BCL KIDS

30 Second Mysteries

2010-09-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

30 Second Mysteries . Spinner Books, 2003.

1)
WHO?

A man builds a castle but never lives in it, despite its popularity. Even after his death, millons pay homage every year, encountering enormous beasts and witnessing terrible explosions. Though exhausted and drained of valuable resources, many feel compelled to make another pilgrimage to the castle´s ground in the future.

THE MYSTERY
Who built the castle and where is it?

THE CLUES
A TV movie producer designed the castle
The castle is part of a magical place
The castle is in California
The castle is surrounded by an amusement park
The castle´s creator brough Pinocchio to Life

Solution:
Walt Disney built the Castle as part of Disneyland

2)
A boy enters the bedroom of a young woman and her siblings. He does not use the door to enter, even though the young woman´s room is three floors up. His primary purpose is to find something he´s left behind. When his business is concluded, he leaves by the same means he used to arrive.

THE MYSTERY
Who is the boy and what was he looking for?

THE CLUES
The boy is famous for his adventures
The young woman is british
The young woman and her siblings are little Darlings
The boy felt as though he´d lost part of himself
Some say the boy will never grow up.

Solution
The boy is Peter Pan. He was looking for his shadow

3)
A widow gives birth to a son with a slight deformity. Many in her community cruelly taunt and torment the son. When the widow tries to defend him, she is imprisoned. However, as the son grows older, he discovers his deformity has given him an unusual ability to fame and fortune.

THE MYSTERY
What is the son´s deformity and what special ability does he have?

THE CLUES
The widow is an enterteiner and performer
The son does not discover his unusual ability until he gets drunk
A magic Feather gives the son confidence in himself
The widow´s husband named Jumbo
Mother and son are both Disney Characters

SOLUTION
The son is Dumbo, an elephant born with enormous ears. The ears give him the ability to fly

4)
At night is a quiet neighborhood mobs of people move through the streets, using threats to extort handouts from the residents. Although they continue their behavior for several hours, no one reports them to the authorities or even complains.

THE MYSTERY
Why are these people moving through the streets and what threat do they make?

THE CLUE
Many of the people are frightening to look at
The residents knew this would happen ahead of time
The people are nor doing anything illegal
This is an annual event

Solution
The people are children in Halloween costumes who want candy when they say "Trick or treat!"

5)
Melissa parks her car and enters a large building. She is stopped by a man in uniform and is asked to prove her identity or leave the building. Melissa is taken to a machine and several of her personal possessions are confiscated. She then eats a hotdog and waits patiently in a high security area until she can leave the premises and get on with her plans for the day.

THE MYSTERY
Where is Melissa and what is she waiting for?

THE CLUES
Melissa bought the hot dog in the building
Melissa is concerned about a storm warning
Melissa waits in the room for over an hour before she is permitted to leave
The room Melissa sits in only has thre walls
One of the items confiscated is a pair of scissors

Solution
Melissa is at an airport, waiting to catch a plane

6)
Marie and her best friend Rose are having a party. As the hostess, Marie entertains all the guests, but Rose just sits silently and stares at the wall. Marie serves her, but Rose never eats or drinks a thing. Soon Marie gets bored and puts Rose in a small room for remainder of the evening. Luckily, Rose doen´t mind this at all

THE MYSTERY
Why doesnt´s Rose mind the isolation and what type of party are they attending?

THE CLUES
The two friends are not fighting
Rose acts this way all the time
Food and drink are not required to make this party a success
Rose is kept in a room with others like her, none of whom talk to each other
Marie is in kindergarten

Solution
They are at an imaginary tea party and Rose is a doll that is placed in a playroom

Star Parties: Discovering the Night Sky

2010-08-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

More than a hundred adults and kids gather on a cold evening, chattering excitedly as they stand in the dark on a Virginia hillside.

The odd thing is, no one has turned on a flashlight, and no streetlights or house lights wink on around them.

These people have traveled to the countryside more than an hour from Washington, D.C., to get away from the glow of city lights. That’s because they are attending a star party.

Star parties are gatherings where professional and amateur astronomers set up their telescopes and invite people to come learn about the night sky. Getting away from light pollution, or artificial skylight from buildings for example, helps stargazers see objects in the sky much better.

At this star party, Sean O’Brien of the National Air and Space Museum’s Einstein Planetarium starts off by asking the crowd to simply look up and take in all they can see. He points out plenty of things that can be seen with out special equipment. Stars, satellites, and even the Andromeda galaxy can be found if you know where to look.

After O’Brien’s guided tour, several dozen astronomers offer close-up views. Each has focused their telescope on a different part of the sky. As kids take a look, the owner gives a mini-lesson.

O’Brien says you can have your own star party at home and learn a lot just by paying attention to what’s happening up above. “Watch the sky as the seasons pass, and you will see that it changes,” he says.

“Or start with the moon. Lots of people know the full moon and the crescent moon, but don’t know the phases in between. Notice when and where you are seeing it—maybe even in the early morning while you wait for the school bus.”

More Stargazing Tips from Sean O’Brien:

Winter is a good time for stargazing because the haze caused by summer's humidity in many parts of the country is gone.
You don't need an expensive telescope, just a star chart. In fact, a telescope can be frustrating if you don't have a basic knowledge of the night sky. Try binoculars first, and use a tripod to hold them up so your arms don't get tired.
Find a place where you feel safe.
Look for a spot where lights aren't shining in your eyes, like in the shadow of your house where your neighbor's porch light is blocked.
Take your time. You will see a lot more after 30 minutes in the dark than you will after just a few minutes because your eyes need time to adjust to the dark.

Text by Catherine Clarke Fox

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/spacescience/starparties/

Is Pluto No Longer a Planet?

2010-08-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

Image courtesy NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScl)

In the game Pluto's Secret, Nat tells his friend Geo that he heard that Pluto is no longer a planet. Is Nat right? Is Pluto no longer a planet? There's debate in the scientific world. National Geographic News says that, according to the International Astronomical Union, a full-fledged planet is an object that orbits the sun and is large enough to have become round due to the force of its own gravity. Because Pluto doesn't meet these standards, the IAU classifies Pluto as a dwarf planet.

Not everyone agrees that this is a good way to decide, though. Andy Cheng, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University, says that the new rules aren't clear enough and asks the question "how round is round? ...I'll still continue to maintain that Pluto is a planet," he said.

Owen Gingerich is an astronomer and historian at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and head of the IAU committee proposing the definition. He favored a special distinction for Pluto. Gingerich supported a proposal to call the big eight planets classical planets—as opposed to just plain "planets"—and Pluto and the others dwarf planets, so there would be two classes of planets. He believes that reclassifying Pluto as a dwarf planet is not "sensitive to the historical and cultural role that Pluto has played."

The argument continues. In the meantime, however, Nat and Geo are correct—new textbooks will list Pluto as being a dwarf planet.

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/spacescience/pluto-planet/

YOUR AMAZING BRAIN

2010-08-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

You carry around a three-pound mass of wrinkly material in your head that controls every single thing you will ever do. From enabling you to think, learn, create, and feel emotions to controlling every blink, breath, and heartbeat—this fantastic control center is your brain. It is a structure so amazing that a famous scientist once called it "the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe."

Your brain is faster and more powerful than a supercomputer.

Your kitten is on the kitchen counter. She's about to step onto a hot stove. You have only seconds to act. Accessing the signals coming from your eyes, your brain quickly calculates when, where, and at what speed you will need to dive to intercept her. Then it orders your muscles to do so. Your timing is perfect and she's safe. No computer can come close to your brain's awesome ability to download, process, and react to the flood of information coming from your eyes, ears, and other sensory organs.

Your brain generates enough electricity to power a lightbulb.

Your brain contains about 100 billion microscopic cells called neurons—so many it would take you over 3,000 years to count them all. Whenever you dream, laugh, think, see, or move, it’s because tiny chemical and electrical signals are racing between these neurons along billions of tiny neuron highways. Believe it or not, the activity in your brain never stops. Countless messages zip around inside it every second like a supercharged pinball machine. Your neurons create and send more messages than all the phones in the entire world. And while a single neuron generates only a tiny amount of electricity, all your neurons together can generate enough electricity to power a low-wattage bulb.

Neurons send information to your brain at more than 150 miles (241 kilometers) per hour.

A bee lands on your bare foot. Sensory neurons in your skin relay this information to your spinal cord and brain at a speed of more than 150 miles (241 kilometers) per hour. Your brain then uses motor neurons to transmit the message back through your spinal cord to your foot to shake the bee off quickly. Motor neurons can relay this information at more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) per hour.

When you learn, you change the structure of your brain.

Riding a bike seems impossible at first. But soon you master it. How? As you practice, your brain sends "bike riding" messages along certain pathways of neurons over and over, forming new connections. In fact, the structure of your brain changes every time you learn, as well as whenever you have a new thought or memory.

Exercise helps make you smarter.

It is well known that any exercise that makes your heart beat faster, like running or playing basketball, is great for your body and can even help improve your mood. But scientists have recently learned that for a period of time after you've exercised, your body produces a chemical that makes your brain more receptive to learning. So if you're stuck on a homework problem, go out and play a game of soccer, then try the problem again. You just might discover that you're able to solve it.

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/spacescience/brain/

Honey Bee Mystery

2010-08-06T11:07:00.001-07:00

All across the United States, honeybees are flying away from their hives and dying. Empty hives are causing a lot of worry about some important food crops.

Bees give us a lot more than delicious honey. They are pollinators—they enable plants to produce the fruits and nuts we enjoy by carrying pollen from one plant or flower to the next. The wind pollinates oats, corn, and wheat, but many other plants (like apple and cherry trees and melon vines) depend on insects, bats, and birds.

Animals pollinate about one out of every three bites of food we eat. And in the U.S., millions and millions of bees kept by human beekeepers fly around doing a lot of this important work for food crops.

Professional beekeepers raise honeybees, box them up, and send them on trucks to fields where farmers grow food. Bees live in groups of about 40,000 individuals called colonies.

California’s almond crop alone depends on about half the bees in the country, about 1.5 million colonies! The bees pollinate in the almond groves for about six weeks, and then are sent on to work other crops. But now the almond crop and many others could be in trouble with so many bees dying.

“The colony is what we call a super-organism,” says Dr. Jeff Pettis of the Bee Research Laboratory at the U.S. Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland. “When a lot of the bees die, the whole colony is at risk.” Researchers like him at government and university labs all over the country are trying to figure out why so many bee colonies are dying.

However, explains Pettis, bees are hard to study. Most die away from the hive, so researchers don’t have dead bodies to examine. And when researchers return to a hive after two weeks, about half the bees they studied on their first visit will be dead, replaced by new ones in the natural life cycle of bees.

Making detective work even harder, these busy insects fly up to two miles away from their hive in search of pollen and nectar from flowers. So when bees pick up diseases or get exposed to poisons in their environment, it is hard to know exactly where that happened.

“It isn’t like studying a large animal like a cow that doesn’t move around much and is easy to find out in the cow field,” says Pettis.

Researchers do have some ideas about what could be affecting bee health. They could be sick from poisons widely used to kill insects, or they might not be getting enough good food to stay strong. Also, tiny insects called mites feed on bees. “Any or all of these things could be weakening the honey bees,” explains Pettis, “and then a virus or bacteria could be doing the killing.”

Pettis is hoping for a solution, because bees are so important. “Here’s a good example of what pollinators like bees give us,” he says. “You can eat plain oatmeal every day and get by, and oats are pollinated by the wind. But if you want to add some blueberries or strawberries or nuts to your daily oatmeal, those are the things you have to thank pollinators for. Bees are worth protecting because their work adds so much to our diet.”

Text by Catherine Clarke Fox http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/animalsnature/honey-bee-mystery/

2010-05-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

People celebrate all kinds of Holidays:

In Japan, people celebrate Children´s Day on May 5.
On July 4, teh American People celebrate Independence Day.
The Navajo Nation Fair is held the second week in September in Arizona
January 26, Australia Day commemorates the founding of the first white settlement in Australia in 1788
March 17, the anniversary of the death of St. Patrick, is the day the Irish celebrate being Irish.
October 12, Latin American and Hispanics celebrate October 12 as the anniversary of Christopher Columbus´s discovery the New Worls
May 5, Cinco de Mayo celebrates a victory by Mexican Army over the French Army in Battle of Puebla (1862)
Ramadan. The holiest month of the year for Muslims. During Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Muslims all over the world unite in a period of fasting and spiritual reflection, renewal and family bonds

2010-05-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

Tongue Twister: a sequence of words, often alliterative, difficult to articulate quicky (Oxford English Dictionary)

To get the full effect of a tongue twister you should try to repeat it several times, as quickly as possible, without stumbling or mispronouncing.

TEN TINY TOADS TICKLING TURTLES

SHE SELLS SEASHELLS BY SEASHORE

PETER PIPER PICKED A PECK OF PICKED PEPPERS

FRAN´S FRIEND, FRED, FRIES FRESH FISH

A GOOD COOK COULD COOK AS MUCH COOKIES AS A GOOD COOK WHO COULD COOK COOKIES

I SAW A SAW THAT COULD OUT SAW ANY OTHER SAW EVER SAW

A SWIN WELL SWUN IS A SWELL SWIN SWUM

BLACK BUG BIT A BIG BLACK BEAR. BUT WHERE IS THE BIG BLACK BEAR THAT THE BIG BLACK BUG IT?

A BIG BUG BIT THE LITTLE BEETLE BUT THE LITTLE BEETLE BIT THE BIG BUG BACK

IF YOU UNDERSTAND, SAY "UNDERSTAND"
IF YOU DON´T UNDERSTAND, SAY "DONT´UNDERSTAND"
BUT IF YOU UNDERSTAND AND SAY "DON´T UNDERSTAND"
HOW DO I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU UNDERSTAND? UNDERSTAND!

I WISH TO WISH THE WISH YOU WISH, BUT IF YOU WISH THE WISH THE WITCH WISHES, I WON´T WISH THE WISH YOU WISH TO WISH

SOUNDING BY SOUND IS A SOUND METHOD OF SOUNDING SOUNDS

JOKES

2010-03-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

How many people work at your office? About half of then
How many great men were born i this town? None only babies.
Have your lived in theis town all your life? Not yet, I haven´t
Police Officer: Sir, don´t you know this is a one-way street? DRIVER: but officer, I was only driving one way
I heard your son is eight years old. Yes he is how could you have a child that age? He wasn´t that age when we had hem
Can I take your Pulse? Why don´t you have one of your own?
You know, I´ve been spots before my eyes. Have you seen a doctor? No, Just sports
Did you cal the zoo? yes but the lion was busy
Sally, I want you to spell banana. B-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A No, that´s wrong. I´m sorry, I know how to spell it . It just don´t know when to stop.

Adivinanzas- Riddles

2010-03-09T11:02:00.000-08:00

What is the only thing you can break when you say it’s name?
What is the difference between here and there?
What’s smaller than an ant’s mouth?
What is as big as you are yet doens´t weight a kilo?
How many times can you subtract 5 from 25?
While some months have just 30 days, others have 31 days. How many months have 28 days?
Feed me and I live, yet give me a drink and I die.
What doesn't exist, but has a name?
Why do people go to bed?
If there are 3 apples, and you take 2, how many do you have?

________________________________________________________________
ANSWERS

silence
The letter “t”.
What the ant eats.
a shadow
Just once, because after you subtract anything from it, it's not 25 anymore
Every month has 28 days
Fire
Nothing
Because the bed won't come to them
2

COLOR TEST

2010-03-04T13:22:00.000-08:00

AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN, READ ALOUD THE COLOR THAT EACH WORD IS WRITTEN IN.....NOT THE ACTUAL WORD THAT'S WRITTEN.

GREEN YELLOW BLUE ORANGE WHITE RED GREEN BLUE ORANGE YELLOW WHITE GREENRED BLUE WHITE GREEN ORANGE YELLOW ORANGE BLUE GREEN RED WHITE YELLOW RED BLUE YELLOW ORANGE RED WHITE

RIDDLES

2010-03-04T13:15:00.000-08:00

What goes around a yard but doesn´t move?
When does a rainfall make a mistake?
What dis the tree say when it couldn´t solve the riddle?
Where do crabs live?
What dis teh Atlantic Ocean say to the Pacific Ocean?

A fence
During a Blunderstorm
I am stumped
In sand castles
Nothing, it just waved