Purl

Pixar Has been making some short movies to try new techniques and give more animators chances to get their ideas out to the public. They will all be on Disney's YouTube channel. The first of these is called Purl. I was super excited about this because it is Pixar +…

Autumn Pusheen Box 2018

The autumn Pusheen Box is here! I love that all the boxes have been themed this year. The previous autumn boxes were seasonal. Two years ago it was Halloween, and last year it was acorns/mushrooms/autumn leaves. This box is more themed to bed time, and it is really cute. There…

DNA

DNA DNA can be an abstract concept to students. It helps if the kids know what atoms and molecules are. We had already gone through that last year. I contrasted the complicated large DNA molecule with much simpler ones like water. The DNA is coiled up inside the nucleus of…

Sugar Rush Sundaes

We're getting very close to Wreck-it-Ralph 2 coming out! I am very excited about this because I loved the first movie and Vanellope is one of my all time favorite characters. I have made a series of ice cream sundaes to celebrate the sweet little racers from Sugar Rush. Many…

Hanazuki Party

Hanazuki started out as an online cartoon by Hasbro. I think it eventually moved to TV in the US. As far as I know there will be a season 2 of this show. The toys were in Australia, but only the first wave. I was lucky to pick up a…

Dinosaurs and the Fossil Record

Fossil Record and Mass Extinctions One of the observations Darwin used as support for life on Earth changing over time was the fossil record. Animals and plants appear and disappear from the fossil record. One of the most famous examples of this phenomenon is presence and extinction of the dinosaurs.…

Vertebrate Development

Vertebrates Animals are split into two groups based on whether or not they have a backbone. Vertebrates are animals with a backbone and a skeleton with muscles attached to it. Invertebrates have a soft body and in some cases is supported and protected by an exoskeleton or shell. Vertebrates include…

Insects and a Spiders

Arthropods While plants make up the vast majority of biomass on the planet, arthropods make up most of the animal biomass. Arthropods are invertebrates. They have no backbone, and for that matter no bones at all. They have a hard exoskeleton that protects them and allows them to move around…