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Learn about our Southwest cultures

douglasel — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:20:48 CST

Mexico
Mexico DF is the capital of Mexico. It is a big, poor city. They have lots of billboards. It's very busy. A lot of people are walking, riding bikes, and driving cars. It's very polluted. If you go up the mountain to San Perro Limon you can get dizzy and your stomach won't feel well.

They speak Spanish, indigenous Mayan, Nahuatl, and some people speak English.

There are 109,955,400 people in Mexico.

You have to have papers to cross the border and to cross back into the US.

States in Mexico
There are 32 states in Mexico. Hidalgo was created on January 15, 1869 This is its flag.

Michoacan is bigger than Mexico City.

Indians
The name of the Indians that live in Michoacan are the Tarascos.

Size
Mexico is three times bigger than Texas. It is 1,972,550 square kilometers.

Weather
It is always hot there. It does not snow there. Mexico is cold at night and at day it is hot. When it's cold in the US, it's warm in Mexico.

History
Texas was a part of Mexico a long long time ago.
Mexico has a cool culture and the pyramids of Teotihuacan are 2,000 years old.

Holidays and other important dates
El Dia de los Muertos is when you celebrate someone in your family that died.

On the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe people dress up and do a dance for her. We dance, sing, pray and prepare a mass for her. We play with a pinata because we pretend it is the devil.

Cinco de Mayo
We celebrate this day with fireworks.
Easter On Easter, the people there burn a Judas with goodies in it.

Foods
Mexicans eat nopales and tamales.

Nopales are a tasty food in Mexico. Here is one way to make it with pork, salt, chiles, tomatoes, and of course nopales. First you boil and peel them. Cut the chiles and tomatoes and then mix them up and eat.

Tacos are often eaten with meat like steak and vegetables. like lechuga (lettuce), cebolla (onion), and tomates (tomatoes).

In Mexico, the pizza has sesame seeds on the crust.

Interesting animals

Prairie dogs weigh 2.2 pounds. This interesting animal from Mexico lives on the open plains.

They used donkeys for the war. They also did not wear protection.

Other interesting facts
Some people are poor in Mexico.

Cantinflas is a popular star. He lived from 1911-1993 but he still is on TV and sometimes he is funny.

Football is Mexico's favorite sport. Some of the team names are Chivas, Toluca, America, Cruz Azul, Teco, Negaza, Pumas, San Pedro, Santos, Indios, Monterrey. The one that one the season was Chivas. The second best was Cruz Azul.

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Honduras
We celebrate some of the same holidays as in Mexico, like Dia de los Muertos.

There are beautiful flowers. The toucans live in trees.

In Honduras wild animals have protected habitats in the country's national parks but the animals are endangered because of illegal deforestation. This means that people go to the forest when they are not supposed to and cut down trees. That means the macaws and other animals are dying.

Laos
In Laos you can make your house out of bamboo and lots of string and lots of straw. They can make the food papaya so you can eat it. The capital of Laos is Vientiane.

They speak French and English.

The countries that border Laos are Burma, Cambodia, China, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Weather
The weather is sunny and rainy. But people think that it can't snow.

Religions
The main religions are Buddhism and Christianity. There are shamans.

Interesting animals
Interesting animals are the Asian elephant, tigers, and the Annamite rabbit. People use tiger's skin and bones for medicine.

Thailand
Thailand has water buffaloes, tigers and elephants.

Their money is called "baht." The king's picture is on the money.

You can pray and look for gold in the water. There are many rivers from the mountains across the central plain.

Hmong people eat rice about every meal and have Hmong markets.

History
In 1932, they had a revolution and got a new king.

In 2006, they had a coup and switched governments.

People use pa ndau to tell old stories. For example, the Hmong people were in China. They went to Thailand in the war.

China

The capital of China is Beijing.

They speak Chinese or Mandarin.

There are 1,575,571 km of paved roads and 354,973 km of unpaved roads. The total area of the country is 9,596,960 sq. km.

Interesting tourist sites
The Great Wall of China is a big wall that is 2000 years old. The Chinese people built it starting in 221 BC to protect the Middle Kingdom from the Mongols.

The Forbidden City
It took 14 years to build the Forbidden City. It is in Beijing. The king lived there. Common citizens were not allowed. There are 980 buildings in the Forbidden City. They took from 1406-1420 to build it.

Interesting Animals

There are pandas and tigers in China.

Southwest Elementary Home

douglasel — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:04:12 CDT

Directions:

1. Look at the wiki you are working on (Landforms or Southwest cultures).
2. Work in your group to read what has already been written.
3. Think of an idea or fact you can contribute to help others learn.
4. Write your idea down on paper.
5. Check with your whole group to be sure you used the words you want to use, and the spelling you think is correct.
6. Bring your idea to Ms. V or Ms. D. and we will type it into the wiki. Part of learning to use websites correctly is following the rules, and unless you're 13, you are not allowed to add content to this webpage. Instead, you'll think of the ideas, and an adult will be responsible for what is typed.
7. Keep reading the wiki to see what other groups have contributed!

Landforms

CarolynV — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:00:35 CDT

Volcanoes
Volcanoes are very destructive. The volcanoes shoot out lava, hot gas and hot ash. The volcanic gas and ash can be poisonous. They are also formed by plate techtonics. Volcanoes are generally cone-shaped landforms. Volcanoes are like mountains, but the top is cut out. Lava can get up to 60,000 degrees. Volcanoes are in different countries and in Hawaii. Hundreds of volcanoes are active today. It can also errupt in all different kinds of combinations. Under a volcano there is a hot layer called the mantle. The volcano Mt. Saint Helens destroyed 60 people's houses. Volcanoes can erupt with devestating power. And the volcanoes power suddenly goes away and turns to air and ash. The difference between magma and lava: Magma is liquid rock inside the volcano. Lava is liquid rock out of the volcano. There are different types of volcanoes: cinder cone, lava domes, and submarine. Volcano magma goes up to 1,500 degrees.

Historic Vocanoes
When Mt. Vesuvius erupted and destroyed Pompeii with pyroclastic surge. Vesuvius also destroyed Herculanium.

Canyons
Canyons are formed by rivers that run on the land and cut through the land. Some fossils are in the Grand Canyon. Some of the oldest rocks lie in the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon was cut by the Colorado River. It is 277 miles, 446 kilometers and more than 5000 feet long. Canyons have steep narrow valleys.

Waterfalls
Some waterfall speeds go up to 85 miles per hour. Rainbows produced by mist from an 80ft high waterfall that's visible on a sunny day. A seventeen mile tunnel was dug out to transport water underground because the waterfall had too much water and was overflowing the river.

Dams
A dam is a wall that prevents water flowing freely in rivers and lakes. Dams are usually made to prevent flooding. Some dams aren't built strong enough to hold, so they break. Beavers and humans build dams. Beavers build low ones with sticks. They also use logs and mud. Beavers do not build dams to stop water. They build them to make homes.

Valleys
In December, Death Valley is 65 degrees Farenheit and 85 degrees Celcius. It was created from the weakened earth's crust.
The Hayden Valley in Wyoming was at one time filled with an arm of the Yellowstone Lake. But now, all that is left is the lake's sediments. Hayden Valley is very marshy and has very little trees. Hayden Valley lays beneath a slab of ice nearly 4000 feet thick. That's nearly four times taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

Rivers

Delta
A delta is a land made of mud and sand formed into the shape of a triangle helping the water flow into a bigger body of water with help from the mouth of the river.

Mouth of the River
The end of a river flows into another body of water is called the mouth of the river.

Riverbank
The land that is beside the river.

Penninsula
It is a land that is almost fully covered with water. Florida is the best example. It is mostly covered on three sides.

Dunes
They are sand piled over sand. They are caused by wind and are on the coastal plain.

Tundra
It is cold, has no trees, a cold summer and cold winters.

Tributary
It is a little stream that feeds into a river or another big body of water.

Basin
The Great Basin is encompassing the entire state of Nevada and much of Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. The great basin is an arid (dry) mountain land area in the western part of the United States and between the Rocky Mountains.

Isthmus
The Isthmus of Panama is a land bridge that connects North and South America.