A Week in the Life of a 5th Grader

Well, I'm going to start off by giving you all the details of my school and other things I usually do. Then, I'll just tell you the new things. (Actually, Marcus does the framework and some details, then I (Mom) put in the rest!)

CHORES: Mom wakes me up about 7AM. Then I get dressed, eat breakfast and do my chores (ugh.)

Breakfast

Feed Chickens and give goats grain

Give goats hay and water.

CREDITS: By 8AM I start the desk part of school. Before I start my favorite subject (science) I get my credits that I earned the day before and divide them up in my jars. I always put 10% into retirement, 10% into charity, 10% into college, 20% for savings and 50% for spending! I got a lot of extra credits for doing Sudoko puzzles while I was in Alaska, so now I'm saving for a new computer game.

CHEMISTRY: I like school so far because we get to start off with science, well more specifically, chemistry. So far I just finished Chapter 1 about atoms, elements and how to read the periodic table and the formula for figuring out how many neutrons an element has. You have to take the atomic weight of an element, then subtract the number of protons it has and that gives you the amount of neutrons. I have the formula on a note card because if I don't do it every day I start to forget.

 While I was doing my assignment, I wondered what makes up our atmosphere so I googled it and found out that it is 99% oxygen and nitrogen with a little bit of argon.

LANGUAGE ARTS: Next, I did my Language Arts/Science Connection. I've been studying core parts of words like 'tom'... atom, diatom, anatomy, epitome, tonsilectomy... it's pretty fun. The other part is on a computer program and I love it. It's hilarious... just my kind of humor. I've done the section under Vocabulary Skills: synonyms, antonyms, prefixes and suffixes... so far I've been getting As and Bs.

WRITING: Today I had an easy assignment. It was on relationships between ideas...  Like under Animals - I could put cat, dog, goat, chicken, vulture...

MATH: Mom forgot to take pictures of this, but I'm doing Saxon Math... starting on lesson 62 and I did a bunch of times problems with multiple factors like: $4.53 x 4 = ___.  I also learned the technical names exponent, squared and cubed even though I did problems like this last year. I have to do a timed test when I get to the gym later today.

I GET A BREAK... It's only 10AM and I'm half way done! Yeah!!!

READING: My mom LOVES this time. She always makes a snack and tea. I get to light a candle and if it's cold outside, sometimes we'll build a fire in the fireplace. Then we both snuggle up and read our own books silently for 20 minutes. Then we'll talk about my book and sometimes I'll answer a question in  my Writer's Journal.  The part I like is after that. Mom reads aloud to me for 1/2 an hour and we do predictions and talk about how the characters change and things like that.

SPANISH: I have everything memorized from last week. I can sign a song for numbers 1-20 and my mom can ask me any question we've gone over, like, "Hi, how are you?" (and answers bien, asi-asi & mal) "What's your name?" My name is..." "Where are you from?" "I'm from..." and "Nice to meet you". This is all pretty easy since my mom has been teaching me a little Spanish my whole life. We usually practice in the car.

HISTORY:  My mom always reads a story out of our book, Story of the World. We just reviewed the fall of Rome and how they tried to save Rome by dividing into two parts, having 2 emperors and 2 caesars. We drew on the map the whole area around the Meditteranean Sea where the Romans had control until the 'Barbarians' finally destroyed their power. Mom asks me questions afterward, then I have a quiz. If it's a really interesting story, we'll do a project to go along with it. We do these projects with my friends Josh and Jacob.

picture goes here

We finished all of this by 11:45AM... I'm going to do this the rest of the year. Then I'll have so much more time to do field trips and all the other stuff I like to do, like taking Art class, Geology Club, Singing Lessons, playing with homeschool friends AND still have time to play with my friends from public school and play football in the afternoons. I love my life.

GOLD's GYM:  Today was my first full work-out at Gold's Gym with my mom. I was going to work out with her until I got too tired, then go sit at a table and do homework while she finished. HOWEVER, I stayed with her the whole time doing cardio, weights and stretching... I even did extra jump roping. We were there for 1.5 hours and it was a blast!

CHOCOLATE NECESSITIES: Every Monday is a 'Mom and Me' day. Since a lot of the time I spend with my mom is work, we said that we'd do something fun at least every Monday. So... no play date today, BUT... we got to go to Chocolate Necessities for free chocolate samples, a tour of the factory and then we got to buy some chocolate.

I didn't have to write anything down, but I learned that the only thing that makes white chocolate, chocolate, is the coco oil. They also have to keep the chocoate at 92 degrees and that good quality chocolate doesn't have very much sugar.  I also found out that I do like white chocolate (I didn't think I did)... but I LOVE real, white chocolate.

ART:

GEOLOGY CLUB:

FOOTBALL:

CHURCH:

VOICE LESSONS:

EXPLORERS CLUB:

Train to Whittier

Today is Tuesday and we took a shuttle to the train station first thing this morning.  Our seats were at the very front of the train so I got the best view. On the way to Whittier, which is a town of 161 people, we saw so much wildlife out the window - like beluga whales, bald eagles, ducks, salmon and hawks.  We also went through a 2.5 mile tunnel that is the only tunnel in the world that a train and cars have to share. it was really long and dark.

My Final Project

For a week before we left on our trip, I read a fiction book about a boy during the gold rush, other non-fiction books about Alaska (looked at maps, state symbols, history, culture and business) and I completed some paper work and wrote a poem.

During the trip, I did lots of activities (see below), took notes every day, filled out a worksheet after each day's activities were over, asked local people questions and learned a lot.

Now that I'm back, I am going to put all of my information together into a lapbook to summarize everything I did. I'll take pictures of all of my daily work, pamphlets and final project so you can see everything I did.

Photos and labels to be entered here... will be completed by Friday, September 18, 2009.

My Last Day in Alaska

Yesterday was the last day of our trip. We ate breakfast, turned in the rental car and just walked around downtown Anchorage. Besides going in gift shops, we got to go to the Alaska Experience Theatre. It has a 4-D movie on the famous earthquake in 1964 and another movie in a huge omnidome theatre on Alaska.

I learned a lot about the 1964 earthquake:
1) It took place March 27, 1964 at 5:36 PM and was the largest quake in the northern hemisphere.
2) It lasted about 5 minutes and was 9.2 on the magnitude scale
3) It went 20 miles deep!
4) The energy of the quake was equal to 447,335,482 tons of TNT or 31,822 Hiroshima size atomic bombs!
5) During that 5 minutes, land rose or fell as much as 50 feet!

BEFORE

Here are some before and after photos.

AFTER

Another thing I learned was about the pipeline. I learned about this at the Anchorage Museum too. The pipeline that goes 800 miles through Alaska also goes right over the most active fault line in Alaska - the Denali Fault Line. In order to keep it safe, it's designed to move back and forth up to 22 feet horizontally and 5 feet vertically without getting damaged. Here's a picture of it:

We had to be back at our hotel to get the shuttle at 2:30PM so that's all we got to do that day. Our plane left at 5:30PM. I used my last $6.00 to rent a DigiScreen to watch Night at the Museum... it was worth it because I was so tired and the plane ride was so long. I was sitting in the middle seat and was crowded on both sides so I couldn't even lay down to go to sleep.  We finally got to Seattle at 10:00PM. My Pops picked us up at SeaTac and we arrived at my Grani and Pops' house in Bothell about 11:00PM. I had to bring out my presents and tell my Pops all about the trip so I didn't get to sleep until around 12:00 midnight. My mom was REALLY nice and read my Percy Jackson book The Sea of Monsters. I went to sleep at 12:30 AM.

In the morning, I slept in a little, then my Grani brought us home around 1PM. Besides doing this, I am resting because I have football practice tonight.

Overall, I can't even pick the best part of the trip because I liked it all. Some of the things I really liked were the wildlife, especially the sea otters and all the berries, the gold panning, the train and the mushing dogs. The only thing I didn't like is that I had to come home. I really wished I could have done some more hiking around Mt. McKinley too.

Alaska is AMAZING and I can't wait for my next adventure!   Marcus J.

Gold Panning

We rented a car today so we could go to a working gold mine called Crow Creek Mine. It started during the gold rush and they still have most of the buildings. The family that takes care of the mine now, has lived there for 35 years without any electricity. They showed us how to pan. I learned that 1 oz. of gold is worth about $1,000. I also learned that gold will go to the bottom of the pan under the dirt because it is heavier. I also learned that you don't always get lucky and get nuggets. You get less gold than you would think. After 2 or 3 hours, I ended up with a vile with about 10 tiny flakes. It was really fun but I'm really tired now.  Now I want to learn more about silver.

Grani and me walking to Crow Creek.

Grani and me panning for gold.

You can't dig in the creek, only on the banks... then use the water from the creek to rinse about 10 times, then start to swirl it over and over. If there is gold, it will be heavier and stick to the bottom of the pan when the rest of the sand moves around. In order to get the flakes you have to dry off a finger and then just touch it. It will stick to your finger, then you can put it in your vile.

EXTRAS

It was rainy today and we could see the whole rainbow. Here's half of it, it was really beautiful.

I learned that these are called Devil's Clubs. The leaves are really big and the stalk is thick with spikes on them. In the fall, they get these really pretty berries on them.

Tomorrow is our last day and we're going to walk to downtown Anchorage to see the Alaska Experience Theatre.

Dog Mushing & Train back to Anchorage

This morning we went to the Dog Show. I wasn't expecting it, but it was really good. The dogs are Alaskan Huskies that are different than American Husky because they are not pure bred and not bred for their looks. They are bred for strength and energy. I think their hair looks shorter and they seem more thin with really long legs. I got to pet some of them before the show. When it got close to show time, they all got really excited and wanted to be picked!

Here is the mushing sled before the show.

The mushing teams usually are about 10 dogs but it depends on how much is loaded on the sled.

I learned that the front dogs have to be experienced and disciplined. The middle ones are the ones learning to be leaders. The dogs closest to the sled are the young, hyper, energetic ones that give a really strong pull.

The park is closed to all machines and vehicles over the winter. In order to go in you have to be on cross country skiis or on a sled with dogs. There are only 5 people who work at the park all winter. Those that work with the dogs for patrolling the park for poachers, taking supplies to scientists and stuff like that. Each dog runs over 1,000 miles every winter and they really love their work.

This is the ranger who works with the dogs and told us all about them. I'm actually thinking that I might want to be a ranger some day, maybe in college during the summer time. I think it would be really fun to work with nature and help preserve it.

I lost my tooth last night!!! Next we get on the train and head back to Anchorage. I wish we had more time to hike around the park more; it was kind of a short part of the trip.

This is me in front of the town of Denali. Those buildings are restaurants and stores. All the stores are having 50% off sales since this is the last weekend that they'll be open. Most of the people who work here are from other places, like Bulgaria, Utah, Arizona, Scotland, Iowa and Minnesota.

This was a really good restaurant called The Salmon Bake and a lot of the wooden posts were shaped like this. We noticed they had this shape with bark on them in the woods. I want to research what this is and why it does this.

Me at the train station. I'm listening to my iPod and wearing my new moose hat until the train comes to take us back to Anchorage.

Nenana River Rafting & Going into the Park

This is the only picture we got from rafting because we couldn't take the camera. It was really fun though. The river was a little low, but we still got to go through a bunch of rapids. We got soaked, except that we had on dry suits that you had to get help to put on. I learned that for safety, when you are going through rapids there might be a bump and bump you out of the boat, so you need to always lean forward into the boat.

There were a bunch of army soldiers in other rafts behind us. They just got back from Iraq and were being kind of crazy like jumping in the river and hanging off the sides. Our raft leader said they let them do that because they have troops come every year and they want them to feel free and have a great time. They get to do it for free too.

This is a picture of downtown Denali from train station. Our hotel, the Grande Denali Lodge is up really high and to the right. Everything closes by the end of September and they don't open again until May.

This is a picture out of our hotel window.

This is in front of the Wilderness Access Center before we entered the deeper part of the park. Some things I learned before I went it was this: 1) When you encounter a bear, do not run. Slowly back up and wave your arms in the air and talk to the bear in a low calm voice. 2) When a moose charges you, you ARE supposed to run! This elk looked like it was going to charge my mom so she tried to turn and run but there was a big rock right behind her and she fell. It was pretty funny.

I don't remember what I was investigating.

This was one of my favorite outcroppings. Most of the rocks around the park are either basalt (I know from the columns & color) and a lot of really soft shale (it's sedimentary - it has soft sedimentary layers and kind of looks like wood) and schist (which is metamorphized shale I think).

This is a female moose eating the berry plants. Lots of the berry plants already lost their leaves and the branches were kind of bluish purple.  We also saw a weasle but he was too fast so I couldn't get a picture. We also saw trumpet swans. Here are some more animals we saw.

This is the elk that scared my mom.

These brown bear were behind a fence so we could get closer to them. Usually, their personal space bubble is about 500'.

Here are some caribou.

This is a magpie. They were all over the place here and they're really beautiful.

Here is a black bear that has rounded claws, so they can climb trees. This one was also behind the fence in the refuge. The refuge is where they put abandoned and orphaned animals. Some get better and get put back out in the wild and some have to stay at the refuge the rest of their lives because they don't know how to defend themselves, like baby moose. (Their moms teach them how to defend themselves but sometimes they get separated - usually by roads, fences or unleashed dogs... so the babies never learn how to protect themselves.)

I found some berries! I picked blueberries, cranberries and two other kinds that  I don't know, so we didn't eat those. I learned that you can make cranberry preserves and you don't have to use pectin because the berries already have enough. You just have to add sugar.