Andorra the tiny country

it is the sixth smallest country in Europe. it lies between france and spain .

The official language is Catalan . They are not a member of the European union but use the Euro. Andorra declared war on germany in WWI but did not fight. They were not in the Treaty of Versailles. Many people in Andorra like hockey. Most people in Andorra are roman catholic with some jews and hindus. The altitude of Andorra is very high their capital is the highest capital in Europe. The Andorran army was and still is little just like the countrys size. They are 7 highest HLE or Human life expectancy in the world ! with the average age being 82 . Andorra is ruled by two co-princes. Joan Enric Vives i Sicília and François Hollande.

THe Andorran flag is Blue yellow and red.

Giant squid

Giant Squid are the second largest mollusks . Colossal squids are bigger. Giant squids can get up to 43 feet ! They have giant eyes as big as a football . They live deep down in the ocean. They eat deep sea fish . The first picture of a giant squid was in 2004! to catch their prey they use their long tentacles that have suction cups on them. They pull it to their beak-like mouth . They can change the color of their skin to hide from predators. Their only predators we know about are sperm whales . Before 2004 the only evidence we had was parts of Giant squid in whales and on the shore. Giant squids are still mysterious .They move with a tube the blow air out of called the siphon. Some people believe that the legend of the Norwegian kraken was based on a giant squid .They don't look much like snails and clams but they are related . They both have the mollusks muscular foot : Clam muscular foot it uses to dig and move. : Snail muscular foot to slide along on. : Giant squid the Muscular foot is divided into eight arms and two tentacles. They both have a mantle . A layer of protective skin. Clam : its shell. Snail: its shell. Giant squid Hard skin but no shell. The Giant squid has a inner Gladius that supports it. They all are Invertebrates. Giant squid are awesome!    




Sources brainpop and wiki 

Raptors

R a p t o r s !

Lately I've been learning a lot about raptors.

Raptors are birds that eat meat. All raptors have Talons , Curved beak and incredible eyesight . The word Raptor comes from the Latin word Rapere Meaning to take by force. Raptor sure do take by force. They are Carnivores and eat Small mammals and reptiles . Sea and water Raptors eat fish . The Largest Raptor is the Andean condor with wingspans of up to 10 feet!  there are 5  types of Raptors . They are

Accipitridae

 Hawks, Eagles, Buzzards, Harriers, Kites and vultures

Hawks

Are small raptors that have excellent eyesight.
They hunt small animals like frogs, lizards,fish and mice.
they have long tails and short curved beaks.

Sharp-Shinned Hawk

The Sharp-Shinned Hawk is the smallest Hawk in North america. 
They live in the Americas . They mainly live in forests. They eat mammals and birds like Sparrows .
They are named for a thin ridge on their legs.

Eagles

Are one one of the largest raptors. Everyone thinks different things about who is the Largest eagle. The three Most likely are the Harpy Eagle , the Stellers sea eagle and the Philippines eagle. Eagles have Broad large wings and great Eyesight. After Eagles have made their nest they return to it every year and add to it. Some nest are 6 ft across and 10 ft deep ! Eagles are important figures in native religion and national icons. The bald eagle is america's national bird and the gold eagle is Mexicos national bird . Some native american tribes used to Worship the eagle. Harpy eagles can kill a human ! There are  4 different types of eagles 1 Booted eagles (example Gold eagle) 2 Snake eagles ( example Crested Serpent Eagle ) 3 Giant Rainforest eagles ( example Harpy eagle) and 4 sea Eagles (example Bald eagle 


Gold Eagle

The Gold Eagles are my Favorite birds. They are Booted eagles.With a wingspan of 6-7 feet Gold eagles are big. Their scientific name is Aquila Chrysaetos. their average lifespan is 30 years . Gold eagles live in Eurasia north america and africa .They return to their nest every year and make it giant. Gold eagles can dive 150 miles per hour ! They eat small mammals and turtles .Gold eagles are used in falconry to catch wolves and foxes in Mongolia and Kazakhstan. Gold eagles are the National bird of Mexico. Gold eagles are large powerful birds and are efficient hunters with the help of Talons, Curved beak and Sharp eyesight. Gold eagles are LC least concerned on the conservation status . Gold eagles are also silent birds  

Buzzards

Have  broad wings and are robust . They hunt any small animal close by mostly rodents though.Some may eat dead animals , but most like fresh meat better.

Long-legged Buzzard
The long legged buzzard is a robust buzzard. They can reach Wingspans up to 5 feet. Long-legged buzzards come in many colors but usually they are light brown. Long-legged Buzzards live in dry open plains of africa and asia.They eat small animals

Harriers

Are medium sized birds. They fly low to the ground and eat small animals.
when courting they fly in circles.

Eastern Marsh Harrier
Eastern Marsh Harriers live in Asia . They Are different colors but mainly brown. The female is larger than the male. They meow. They fly low to the ground and hold their wing in a v-shape. They eat small animals . 

Kites

Usually  a kite is light, with a little head ,short beak, and long wings and tail. Kites live in warm places. kites eat small animals .These small raptors get their name from their ability to use the wind to help them.

White-tailed Kite

White tailed kites live in the Americas. They mainly eat rodents. They were endangered in the 1930s and 1940s but have made a comeback. They are colored  white and gray.  THey fly like falcons. Their wingspan is around 3 feet. Their scientific name is Elanus Leucurus. 

Vultures

There are two kinds of Vultures, Old world vultures( example Griffon Vulture ) and new world vultures ( example Andean condor). New world vultures smell the carrion and eat it . Vultures have weak talons and beaks. But have an excellent sense of smell. Vultures live for a long time up to 40 years!  Vultures live all over the world .  Vultures are often depicted as evil ,Ugly or scary creatures. But the truth is Vultures aren't evil . They are often considered so because of their bald heads. But Vultures are scavengers so they eat rotting meat . No other bird could eat that . they would die. Vultures clean up the land. But to do so they need a bald head. If it was covered with feathers . It would get messy when they poked their heads in the carrion. They could not take of the meat and blood. So it would get infected and the vulture would die .

Griffon Vulture
The Griffon Vulture is a big Old world vulture. They can get a wingspan up to 9 feet. Its head is white and has barley any feathers. Its body is brown. They live in eurasia. They are scavengers . It grunts and hisses .

Pandionidae Osprey

The Osprey is a Sea Raptor that mainly eats fish. Ospreys skim the water and with their talons grab fish. There Wingspan is around 5.9 feet. Ospreys are on every continent except Antarctica. They live near bodies of water where fish are to be found. They are blackish-brown in the wings and on a streak through the head. while the rest is white. Their eyes are yellow. Ospreys played significant roles in culture in the past

Sagittariidae
Secretary bird

Secretary Birds are large mainly flightless birds that live in africa. They eat snakes, Rodents and reptiles on the ground. They use their long strong legs covered in scales that end in Talons to stomp snakes, rodents and reptiles. Their wingspan can be up to 7 feet ! their body length can be 5 feet ! They look more like cranes from far away . But their talons and curved beak make it a Raptor. Its mostly gray with black . They have orange or red around their eyes though. it is on the coats of arms of Sudan and South Africa.

Falconidae

Falcons and Caracaras

Falcons
Falcons are also called Kestrels . They are medium sized birds. That prey on small animals including Rodents, Rabbits ,Reptiles ,Fish, Frogs and small birds. They live all over the world. The most famous, widespread and fastest  Falcon is the Peregrine Falcon. It is also the fastest animal in the world reaching speed of up to 200 miles per hour !

Brown Falcon
the Brown falcon lives in Australia . They are slower than other Falcons and perch on tree tops to hunt. They wait for prey and when it comes they snatch it with their talons. They are usually light brown and have black and white in them .They eat small mammals, Reptiles and insects.

Caracaras
Live in the Americas . They are slow and most are scavengers.

Mountain Caracara

The Mountain Caracara lives in South america. They are white and black with a red beak. Kids are brown. They mainly hunt on the ground. They are Mostly scavengers but will eat any small mammal.

Strigiformes

Owls

Owls live on every continent except Antarctica . Owls are mostly nocturnal . They usually have circle like heads and large eyes. They need large eyes to let in as much light as possible. Owls eat any small animal. They use surprise , their curved beak and talons to get their prey. Most people thought owls were bad luck back in the past.

Spotted Eagle-Owl

The Spotted Eagle-Owl is a small eagle owl. It has tufts of feathers on the sides of its head . Making it look like it has they are ears. But they are not . They have a wingspan of about 4 feet. They are spotted like the name said with black, white and gray spots. They have large yellow eyes. they live in Africa and asia. they eat small animals.

That's what I have learned about the most awesome birds, R a p t o r s !



Source wiki

Math Progress

I've been working on Math in Khan Academy this year and just started reading a fun series called Life of Fred which is story math.

This year I mostly worked on multiplication, division, decimals and a little on fractions.

On Khan Academy I've done the following so far:

    1-digit addition     51     98%
    2-digit addition     11     100%
    1-digit subtraction     22     100%
    2 and 3-digit subtraction     14     100%
    Addition with carrying     11     100%
    Addition and subtraction word problems     23     83%
    4-digit addition with carrying     6     100%
    Subtraction with borrowing     10     100%
    4-digit subtraction with borrowing     6     100%
    Telling time 0.5     22     82%
    Telling time     6     100%
    Telling time 2     6     100%
    Number line 1     8     100%
    Multiplying 1-digit numbers     16     100%
    Multiplying by multiples of 10     30     100%
    Basic division     17     94%
    Multiplication without carrying     11     100%
    Multiplication with carrying     16     81%
    1-digit division     11     91%
    Multiplying 2 digits by 2 digits     12     100%
    Multi-digit division without remainders     10     100%
    Multi-digit multiplication     33     91%
    Division with remainders     16     88%
    Multiplication and division word problems     8     100%
    Division by 2 digits     24     92%
    Multiplication and division word problems 2     8     100%
    Multi-digit division     8     100%
    Negative numbers on the number line     8     100%
    Number line 3     47     85%
    Ordering negative numbers     8     100%
    Adding negative numbers     17     94%
    Number opposites     24     88%
    Adding and subtracting negative numbers     17     94%
    Finding absolute values     8     100%
    Negative number word problems     8     100%
    Comparing absolute values     8     100%
    Multiplying and dividing negative numbers     8     100%
    Decimals on the number line 1     9     100%
    Decimals on the number line 2     42     81%
    Adding decimals 0.5     10     100%
    Adding decimals 1     20     90%
    Dividing completely     18     89%
    Adding decimals 2     10     90%
    Dividing decimals 1     8     100%
    Multiplying decimals     14     86%
    Subtracting decimals 0.5     15     93%
    Dividing decimals 2     5     100%
    Understanding moving the decimal     8     100%
    Money and decimal place value intuition     10     100%
    Subtracting decimals     23     87%
    Dividing decimals     9     89%
    Rounding numbers     16     94%
    Adding and subtracting decimals word problems     16     94%
    Estimation with decimals     24     92%
    Divisibility intuition     12     100%
    Divisibility 0.5     8     100%
    Divisibility tests     8     100%
    Prime numbers     8     100%
    Composite numbers     8     100%
    Prime factorization     8     100%
    The fundamental theorem of arithmetic     8     100%
    Divisibility     8     100%
    Counting 1     9     89%
    Properties of numbers 1     18     100%
    Place value     7     86%
    Properties of numbers 2     9     100%
    Number properties terminology 1     39     74%
    Distributive property     16     100%
    Rounding whole numbers     24     88%
    Order of operations     21     100%
    Reading tables 1     10     100%
    Reading tables 2     13     92%
    Reading pictographs 1     8     100%
    Reading bar charts 1     7     100%
    Reading pictographs 2     25     72%
    Reading line charts 1     8     100%
    Creating bar charts 1     8     100%
    Reading bar charts 2     32     88%
    Perimeter 1     8     100%
    Area 1     8     88%
    Finding dimensions given perimeter     8     88%
    Finding dimensions given area     8     100%

Projects on DIY.org

A lot of the things I've been doing this summer I've been posting on DIY.org where you can earn badges for different skills and share your work with other kids.

I have 23 skill badges now and my favorite ones are illustrator and animator although lately I've been very interested in birds. Here's my profile: https://diy.org/gustavusadoulphus

Animal Facts

The Caracal

The Caracal is a medium sized african cat. It is famous for its leaps into the air to catch its prey. Mainly Ginny fowls and other low flying birds that live in africa.

An adult Caracal is as fast as a cheetah cub. The Caracal has large ears so it can hear predators and prey. It is extremely hard to find because it is a tan color and the tall grass it lives in is tan also. Caracal cubs have many Predators on the savannah so the usually hide in an aardvark hole or somewhere else safe. The Caracal is cat which hisses most in the world.  It can even hiss away a Croc !!

Yeti Crab
The yeti Crab is a crab that lives at the bottom of the sea close to underwater trenches and volcanos . the tube worm and clams also live there . the Yeti crab looks like a large tick with larger hairy arms. It eats bacteria that gets its food from the heat of the volcano, carbon dioxide and Oxygen. Its mixes them all together to make sugar or glucose for their food. Unlike the phytoplankton that live at the sunlight zone . They get their food from the sun like plants through a process called photosynthesis. the Yeti crab uses his hairy arms to catch bacteria floating through the vents. He then eats the bacteria. Tube worms also eat the bacteria     

Pollinators 
Pollinators are insects and animals that pollinate flowers. Most Pollinators go to the flowers for the sweet delicious nectar . But some like the fig wasp go from flower to flower for another reason . The fig wasp lays its eggs in a fig gourd and when the babies hatch they are covered with pollen . When they go to another gourd to lay their own eggs the Pollen is delivered. One of the most famous Pollinators is the honey bee . It goes from flower to flower gathering nectar and pollen . we have some in our backyard.  there are other Pollinators to like the Butterfly ,the fly and wasp . there are also animal Pollinators like the hummingbird , some other birds, monkeys, lemurs, bats and lizards . the kinkajou Pollinates flowers also . Flowers use all sorts of way to lure Pollinators to them . First of all the promise of sweet nectar .  Flowers also look like other insects too make bees to attack it and gather Pollen . Some flowers smell like rotting meat so flies can land on them and gather Pollen . Hummingbirds like long tube like red flowers.  Without pollinators we wouldn't be alive. for fruit and veggies wouldn't grow if they were not Pollinated

The Wolf 
The top predators of the woods.Wolves can run up to 100 miles a day without stopping , they are the marathoners of the woods. ravens follow them and eat some of the food they catch . Wolves can only catch a Moose as a pack . For a moose can use their antlers as a protection against one wolf. but as a pack they can surround the moose. the Cougar or Mountain lion is the only predator that can take on 2 or 3 wolves but as a pack they can surround the cougar .   

The Great White Shark
The Great White Shark is the least known about Ocean predator.
Recently Scientists have learned that Great whites Travel Long distances up to 100,000 Miles! you might think Great whites don’t have any predators in the Ocean but Packs of Orca’s can Take down a full grown Shark . The only other predator they have are us . we kill more sharks every year then shark have killed us all together ! so shark should be scared of us ( They are Believe me!) Remoras (a kind of fish that can stick to a lot of things) stick onto the Great white with their mouths . They get a free ride and free snacks . the way the get free snacks is : when A great with tears a fish,seal or sea turtle with its jaws some scraps float away and the Remora eats them . The Great white rarely eats a Remora , Because the Remora is too small . Another fish a Great white Rarely eats is the Cleaner fish. Great whites ,Other sharks, Manta Rays and other fish go to cleaning stations . In these cleaning stations small cleaning fish swim into sharks and other fishes mouths and eat the parasites on them . It saves the shark and fish teeth and gives the cleaning fish food .Great whites have a special ability to roll their eyes into the back of their head when they attack so their eyes don't get hurt. Great white eggs Hatch inside the mother body  


The African Crested Porcupine
The African Crested Porcupine is a species of Porcupine that lives in Africa and hides underground . No Porcupine shoots its quills . Its Quills are loosely attached and when a predator jumps on it it gets covered in quills. The African Crested doesn't have barbs on its Quills like the North american. A quill in the right spot like the chest or the face could kill a lion.
African Crested Porcupines are great diggers . They burrow holes to have their young in and to escape storms . Their quills are really hard hairs . They have a muscle attached to them . So when they get nervous their quills are raised . 


That's what i have been learning about animals .

The Downfall of Rome .

The Downfall of Rome .

The Roman empire was a wonderful, prosperous place . But then it was destroyed . How was the Roman empire destroyed? It had the best military of its time and it had strong walls around its cities . I will tell you how .

It began with the Barbarians (cool fact : Barbarians were named after the sound they made . the Greeks and Romans only herd "bar bar bar") . Barbarians surrounded the Roman empire and they all wanted it. it was very hard for the Romans to defend their empire. The Barbarians also destroyed aqueducts which stopped the Romans supply of water . This made the Roman soldiers weaker and weaker. Barbarians swarmed the countryside defeating the weak roman Soldiers . The Emperor found it difficult to defend his enormous empire against the invading tribes. Then one smart roman emperor came along , his name was Diocletian . Diocletian found that his empire was too big so he divided it in two , on half ruled by him (the western half ) and the other half ruled by Maximian.(the eastern half) Now it seemed this would work . The Romans had divided their army and now they fought of Barbarians more effectively. But their water was still running out and the Emperor did not know how to fix the problem. The western Roman empire became weaker and poorer . While the eastern half ( also called the Byzantine empire ) became richer and more powerful , Constantinople the capital became the best city in both half's. Why did the east prosper while the west declined ? well first of all almost all of the Barbarians fighting the Romans fought the western half . So the people of the western Roman empire found very little food and water ,thus making its armies weaker and then the cycle starts over. Two of the most famous tribes that fought the Romans were : the Huns and the Visigoths . You most likey have heard of the Huns . Don’t get them mixed up with the Mongols though they are to seprate people . The Huns shared some characteristics with the Mongols though like : Archers on horseback , nomads , eating raw meat , teaching babies to ride horseback before teaching them how to walk  and they both came from Asia. The Huns had a deadly Leader named : Attila the Hun . Attila and his warriors came from Asia creating destruction and havoc wherever they went. The Roman Emperor's sister was bored of being a great lady she wanted to be free. So she sent a letter to Attila asking him to rescue her from rome and marry her. When Attila got the message he set his eyes on Rome .This is my chance to take the Roman empire and its gold he thought. So he sent a message back saying i will come and get you and all your kingdom now ! And With that he set off Conquering rome little by little. When he got to Rome the Emperor gave him a large amount of gold in exchange for sparing Rome. Atilla said he would come back but he died of nosebleed after he left! The second famous Barbarian tribe were the Visigoths . The Visigoths were a Barbarian tribe that came from Germany . The Visigoths Attacked the Roman Empire and took some of it . Some of the Visigoths settled down in  the Territories they took and adopted the Roman way of life . One of these Visigoths married a Roman . There sons name was Stilicho . Stilicho was half Barbarian but he believed himself as a loyal Roman citizen. He joined the Roman army and rose in the Ranks. The Emperor Saw Stilicho and appointed him General. Stilicho fought and fought against the Visigoths but his army was too weak and afraid . The Visigoths pushed his army back and he lost most of his battles. Stilicho himself was a Great general but his army was not so great . THe Romans said Stilicho was a traitor for he was half Barbarian. The wanted to behead him. Stilicho said it wasn't his fault but the armies. In the end the Romans beheaded him. Wrong move! Wrong move!! Wrong move !!! this was a wrong move . Stilicho was the only General who could have stopped Rome from being taken. After Stilicho died the Visigoth moved in destroying and sacking everything in their path . When they came to Rome the Emperor and most of the Army had evacuated . The Visigoths easily killed the weakened army that was left. they sacked Rome and took it over.

it goes to show that even the biggest empires can be destroyed.