www.4Kids.org - Week of May 4, 2003

Week of May 4, 2003

Kents Cavern

There’s no need for a flashlight at Kents Cavern at www.kents-cavern.co.uk. Housing Britain’s oldest human dwellings, this Paleo-lithic cave-site is more than 700,000 years old. Follow the archaeological record and place early hominid findings of Homo erectus and Neanderthal on the geological timeline. Then trek over to the vestibule where a Homo sapiens jaw was found. You won’t find any dinosaur bones here, but be on the lookout for a 500,000-year-old cave-bear lurking around.

Nominate a cool Web site at http://www.4Kids.org/nominations/

Visit the Featured Web sites to find the answers.

The first evidence of farming appears in what geological time period?

Paleolithic
Neolithic
Mesolithic

What type of simple machine makes your shoelaces tighten?

Pulley
Lever
Incline Plane

When were the earliest recordings of country blues music made?

1920s
1940s
1960s

Gear Up for Simple Machines

Nothing is simple about Edheads’ Simple Machines at www.edheads.org/ activities/simple-machines/. This site is jammin’ with cool information about simple machines found in and around the house. In the Toolshed, you’ll learn about compound machines: two or more machines working together to get the job done. Interactive games teach you how to identify different machines and the jobs they do. Use the glossary if you find any terms that you’ve forgotten or don’t understand. This site is simply wonderful.

Time for Ragtime

The Templeton Music Collection at http://library. msstate.edu/ragtime/ main.html features a collection of original ragtime sheet music from turn-of-the-century America. Read descriptions of music types including fox-trots, war songs and minstrel music. Ragtime incorporated Caribbean and African drum rhythms with Western-style polkas. You can look at each song in its original sheet music form, with cover art that captures the spirit of the time. If you read music or know an instrument, download a song and play it.

What is the best way to deal with bullies at school?

Speak Out Here!

Lost in Blogs

Recently Google bought Blogger, a site hosting more than 1 million blogs, short for Web logs. I’d heard the term “blog” on the Web, but I never understood it. After all of the excitement in the tech world surrounding Google’s purchase, I decided to find out what was the “dealio.” I had no idea I’d be up to my armpits in blogs after three clicks. Holy cow! Anybody can create a blog.

So what is a blog? It’s a place for people to say anything they want, anytime they want, and for anyone to read. It’s a continuous journal available to the public. Scripting News at www.scripting.com is one of the longest-running blogs. Whether you read some crazy news online or you find the coolest Transformers toy ever for dirt-cheap at the thrift store, a blog lets you tell the whole world about it.

Now, this “tell the whole world” thing can be dangerous. Yes, many of us are well versed in the need for safety on the Web. However, a quick refresher never hurts, and it only takes a couple of minutes. So refresh your Internet safety database at www.4kids.org/safesurf/ before you blog on.

—Amy

Ask Amy a Question