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ThreeRoberts

Art Show

On Jan. 31, 11 I went to my art show. I put out my artwork, and then I looked at the other kids' displays. They had notepads for you to write your compliments on. I got 22 in all. Everyone liked my artwork, and I got all good compliments. Some were...
"Terrific work! The heron and sandpiper pictures were lovely."

"So cool."

"I like your Hanging Garden Picture." and 19 more.

2011 Book List

Here is a list of all the books I have read this year with a short summary. Check back often as I add more books to the list.

Diving Adventure by Willard Price - The main characters Hal and Roger visit an underwater city. Little do they know the dangerous creatures that inhabit the Great Barrier Reef ... I loved this book!

Amazon Adventure by Willard Price - When Hal and Roger go on an Amazon adventure, they face many perilous situations such as - cannibals, snakes, jaguars, and an evil gangster. It was incredible!

Life of Fred: Fractions by Stanley Schmidt - The adventures of a 5 year old math professor at KITTENS University. This served as my math book and is highly recommended.

The Adventures of Tintin Destination Moon - by Herge- In this book Tintin goes to Syldavia, a fictional European country, he finds that his friend is making the first rocket to land on the moon. This was a wonderful book.

The Adventures of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets- by Herge- This book is about Tintin's adventures in russia. He is thought to be a spy, and is threatened by the Communists. It was Incredible.

Snow Ice Cream

On Jan. 27 2011 I made snow ice cream. It was delicious. I put many toppings on it, whipped cream, butterscotch, sprinkles, and chocolate.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup of milk
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups snow

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci was born in Vinci, Italy on April 15, 1452. When he was young, he drew pictures of animals, plants, and other things that he found in the woods. When he grew a little older, he learned how to paint.
When he was twelve or thirteen, his father took him to Florence to become an apprentice of Andrea de Verrocchio. While there in the workshop, he learned how to make and use paint to create his wondrous works. He also learned mathematics, to calculate how to make the paintings appear three dimensional.
When he was asked to paint a shield as a gift, Leonardo went outside and dissected many animals. The painting arranged the body parts of every animal into a hideous monster, breathing fire. Leonardo's client was horrified at first, but soon sold the shield for much more money than what he paid for it.
In 1482 he moved to Milan, Italy. When the plague, called the black death struck the town, it killed 1/3 of the population. Leonardo suspected that the plague was caused by the overwhelming filth of the town. He made plans for a 2-layered city where the poor could be on the bottom, and the rich on the top. The city also even had bathrooms with swiveling toilet seats and drainage. The city would be clean, and only the poor would get the plague. This design was completely forgotten.
During this time Leonardo invented war machines for Duke Ludovico Sforza. This is when he started work on his various notebooks. Many years later when when his notebooks were published, they were called codices. They are divided into 10 books, with various topics including, astronomy, military engineering, bird studies, optics, hydraulics, geometry, anatomy, weights, sound, botany, zoology, and light.
Leonardo was very different for his time. He hated war and was a vegetarian, he lived off of minestrone soup, fruit, and salad.
Da Vinci created The Last Supper in 1495, for a dining room wall in a monestary, but it took 2 years to finish. It started to fade away, because Da Vinci used experimental paint.
He began Mona Lisa in 1503, when he moved back to Florence after he had to flee Milan during a war. This is one of the most famous paintings in the world. We don't know who the model for the picture was or why he painted it. The background is very strange.
Leonardo died in France on May 2, 1519. He gave all of his notebooks to his apprentice Francesco Melzi to take care of. Melzi hired two people to sort the notebook papers and put them into categories for books. However, the workers failed to sort them and the papers became lost and stolen over time.

Fun Facts:

Bill Gates purchased the Codex Leicester, for $30,000,000 in 1995

Leonardo dissected many people, to illustrate their organs. He filled the organs with wax so that they would not collapse. To keep eyes from spoiling, he would cover them in egg white, and boil them!

He took Mona Lisa with him whenever he traveled

Michelangelo and Da Vinci were rivals

Leonardo taught himself how to play the lute

He is referred to as the Renaissance man

Life of Fred

On January 18, 2011 I completed my math book, Life of Fred, Fractions. I completed the final test, with 15 of 15 questions right. I then got my diploma, signed by Fred Gauss himself.

Mark Twain Chapter 4

Chapter 4
Home Life

In 1871 Twain rented a house and bought land on Farmington Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut. In August 1873, they began construction on a house there. He and his family finally moved in on September 19, 1874.

"A home- and the word never had so much a meaning" Twain said. He had his happiest and most productive years in Hartford. The exclusive development that they lived in, Nook Farm, was home to many famous people, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

He also had a small octagonal office at Quarry Farm, Olivia's sisters farm near Elmira, New York. He wrote his most famous books during his time spent there and in the Hartford home, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Sam and Olivia had 4 children, Langdon (who died at age 2), Susy, Clara, and Jean.

He made much money, but when he spent $300,000.00 (modern equivalent of $7,000,000.00) on a typesetter that failed, he lost all of his money. He then went on a huge lecturing tour to every continent (exept Antarctica). But when the family leaves, they leave Susy behind. In 1896 however, Susy dies, and Twain and Olivia sell the house claiming that they could not live where Susy died.

Snow Update

When I woke up on January 12, 2011 I learned that my dad was off work and that Danbury had received a record amount of snow, 24 inches! It was even illegal to drive that day. When you fell in the snow, it was almost impossible to get up. Considering we already had about 2 feet of snow on the ground, it was deep!

Claude Monet

On January 13, 2011, I studied Claude Monet, the famous painter. He made a painting of the water at sunrise, that was called Impression, Sunrise. An art critic said that it looked terrible and that he should be called an impressionist. Therefore he was the first impressionist artist.
Oscar Claude Monet was born in France November 14, 1840 and stayed there throughout his life. He said that he would be an artist, and when he grew up, he was one.
He had 2 children, Jean and Michel. However after his wife Camille died in September 1879, he married Alice Hoschede who had 6 children.
He had a huge garden, and he painted it throughout the seasons and at different times of day. All of his paintings especially, Waterlilies Evening Effect, the painting I copied above, look terrible up close but nice from a distance.
He lived to be 86, and died in 1926 with moderate wealth. But in 2008, his best painting sold for $71,846,600.

Astronomy

On January 6, 2011 I had my first astronomy class, with Mr. Turner, at his house in Southbury. He was very nice, and had several cats named Isis, Osiris, crazy cat, Amadeus, and Copernicus. We learned about all of the groups of objects in the sky, and four constellations, my favorite is Triangulum.

I made a model of the solar system, out of my Christmas gift, Pluffy. All of the planets are in order, but most are not to scale.

I also made a nmneonic phrase to remember the planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. My phrase was, my very evil monkey jumped straight under Nana's pillow. Without Pluto, the phrase is Mom's very edible mink jumped slyly under numbers.

Spartan Soldier

This is a picture that I drew of a Spartan soldier. Boys had to join the military when they were 7 years old and go on until they were 60 years old. Their symbol is an upside down "V". I loved drawing the picture!

Our Snow Cave

On January 8, 2010 we made a long snow cave. It took about 2 hours, but with 3 different shovels we dug about 6 feet into our pile. It was very warm, and tall. The entrance was small but it gradually got bigger.

Mark Twain Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Marriage

After the Marion Rangers disbanded, Sam moved west to Nevada, to help his brother Orion in 1862. Orion was secretary of state in the Nevada Territory, and Sam was his secretary. Sam quit soon however, for he did not like being secretary to a secretary because there was no pay or work involved.

He then moved to San Francisco, to write articles in the newspaper. On February 3, 1863 Sam signed a newspaper article Mark Twain. This means two fathoms deep, or safe water for a steamboat. The first famous story he wrote, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County which he learned from his friend was in most newspapers. He also mined for gold for a short time, but was fired the same day that he was going to quit.

In 1867 he went on a cruise to Israel, where he met and befriended Charles Langdon. Twain was shown a picture of his sister Olivia, and claimed that it was love at first sight. When he came back to America, Twain went to visit their house in Elmira, New York.

Over the course of the next year Twain wrote over 200 love letters, trying to convince Olivia to marry him. She finally gave in and they were married in February 1870. As a wedding gift, Olivia's father Jervis, gave them a furnished home in Buffalo, NY for he was extremely wealthy.