Sunday, December 23, 2018

So This is Christmas : Doodles, Santa Tracker films & other stories




Holidays 2018 (Northern Hemisphere Day 2)

2018 slowly is closing, we have noticed the sun beginning to set earlier and earlier! As the seasons begin to change, so too does the earth’s allocation of daylight.

To celebrate the astronomical phenomenon of the solstices Google has created two of its famous Doodles: Northern solstice and Southern solstice.

As we ended the trimester, moving through winter solstice toward the returning light, may the Holiday Spirit of the educational community help ease December’s chill but so bright! The sun continues to shine in my country.
Here some cute digital resources that will cheer kids around the world now that they are enjoying the holiday season.



Holidays 2018 (Southern Hemisphere Day 2)

But Google began the countdown to Christmas with a festive series of Doodles, since December 23. Interactive, animated images feature Santa with his bags packed and reindeers well fed departs for his adventure around the world.  




credits: Google Santa Tracker

Google has rolled out new games and features to its Santa's Village holiday page. It’s the 15th year of Santa’s Village, the interactive holiday hub where you can play games to learn coding skills, create original artwork, exercise your geographic chops, and more. Here’s what’s new this year.




credits: Google Santa Tracker

Santa’s Village boasts two dozen fun educational games, including ones that teach kids to code, as well as videos and other holiday activities. Unlike previous years, all of the Village’s interactive features are available since 1 December.


credits: Google Santa Tracker
The Google Santa tracker has managed to keep kids a bunch entertained through educational videos and online games. So,don't forget to tell kids to comw back December 24 to help Santa!

Films:







The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Lasse Hallström, 2018

Synopse:

All Clara (Mackenzie Foy) wants is a key – a one-of-a-kind key that will unlock a box that holds a priceless gift. A golden thread, presented to her at godfather Drosselmeyer’s (Morgan Freeman) annual holiday party, leads her to the coveted key - which promptly disappears into a strange and mysterious parallel world.

It’s there that Clara encounters a soldier named Phillip (Jayden Fowora-Knight), a gang of mice and the regents who preside over three Realms: Land of Snowflakes, Land of Flowers and Land of Sweets.






Clara and Phillip must brave the ominous Fourth Realm, home to the tyrant Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren), to retrieve Clara’s key and hopefully return harmony to the unstable world.





The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Lasse Hallström, 2018

Starring Keira Knightley as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Disney’s new holiday feature film The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston, and inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s classic tale.






The Story of Nutcracker
E.T.A. Hoffmann

The novel is about a young girl who is gifted a locked egg from her deceased mother and sets out in a magical land to retrieve the key. 

Hoffmann's classic Christmas fairy tale, immortalized by Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker.




The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Lasse Hallström, 2018

The music was adapted in part from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite from 1892 by James Newton Howard, updating the original and adding new tracks as well. 

For the recording, Gustavo Dudamel conducted the London Philharmonia Orchestra, while Lang Lang was the piano soloist. Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo contributed the original duet "Fall on Me" for the film.




Disney/ The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, CD

"The colors of 'The Nutcracker' ballet score have become a part of the vocabulary of film music. It's where so much of the 19th-century romantic music that I call upon as a film composer is rooted."

James Newton Howard




The Nutcracker and the Four Realms Storybook & CD
by Disney Books

The storybook and CD: 

Follow along in this captivating Read-Along Storybook and journey to a strange and magical world where Clara meets a soldier named Phillip, a gang of mice, and regents who preside over the Realms. 

Complete with word-for-word narration, original character voices, sound effects, and enchanting stills from the film itself.



Mary Poppins Returns

Rob Marshall, 2018

Ya! Mary Poppins is back! Mary Poppins Returns. 53 years after Julie Andrews glided by parrot-handled umbrella onto our screens as the magical nanny, here is everything we know about the much-anticipated reboot, Mary Poppins Returns.

Decades after her original visit, the magical nanny returns to help the Banks siblings and Michael's children through a difficult time in their lives.




Mary Poppins Returns

Rob Marshall, 2018

Mary Poppins's return to Cherry Tree Lane is to bring some joy to Michael Banks's family, after they suffer a personal loss. Fast-forwarding to 1935 (the original was set in 1910), the nanny, along with her friend Jack, is back to bring the family just the spoonful of sugar that they need.

Following Julie Andrews to take the title role is Emily Blunt, and she is the one we'd want to do it. 




The trailer shows that the sequel will feature a number of nods to the classic - from flying kites to animated penguins, a mirror reflection with a mind of its own and some stepping in time.

Mary Poppins Returns is a 2018 American musical fantasy film directed by Rob Marshall, with a screenplay written by David Magee and a story by Magee, Marshall and John DeLuca. Based on the book series of the same name by P. L. Travers.




Mary Poppins series
P. L. Travers

Mary Poppins is a series of eight children's books which feature the magical nanny Mary Poppins. Written by Australian-British writer P. L. Travers published over the period 1934 to 1988. Mary Shepard was the illustrator throughout the series.
As we ended the trimester, moving through winter solstice toward the returning light, may the Holiday Spirit of the educational community help ease December’s chill but so bright! The sun continues to shine in my country. 
Have yourself a Very Merry Christmas Season, brightly colored with love, peace and light.

Wishing everyone a Bright Holiday Season! And a special hug to all the children in the world.

I'm off to continue celebrating Christmas at home with my family.

G-Souto


23.12.2018
Copyright © 2018G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®
Creative Commons License
So This is Christmas : Doodles, Santa Tracker, films & other stories by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Thursday, December 13, 2018

Schools : Here's again ! Ready to explore the Geminid meteor shower ?





© Sutie Yang


The biggest meteor shower of the year is set to put on a shooting-star show tonight when the Geminid streak across the sky - at least in places that won’t be overcast. 

The so-called “rock comet” came within 6.4 million miles of earth this past December, although last year’s supermoon made it harder to appreciate the celestial light show. That won’t be a factor this year.




The Geminids will be the last of 2018’s major showers and will enter the Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of up to 70 kilometres per second.
The falling stars are considered different from other meteor showers in being multi-coloured, with white and yellow and a few green, red and blue lights.
The Royal Observatory Greenwich (ROG) says the colours "are partly caused by the presence of traces of metals like sodium and calcium, the same effect that is used to make fireworks colourful”.
People wishing to observe the meteor shower should try to get away from areas with light pollution.




The Geminid meteor shower 2018


Doodle:

Google celebrates the Geminid meteor shower with a Doodle! And it's adorable!

The slideshow Doodle follows the Geminids’ path through Earth’s atmosphere as it lights up the sky. As Phaethon’s orbit leads it near the sun, the extreme heat causes it to fracture and leaves a trail of debris in its orbital path. 






Every December, Earth’s orbit leads us through the trail of 3200 Phaethon and its debris crashes into our atmosphere at 79,000 miles (127,000 km) per hour. Once through the Earth’s atmosphere, the Geminids’ radiant (or where it appears to originate) is the constellation Gemini—from which the meteor shower gets its name. 

The Geminids are considered to be one of the more spectacular meteor shower during a year, with the possibility of sighting around 120 meteors per hour at its peak.





The Geminids appear every year in mid-December when Earth passed through a stream of debris from "rock comet" 3200 Phaethon. Typically more than 100 meteors per hour stream out of the radiant in the constellation Gemini. when the shower peaks on Dec. 13th and 14th.

Some history:

Named after the ancient Greek god Apollo’s son, 3200 Phaethon is an asteroid whose orbit brings it closer to our sun than Mercury. 

First discovered via satellite data 35 years ago, Phaethon is responsible for bringing the spectacular Geminid meteor showers to Earth’s atmosphere each December. With each passing year since the mid-1800s, the proliferation of yellowish streaks of light in the night-time sky have grown more intense.





The Geminid meteor shower 2018

The Geminids. It’s a good time to bundle up, go outside and watch one of Mother Nature’s best sky shows!

If the weather is clear, 2018 should be the best year ever to watch the Geminids - so named because they seem to originate from the constellation Gemini. 

Some information for skywatchers:

No need for a telescope or binoculars: fragments from Phaethon’s debris trail should become visible after 9 pm on December 13, peaking after midnight with as many as 120 meteors per hour. T

The cosmic dust may have resulted from a crash with another flying object, but there’s little danger of any Geminids landing on earth as it normally disintegrates in the earth’s atmosphere. 




Graphic showing the locations of the Geminid radiant and Comet 46P/Wirtanen for 35 degrees north latitude at 10:30 p.m. 
on the night of the Geminid peak (December 13)


What do Geminid watchers need to do this year?
It’s pretty simple, actually. The nearly First Quarter Moon sets around 10:30 p.m. local time, so wait until then to go out – the light from the Moon washes out the fainter meteors, which are more numerous. 
Find the darkest place you can, and give your eyes about 30 minutes to adapt to the dark. Avoid looking at your cell phone, as it will mess up your night vision. 
Lie flat on your back and look straight up, taking in as much sky as possible. You will soon start to see Geminid meteors. As the night progresses, the Geminid rate will increase, hitting a theoretical maximum of about 100 per hour around 2 a.m.


The Geminid meteor shower 2018


Education:

Wow! Here's again the spectacular Geminids meteor shower, this 13 December until dawn December 14! The awesome Geminid meteor shower will be back with its awesome show.

The winter, cold temperatures contribute in making this shower neglected by the public, while it offer bright, very enjoyable meteors. 

Most of us are excited about the Geminids shower. Schools, teachers, students and all Skywatchers lovers. 

I'm not a Sciences teachers. I'm Humanities and Arts teacher. But, I love science and all the high technology near science.

The Geminids, along with the August Perseids, are the two most active annual meteor showers. They can always be relied upon to put on a good show, and that is especially true this year, because the moon will be only a few days old, setting early in the evening.




The Geminid meteor shower 2018

This year the European teachers and students are still at school for a few days, just ending school time before Holiday season.

Using the smartphones, students will need a cable release chord. Luckily they can actually use their iPhone headphones' cable volume button to activate the shutter. And they also need an app designed to take long exposure photos.

Sciences curriculum will be enhanced with this awesome event! The Geminids meteor shower.


Do you want a better science lesson ? 

For optimal viewing conditions, get as far away from city lights as possible, and remember to dress warmly as you enjoy one of the greatest shows on/or above earth.

Some useful links:

NASA Science | News
Space.com | Geminid meteor shower 2018
EarthSky | Geminid meteor
NASA | The Geminid are coming

Social media in education:
Earth Sky @earthskyscience
NASA @NASA
Hoping will lucky!


G-Souto

13.12.2018

Copyright © 2018G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Creative Commons License
Schools : Here's again ! Ready to explore the Geminid meteorshower ? by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.