A griot was a West African storyteller, historian, praise singer, poet or musician.  In ancient Africa the main job of a griot was to was to basically be the best storyteller they could be.  They would tell stories about the history of their tribe, wars and battles of the past, or just stories of everyday life.  Griots did not even have to work in the fields or anything like that, and were highly valued and respected people in the West African culture.  If one tribe tried to steal another tribe's griot it meant war.  

Did you know that griots still exist in modern Africa.  They are still an important part of west African culture, and without them we would't know as much about the ancient kingdoms of western Africa as we do. As you can see, the griots of West Africa now and in the past are very important.  

Fall is one of my favorite seasons for many reasons.  One is the weather.  It is nice and cool and windy which is my favorite weather to play sports in.  There is also more rain if we are lucky.  I also like the sports that come in fall.  For example, I play soccer in the fall, there is the world series, and college and pro football start.  Then there is thanksgiving.  I love thanksgiving because of all of the food, and because I get to be with my friends and family.  

The discovery of iron in West Africa had a big affect on life there.  For example, the had the best, most developed weapons in Africa because they were the only ones with metal.  Also, they could build better tools for farming, which was one of their main things that they did.  With metal tools, work was easier  and faster, and therefore more effective.  I think that having iron was one of the main things that made West Africa overall, a

The continent of Africa has many different types regions such as savannah, rain forest, sahel, and desert.  These all are very different and would all be hard to live in in thier own way, but I think living in the desert would be the hardest.  In the desert there is barely any water because of the scarce amount of rainfall.  Also, it gets very hot during the day and cold at night so I would not want to live there.  In other regions, there is more rain, vegetation, animals, and amore mild climate.  This is why I think that the desert would be the hardes

Trade was a main factor in the spread of Islam.  For example, Mecca was a crossroads for many trade routes and was also mainly Islamic, so as caravans went through it, they could pick up a little bit of knowledge of the religion, then eventually become Muslim if they chose to.  Also, when Muslim traders went traveling through Africa, Europe, and Asia, they had a big chance to spread their religion just by talking to the people they traded with.  So as you can see, trade was one of the biggest ways in which Muslims were able to spread Islam.

The five pillars of Islam are basically the guidelines of Islam.  They are a statement of your of faith, daily prayer, giving money to charity, fasting during Ramadan, and a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in your lifetime.  Some of these seem very hard to follow, but it seems like the pilgrimage to Mecca would be the hardest, at least if you lived in the United States.  For Islamic people in America, traveling to Mecca may be very hard to do since it has become very expensive to travel.  That is why I think that the pilgrimage to Mecca is the hardest part of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Muhammad was the founder of Islam.  He was raised as a merchant and had his own caravan.  The teachings of Islam tell of Muhammad meditating in a cave one day when an angel came to him and gave him a message from God.  Muslims believe that he kept receiving these messages and they are what make up the Islamic holy book called the Qu'ran.  The people of Mecca did not want to follow or listen to Muhammad because his teachings went against everything they believed.  Because of this, Muhammad moved to Medina.  Then he moved back to Mecca after a while and the people began listening to him.  I'm not sure why things were so different then but I think maybe the people might have been tired of their old religions and decided to give Islam a try.  It might also be that Muhammad became wiser and therefore more influential during his time in Medina.  These are two reasons that I think the people listened to the teachings of Muhammad.

I am writing about CORE because there is nothing else to write about.  In CORE class we are finishing a unit on the Roman Empire, specifically the fall of it.  To me this was an interesting topic, because I like studying the ancient civilizations.  Now we are doing another unit on the Muslims and the Islamic World.  The Muslims were the ones who conquered the Goths who had conquered Rome.  We will be reading a book called Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind, which is about an Islamic girl and her family.  Other than that I don't know anything about the book becaus ewe are not starting the book until tomorrow.  In the English portion of CORE, we have read three short stories from our reading book.  They were called "Names/Nombres" by Julia Alvarez, "Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto, and "Thank You M'am" by Langston Hughes.  These were all good stories that I liked. So far I am having a good time in CORE class and I hope it stays that way.