Coded It!

This week's Hour of Code has been a BLAST!  It's not too late to join in the fun!

Free Family Film Festival This Weekend!

Head to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for Family Fun this weekend!

Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival

The 10th annual Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival returns to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on December 13 and 14, 2014. Presenting more than 100 films from around the world—full-length and short animation, live action, and documentary films—the festival is organized for different age groups, from toddlers through teenagers. Select filmmakers and actors will be present for Q&A sessions after each screening.
Find us Saturday and Sunday, December 13 and 14, on the Los Angeles Times Central Court and participate in our film-inspired shadow booth and enter to win one of two art prints from the film The Goat Herder and His Lots and Lots and Lots of Goats!
Pick up your program at the NexGen table the day of your visit. Schedules subject to change.
LACMA, Brown Auditorium and Bing TheaterFree and open to the public
Note: Seating is first come, first served. No preregistration required. This is not a Film Department program. For more information, please contact educate@lacma.org.
Plan Your Visit 

Guest Post: Finding Ryan by Sujey S. 8th Grade

Finding  Ryan

by Sujey S. 8^th Grade

          Mother was cooking breakfast. Kaitiyn was 12 years old, and her very sneaky brother, Ryan, was four.   Father wasn’t there since he was at work. Mother said, "We are going to the store after we eat breakfast." Kaitlyn and Ryan hurried to finish their breakfast.

          Kaitlyn, holding Ryan by the hand, took him to the clean, white car. Mother got in and they left and went to Super K. Mother parked the car close to the store. Kaitlyn’s mother told her to get a cart for her brother. She did, put her brother in the cart, and they went inside the store.

          As soon as they entered the store, they saw a lot of fruits, snacks, vegetables, and …pastries!

Mother said to Kaitlyn, “Go take care of your brother while I get the groceries . Stay next to the pastries with your brother.”  Kaitlyn was looking at all the pastries, but mostly at the RED VELVET CAKE. She wanted a red velvet cake but didn’t know if her would let her get one. While she stood there, staring at the cake and thinking of ways to persuade her mother, Ryan quietly climbed down off the cart.

    Mother was shopping for kale, carrots, tomatoes, and onions, checking the sizes and to see if they had bruises on them. Kaitlyn finally looked over at the cart and did not see her brother. She was worried sick and was turning around to look for him. Then her mom finished picking the vegetables and walked towards the cart.

“Where is your brother?” she asked.

“I don’t  know - he was just here!” Kaitlyn replied.

“Let’s go look for him before someone takes him!” Mother said as they set off to look for him.

While her mom was in the meat section, Kaitlyn looked at the pastries section to see if her brother was hiding in the cupcakes. He had seen a Spiderman cupcake and wanted to eat it. She was mad and worried about her brother, until she heard a sound next to the bathroom. It was a little kid yelling,  

          “I want to go to the bathroom!”

          Then she saw her brother.

         “Why did you climb off the cart?” she asked.

         “Can we go to the restroom now?” was his answer.

           So Kaitlyn took him to the bathroom, then back to their mom. Mother was relieved to see him.

           “We are going to talk about this when we get home but first let me pay for the

stuff,” Mother said.

Kaitlyn explained everything, and Ryan explained to mother that he had to use the bathroom. Mother and Kaitlyn forgave Ryan, and mother forgave Kaitlyn, but she said to keep a better eye next time on her brother. They had a good time eating together.

By the time father came home from work, they decided that they had forgotten about what had happened.

Vocabulary Haiku

Logical projects,

Subjects are hysterical

Will they understand?

-Leo

My mom is working

My aunt is a guardian,

Taking care of me

-Sujey

I preferred ice cream

It is really good to eat

Is it good for you?

-Sujey

Preferred to not call;

Aram is an assistant

Only way to help

-Ruby

Climbing a glacier,

Trying to get wood for fire

Slipping and falling.

-Stephanie

Ms. Hickman was hurt

I had to resurrect her;

She was suffering

-John

It was abhorrent:

It took me hours just for one

Awful math problem

-John

Khanacademy

Scientific notation…

Nah, I’m just coding

-Rudy

Guest Post: The Summer of the LEGOs by Rah-San B.

                                                                                                                    

The SUMMER of the LEGOs

by Rah-San B. 6th Grade

            It was 2011, the school year was coming to an end, and I was amped up for summer. I had bought a few packs of LEGOs from a store around the corner from my house but I hadn’t played with them. I was all set to open those LEGO packs, hang out with friends, and take various art classes. Summer had barely started when my Dad pulled up in the truck with my brothers, Destine (a couple of months older than me)  and Osiris (age 5) and announced they were all going to be staying for the whole summer.  I hadn’t seen them for the entire school year (since we don’t go to the same school anymore) so I was extremely happy to have them over. I had a lot of action figures, and Destine had a few LEGOs. I knew it would be the most awesome summer ever.

            At first my brothers and I wanted to take turns using the computer. My oldest brother (who we call Paco),had introduced me to a game called Pokémon Indigo about about a year before and my brothers were interested in playing it.  It turns out they really liked Pokémon.  (My brother Destine had just recently attended a Pokémon TCG Tournament in Utah and made it to 4^th place. He’s very skilled at it now.) We finally decided to let my little brother Osiris use the computer more (what’s funny is he cried when we were using it, and he figured he could use it if he kept crying for the entire day). We only used the computer when we got bored of playing with action figures and the few LEGOs we had, and wanted to play some Cartoon Network games.  Destine and I were patient with him. Still we needed something else to do.

In the middle of summer, our dad came home with 3 LEGO sets.  They were the new Batman LEGO sets since the movie had come out a few weeks before. I got the 2 smaller sets, and Destine got the larger set. My sets contained the Bat Mobile, Two Face’s armored car, The Bank that two face is attempting to rob, and a few minifigures. My second set contained the Bat Wing, Joker’s Helicopter, and a few more minifgures (we later found out that the third set was Osiris’s but I saved him some time, since I already had built it). Destine’s Larger set contained The Bat Cave, Poison Ivy, Bane and his Mega Drill, Robin, and Batman’s Motorcycle. Technically, with all our sets combined we had some of Batman’s worst enemies and most of his vehicles, except the boat. Destine and I played with the LEGOs most of the time. When Osiris would want to play, we sometimes wouldn’t allow him, because we thought he would destroy our creations.  On the other hand, sometimes we wanted a new player to battle, so Osiris was in luck.  

            It was a summer of good food, as well. My favorite day was when we want to the really nice deli called Canters together. I got chicken strips  and cheese cake and Osiris ate lots of watermelon. A few days later we had some cantaloupes and coconuts. I thought the coconut milk would taste like cow’s milk, but boy was I wrong! It did not taste good to me. We had some mojo potatoes, chicken, and great fruit juices. We ate many different types of food that summer of 2011.

            When it was a few weeks before the end of summer, and I knew that my brothers had to leave, it made me kind of sad to think I wouldn’t see them again for such a long time. I sat on my bed in my room because I didn’t want to say goodbye. Then, something awesome happened. When I came back inside, I saw that they had left their LEGOs, which meant they had to come back for them. Right before the summer ended, they did come back and  Destine had even more LEGO sets and a giant LEGO head to carry them in. We played LEGOs again one last time. It had been a great time. It was the summer of my brothers and me playing, eating, laughing and making things, and whenever I see a little pile of plastic colored rectangles with raised dots on them, I think about my brothers and that special summer, that Summer of the LEGOs.

11-12-14: ESA's Rosetta Mission's Philae Lands on Comet 67P!!!

What a thrill to watch the scientists' reactions and see the first images coming back from 300 million miles away! Good day! Let's all do something this magnificent!

Guest Post: A Challenger is Approaching by Leo F. 8th Grade

A CHALLENGER IS APPROACHING

by Leo F. 
                            

(Tip: SSB4 people will know exactly what's going on.)

“You didn’t have to come.” 

It was a cold day, in the mountains. Everything was covered in snow and all the rivers became frozen. I turned around to see the man with the scar on his face with his hunting gun. It was obvious that he was the same man I met on the grass field. I tried to look behind him to see if he had that…that  thing with him.

I repeated the same words, ”You didn’t have to come.” 

“Well you didn’t say I couldn’t come, so I’m here. Beside I have the approval invitation right here.”, he responded as he took out the invitation, that had the official “S.S.B.” symbol. 

Then I spoke, “So where’s your… thing.  Is it here or not?” 

He looked at me and gave me a disturbing smile.  Finally he said, "Do you possible think I would come alone?"  He stepped aside and did a mysterious whistle and I could see something coming towards us. My vision was blurry because of the snow, but as it came closer, it became clear that it was the “thing." 

My heart stopped.

It came closer and closer and I realized the “thing” was … a dog with a duck on his back. A cute, furry little pet set! I smirked and said, “Is this really your challenger?!” I started to laugh thinking that it was a joke. 

Then the man said, “Duck Hunt… you are no longer on my command” At that moment I stopped laughing and was confused for a second. That’s when the dog jabbed my face with his front paws and the duck jabbed my stomach with its beak. That duck sure has a strong head and beak, I thought. 

I fell to the ground. For a second I thought I was defeated and I got ready to fight. Cute and furry? Yes, but a dangerous pet set, too! And that's how Duck Hunt and I were invited to SSB4. 

(FYI: I was a MII Character and Duck Hunt is… well, Duck Hunt.)