The Grand National

Posted by Paola

The Grand National is coming up soon! It is held on a Saturday every April, and it is a famous race which is held in Aintree England. In the race the horses run  a distance of about 4 miles and 856 yards. There are also 30 fences to be jumped in the race. The most famous horse ever to race in the Grand  National is Red Rum. He won The Grand National 3 times and lost it twice. The years he won the race were 1973, 1974, and 1977, unfortunately he lost the race in the years 1975 and 1976. This year the race is going to be held April 8th through April 10th.

There are big hedges in the Grand National race. If someone fell off his horse while it was jumping, he would have to lay at the bottom of the jump until all the other horses have jumped over it. This way, he would not get ran over by a horse.

The Grand National is a long and tiring race. Most people fall off their horses before the end of the race. If it happens the rider will have to catch his own horse!

Becher's Brook, an eight foot fence is the hardest jump on the course. Many racers fall off their horses on that jump. It is a tall hedge with a pond on the landing end. Becher was a famous jockey that raced in the Grand National. He was most famous for falling off his horse on a jump with a brook on the other side. He managed to remount his horse and on the next lap, he fell off on the same jump with the brook! That jump was soon known as Becher's Brook.

Here is a map of the Grand National course. Riders have to take two laps around the course.

Bye! I hope you enjoyed the post.
Check out my posts about Red Rum if you want to learn more about the most famous Grand National Winner.
Red Rum part 1
Red Rum part 2
Red Rum part 3

Gardening 35 Days

Posted by Paola and Alex

On day thirty- five we bought a couple new plants!  We got a new strawberry plant, a mint plant, a tomatillo, and some jalapeno plants. The day's project was to transplant the new plants.

First we put some rocks in the bottom of the boxes. This helped with making the soil drain slower. 

Then, we filled the boxes with soil.

After that, Alex transplanted some of the jalapeno plants. He dug three evenly spaced  holes in a soil
box. Then, he pulled the jalapeno plants up by the middle and dropped them in a hole. Finally, he buried the roots and watered the plants.

I also helped with transplanting some of the jalapenos. 

When they were buried in the ground, I smoothened out the soil and watered the plants.

I planted the tomatillo in a planting box. I had to squeeze the roots to loosen them.

 Then, I placed the tomatillo  in the ground and pushed soil around it.

We also  got our first flower on the pepper plants!

There are thirteen strawberries on the the strawberry plant. All of them are green. We also have four flowers and one bud on the plant.

Most of the beans our dead. We are going to plant new ones in their places. Our seedlings in our miniature greenhouses are growing but they are not ready to be transplanted yet.

Check out our other posts about gardening:
Planting Seeds
Plant Update
Plant Update and New Experiement
Gardening -  Update - 28 Days

Gardening Update - 28 Days

Posted by Paola and Alex

Yesterday, we transplanted some of our plants. We used a garden kit. It came with a large box, volcanic ash, plant food, and a hollow pipe to water the plants.

This is how the inside of the planter box looks like.

Alex and I poured the soil into the large planter box. 

We also had to pour volcanic ash over the soil. It gives the plants more calcium.

Next, we poured more soil into the box so it was filled near to the top. We dug a small canal in the middle of the box, and then I filled it with plant food.

Then, we covered the canal with soil, and started to transplant the plants. We put four tomatoes into the box. Then, we covered it with the black plastic sheet in the picture below.

I transplanted the lettuce we had bought from the store. I pulled them up from the middle, and then I put them in a hole which was in a bigger pot.

We don't think the beans will make it. We had learned that you should plant beans in a big pot to begin with. The are hard to transplant.

The strawberry plant is starting to get strawberries on it. At the end of next week we might get some red strawberries.

One of the buds on the pepper plant is starting to transform into a flower.

The most surprising thing that happened last week was seeing the pepper plants grow. Alex has nine peppers in his pot, and there is only one pepper in the green house. The pepper plants might have grown on day 26. Since we had almost given up hope, we didn't see them. We had realized the pepper plants on day 27.

Lastly, our experiments have grown. My plant has not went out of the ground yet, but Alex's has.

We will update you next week, bye!

Check out our other posts about  gardening!
Planting Seeds
Plant Update
Plant Update and New Experiement

Our Museum

Posted by Paola and Alex
On Saturday the 13,  Alex and I had the grand opening of Al's Dino World The Natural History Museum. We even made a news paper about the grand opening. It was published on the Friday before the grand opening. We gave our family a tour around the small museum we made.

The Dilophosaurus was ten feet tall and who lived in the early Jurassic period. (a Dilophosaurus skull is on the left side.) The Utahraptor  was the size of and it lived in the early Cretaceous period. (Utahraptor claws and teeth are in the middle of the photo. Next to them is the hip bone of the Utahraptor.)

Below are Utahraptor skulls.

Utahraptor skulls are in the picture above.

Above are Utahraptor teeth.

Above are Utahraptor teeth, claws, and skulls.

In the picture above are Cynodont skulls. They are creatures that look like dogs. They were the first creatures to evolve hair.

Alex is showing our family the herbivore exhibit.

Qantassaurus lived in the early Cretaceous. It's skull is in the picture below.

The Protoceratops lived in the early Cretaceous period. The Protoceratops is to the hip of a human.

 The Allosaurus lived in the late Jurassic period. The dinosaur was about 16 ft. tall. We found it's skull.

The Giganotosaurus was twelve ft. tall. We found it's teeth and a part that goes under it's tail. 


The famous Tyrannosaurus Rex lived in the late Cretaceous. We found two of it's teeth.
Alex and I dug up rocks and pretended they were fossils.We found them all in our yard.

Plant Updates and a New Experiment

Posted by Paola
Yesterday was day twenty one, and we saw many changes. I am going to tell you about them.  

We saw eight  flowers on the strawberry plant. I just can't wait until those flowers start turning into strawberries.

On the tomato plant  we have three flowers that are in full bloom. We also have three buds on the tomato plant.

Every day Alex, Mom or I notice differences in the plants, Alex and I write it down in our journal. At the top of the page, we write which day it is since we got the plants.

This is how the inside of my plant journal looks like. We made the journals from writing paper and construction paper. I called my journal, "My Plant Journal."

Next week's project is to transplant the beans in the miniature greenhouse.

Yesterday we conducted an experiment. Above are all the tools we needed.

First we had to see how much construction paper we needed to wrap around a glass jar.

Next, we filled the jars with soil.

We wrapped the construction paper around the glass jars.

We also cut a window in the paper so you can see the soil.

Lastly, we planted a bean at the side of the jar so you can see it and we wrapped a rubber band around the jar to seal the window tight. In the picture above is my jar.

Now you might be able to tell that the experiment is to see how the roots of plants grow.

I hope you see the post next week about transplanting the beans. Bye! See you guys later. Be sure to check out our other posts about our plants!
Planting Seeds
Plant Update