5th grade is out of this world!

DNA DAY!

Festival of Books-UCLA

Los Angeles Times 
FESTIVAL OF BOOKS at a Glance

IN ASSOCIATION WITH UCLA®

Saturday, April 26 • 10 am to 6 pm
Sunday, April 27 • 10 am to 5 pm
UCLA Main Campus

Admission to the Festival of Books is free. Parking is $8.

 National Library Week

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and the County of Los Angeles Public Library joined in 2007 to celebrate National Library Week, April 15 through April 21. Click here for details on events taking place at your local branch. 

DNA Fun Facts

National DNA Day is sponsored by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). According to the Web site, National DNA Day is a unique day when students, teachers and the public can learn more about genetics and genomics. It was created to commemorate the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003, and the discovery of DNA’s double helix. The NHGRI has many activities planned for National DNA Day, including a live online chatroom. Students, teachers, and anyone interested can chat with leading researchers in the field of genetics.

• Learn more about National DNA Day
• Learn more about genes, DNA, and chromosomes

 

Did you know that :  One single cell contains two meters of DNA. (23) 

 If you unravelled all your chromosomes from all of your cells and laid out the DNA end to end, the strands would stretch from the Earth to the Moon about 6,000 times. (23)       A simple list of the bases of the entire DNA in your genes—the As, Cs, Ts, and Gs—would fill about 200 New York City phone books which is about 3 billion letters. (24)           Genomically speaking, all races are equal and you cannot tell simply by looking at someone’s DNA whether they are black or white. (24)  

   DNA is used to solve many historical mysteries, such as (24):     Where is Columbus Buried?  
   (Visit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2958034.stm for more info)
    Was Albert DeSalvo the Boston Strangler?
   (Visit: http://kaisable.com/skazdeslav.htm for more info)
 Did Sam Sheppard Kill His Wife?
   (Visit: http://www.cnn.com/US/9830/05/sheppard.case/)
  Did Jesse James Die in 1882, or Did He Fake His Death?
   (Visit: http://www.texnews.com/1998/texas/jess1120.html for more info)
 Could the Romanovs Have Survived the Russian Revolution?
  (Visit: http://news-servicestanford.edu/news/2004/march3/romanov-33.html for more info)
 Was Anna Anderson Really Anastasia?
  (Visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Anderson for more info)
  Did the Last Dauphin Escape?
  (Visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XII_of_France for more info)

Crusaders Clean up on Earth Day!

Here are a few pictures of our crusaders helping clean up on Earth Day!  They had a blast. 

Milk n’ Cookies, Anyone?

Diddy Reese Cookies this Friday!

Good Shepherd is sponsoring a Milk & Cookies

fundraiser for the benefit of our 2008-2009 Decathlon

Team. Money raised will provide every team member

with a set of books for summer reading as well as the

complete set of study books for the Decathlon subjects!

 

Cookies will be available for $1 each during recess and after school

on this Friday ~ April 25!

 

-ChocolateChip- Oatmeal Raisin

Snicker Doodles -M&Ms-White Chocolate Chip

$1-cookie & milk

Shakespeare Festival 2008

All Beginnings have Endings!  This show is dedicated to our 8th grade!

 

Happy 444th Birthday WIlliam

William Shakespeare, Happy 444th Birthday!

William Shakespeare
The Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. National Portrait Gallery, London.
Born	April 1564 (exact date unknown) Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Died	23 April 1616 Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Occupation	Playwright, poet, actor
Signature

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616)^[a] was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist.^[1] He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon” (or simply “The Bard”). His surviving works consist of 38 plays,^[b] 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.^[2]

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare’s private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.^[3]

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare’s.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare’s genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called “bardolatry“.^[4] In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world

How well do you know him?  Take the quiz: 

http://encarta.msn.com/quiz_309/shakespeares_world_quiz.html?GT1=27004

Happy Earth Day

Interactive Tools

Human Footprint Interactive

Find out your human footprint – how much of the world you use in your lifetime – and how it measures up with the rest of the world.

Greenhouse Effect Interactive

How does Earth stay warm and comfortable? It’s because of a natural process called the greenhouse effect.

Six Degrees Could Change the World

Consider how each degree of global warming might affect Earth as we know it.

EarthPulse Interactive Maps

Explore vivid imagery, maps, diagrams, and interactives that illuminate where we are today, how we got here, and how our actions may affect the future of life on Earth.

Power Up!

In this interactive activity, students choose between various energy sources, taking into account the trade-offs between cost and the environmental impact of each choice.

Good Luck!

Good Luck to Sean and Claire this weekend, they have entered the Los Angeles County Science Fair.  If you are interested in viewing the projects for the fair click on the LOS ANGELES COUNTY SCIENCE FAIR link on the blogroll for more information!