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Canku
Ota
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(Many
Paths)
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An
Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America
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March
1, 2009 - Volume 7 Number 3
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Favorite
Sites
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collected
by Paul and Vicki
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Renoir
The French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was an
important member of the Impressionist movement of the nineteenth
century. His large body of work includes many portraits of
children and women in lively social situations. "Why
shouldn't art be pretty?" Renoir quipped. "There
are enough unpleasant things in the world."
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Art
in the Picture: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
The beautifully designed Art in the Picture offers a Renoir
biography, a few quotes, and most importantly, a gallery.
Sorted either by popularity or date, Art in the Picture displays
twenty-five Renoir paintings, complete with title, date, and
tags, but no annotation. Additional artists are searchable
by name, movement, country, century or tag. The tags are fun
to explore, and lead to some unique juxtapositions. For example,
paintings tagged "bee" include one work by Salvador
Dali and another by Albrecht Durer.
http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir/Biography/
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Expo-Shop.com: Pierre-Auguste
Renoir
With a gallery of over 200 Renoir works, this Expo-Shop site
is the largest of today's picks. Best reasons to visit are
the versatility of the search function (works can be found
by keyword, technique, theme or year), the Renoir biography
(which includes links to important works), and the Permanent
Exhibitions list. Because most of these ten museums have a
good portion of their permanent collections cataloged online,
the best way to learn more about Renoir is to visit these
websites, and use the museum's on-site search functions to
find more Renoir.
http://www.expo-renoir.com/ |
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National
Gallery of Art: Tour: Mary Cassatt, Auguste Renoir
"Toward the end of the nineteenth century, many French
painters turned their attention to scenes of modern life ...
For the two artists featured here, Mary Cassatt and Auguste
Renoir, images from the lives of women and children, especially,
provided lifelong inspiration." This National Gallery
of Art tour brings a true museum experience to the Web. Although
this mini-exhibit features only seven paintings, it's the
commentary that makes it so valuable. "Perhaps more than
the work of any other artist, Renoir's sunlit scenes reflect
the joie de vivre that is so appealing in impressionist painting."
http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg83/gg83-main1.html |
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The
National Gallery: Renoir
This online museum exhibit from London's National Gallery
begins with a short Renoir biography. Your next stop should
be The Impressionists, a special feature listed as a "Who's
Who" Guide. In addition to Renoir, the exhibit includes
works by Monet, Degas, Manet, Pissarro and Cezanne. Returning
to the original biography page, you'll find twelve more of
Renoir's paintings listed in the right-hand column, each with
an excellent description.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/artistBiography?artistID=598
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Philadelphia
Museum of Art: Renoir Landscapes
"Celebrated for his portraits and
nudes, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (18411919) is most often
associated with figure painting. He was also a lover of nature,
however, and an accomplished painter of landscapes."
Be sure to read the articles exploring themes in Renoir's
landscape paintings such as gardens and cityscapes, and listen
to curator John Zarobell's two-part audio podcast. "The
paintings on view in this exhibition reveal the subtlety of
touch; vaporous effects; and lush, full-blown color that mark
Renoir as one of the most audacious and original landscape
artists of his age."
http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/260.html
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Square
Root
In celebration of Square Root Day on March 3, 2009, here are
my picks for pre-algebra students learning about square roots.
Square Root day is celebrated whenever the day and the month
are both the square root of the last two digits of the year.
Enjoy it while you can, because you won't get another chance
until April 4, 2016.
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Aplusmath.com:
Square Root Flashcards
Because math practice is so vital to learning, this online flashcard
game is a sure hit. Each quiz offers ten perfect square roots
to solve, randomly choosing radicands (the number under the
square root symbol) from 1 to 144. Because the problems are
randomized, you can play this game as many times as you like.
For more math games, look in both the Flashcards and Games sections.
http://www.aplusmath.com/flashcards/sqrt.html
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Ask
Dr. Math: Square Roots Without a Calculator
Dr. Math explains two methods fo finding a square root by hand.
The first includes three steps: guess, divide and average. Of
course depending on your guess in step one, steps two and three
might need repeating. Dr. Math demonstrates by showings all
the steps involved in finding the square root of twelve assuming
your first guess was two. The second method uses the Binomial
Theorem and infinite series, and is probably not for most middle
school students.
http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.sqrt.by.hand.html
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Homeschool
Math: Square Roots Worksheets
Eureka! We've found the mother lode of printable square root
problem sheets with this worksheet generator from Homeschool
Math. When creating your worksheet and answer key, make choices
such as only perfect squares, the number of decimals to round
the answers to, the range of radicands, and the number of problems
on the page. When you've found the combination you like, you
can simply reload your worksheet to generate another one with
the same specs. To make it even easier, six sample worksheets
are provided.
http://www.homeschoolmath.net/worksheets/square-roots.php
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Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun, the third-largest
planet in the Solar System, and has twenty-seven known moons.
Though visible to the naked eye, it was dismissed as a star
until March 13, 1781 when Sir William Herschel, using a telescope,
noticed that this particular "star" seemed different
from the others.
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Ask
an Astronomer for Kids: Uranus
From Caltech, in conjunction with NASA and Cool Cosmos, Ask
an Astronomer answers thirteen frequently asked questions
about Uranus. How big is Uranus? Is Uranus really tilted on
its side? Why is Uranus blue? You can explore the rest of
the universe (planets, stars, galaxies, nebulas and black
holes) by following the Ask an Astronomer link. Cool Cosmos
is also a must see. "Learn about infrared light, and
open a door into the fantastic world of Infrared and Multiwavelength
Astronomy."
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_kids/AskKids/uranus.shtml
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NASA:
Solar System Exploration: Uranus
"Uranus is very cold, windy and, like most of the other
planets, poisonous to humans. It is a gas planet like Jupiter,
Saturn and Neptune. There is nothing to land on. The air --
atmosphere -- gets thicker and thicker until it is squished
into liquid. That is called pressure." NASA presents
a kid's eye view of Uranus with quick facts (11 Uranian rings,
84 Earth years in each Uranian year), a short article about
the Voyager 2's 1986 Uranus flyby, and a Uranus calculator.
How much would you weigh on Uranus? Because of the effects
of gravity, you'd weight about eleven percent less there than
you do here on Earth.
http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Uranus&Display=Kids
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NASA:
Welcome to the Planets: Uranus
Originally published as a CD-ROM, this site is a photo gallery
of images from NASA's planetary explorations. You can explore
the Uranus photos by starting with any of the thumbnails and
then following the next and previous links. The annotations
are short and include hyperlinks to the site's glossary. "This
image reveals many broad lanes of dust surrounding the 9 main
rings of Uranus. It was taken by Voyager 2 looking back toward
the sun through the ring system. The dust is especially bright
in this view, for the same reason that we can see dust on a
windshield better when we are driving toward the sun."
http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/choices/uranus1.htm
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Space.com:
Uranus
"John Flamsteed first recorded the planet in 1690, but
believed it was a star. Almost 100 years later in 1781, Sir
William Hershel made the formal discovery. Although originally
mistaking it for a comet, Hershel quickly corrected his error
and established Uranus as a planet. After much debate about
what to call it, Uranus was named after the Greek god of the
sky." Space.com's coverage of Uranus includes a data sheet,
an archive of a dozen featured stories, a photo gallery, and
a movie short "The Planet Hunter."
http://www.space.com/uranus/ |
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Windows
to the Universe: Uranus
Windows to the Universe is my Uranus pick of the day because
they publish their material at three different levels: beginner
(for elementary students), intermediate (for middle school)
and advanced (for high school and college students.) "The
plain aquamarine face of Uranus confirms the fact that Uranus
is covered with clouds. The sameness of the planet's appearance
shows that the planet's atmosphere is mostly composed of one
thing, methane."
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/uranus/uranus.html
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Homophones
A
homophone is a group of words that sound the same, but are
spelled differently and have different meanings, such as "to,
too, and two." Homophones are a special kind of a homonym,
which in addition to words that are spelled differently, includes
words that are spelled the same but still have different meanings,
such as the stalk of a plant (a noun) and to stalk a person
(a verb.)
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About
Special Ed: Homonym - Homophone Worksheets
Although About.com specialist Sue Watson is a special education
guide, these twenty printable homonym and homophone worksheets
will be great for all primary grade students (as well as ESL
learners.) The worksheets are presented on twenty different
pages, and you can view a readable thumbnail before deciding
to download using the "PRINT PDF" link below. The
worksheets are strung together in two batches of ten, so take
care not to miss worksheets eleven through twenty.
http://specialed.about.com/od/worksheets/ss/hom.htm
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Alan
Cooper's Homonyms
Alan Cooper started his homonyms list in second grade. He
eventually lost his "dog-eared pad of yellow paper with
an ever-growing list of homonyms," but when his son was
in second grade and needed a list of homonyms, Cooper rediscovered
his old passion. "The best part about homonyms, though,
is that they are the raw material for puns, a truly sublime
form of humor. With a robust knowledge of and appreciation
for homonyms, you will never be embarrassed when a pun-battle
breaks out in public."
http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym.html
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All
About Homophones: The Homophone Machine
"All About Homophones" is a homophone activity workbook
that can be purchased in soft-cover or PDF, but the resource
I want to share is the free Homophone Machine. Type in any
sentence or paragraph, and it will be converted into a misspelled,
but often very funny version chock full of homophones. If
you need a suggestion, try starting with "I would like
to show you my new horse" or "Praise the Lord for
the spelling checker that came with our PC. Make a mistake
and it puts you right. It's so easy to use, you see."
That last tidbit is based on Janet E. Byford's poem "An
Ode to the Spelling Chequer" which you can find at Alan
Cooper's site (see above).
http://all-about-homophones.com/homophone-machine.php
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PBS
Kids: Between the Lions: Homophones Video
This fun video from PBS' Between the Lions features singer-songwriter
Brian McKnight and Cleo Lion singing about "a very unusual
H word homophones." This one is sure to delight audiences
of all ages. "You're right, let's write the words all
day and night. They're out of sight. You're still so sweet,
that's why we always meat. Not that kind of meet. Homophones.
Two words that sound the same, but they're not spelled the
same. Homophones."
http://pbskids.org/lions/videos/homophones.html
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Scholastic:
Super Homophone Match Game
Do you have good memory? You'll need it when you try to match
homophones. Don't know what a homophone is? You'll find out
when you play Super Match." This concentration-style
memory game requires you to match homophones, instead of the
usual identical pictures. For example, "hair" is
a match for "hare" and "scene" is a match
for "seen." Because the game scrambles with each
restart, it can be played multiple times.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/adventure/grammar5.htm
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STAR
Students And Teachers Against Racism
announces their new website that offers insight into the Native
American perspective to teachers and educators.
http://www.racismagainstindians.org/
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