Chewing gum

The first chewing gum came from rubber trees in the South American rain forests. The Aztecs chewed it and called it `chicttli `. It was harder than modern chewing gum and didn`t taste of anything. The gum is delicious. Byee :P

Popcorn! :P

Popcorn is not a modern food like potato crips. It is more than 5,000 years old. Popcorn was an American Indian food. Columbus bought popcorn necklaces in the West Indies. There was also popcorn at the first Thanksgiving meal in North America in 1621. In the 1940s, cinemas in the USA started to sell popcorn. It is still the most popular cinema snack. :D

Collector :)

I often go walking with my family. I like it a lot. Taking photos is OK, but I take home bits of the mountain with me too. That`s rigth, I collect colored stones. I have a collection of more than 100 stones. My mum isn`t verry happy because I keep them under my beed! :P

Roman times

Yesterday mount Vesuvius started to erupt at midday. In the afternoon the shops opened and people walked in the streets. By the evening there was a lot of volcanic ash on the streets and people stayed inside their houses. Today the volcano is still erupting and the volcanic ash is slowly covering the houses, shops, and temples. Everyone is asking the same question: When is Vesuvius going to stop erupting?:)

:O

Mount Venus in Italy erupted in AD 79. It covered the Roman city of Pompeii with six metres of hot ash. At first the ash fell very slowly. People walked around under the ash and didn`t try to leave. Scientist now think that there was a sudden eruption of very fast and very hot wind and ash. The wind blew people onto the ground and they couldn`t breathe because of the ash. Many centuries later people discovered Pompeii. There was a whole city under the ash with houses, skeletons and even food. Historians learnt a lot about life in Roman times from the city of Pompeii. Vesuvius last erupted in 1944.

volcanoes

A volcano is a mountain of lava. When a volcano erupts, lava, ash, and smoke come out of the crater. The lava cools and makes a cone. There are more than 850 volcanoes in the world. Most of them are in a ring around the Pacific Ocean. It is called the Ring of Fire.

Spanish lynxes

Spanish lynxes are the smallest of the big cats. They are also one of the rarest - there are only a few hungred still living. These lynxes look like cats but they are larger. They have long legs, large feet, and long hairs on top of their ears. Their home is in Mediterranean forests, but there aren`t many of these forest now. Hunters also kill lynxes for their fur.