Touching Spirit Bear Drawings

In Ms. Jennifer's class we read the book Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen.
During Winter vacation I did lots of drawings and some of them I didn't finish. I wanted to show these that I created about Cole and the other characters.

My Adventures in Mexico City

After my birthday we left San Miguel. But instead of going straight to San Diego we rented a hotel in Mexico City. It was the Hotel Milan in Roma. Our friend Edgar, who is a photographer took us to a breakfast place called Panaderia. The food was delicious and it felt like we were in Paris, France.
Afterwards we went to Frida Kahlo's Museum in Coyocan. It was a dream come true because last time we went there I was a small boy and didn't really get to enjoy it. This time I was 12 and saw many things.

She has a garden and we got to see her clothes. In the courtyard was a game where you could spin 3 rectangular cubes to change the dresses Frida was wearing. Inside we saw her braces and corsets because she was injured in a street car accident when she was just 18. One leg was shorter than the other and she was often in pain. She was a great artist and we saw her studio. She used gigantic paintbrushes and painted in her wheelchair. We also saw her bedroom that had a mirror on the ceiling of her four poster bed. She was married to Diego Rivera, the great Mexican muralist and painter. We saw many of her paintings as well as his paintings. Frida also built a puppet theatre and made all the puppets. Her kitchen was filled with large Mexican pottery and she used little ceramic cups to make a design on the wall of 2 birds holding a ribbon in their beaks.

Riding Eco-Bikes in Roma

The buildings here look like France

See what I mean it is like Paris

That French style is called Art Nouveau

This is the most amazing breakfast in Roma

Here is our friend Edgar in front of Panaderia

It is a very narrow place where you sit at the bar to eat good things

We had to get there right when they opened at 7am to get a seat.

They bake all this there and you have to look at it and not grab.

See how they decorate my hot chocolate.

The breads had S on them.

This dog can run really fast

Sculptures

David-this a copy of a sculpture by Michelangelo

My name

Talking at the Panaderia. That is honey in the big jar.

In front of Frida's blue house

It was my birthday wish to come here and I made it!

This is me as Diego

Frida's crutches and corsets. She had a streetcar accident. She lived with pain but painted to feel better.

Here is her kitchen and a man in a bright red jacket

The real paints of Frida Kahlo

She would paint in her wheelchair.

Me in the Blue Garden

When she was a child she had polio and one leg was shorter

She liked long skirts to hide her legs

She was interested in lower part of the body and photographed

She wore the coolest shoes and made one taller than the other

She made a puppet theatre and the puppets

Using little pots she made pictures in her kitchen

She had some big brushes

There is a mirror below the top of her bed she used to paint herself. A calaca sleeps above her bed.

This woman is an actor who pretended to be Frida.

I listened to her performance.

Mom and I talked about her surrealism.

Got to play this fun game by spinning cubes.

Sitting in Frida's garden.

Don Quixote

Tipping the Organ Grinder who makes music.

Woman on Stilts in the plaza.

''There's no Place Like Home!''

Today I wanted to talk about where these civilizations lived. My grandmother Pillo and grandfather Rafael were architects. My uncle Steve is an architect too. My father Rafael is named after my grandfather. My aunt Saria is also an architect. This Christmas I made a birdhouse. That's why I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast the houses of my three civilizations.

VIKINGS

Vikings lived in long rectangular houses called long houses. The walls were made with tall timbers, and the spaces between them filled with something called wattle and daub, or sometimes stone. They had thatch roof made of straw. Most Vikings lived on a farm, and the long houses had just one room with a cooking fire in the middle. Smoke from the fire came out from a hole in the roof. Long houses were built close to each other to make a village. This also protected them from enemy attacks. People and animals lived in the same building on different ends.

This is one of the long houses

Here's another one covered in moss

AZTECS

Aztec homes were made of adobe, which is sun dried brick made from adobe clay. The home was divided in four equal arias. In one part the family slept, an eating area, a place to cook meals, and lastly the family shrine where gods would be kept. They had thatch roofs just like the Vikings. They stood on their roofs to fight the Spaniards or other enemies, similar too the Vikings. Rectangles were common in Aztec architecture. If a family was rich, their homes would be bigger and more fancy. Rich people had large gardens. This is a fun fact that Aztec doctors believed everyone should be able to use a steam bath. Every Aztec home in Tenochtitlan had a separate building for this. Moctezuma, the Aztec king had a palace with botanical gardens and a zoo.

Here's a drawing that shows the inside

This shows the thatch roof

MAYANS

Mayan houses were like huts. They also had a well, a toilet, a chicken coop, a garden, and laundry room. There floor was made of gravel and soil. The walls were made of wood covered with adobe, like the Aztecs. The roofs were thatched with palm fronds. When a couple got married, the whole community would build the house.

The Mayan houses are more round

          

This thatch roof is made of palm fronds

One thing all three types of houses have in common is their thatch roofs. Although in three different places, these three cultures had similar houses. Another thing they had in common were doors as well as floors. While having things in common they differ in size. Unlike the Mayan an Aztec houses, Viking were much larger, because everybody lived together, including the animals.

In my opinion, I would choose the Aztec palace of Moctezuma, because it's big, but private, with huge gardens and a zoo. That would be my choice.