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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Makey Makey Invention Kit ~ An Invention Kit for Everyone

MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It's a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything in between.

Please click on the link below to bring you directly to the site:




Are you inspired to create now?

Makey Makey ~ Invention Kit ~ Watch and Be Inspired to Create

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Great Article~ 10 Fun Indoor Summer Projects


Sneak Preview:
"Summer’s here and along with valuable time spent outdoors learning and embarking on adventures, kids can use downtime at home to keep those brain circuits exercising indoor, too. To that end, here are 10 ideas for indoor learning opportunities."

2. PLAN A MISSION. Dream up a LEGO Technic engineering mission and work with friends on completing the mission using the LEGO Technic building system. Kids can find ideas for missions at MY LEGO Network, a new social networking site built especially for children. They can build a LEGO page on MY LEGO network to show off their team’s work.
3. LEARN TO BE A WEBMASTER. Using a free toolkit like Thimble from Mozilla, kids can learn some basic web skills and how to build a site. Thimble is designed to give novices an easy-to-use online tool to quickly build and share web pages. Younger learners who aren’t ready to learn programming can start with plug-and-play blogs like WordPress and Blogger.
6. FORM A BAND. The skills involved in learning music require daily practice, and starting a band can help motivate practice. Original composition is sparked through collaborating with other young musicians. Kids can put a band together and even record a single. YouTube hits are not far off.
8. MAKE A FILM. The next Steven Spielberg might emerge from a summer movie-making project. Kids can exercise their writing, creativity, organization, and artistic skills by making their own movies, just as any director does: writing scripts, choosing actors, practicing lines, not to mention actually filming and editing. For those who own an Apple computer, iMovie makes the process very simple. YouTube also offers free editing, and you can find other editing software online.
To read the full article, please click on the link below:

Great Article~ 10 Awesome Outdoor Summer Learning Ideas


Sneak Preview:
"Summer can be a mixed bag, a combination of relief from the stress of school, followed by boredom, the bugaboo of a creative mind. The break from school offers a chance to carve out enriching, fun projects and beat the doldrums brought about by summer loafing. The warm weather is a great invitation to enjoy and learn about the outdoors during this time off. Here are 10  learning opportunities for kids to come away from the summer months invigorated with fresh skills."
1. EMBARK ON BIRDWATCHING ADVENTURES. Local chapters of the Audubon Societyhost birdwatching outings, where those new to birding can benefit from the expertise of the pros. Kids can learn about the local ecosystem, as well as wildlife adaptability and habitat preservation. If birding catches their fancy, they can keep the adventures going with YardMap, a citizen science project designed to cultivate a richer understanding of bird habitat. The YardMap network lets you draw your landscapes with a beautiful online mapping tool and connect to other citizen scientists, solve problems, share maps and ideas, all while helping to build database of habitat data for Cornell Lab of Ornithology Scientists.
3. HANG A ROPE SWING. With about 10 feet of rope and a buntline hitch knot, it’s easy to build a tree swing. Kids can learn knotting and building skills and do the math to determine attachment points and rope lengths. If the backyard won’t work, there’s always the nearest park.
4. FARM THE BACKYARD. Anyone with any amount of space can grow food. Whether it’s starting a small herb garden on the fire escape or building raised beds in the backyard, the process of growing food allows kids to develop an understanding about our food sources, nutrition, how irrigation works, even the importance of supporting local growers. Plus, they’ll benefit from having the responsibility of taking charge of their own important project.

To read the full article, please click on the link below:
Click Here to Read the Full Article~ 10 Awesome Outdoor Summer Learning Ideas

Summer Reading Videos and Songs ~ Watch and Be Inspired

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Hard Work Pays off! Michelle and Jocelyn found the Lost Lunch Box!

The Lost Lunch Box

"We hope you have enjoyed playing thelostlunchbox.com! So far, over 200 users have found the lunchbox, ranging from age 7 to age 19! Over 2,000 people have signed up. We have improved the game play so that it is a little easier to get past the science lab. You can also buy pets to travel the school with you that will help you. Remember, to find the school map, go into any classroom and complete the challenge!"

Congratulations Michelle and Jocelyn!
Congratulations to Porter, Maya, Lara, Tali, Caterina, Sophia, Miranda, Ava, and Casey for finding the Lost Lunch Box!




About the Game:
The Lost Lunchbox is the one of internet’s first educational role-playing games (RPG) designed specifically for children in grades 3 –8. Conceived by Greg Nussbaum, creator of MrNussbaum.com, and designed by the team at igamestudio.com, The Lost Lunchbox is an unforgettable and exciting experience for students that incorporates critical thinking skills in multiple disciplines, problem solving, and a healthy dose of adventure and curiosity. The Lost Lunchbox is an outstanding, educational alternative to traditional video games that glamorize violence and promote mental stagnation.
The object of the game is to find the character’s lost lunchbox in an enchanted school. In order to find the lunchbox, the user has to accumulate a variety of prizes, tools, and clues that will lead to its location.  The accumulation of such objects is achieved through fulfilling the challenges in the school’s many classrooms.  The academic challenges were designed to be, well, challenging! Users will likely not succeed the first time. Some classrooms will require users to conduct minor on-line research or use process of elimination. Others will function as trials, in which users will improve over time before fulfilling that particular challenge. After the completion of each academic challenge, the user will undoubtedly feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. Most users will not be able to “conquer” the game right away. It will take perseverance, persistence, and actual learning to do so. Below is a list of the academic challenges students have to fulfill to obtain the clues and prizes necessary to find the lunchbox.
  1. Conduct an online science experiment in which the user has to make a volcano and then make it erupt.
  2. Make ten math problems and answers from a series of six numbers
  3. Put a variety of “fun” historical events in their correct order (with respect to date).
  4. Pick out a misspelled word among twenty correctly spelled words. The user must spell the misspelled word correctly.
  5. Identify types of prose.
  6. Identify a missing word in a famous quote or passage.
  7. Identify U.S. states on a U.S.A map based on a clue.
  8. Play a memory game
  9. Identify musical instruments
  10. Dress up an athlete according to the clothes and equipment worn in a particular sport.


Click Here to Visit the Lost Lunch Box Game