4Kids.org - Week of March 9, 2008

Week of March 9, 2008

Raining Down Fun

Get ready to get dirty and have a great time at Discover Our Rain Forest,
www.ontariosciencecentre
.ca/scizone/e3/rainforest/
meta_terrarium.asp. This site will get you excited about science when you create your own terrarium. Search your house for a clear container with a tight lid. You also need to make sure that you can find a window with plenty of light. Ask your mom or dad to help you find potting soil and then select some cool small plants. Decorate your new habitat with special ornaments like shells or rocks and behold nature’s beauty!

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

Visit the Featured Web sites to find the answers.

Why is dirt from outside not appropriate for a terrarium?

bugs in the dirt could harm your plants
minerals in the dirt could harm your plants
you must buy a special type of dirt

During what era were Tudor houses built?

1500
1600
1700

What is a thaumatrope?

disk with pictures on both sides
animal with two horns
new dance

Apply the Creative Mind

Sam invites you to check out the Kids' Zone at www.geffrye-museum.
org.uk/kidszone. If you love the outdoors, join Sam in creating a virtual garden where you click and drag vegetation for an awesome creation. When you’re finished there, you can choose a time period and play designer by decorating the room of your choice. Move on to the Topsy-turvy Timeline where objects from different eras need your help to get in order. Don your detective hat and inspect clues with Sam to discover how people lived in the past.

Celebrating Childhood

You will love being a kid when you visit V & A Museum of Childhood, www.vam.ac.uk/moc/kids_pages, and find out how many cool projects there are for young people just like you! Stay on the computer for Things To Do Online where you can build toys, put together puzzles or send cool e-cards to your friends. If it is too rainy to play outside, scroll through Things To Make At Home and learn how to create paper dolls, toy theaters and silhouette pictures. If you have some ideas of your own, send them in and share your projects with others who are interested in the same activities as you.

What is your favorite rainy day activity?

Speak Out Here!

Be a Web Designer! Part 1

Over the years, a lot of kids have asked me how to build their own Web site. Creating and maintaining a Web site takes some work, but it's worth the effort. Are you ready for the challenge? Before you start building, you'll need to know what kind of Web site to make. Do you want a site where you can share your artwork or poetry with others? You could also make a home page for a pet, a site to share recipes or an online photo album. The possibilities are endless!

Once you have chosen your site topic, it's time to turn your ideas into code. Web sites are written in hypertext markup language, or HTML. It is a language that uses tags to tell browsers how to display a Web page. A great place to learn HTML is the Internet Public Library's Kidspace, www.ipl.org/div/kidsweb. It is important to learn HTML, even if you plan on using a free page builder to make your Web site. You'll have more possibilities in creating your Web site when you know how to use HTML. Next time, we'll look at how to choose colors and a layout for your new site!

—Amy

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