shouted "Land! Land!" he saw it  at October 12th, 1992.  As the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria approached land.  They saw that Indians lived there and they were called Arawaks, Columbus  claimed the lad for the king and queen of Spain.  He named it San Salvador.  The area  they were on was now called The West Indies.  When he left San Salvador, he decided to take some Arawaks with him. He thought he could turn some into slaves.   Today we know that people shouldn't be forced to be a slaves or be treated meanly,  Before he sailed home, he wanted to find some more gold.  While they were searching the Santa Maria tore its bottom by a big rock.  The rock is now called Dominican Republic.  Then he built a fort near the shore.  He called it Fort Naridad. Which is a Spanish word for Christmas.  He gave it that name because the shipwreck was on Christmas Eve.  When he returned on his second trip about a year later.  He went to San Salvador he found dead bodies all over the place.  The Spaniards had left in charge of the fort.  The fort had been treated badly.  The Native Americans had rebelled.  Which means  to disobey the people or country in charge.  Have you ever rebelled your parents?  Well back to the story.  In 1504, Christopher was stranded on an island.  The people there would not feed him or his crew.  He tricked the people.  He knew an eclipse was coming.  Which is when the sun covers the moon so its blocks it.  So it looks like the moon had disappeared.  He told the people that God sent the eclipse to eat the moon.  This scared the people into giving them food.  A year later a ship brought them back to Spain.  Christopher was among the first European  to reach the Americans.  Christopher died on May 20, 1506 at home in Spain. 

Thanksgiving

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving.

Hey my name is Reed.  You probably know me if you go to my blog.  I think Thanksgiving is just giving thanks.  Just switch the words around.  I can't wait until Thanksgiving.  Well back to the blog.  I am thankful for my family, my food, another thing is just everything that I have that you need to stay alive.  I am also thankful for that I am still living right now.  I am staying home for Thanksgiving and my grandma on my dad's side is coming over on Thanksgiving day.  We will have turkey you will I'm guessing we are also having pumpkin pie, stuffing, and much more. My stomach will be happy.  Well that's my blog.  Bye

Barack Obama

Hi my name is Reed. We are going to talk about our president. That person is Barack Obama. He is the 44th president of the United States. He is male. He is 49 years old. I didn't know that before. He's a African American. He used to be a Democratic state senator in Illinois. He lives in the White House. With his wife his two daughters. Well that's all I know about president Obama. Well bye

Government

Hi my name is Reed. If you didn't know, but the government is made up of rules and laws. That we have to follow like rules in school. The government helps us out like giving us clean water to drink or build roads for us or maybe even delivering our mail to our houses. It builds parks for our schools. Without the government we wouldn't have a playground at our school. We live in democracy which means we can choose who we want for government now it's Terry Branstad  not Chet Culver, but we can't vote who we want for our teacher. If you are 18 or older and you are a citizen of the United States then you can vote. Well bye.

John Cabot

This is a picture of John Cabot.

This is a replica of his ship.

Hi my name is Reed. I will be talking about John Cabot. John Cabot was born in the 1400s in Genoa, Italy. The age of exploration lasted from 1200s until the 1600s that is 400 years! That's a lot! In those years Christopher Columbus was going to seek America. John sailed a lot of places like China. He goes to China a lot because they make a lot of stuff there. Most of his crew got scurvy then they went home and bought lots of fruits and vegetables that have Vitim C. He sailed a lot with his crew he found new lands. They took people to that island  the a big storm came only one ship survived but it was damaged badly one of the four was John's ship they were never heard from again. I think their ship sunk. Well bye.

Amphibians

Hi my name is Reed. Just like fish amphibians are cold-blooded animals, but they are different in many ways. Like fish they live all their lives in water right. Well amphibians live half their life in water and the other half on land. They have moist skin. Not scales like fish or snakes. If you didn't know tadpoles breathe from gills and when they are a frog or toad they breathe from lungs. Did you know that frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders are all amphibians.Have you seen any amphibians? Remember this is one this is that fish and amphibians are different and alike in two ways they have backbones (means that they are vertebrates) and another way is that they are both cold-blooded. Well bye.