Mosaics, ruins and volcanoes

Floor mosaic in the Vatican

Mosaics, ruins and volcanoes

When we were learning about mosaics last year, did we talk about how many mosaics there are in Italy?  I saw the most beautiful mosaics when I travelled through Italy.  In Rome especially, there were mosaics everywhere.  

A mosaic wall in St Peter's Dome

In St Peter’s Basilica, the big church in Rome, has art work on every wall and ceiling.  All the art was mosaic!  Some of the mosaic tile was so small you couldn’t believe it was mosaic, it looked like paintings.  When you got close you could see the tiles.  A lot of it was real gold!!!  I’ll attach some photos so you can see the incredible art work.

Close up of the mosaic above

Beware of Dog mosaic in Pompeii ruins

Chariot ruts on a street in Pompeii

I also visited the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii.  Pompeii was completely covered by about 6m of ash and pumice stone when the volcano behind it erupted in 79 AD.  When I was in grade six I read a story called, “The Dog of Pompeii.”  It was a great story and when I got to the ruins of Pompeii I went to a house with a mosaic of a dog in the front entranceway.  The mosaic is black and white and the dog looks mean, all growling.  Underneath the dog it says “Cave Canem” which means “Beware of the Dog” in Latin.

The buried remains of the city of Pompeii were not found until 1749, and then archaeologists started excavating, or digging 

out the site.  The ruins are amazing.  We walked through the old city streets for the whole day!  On the roads there are ruts where the chariots used to drive!  It was very cool.

The ampitheatre in Pompeii--dug out of 6m of ash and pumice!

Mt Vesuvius

More Mt Vesuvius

Behind Pompeii is Mount Vesuvius.  That is the huge volcano that erupted in 79 AD.  Since then, Vesuvius has erupted lots of times, with the most recent eruption being in 1944.  We went up to the top of Mt. Vesuvius and walked around the rim.  We could look in the crater and we saw little wisps of smoke coming up through the crater.  Mt. Vesuvius is still active and could have another eruption, but there are usually warning signs and most likely people could be evacuated before the eruption happened.  So we felt safe enough going up there.  It was also very cool.  The rock all around was hardened lava.  It was either pitch black or bright red.  It was really interesting.  I’m glad I went.

Italy so far!

The Ponte Vecchio at dusk

Hello from Italy!

Italy is a wonderful place!  In my travels here so far I have stayed right on the Mediterranean Sea in Northern Italy.  Our campsite there was so beautiful that we spent a lot of time just hanging out.  My daughters had to do school work while we were there, but it was so nice out that they didn’t mind doing that.  We sat at a picnic table on the seashore and did our work while enjoying the sun.

Even though Italy is a northern country, our campsite had all kinds of palm trees.  The sea keeps the air warm so that palm trees can grow here.  

Ferrari Formula One Race Cars

After our time at the seashore, we went to a city called Modena.  It is in Modena that great Italian sports cars are made.  I got to go into the Lamborghini factory and got a tour.  I saw how they make these special cars.  When I get back to June Avenue, I think for simple machines we will have to make Lamborghinis and Ferraris instead of just cracker box cars!  (I also went to the Ferrari museum and factory).

Near the centre of Italy is a wonderful city called Florence.  I know that in grade 4 you study about medieval times, but do you know what came after medieval times?  It was the Renaissance.  Renaissance means “re-birth” and it is all about coming out of medieval times and developing art, culture and science.  Florence was where the Renaissance began.  

Florence has the best gelato!

We saw tons of beautiful art work here, including Michelangelo’s statue of “David.”  We also visited science museums about Leonardo Da Vinci and Galileo.  I saw models of tons of simple machines that Da Vinci designed--they were cool.  I’ll put some pictures of them in.  

Florence also has a neat bridge called “Ponte Vecchio”  which means “Old Bridge”  (I think--check with Mrs Pennesi on that).  That bridge has stores built all along it, and lots of them are cantilevered off the side of the bridge.  Ask Mrs. Stockton what cantilevered means.  

Today I am on the highway heading to Rome.  There will be lots to see and do there, so we’re quite excited.  Are you doing any fun stuff for the holidays?  Are you having a ho-ho-holiday countdown like we did last year?  

Take care, from,

Mrs. McMillan

Watch this video!

France

Fountain at the Palace of Versailles near Paris

I see it has been a long, long time since I last wrote to you.  I'm sorry about that!  We have been so busy doing fun things.  After we left London we moved on to France.  We took a ferry (a boat that you drive your car, or in our case, our campervan on to) from England to France.  

The Eiffel Tower in Paris

Once we were in France we went to a campground in the northern part of France.  We saw a little town called St. Aubin Sur Mer--which made me think of Ryley!  The campground we stayed at had amazing food.  The French make delicious meals and we have eaten some wonderful things.  The cheese they make here is especially good!

Anne at the catacombs

We visited Paris for about one week.  Paris is a big city with amazing museums in it.  If you like art, Paris is the place to be.  Paris was really busy because the school children had a 10 day holiday at the end of October (when we were there).  We saw many famous paintings, such as the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci.  We also visited these cool catacombs that are underground.  The catacombs are where old bones of millions of people are buried.  You can walk through the catacombs--they're like a giant maze.  During World War II resistance fighters hid out in the catacombs.  Did you know about that Jeffrey?

St. Martin Vesubie--street drain!

After Paris we went to the French Alps to do some hiking.  We went to this little village called St. Martin Vesubie.  We stayed in an apartment in the old, medieval village and every morning we would get up and walk to the baker's to pick up some croissants and petit pain au chocolat for breakfast.  Very, very yummy.  We drove up super steep, windy, narrow roads to get up high into the mountains.  Then we would go for a hike.  Lots of times we saw mountain goats.  There was snow in the mountains, up to about 1 metre deep.  Anne made a movie trailer about our walks, I'll post it so you can see it.

Mountain Goat

How did your progress reports go?  I know you all did your best!

Mountains near St. Martin Vesubie

London

Hello from the gigantic city of London!  There is so much to see and do here.  Today we visited Westminster Abbey, where Prince William and Kate Middleton got married.  Then we went to the Tower of London where all sorts of gruesome things happened.  Do you want to know about them?  I'll give you a hint--Two of King Henry the VIII's wives spent their last days at the Tower.  

Also I saw the crown jewels.  I saw the Queen's crowns and the world's largest diamond!  When you want to see the crown jewels you are on a moving sidewalk and you have to be a fast reader to know what you're looking at, because the sidewalk just keeps on moving.  It wasn't very busy today, so we went back and did the moving sidewalk twice.  That's why I got such a good look at the world's biggest diamond!

I'll send photos soon--I get back to my campsite and don't always have time to download photos so it'll be a day or two.  Hope you're all doing well!!

The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond

Hello everyone!

We have been on a hill walk up Ben Lomond.  In Scottish, Ben means mountain.  Ben Lomond is 900m high--which is actually very high.  It was terrible weather.  It rained and then it stopped raining and then it rained some more.  The thing that made it really difficult though was the wind.  It was so windy!  Sometimes the wind actually knocked us over.  We almost turned back several times, but we stuck with it and made it all the way to the top.  Here is a picture of Anne and Kate at the cairn at the top of Ben Lomond.  Can you see how foggy it is?  Usually there are amazing views from up there--you can see the beautiful Loch below, you can see all sorts of hills around, you can see Glasgow and Stirling and even a bridge near Edinburgh (the Forth Rail Bridge)--but on this day the only views we got were of our boots!

Highland Cow on Conic Hill 

Hello everyone!  I'm so excited that I got two comments on my last posts!  Jessica and Hailey sent me some comments and so did Ryley!!!  Ryley is doing well at his new school, but I'm sure you all miss having him in your class.  I am missing all of you.

Views of Loch Lomond from Conic Hill

I want to tell you about the little hill that I climbed the other day.  It is called the Conic Hill and it had amazing views over Loch Lomond.  Loch is the Scottish word for lake.  You can see from these photos that the views are so nice.  Also, I'm putting in a picture of a Highland Cow.  There were lots of them on the side of the path.  Aren't they cute????

My family and me in the mist at the top of the hill.

Do you remember the James Herriot Stories?

James Herriot's Office and Home

You'll never guess where I was yesterday.  I was in Darrowby--the town in Yorkshire, England where James Herriot worked and wrote his stories.  The town isn't really called Darrowby, it is called Thirsk, and there is a museum there in the house where James Herriot had his vet office and his home.  It was really interesting.  I got to see it just the way it was when James Herriot lived there. 

The place where the vets made medicine for the animals

Me at the Market Square

I also went to the market square and went to the bank, the drug store and the grocery store there.  I'm attaching a picture of me at the market square clock.  Do you remember the story of the "Market Square Dog?"  Too bad I wasn't there on a Monday--because that is still market day in Thirsk.  So there were no stalls set up, but it was a lively place with lots of people out and about and plenty of people walking their dogs.

Guess what?  James Herriot's son still lives in Thirsk and he is a veterinarian just like his dad.  He comes to the museum a lot and does book signings and talks about his home and growing up there.

More stone age stuff

Hey are any of you reading this?  I haven't had any comments lately!!!!  Okay, just in case some of you are reading this, here is an update on what we have been doing.

We have been travelling in our campervan driving to see some different things.  Yesterday we saw this cool place called Avebury, where there are lots of standing stones put up by stone age people.  That is 5000 years ago, or about 3000 BCE, just about the same age as Stonehenge.

Avebury has a long avenue of standing stones and a giant stone circle with two smaller circles inside it.  Each small circle once had a cool thing in the middle of it--a giant obelisk in one (get Mrs Strickler or Mrs Ford or Ms Goudie to help you with that one), but the obelisk fell down a long time ago and they only knew about it from drawings and marks in the earth.  You have to remember that when they put these stones up, the wheel wasn't even invented yet!!!!  Imagine being an engineer in charge of getting those stones put up in exactly the right place--not easy.

I can't get to my camera right now, but when I do I'll add photos.  Don't be shy, send me a comment!!

Our new van and Stonehenge

Hello everyone,

Our new van

I hope things are going well for you and that you are enjoying school.  Say hi to your teachers for me!  The last few days we have been doing a lot of driving in a rental car until we were able to buy a "campervan."  That's the British word for a motor home.  We got a cute, small volkswagen westfalia which you can see in the picture.  We will try it out tomorrow and we plan to stay in it a fair bit as we travel around.

Stonehenge built in 3,000 BCE

When we were waiting for the van to be ready, we were able to visit some ancient sites.  We went to Stonehenge, which is circles of stones put up by stone age people.  So 5000 years ago, before they had any tools except stone tools, and before the wheel was even invented, people put up these giant stones.  It is a mystery how they could have moved these stones or how they could have lifted them to stand up.  The other mystery is--what are the stones all about?  Some people think they are a giant calendar because the sun shines exactly through the arch of stones onto a special "heel" stone on the summer solstice (June 21st).  Also, every month on the 21st the sun shines exactly through a different arch.  Stonehenge is a truly amazing place.  The giant stones are carved to have a big hump in the top that fits into a hole carved into the lentil or crossways stone.  It is an ancient mortise and tennon joint (I"m not actually sure I've got that wording correct--ask your teacher's what it should be!)

Hello from England!!!

I was so happy to get posts from Maddy L and Melanie!  Thank you!  Sorry I haven't written in a long time but when I was on the ship it was very, very, very expensive to use the internet.  Plus, the connections were very slow so I just decided that I'd have to write once I got settled in England.

Leaving New York

Our trip on the Queen Mary was really fun.  We went to the planetarium a lot and learned a lot about the stars and planets.  Unfortunately, three of us (not me!) were quite sea sick and so we ended up spending a fair bit of our time in our room.

Here is a photo of the New York skyline that I took from the ship.  Once we left New York, we didn't see land again for 7 days!  The Atlantic Ocean is huge and it can get rough.  Some waves got as high as 7m tall.  Yikes--that's why some of us were seasick.  Ugh.

This next photo is of my family and me at the Pier in New York, just getting ready to go aboard the Queen Mary 2.  You can see the ship in the background.  The orange things are the lifeboats.  Our room was one of the windows in the lower white bit, under the second lifeboat.  

Going Aboard.

Now I am in Winchester in England.  It is a pretty city, about the size of Guelph.  There is an ancient cathedral here that I will visit today.  More information and photos in my next post.  For the next week I will be able to get on the internet regularly, so I'll try to write more than once, and I will check for your posts.  

Can you say hi to Mrs Roy for me?  I didn't get a chance to talk to her before I left, so tell her I'm wondering how she is doing.  What are your new classes like?  

Sept 6th--What I'm doing today

September 6, 2011

Day 1

Queen Mary 2

Hello June Ave!

How has your first day of school been?  It was very strange for me not to be there, greeting my new students.  So what am I doing instead?  

Did you know that I am on board a huge ship called the Queen Mary 2?  It is a huge ship, about 345m long and 72m tall.  We set sail yesterday from New York’s Brooklyn Pier.  As we left the pier, we went under some bridges with only 4 m to spare!  The musicians were playing fun music and waiters came around with beverages.  We stayed on deck watching the New York skyline get smaller and smaller until we couldn’t see it anymore.  Today when we woke up we couldn’t see any more land, just Atlantic Ocean all around us.  

On board the ship there is sooooo much to do.  We borrowed some books from the huge library.  We went to the planetarium to watch a show about the universe.  Tonight we will go to see a movie and perhaps listen to bedtime stories read by actors.  

I hope you have had a good first day at school.  I’ve been thinking about you!

Take care,

Mrs. McMillan

Starting Up Again!

Hello everyone!
I hope you've had a great summer!  The weather was super, so hopefully you got outside a lot.  Are you excited about heading into grade 3 or 4?  I am usually nervous on the Labour Day weekend, wondering what my new class will be like and how we'll settle in.  I bet you'll have amazing years with your new teachers.  


Right now I am in New Jersey, USA.  We came down on Monday, just a few days after Hurricane Irene swept through this area.  When we took the train in to New York City (NYC) this week, we passed roads that were still flooded and saw railway tracks that were still underwater because of the hurricane.  The place where I am staying (my brother-in-law's) has a "boil water order" because there is concern about the safety of the drinking water since the hurricane.  Wow--hurricanes have a lot of power behind them!


We went into NYC twice this week.  One day we saw an amazing musical called "Wicked."  It is the story of the Wizard of Oz before Dorothy arrived.  It was phenomenal!  The Wicked Witch of the West, and the flying monkeys (played by actors) actually flew through the theatre.  The singing was superb.


We also went to the American Museum of Natural History and saw an exhibit all about FROGS.  Kate loved, loved, loved it!  It was really well done.  We saw lots of poison dart frogs--they are really tiny.  There was one that looked like one I saw at Mrs. Stockton's pond, but since it was an African Bullfrog, it would have been a long way from home, so I'm guessing that I was mistaken.  There were frogs that looked like leaves, giant bumpy frogs that if you walk too close will bite you and hold on!! (Don't worry, they only live in the rainforest--not North America).


We also saw a "Harry Potter" exhibit.  There were artifacts from all 7 Harry Potter movies.  There were wands, the philosophers stone, Hagrid's Hut, the Marauder's Map, Harry and Ron's beds, trunks.  Fawkes was there too.  It was really neat.  Did any of you see this exhibit when it was at the Science Centre in Toronto?


I have some pictures that I hope to add tonight or tomorrow--so check back in!


Happy September,
Mrs. McMillan

Wrapping up the year

Are you thinking a lot about your summer holidays??  I am.  Now that we are heading into the end of the school year it is time to look ahead to all of our summer plans.  What are you looking forward to doing this summer?

Adventures Begin

Welcome to the fantastic adventures of Mrs. McMillan!