Archived Newsletters

The EnchantedLearning.com Weekly Newsletter August 31, 2002

Here's a sampling of back-to-school activities available from EnchantedLearning.com.

*** BACK-TO-SCHOOL BOOK YOU CAN MAKE ***
This is a wonderful book that elementary school students can make towards the beginning of the school year. In this book the students write about themselves, their families, and their favorite things.

Back-to-School Book You Can Make

*** CRAFTS FOR LABOR DAY ***
Labor Day is celebrated in the United States on the first Monday in September, marking the achievements of American workers. This year Labor Day falls on Sept. 2. Visit our page of Labor Day Crafts -- create an Occupations Collage, build your own Box Town, make a fire truck from a cardboard box, and more. There's even a selection of Label-Me! Print-outs on tools in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Labor Day Crafts:
http://www.EnchantedLearning.com/

*** GRANDPARENTS DAY CRAFTS AND CARDS ***
Grandparents Day is celebrated on the first Sunday after Labor Day; this year it falls on Sept. 8.

Make a family collage, put a photograph in a foam picture frame, build a family tree from a branching twig and construction paper, or try one of our other crafts.

Send it with a card you make yourself -- our collection includes a pop-up flower garden card, a delightful dog card, a cute cat card, a butterfly card, and more!

We've added a final fun section to our Grandparents Day page -- Label-Me! print-outs that let you learn the names of the members of the family in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Grandparents Day Crafts and Cards

*** TORVOSAURUS, THE "SAVAGE LIZARD" ***
Read about the three-ton Torvosaurus, a fierce Jurassic carnivore whose name means Savage Lizard. Don't miss our page with an amazing photograph of a Torvosaurus skeleton -- looking at its pointed teeth, its powerful jaws, its sharp claws, and its threatening stance, you can imagine what this predator must have looked like when alive.

Torvosaurus, the "Savage Lizard"

*** RANCHO LA BREA TAR PITS ***
In the heart of the city of Los Angeles are the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits, where thousands of Ice Age fossils have been discovered. Over the past 40,000 years, many animals have gotten stuck in the sticky asphalt, often attracting predators who also got stuck.

Our page includes a photograph of actual fossils of Ice Age animals that succumbed in the tar.

Rancho La Brea Tar Pits

*** LEONARDO DA VINCI: INVENTOR AND ARTIST ***
Leonardo da Vinci was a great Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, inventor, and scientist who lived about 500 years ago.

Da Vinci sketched numerous inventions that were centuries ahead of his time. Go to our da Vinci inventions page to read about his ideas for flying machines, parachutes, submarines, ball bearings, worm gears, and more.

Also visit our da Vinci art page for pages of da Vinci's art. Learn, be creative, and have fun by printing them out and coloring them in. Or paint them on-line on our interactive coloring pages.

Leonardo da Vinci, Inventor

Leonardo da Vinci, Art Coloring Pages

*** ARTISTS, BY NATIONALITY ***
We've organized our artist pages and art coloring print-outs by the nationality of the artist.

Dutch Artists

French Artists

German Artists

Italian Artists

Japanese Artists

Spanish Artists

U.S. Artists

*** NEW ASTRONOMY LABEL-ME! PRINT-OUTS ***
We've added two new astronomy Label-Me! diagrams: a Lunar Eclipse Label-Me! page, and a Planet-Sun Orbital Diagram Label-Me! page. Read the descriptions, then label the diagrams.

Lunar Eclipse Label-Me! Print-out

Planet-Sun Orbital Diagram Label-Me! Print-out

More Astronomy Label-Me! Print-outs

*** CRICKET ANATOMY LABEL-ME! PRINT-OUT ***
Label this diagram of a cricket's anatomy. Our word bank includes the definitions of everything needed, from "abdomen" to "walking legs."

Cricket Anatomy Label-Me! Print-out

*** BACTERIA ***
Bacteria are microscopic, one-celled organisms that were among the first to appear on Earth, more than 3 billion years ago. But these organisms were unknown to people until the 1600s!

Bacteria

*** BACTERIUM LABEL-ME! PRINT-OUT ***
Label the parts of a bacterium cell, using our bacterium cell glossary.

Bacterium Label-Me! Print-out

*** WHEN IS A BEAR NOT A BEAR? ***
When it's a woolly bear caterpillar!

Woolly Bear Caterpillar Print-out

*** PILL BUG PRINT-OUT ***
You've probably seen pill bugs, also called roly-poly bugs: tiny segmented land creatures that can roll into a tiny ball for protection. Pill bugs are not insects, but isopods.

Pill Bug Print-out

*** SIMPLE ANIMAL PRINT-OUTS ***
We've taken many of our popular animal print-outs and added simple versions of them, suitable for very young children.

Among the ones we've recently added are simple print-outs of the armadillo, angelfish, bald eagle, bee, chimpanzee, Emperor penguin, gorilla, great apes, koala, kangaroo, painted lady butterfly, toucan, and zebra.

Animal Coloring Pages (Both simple and regular print-outs) (Look for the ones labeled "Simple Version"; also check out the regular print-outs, which have much more detail.)

*** BRITISH ASTRONOMERS, PALEONTOLOGISTS, AND OTHER SCIENTISTS ***
Visit our page on well-known British astronomers, paleontologists, and some other scientists. Some of the remarkable scientists you'll read about are:

- Mary Anning, who found her first fossil while still a child;
- Henry Cavendish, who discovered that water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen;
- James Gregory, who invented the reflecting telescope without actually building one;
- John C. Adams, who predicted the existence of Neptune; - J. J. Thompson, who discovered the electron;
- Edmund Halley, who predicted the return of a comet that has come to be known as Halley's comet;

and many more, including, of course, the great Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.

British Astronomers, Paleontologists, and Other Scientists

*** CHARLES DARWIN ***
The theory of evolution by natural selection was discovered by Charles Darwin. This theory is now considered the foundation and unifying principle of biology. While others had suggested the possibility of evolution before him, Darwin realized that natural selection provided the mechanism underlying it.

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin cloze (fill-in-the-blank) activity

*** VASCO DA GAMA, EXPLORER ***
Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer who discovered an ocean route from Portugal to India. It was not known until da Gama went there that the Indian Ocean was connected to any other sea. Read about the difficulties da Gama encountered on his journeys, including the disease scurvy among many of his crew, problems with the ruling authorities in India, and violent conflicts with Muslim traders.

Vasco da Gama, Explorer

*** ZOOM SCHOOL UK ***
Learn about the geography, flag, animals, fossils, explorers, inventors, and scientists of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Zoom School UK

*** THE MAGNA CARTA ***
The Magna Carta is an important historical document that limited the power of the King of England. Agreed to by King John nearly 800 years ago, the Magna Carta is a forerunner of modern British law, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and the concept of the rights and liberties of the people under a limited government.

The Magna Carta

Magna Carta Cloze Activity (fill-in-the-blank print-out)

*** "THE WORLD'S GREATEST LIVING EXPLORER" ***
Who is the world's greatest living explorer, according to the Guinness Book of World Records?

This Englishman led the first polar circumnavigation of the Earth. On this three-year trip, he and Charles Burton became the first people to reach both North and South Poles.

This explorer, together with Mike Stroud, made the first unsupported walk across Antarctica. Each of them dragged a 500-pound sledge on this three-month expedition.

This man was among the group which found the lost city of Ubar, in the desert in Oman. He had led expeditions to many other remote places.

So who is the world's greatest living explorer. Come to our web page and find out!

"The World's Greatest Living Explorer"

*** MORE BRITISH EXPLORERS ***
The lives of the British explorers who journeyed throughout the world are fascinating:

- James Cook, the first ship's captain to stop scurvy among his crew by feeding them fresh fruit, was killed by a mob after he tried to take a local chief hostage to get a stolen sailboat returned.

- Adventurer Richard Burton was the first European to visit many Muslim cities.

- On her pioneering trips to Africa, Mary Henrietta Kingsley was the first European to enter the remote parts of Gabon.

- Richard Lemon Lander and his brother John canoed down the lower Niger River all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.

- David Livingstone (of "Stanley and Livingstone" fame) died in Africa. His body was buried in Westminster Abbey, but his heart was buried in Africa.

- And many, many more!

British Explorers

*** MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY ***
With Mexican Independence Day coming up on September 16, read the story of Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and how Mexico achieved its independence from Spain.

Mexican Independence Day

Mexican Independence Cloze Activity (fill-in-the-blank print-out)

*** FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES: SPANISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN ***
We've added a multitude of new foreign language print-outs, in Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Some of our new print-outs are: People, the Family, Vehicles, Reptiles and Amphibians, Drinks, Mountain Landscape, and the Daytime and Nighttime Sky.

Spanish Language Activities

French Language Activities

German Language Activities

Italian Language Activities

*** MONTHLY ACTIVITY CALENDARS ***
We've now added activity calendars for all the months through the end of 2003. Print them and hang them on the wall -- your children will find a fun activity for each day of the year.

Monthly Activity Calendars

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All this, and much more, on our What's New page.

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