Acclerated Reading Update

Total books read: 7,191
Words read:
134,445,164
Book of the week:

Using the internet for current affairs

When my wife worked for the Apple Multimedia lab in the late 80's, the people who worked there always told me"Only use computers for things you can't do better with an existing tool." That's why I still don't own a kindle; I prefer books. But when it comes to current events, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, and more often that not that picture is on the internet. Here's an image from the NASA image gallery of the oil slick currently off the Louisiana coast:

20th anniversary of the Hubble Telescope

To see a full screen image of this image,go to the NASA website. While there, you and your child(ren) should check out some the other images from The Image of the Day Gallery. I know that the kids in Mrs. Thornton's class will get extra points for looking at this picture.

The Academic Coach is guest blogging today....

4th and 5th Grade GATE Claymation Movies

In six short sessions, our Rancho students directed, filmed, and produced their very first stop-motion film!

The students developed story lines and created clay characters. They then made backdrops and prepared to film. Each movie consists of 80 to 150 photos taken with a digital camera. After all the pictures were taken, students imported them into Windows Movie Maker and added titles and credits.

Please enjoy their videos! The students had a great time working on the projects.
Catherine Nam

Author's Day at Rancho with Jon Agee March 24th

This year we had an old favorite author back- Jon Agee, author of such favorites as The Return of Freddy Legrand and The incredible Painting of Felix Closseau. His website is here. The kids loved his drawing lessons he gave in the multipurpose room. Thanks for a great day, Jon!