Not Back to School Day

RELOCATION: First thing this morning Annabelle was jonesing to get to Photoshopping. She was going to just mess around with painting and cloning, but I suggested she expand her repertoire today. I instructed CJ and Annabelle to fetch a toy of their choice from their room. Bee chose her new bumble bee Pillow Pet. CJ chose fireball Mario.

I had the kids take a picture of their toys, and then showed them how to download a photo from the camera and save it on the computer. Then we opened them in Photoshop. The kids used the magic wand and the eraser to knock the background out, isolating each of their toys.

Then, I asked them to use their imaginations and think about a background they'd like to put their toy into. Annabelle immediately said something about flowers, so we went to Morguefile (where I park a lot of my photos for sharing). After looking at a few dozen possibilities, she chose the one above. She dragged the bee onto the flower photo, did a little bit of touching up and was thrilled with the outcome. It really brought her toy to life!

CJ struggled with the idea of having his Mario toy be somewhere he shouldn't be (for lack of a better way to describe it). He kept coming up with ideas of things we could take straight up no-Photoshop-needed photos of. To help him along, I suggested that perhaps he could think of some place here in Seattle he could "place" Mario. That really didn't help much, so I urged him to think of places in Seattle he's visited. No surprise the Seattle Pinball Museum popped into his head - we were just there yesterday. So I showed him all of the photos we had from yesterday and, interestingly, he chose one of the candy machine instead of a vintage pinball machine. And so we took a 4-inch Mario plus and blew him up, so to speak. CJ parked him in front of the machine (where Annabelle was standing in the original picture) and then he noticed that he needed to make Annabelle's leg disappear. And so he did.

BOFFO BOOK: Mungo and the Spiders from Space. It's a story within a story. It starts out with a mother reading a book they bought at a garage sale to her young son Mungo. The book "Galacticus and Gizmo Save the Universe!" was a page turner - until they got to the cliffhanger and found the used book was missing its last page. The horror!

The mother suggested that her disappointed son try to think up his own ending, and that's just what Mungo did.

The imaginative boy became a pivotal character in saving the universe from the evil Dr. Frankenstinker.

The illustrations were colorful and the layout comic book inspired. The kids both loved the book and so did I. Six thumbs up from us!

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER POEM: Yesterday we explored shape poems; today I thought it would make sense to try our hands at another kind of poem. We again turned to a ReadWriteThink interactive to accomplish this.

Today's topic was Diamante poems. A diamante poem is a poem with words in the shape of a diamond. It doesn't have to rhyme, but each line has specific parameters. For instance, it starts with the topic alone on the first line, the second line is two adjectives, the third line is three -ing words, the fourth line is four nouns, the fifth line is three -ing words, the sixth line is two more adjectives and the last line is the topic. The poem can all be about the same thing (a synonym diamante poem) or about two different things (an antonym diamante poem). Today, the kids both did a synonym version.

About Video Games by CJ
Video Games
8-bit, 16-bit
Gaming, jumping, controlling
Technology, NES, Sega Genesis, SNES
Playing, programming, timing
32-bit, 64-bit
Video games

My Family by Bee Bee Kisky
Family
Lucky, happy
Playing, loving, gathering
Mom, Dad, CJ, Me
Blogging, working, walking
Playful, nice
Family

TRIBOLOGY: For today's science lesson, we viewed "Friction" a title in The Science of Disney Imagineering series. One of Disney's "Imagineers" talked about and demonstrated how different types of friction (static, kinetic and rolling) come into play designing theme park rides and attractions (think rollercoaster wheels, cruise ship shapes, and so on). We learned lots, including that the study of friciton is called tribology.

The video looked up-to-the minute and it was well produced (would you expect anything less from Disney?). And yes, of course, parts of it looked like an ad for Disney's theme parks or cruise line, but it wasn't too awful in that regard. (Plus, it was kind of fun for the kids to spot places in Walt Disney World that they were familiar with having visited there in May.)

The DVD's bonus features included a couple of friction experiments (that required materials we didn't have, unfortunately), and a 15-question quiz (the kids got 13 right - not bad considering the video is labeled for kids in grades 5-8!).

By sticking the DVD in my computer, I was able to read a 5-page Educator Resource guide, and see some links to further learning options on the Internet. One was to a "Fear of "Physics" Web site, which was a great find. They have a page about friction where the kids were able to plug in different data points regarding a vehicle, speed, road conditions and braking point to create different scenarios.

Naturally, the kids were all about going fast and causing crashes. For instance, we learned a scooter going 100 mph on an icy road that brakes 100 feet ahead of traffic jam is still going 97.5 MPH when it hits that traffic. (The same scooter on a dry road at that speed and braking point still crashes, but at least they're "only" going 24.75 MPH at the time.)

We played around with lots of different data. I think only once were we able to stop in time. (To me, the biggest lesson learned was you need a LOT more stopping room than you think.)

The DVD also recommended another great resource - The Thinking Fountain by the Science Museum of Minnesota. They have a page on friction that we hope to check out in depth soon.

BACK TO THE STACKS: Finally, Seattle Public Libraries are back open after a cost cutting days-long closure. We made up for lost time by bringing home a huge stack from the lovely Queen Anne branch, where we found three more Disney Imagineering videos (hooray!), a bunch of other DVDs, and even a few books. The Queen Anne library has so much beautiful old wood paneling and leaded glass all around. Here's just a small part of the children's section.

BACK ON TRACK: During some free play time today, the kids did something they rarely do any more - they played with their wooden trains and tracks (CJ's favorite toys when he was about 2). It was fun to listen to their banter.