4Kids.org - Week of October 23, 2005

Week of October 23, 2005

The Windy City

Chronicle Chicago's transformation from a frontier town to the quintessential Amer-ican city of the 19th century with Chicago: City of the Century at www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex
/chicago. Test your wits in Special Features as you take the interactive quiz Do You Know Chicago? Also, be sure to check out Made in Chicago and Then and Now. Visit Maps and experience Chicago on Fire as you track the path and read accounts of the people who lived through one of the nation’s worst urban disasters.

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

Visit the Featured Web sites to find the answers.

When did the Ferris wheel debut at the World’s Columbian Exposition?

1893
1898
1895

In Chinese, what does Kung Fu mean?

military might
hit and kick
hard work or perfection

Why was “Little Red Riding Hood” banned?

violence
alcohol in her basket
scary

Kung Fu Fighting

Everyone will be Kung Fu fighting with Kung Fu Science at www.kungfuscience.org/site.asp. What Is Kung Fu explains the history of this ancient fighting system. In Introduction, meet Chris, a Kung Fu expert, and Michelle, a physicist wanting to learn to break wood with her hands. For the physics applied in Kung Fu, visit Michelle's Lab Book where Conservation of Energy, Other Aspects of the Technique, Preparation, Analysis and Calculations are recorded. The Final Test stands between Michelle and success. Can she do it?

Protection or Suppression?

Feel free to state your opinion when visiting Censored at www.lib.virginia.edu/small/ exhibits/censored. This site demonstrates how people are affected by censorship daily. For example, 785 Dirty Words is a list of books that have been banned from libraries, including “The Catcher in the Rye” and “Hamlet.” Censored Films and Television may take you by surprise when finding out why some films and shows were cut. Pop-ups and spam mail that Internet users deal with may make Web Filtering and Internet Censorship more understandable. You be the judge.

What genre of books do you like to read?

Speak Out Here!

Dear Amy: Do you have ideas for electronic portfolios that fifth graders could independently manage/share? — Nancy, Eagle, Neb.

Dear Nancy: For portfolio ideas as well as direction on how to create an electronic portfolio, I suggest visiting Electronic Portfolios at www.essdack.org/port/index.html. For more examples, visit Electronic Portfolios from Discovery Middle School at http://longwood.cs.ucf.edu/~MidLink/portfolios.dms.html. There you will find a variety of portfolio projects that use different electronic resources such as multimedia encyclopedias and electronic atlases.

Dear Amy: There was a game I was playing at school where you fill in the blanks and then it turns into a funny story. Can you help me find the Web site? — Kevin, Hamilton, Canada

Dear Kevin: Wacky Web Tales at www.eduplace.com/tales has just what you are looking for. Fill in the blanks with a noun, adjective or verb and create a ridiculously funny story. This activity and others can also be found at Cool Spots at 4kids.org/coolspots.

Ask Amy a Question