Battling the Blazes

This week in Time Magazine for Kids we read about the wildfires in California that are causing all kinds of problems. The fires are worsened by the dry, hot temperatures that California typically experiences this time of year. In California, wildfire season lasts all the way into November. Firefighters work around the clock to control the problems, but the fires continue to spread. Over 12,000 structures have been threatened by the fires in Southern California. We want to know what you think: Should people be allowed to build homes near areas that are prone to fires? Why or Why not?

Tinikling in Gym

In gym, we are learning a dance from the Philippines called Tinikling. In the Philippines, they use sticks made from bamboo, but we used PVC pipes that we decorated in art class. Watch the videos to see how we do!

"My Education, My Future"

Today, President Obama gave a speech to school aged children about the importance of staying in school. Click on Comments if you want to leave a question or comment about what the president said today. To view the speech, go here.

Pythons in the Everglades

This week in Time Magazine for Kids we read about the Burmese Pythons that are causing all kinds of problems to the native species in the fragile ecosystem of Everglades National Park, in Florida. The problem is that people buy the Southeast Asian snakes as pets when then are only 20 inches long. But within one year, these snakes can grow to be over 8 feet long. Adult pythons grow to over 20 feet long and weigh up to 200 pounds! The owners can no longer care for these large reptiles, so they release them into the wild. The Everglades provide a perfect home for the pythons, because they have no natural predators here. This means that there is nothing to stop them from completely taking over from the top of the food chain! As of July 2009, specialists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation (FWC) have permitted licensed hunters to come in and capture these pythons so they will stop destroying the native wildlife of the Everglades. There are over 150,000 non-native pythons in the Everglades, and as of last week, only 14 had been captured under the new hunting permits. What else can the FWC and all of us do to solve this problem and save the Everglades?