Week of March 16, 2008

ARKive and Jive

Get down for a groovin’ good time when you scroll through the many cool games at ARKive Education,
www.arkive.org/education/
games. Save a spider from a very tangled web in Tripwire of Terror. In Copse and Robbers you will have to try out your detective skills as you comb through a confusing crime scene. If you are feeling wonderfully wordy, put your verse to the test in Magnetic Fridge Poetry where you can artfully create radical rhymes. With so many different games, this fun site has something for every kid to enjoy.

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Art Appreciation 101

Become a connoisseur of fine art at Articulation, www.brigantine.atlnet.org/
GigapaletteGALLERY/
websites/ARTiculationFinal/
MainPages/About%20
This%20Site.htm. Scroll through Elements of Art to discover the foundation of artistic work. Color, shape and texture are only a few parts of a complete masterpiece, so study them all. Even though art is creative, it still has to be organized. Review artistic harmony in Principles of Design and try to learn the Art Critiquing Process to view works with a newly trained eye. (This site is no longer available.)

Hear Your Ears

Listen up, kids! Visit Dangerous Decibels at www.dangerous
decibels.org/virtualexhibit.cfm for the buzz on how to keep your hearing sharp. Click on the Virtual Exhibit and see if you can identify certain sounds. It may sound easy, but be prepared for a tough challenge. Next, tune in and test your decibel smarts when you play How Loud Is Too Loud. You can also figure out how scientists measure sound to determine what safe listening really is. Remember, you can still rock out with your friends safely when you know how to protect your hearing.

	Be a Web Designer! Part 2 I hope that by this week, you've had a chance to learn a little html and decide what kind of Web site you want to build. The next step is planning what your Web site will look like. There are a lot of things to consider such as colors to use, where to put text and pictures, and how you want to set up the navigation. First, it's important to know what information will go on each page of your new Web site. For example, you might want to have a page just for links or a page for news. If so, you'll need to plan where text and pictures go on each page. Now comes the fun part! My favorite part of designing a site is deciding what colors to use. You'll need to choose colors for the background, text, links, visited links and any other items you want to use on the page. Need a little color inspiration? Check out 100 Random Colors at www.100randomcolors.com, where you can drag and drop color tiles to find cool combinations. To learn more about site design, you can find a handy tutorial at www.1stsitefree.com/ design_tutorial.htm that covers everything from consistency to style. Soon you’ll be designing like a pro! —Amy Ask Amy a Question

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