How Is Your Holiday Break Going?

I hope you are having a great Holiday Break! I miss you all. I have had a relaxing break so far. Lots of time for fun things like roller skating, fishing, and visiting my family. So tell me how is your break going.

What did you get for Christmas? Where have you gone? Who have you seen? 
Please remember to respond in complete sentences and use correct end marks!

How to Plant Seed

Learn how to grow plants in your backyard. Soil and climate are two parts that can make your gardening adventure successful!

Click the link below to learn how to grow seeds.
How to Plant Seeds

Remember to write in complete sentences.
In your words, how do you plant seeds? 

Should Kids Have Homework Over Breaks?

JON ANDERSON—GETTY IMAGES

For many students, school breaks are a time to rest and recharge. Many families spend time together, and kids are able to catch up with their friends and participate in activities they may not have time for when school is in session.

School vacations are also a time when some students get a break from homework. Many school districts and teachers don’t give homework over breaks. The school board for the Princeton Public Schools in Princeton, New Jersey, recently passed a resolution that bans homework during the winter and spring vacation periods.

“When homework or projects are designed and deadlines are assigned in a way that requires students to work on or substantially complete them during the holiday breaks, students and their families are deprived of the unstructured time they need and deserve to pursue other, equally important life activities,” reads the resolution.

Other school districts and teachers believe it’s beneficial for kids to do some homework over school breaks. Girls Prep, a charter school network in New York City, gives students homework when school is out. Richard Sloan, a fifth-grade teacher at the school, said his grade team works together to give homework that is purposeful and reflects current units of study. Homework over break helps students practice what they’ve learned, and sharpen their skills, he says.

“Some of the work can be fun to do as well,” Sloan told TFK. “It’s not supposed to be a chore. You want to see students thrive over a long break, and not slide.”

Remember to look in the article for clues to the answer. Write in complete sentences.

Do you want homework over Winter Break? Explain why.

Drink Up!

GETTY IMAGES

Kids should drink between 10 and 14 cups every day, according to a new study

Summer is almost here, and the weather is heating up.  Are you drinking enough water? Many kids aren’t, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The study’s lead author, Erica Kenney, a scientist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, originally planned to look into the amount of sugary drinks kids were consuming in schools. However, during her research she found that many kids were simply not drinking enough water.

Kenney and her team examined data from a group of 4,000 children, ages 6 to19, between the years of 2009 and 2012. The data was taken from the National Health and Nutrition Survey, a study on the health of children in the United States conducted each year by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 

While looking through the survey results, she noticed that more than half of the kids who participated were dehydrated. Of that group, boys were 76% more likely than girls to not have enough water in their system. Nearly one quarter of the kids in the survey reported drinking no plain water at all.

“These findings are significant because they highlight a potential health issue that has not been given a lot of attention in the past,” Kenney said in a statement. “Even though for most of these kids this is not an immediate, dramatic health threat, this is an issue that could really be reducing quality of life and well-being for many children and youth.”

TONY GARCIA

It is important to drink a lot of water when you are being physically active.

How much is enough?

The human body is made up of 60% water. It regulates body temperature, delivers oxygen all over the body, assists in digestion, and performs various other tasks that keep our bodies healthy.

Not drinking enough water can lead to health problems such as headaches, irritability, poor physical performance, and even more serious issues.  Your body needs more water when you are in hot climates, when you are physically active, and if you have a fever.

The United States National Agriculture Library says on average, kids need between 10 to 14 cups of water every day. This water can come from a mix of drinks and foods that contain high amounts of water, such as celery, melons, or tomatoes. It is also recommended that fluids come from water instead of sugary drinks that are high in calories and can lead to weight problems.

“The good news is that this is a public health problem with a simple solution,” said senior author on the study and professor health sociology at Harvard University, Steven Gortmaker. “If we can focus on helping children drink more water – a low cost, no calorie beverage – we can improve their hydration status, which may allow many children to feel better throughout the day and do better in school.”

Tips for staying hydrated

The United States Center for Disease Control offers the following tips for people to stay hydrated:

- Carry a water bottle for easy access.

- Freeze some freezer-safe water bottles. Take one with you for ice-cold water all day long.

- Choose water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages. This tip can also help with weight management. Substituting water for one 20-ounce sugar-sweetened soda will save you about 240 calories.

- Choose water instead of other beverages when eating out. Generally, you will save money and reduce calories.

- Give your water a little pizzazz by adding a wedge of lime or lemon. This may improve the taste, and you just might drink more water than you usually do.

Remember to look in the article for clues to the answer. Write in complete sentences

Why is it important to drink plenty of water daily?

Time for Coding

Do you know how to code? If not, it may be the perfect week to learn.

From December 7 to 13, eager minds across the world are gearing up for Computer Science Education W

eek. Code.org, a non-profit group dedicated to expanding access to computer science, established the weeklong event to give students the chance to explore coding in a fun way. The group is also behind a campaign called Hour of Code, which encourages students to try a one-hour introduction to computer science to learn the basics of coding.

According to Code.org, more than 100 million students across 180 countries and 40 languages have participated in the Hour of Code, including one in three students in schools throughout the United States.

“In a world that’s being completely changed by technology, how apps and coding work is something that everyone needs to know in the 21st century,” Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi told TFK.

Coding with Minecraft

MICROSOFT CORP/PRNEWSFOTO/AP

Microsoft and Code.org have teamed up to bring Minecraft to the Hour of Code event.

This year, Code.org expects more than 100,000 events to be held during Computer Science Education week, due in part to their partnerships with Microsoft and Mojang AB. The three companies teamed up to bring Minecraft to Hour of Code. The new tutorial, for ages six and up, introduces players to basic coding within the fun and popular 2-D environment.

“There may be lots of games but there really is only one Minecraft,” Partovi says. “Last year, students made thank-you cards for bringing Hour of Code to their school. When I read them, more then half were actually Minecraft requests.”

Deirdre Quarnstrom, Director of Minecraft Education at Microsoft, says the game was a natural fit. “A lot of Minecraft players are already interested in coding,” she told TFK. Quarnstrom notes that the skills learned from the coding program can help students in many areas. “It teaches logic, conditional statements, problem solving, and even vocabulary,” she says.

More than A Game

Currently, computer science is taught in only about 25% of the high schools in the U.S., and the number is even lower in middle and elementary school grades. By 2020, 4.6 million of 9.2 million science, technology, engineering, and math jobs will be in computing, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Supporters say it's not just about learning how to code, but learning how computers work. Partovi says learning computer science can open the door to high-demand jobs.

“Whether you’re thinking about working in medicine, finance, communication, transportation, or agriculture, all of these fields are being impacted by technology,” Partovi says. “Having some basic knowledge about how it works is critical for all of these careers.”

Schools in New York, San Francisco, and other cities have said they will offer computer science to students in all grade levels. Experts say the subject will eventually become a high school requirement. But one challenge is finding enough well-prepared teachers. The National Science Foundation is seeking to have 10,000 well-trained computer-science teachers in thousands of high schools.

“Everyone knows that you can’t learn an entire field in one hour,” Partovi says. “Our goal is to get a computer science course added to every single school.”

Remember to look in the article for clues to the answer. Write in complete sentences

Why do you think Time to Code is important?

What Snakes Eat

Snakes are carnivores, which means they will eat only meat including each

other.  Some snakes are hunters while others will lie in waiting to ambush their prey.  They can be very sneaky and will try to trick their victims into coming to them! The Cantil snake, for example, has a bright yellow tip on its tail to look like a worm.  Boy, won’t the bird be surprised when it finds out it isn’t a worm that it bit! Desert living snakes will hide under the sand and wait for something yummy to wander by.

The smallest of all snakes, the Thread snake, eats the pupae, or eggs, of ants and centipedes.  The largest snakes, the Pythons and Anacondas, have been known to eat, deer and pigs! Most snakes live off of insects, rodents, birds, eggs, fish, frogs, lizards and small mammals.

All snakes swallow their food whole.  While they do have teeth, the teeth are made for grabbing, hooking and holding their prey, not chewing.  

Constrictors will grab and hold their prey while wrapping their bodies around the victim and slowly “constricting” or tightening their coils until they squeeze the last breath out of their prey and the heart stops.  Cobras, Vipers, Rattlesnakes, and other venomous snakes will maim or paralyze their prey by sinking their fangs into it before swallowing it.

Have you ever wondered how a snake can swallow such big meals without chewing? Snakes have powerful muscles all along the front half of their bodies.  Snakes use these muscles for moving as well as swallowing.  The muscles move the food down along the throat and into the snake’s long stomach.  Moving the food through the throat into the stomach can take 10 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the animal they are eating.
In egg-eating snakes the sharp rib bones will poke through the eggshell to help speed along digestion.  Food in the snake’s stomach can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of months to breakup or digest.  That is a long time to work on a meal! 

Believe it or not, some snakes only need to eat a couple times a year!

Remember to look in the article for clues to the answer. Write in complete sentences.

Now that you learned about what snakes eat, what do you think our king snake eats?

BODY OF A SNAKE

In case you were wondering (cause they are soooo flexible), snakes actually do have bones.  Animals with bones are know as vertebrates -- snakes are vertebrates. 

A snake's backbone is made up of many vertebrae attached to ribs.  Humans have approximately 33 vertebrae and 24 ribs.  Snakes have between 200-400 vertebrae with as many ribs attached! That is what makes them so flexible and helps them move along!

All those bones and the strong muscles protect the internal organs.  The throat of the snake takes up the front one-third of the body.  It leads to a really long stomach, which, like the throat, will stretch to the size of whatever the snake is eating. 

Snakes also have two long lungs, a long liver, kidneys and intestines.  The last quarter of the snake has a small anal opening (they have to poop, you know!) covered by a scale called the anal plate, and the rest is tail made up of more bone. 

Remember to look in the article for the answer and write in complete sentences.

Why is a snake able to move so fast and bend so easily?