18/12/08
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Dear Ron ,
Hi, how are you? I hope you are doing well. I am sorry I haven’t replied to your previous letters. I have been very busy lately because we have an enormous amount of tests this year and I barely have any spare time. Now, that I finally have some spare time, I have decided to write to you about an embarrassing situation that has happened to me three days ago.
I was studying for our huge history test, which we had today, when suddenly the phone rang. It was a stranger, telling me that my mother was involved in a car crash and was hospitalized with serious injuries. He told me that she was in a horrible condition, not able to call me herself.
I was so panicked! I immediately called my father and told him about it, completely terrified. “Really?” he asked in a calm voice, “Than how come she is right next to me, safe and sound?” .That moment I realized it was just a very bad practical joke pulled by a stranger.
I was so embarrassed! I have never felt so embarrassed all my life! But I was still glad nothing had happened to my mother. From now on, I am not going to trust any questionable information I get!
I hope you won’t fall for any of those silly phone pranks. Please write to me soon, I would like to hear your opinion about my embarrassing experience.
.
Looking forward to your reply,
Amir.
Excellent letter! Also, I appreciate your comments to Hen's work. They were correct and to the point.
Daphna.
Daphna
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Calendars
The exhibits I planned , related to the wide topic of 'Time', are about calendars, the way they divide the year, and the source of their months' names:
The Jewish calendar.
A month in the Jewish calendar starts with the new moon- when the moon is not visible at all, and ends with a full moon- when its round shape is fully visible. That way the calendar is based on the moon's movement. However, this creates a problem for Jewish people because the Jewish holidays are based on agriculturist seasons, and months that are determined by the movement of the moon fall on different seasons every year.
Therefore, once every two to three years, the calendar is "fixed" according to the Earth's movement around the sun. In these years an intercalary lunar month is added in order to make the Jewish calendar catch up with the solar division of the year. That is why the Jewish calendar is considered a Lunisolar calendar- based on both the sun and the moon's movements.
The names of this calendar's months are taken from the Babylonian calendar. These names were adopted from the Babylonian religion in the time of the Jews were exiled in Babylon, for example: the month Tammuz is named after the Babylonian god of food and vegetation.
The Jewish calendar is a great example of a lunisolar calendar. By looking at it you can learn a lot about the ways people divide the year and how time can be measured considering the movement of the moon and the Earth. Additionally, you can learn about the interesting sources of the months' names.
The Georgian calendar.
The Georgian calendar is the most popular calendar in the world today. It is based on Earth movement around the sun. Therefore it is considered a solar calendar.
In this calendar there are months with 30 days, months with 31 days, and one month, February, that contains 28 days. Overall, a year in this calendar consists of 365 days and since it is based on Earth's movement around the sun every month falls exactly on the same season every year.
A full year in a solar calendar is supposed to be a complete rotation around the sun by Earth. However, the time of this rotation is a little bit more than 365 days (It's actually 365.25 days). To make the calendar more exact, every three to four years one day is added to the month February so that the year will be of 366 days.
The names of the Georgian calendar's months are taken from the Roman calendar. In this calendar, the months are named after Roman gods, names of Roman Caesars and Roman numbers. For example: the month July is named after Julius Caesar while the month November is named after the Latin word "novem" that means eleven.
This calendar is an example of a solar calendar. You can find a lot of interesting facts by comparing it to the Jewish calendar, such as the fact that both of them intercalate a year every three to four years and the fact that each one of them measures the year, and name the months in a completely different way. It's fascinating how time can be measured differently, isn't it?
sources:
material:
-Wikipedia: http://wikipedia.org/
The Georgian calendar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar
The Jewish calendar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Calendar
- http://lib.cet.ac.il/Pages/item.asp?item=14464
Pictures:
- http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Projects/Reln91/Gender/ROSH%20HODESH.htm
The Jewish calendar.
A month in the Jewish calendar starts with the new moon- when the moon is not visible at all, and ends with a full moon- when its round shape is fully visible. That way the calendar is based on the moon's movement. However, this creates a problem for Jewish people because the Jewish holidays are based on agriculturist seasons, and months that are determined by the movement of the moon fall on different seasons every year.
Therefore, once every two to three years, the calendar is "fixed" according to the Earth's movement around the sun. In these years an intercalary lunar month is added in order to make the Jewish calendar catch up with the solar division of the year. That is why the Jewish calendar is considered a Lunisolar calendar- based on both the sun and the moon's movements.
The names of this calendar's months are taken from the Babylonian calendar. These names were adopted from the Babylonian religion in the time of the Jews were exiled in Babylon, for example: the month Tammuz is named after the Babylonian god of food and vegetation.
The Jewish calendar is a great example of a lunisolar calendar. By looking at it you can learn a lot about the ways people divide the year and how time can be measured considering the movement of the moon and the Earth. Additionally, you can learn about the interesting sources of the months' names.
The Georgian calendar.
The Georgian calendar is the most popular calendar in the world today. It is based on Earth movement around the sun. Therefore it is considered a solar calendar.
In this calendar there are months with 30 days, months with 31 days, and one month, February, that contains 28 days. Overall, a year in this calendar consists of 365 days and since it is based on Earth's movement around the sun every month falls exactly on the same season every year.
A full year in a solar calendar is supposed to be a complete rotation around the sun by Earth. However, the time of this rotation is a little bit more than 365 days (It's actually 365.25 days). To make the calendar more exact, every three to four years one day is added to the month February so that the year will be of 366 days.
The names of the Georgian calendar's months are taken from the Roman calendar. In this calendar, the months are named after Roman gods, names of Roman Caesars and Roman numbers. For example: the month July is named after Julius Caesar while the month November is named after the Latin word "novem" that means eleven.
This calendar is an example of a solar calendar. You can find a lot of interesting facts by comparing it to the Jewish calendar, such as the fact that both of them intercalate a year every three to four years and the fact that each one of them measures the year, and name the months in a completely different way. It's fascinating how time can be measured differently, isn't it?
sources:
material:
-Wikipedia: http://wikipedia.org/
The Georgian calendar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar
The Jewish calendar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Calendar
- http://lib.cet.ac.il/Pages/item.asp?item=14464
Pictures:
- http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Projects/Reln91/Gender/ROSH%20HODESH.htm
Excellent work, Amir. As always.
Daphna.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Chicago
In this post I would like to tell you about the city of Chicago, Illinois which is in the Midwest of the United States of America.
At the end of our trip to the United States of America during the last "Sukkot" holiday, my family and I visited Chicago for three days and we were charmed by it's beauty. It has a lot of beautifully structured skyscrapers and some very inspirational artistic statues. In addition, it features some fantastic, breathtaking parks.
One park I really enjoyed visiting in Chicago was the Millennium Park. This park is located in the Chicago Loop area. It is a very large park featuring a special sculpture called "The Cloud Gate". "The Cloud Gate" is a funny shaped steel sculpture. It looks like a concave cloud of steel. When you stand by it and look up at it you can see your reflection as if you are looking down at yourself. I found this statue original, beautiful and fascinating.
I chose to tell you about the city of Chicago because even though I spent a short period of time traveling there, I enjoyed it very much and really want to visit there again. The thing I like most about Chicago was that unlike cities like New-York that are as advanced as Chicago but are very dense and crowded, Chicago is very wide and has a lot of space. You can enjoy the view of it's open sky next to it's amazing buildings. For these reasons I highly recommend to visit this city and enjoy one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Your description is so vivid, I actually feel I've been there myself. Excellent work!
Daphna.
Friday, September 26, 2008
My sister Sivan
A very important and special person in my life is my sister Sivan. She is 19 years old and she is a very interesting, unusual, and open minded person. Because of these reasons I have decided to tell you a little bit about her in this post.
Sivan has long red hair and brown eyes. She is a very smart person, who has a lot of interests. She likes to read, write, baby-sit, listen to music and sing. Additionally, she has a wonderful sense of humor and she always knows how to cheer me up.
A very important thing in Sivan's life is music. She has written a lot of songs both in Hebrew and English , and I find most of them exteremly beautiful. Sivan usually sings whenever we have a family event and she always gets praised by our relatives and friends.
Last year, instead of joining the Israeli Army, Sivan volunteered at a special kindergarten for children with socio-economic difficulties. She did so because she believed that with her skills , she could help society more by volunteering in such a place than by joining the army.
The fact that I love Sivan goes without saying because she is my sister, but me and Sivan(Sivan and I) are very good friends too. We have a lot in common: we like the same TV shows, books, and movies. We almost never fight, we make each other laugh, we cheer each other up, and although I am mad at her sometimes, I always remember how much I love and appreciate her.
Sivan has long red hair and brown eyes. She is a very smart person, who has a lot of interests. She likes to read, write, baby-sit, listen to music and sing. Additionally, she has a wonderful sense of humor and she always knows how to cheer me up.
A very important thing in Sivan's life is music. She has written a lot of songs both in Hebrew and English , and I find most of them exteremly beautiful. Sivan usually sings whenever we have a family event and she always gets praised by our relatives and friends.
Last year, instead of joining the Israeli Army, Sivan volunteered at a special kindergarten for children with socio-economic difficulties. She did so because she believed that with her skills , she could help society more by volunteering in such a place than by joining the army.
The fact that I love Sivan goes without saying because she is my sister, but me and Sivan(Sivan and I) are very good friends too. We have a lot in common: we like the same TV shows, books, and movies. We almost never fight, we make each other laugh, we cheer each other up, and although I am mad at her sometimes, I always remember how much I love and appreciate her.
Excellent work, Amir. I enjoyed it very much.
Daphna.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
About myself
My name is Amir Zloter, I am 15 years old and I live in Holon. I have dark curly hair and brown eyes. In this post I am going to tell you a little bit about myself.
I have a lot of hobbies and interests. I like drawing, reading and playing tennis . I also like to write stories, but I never finish them. I am currently working on a mystery story that describes the murder of God.
I am also interested in the Japanese language and culture. I learn the Japanese language twice a month with a private teacher. I also flew to Japan with my family two years ago and had a magnificent time. It was a great practice for my Japanese too.
I take school very seriously and try my best at it. The subjects I like best are: History, Biology and Literature because I find the materials of these subjects extremely interesting. The things I don't like about school are homework and exams, which I find very stressing. I also don't like it when the teachers make us even more stressful when they tell us how big and important their subjects are.
My expectations from myself this year are to be able to keep my hard work at school on the one hand, but on the other hand not to get too stressful because of it. I also expect myself to get better in Japanese and in drawing and maybe finish a story for a change.
Amir, I really enjoyed that. I think your writing is not only clear and well organized, but interesting too. Well done !
Daphna.
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