Two point perspective tutorial

Here's a link to the two-point perspective tutorial some of us looked at today:

http://www.ider.herts.ac.uk/school/courseware/graphics/two_point_perspective.html

Have a go and see what you come up with. Try shading in your 3D creations to make them look like light is shining on them.

Good luck!

Microsoft Office for Students

For those children who do not have Microsoft Office at home, here is a link to a website where you can buy it comparitively cheaply (around £45 - normally £300!):

http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Office_Professional_Plus_2007-details.aspx

The version that is linked to above is the 'Pro' version which includes Publisher so is definitely worth having.

Of course, if you don't want to pay for an office suite then the Open Office set of programs does a brilliant job for free:

http://download.openoffice.org/index.html

Apostrophes

Hi year 6,
It's Ms Jones, back on the blog. I've noticed that lots of you are making mistakes when using apostrophes to shorten words. Try this game again to revise how to use them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/punctuation/apostrophes/game.shtml
You can decrease the time limit to make it harder.

Plate tectonics

As promised, here's some links for you to use to research plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis:

http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/voyager/earth_puzzle/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4126809.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5194316.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4972366.stm

Here's an interesting animated gif showing the movements of the continents over the last 750 million years or so. The number in the bottom left corner tells you how many millions of years ago it is:

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/anim3.html

Send a comment to let me know some of the fascinating facts that you find out!

MAKE A MILLION!

In our maths investigation this morning, we were substituting numbers for letters thus:

a=1, b=2, c=3, d=4 ... z=26

We then found the 'value' of a word by finding the product of all of its letters.
So the value of 'BAD' would be:

B x A x D = 2 x 1 x 4 = 8

Our task was then to try to find a word with a value that is as close as possible to 1,000,000.

The top three were:

1. Dayana, Raneem, Lyna with 'JAPANESE' (1,064,000)
2. Kelsen with 'KELSEN' (877,800)
3. Euan with 'DONKEY' (1,155,000)

---------------------------------------------------------
Postscript:

As you know, computers are very good at solving problems like this!
I knocked up a quick program that searches a huge list of over six hundred thousand different words and looks for any that have a word value near to 1,000,000 (plus or minus 5,000).

Here are the results:
(Can you spot the closest one??)

Amyris = 1000350
BARTNIK = 997920
BOYSEN = 997500
CARLISI = 997272
CURING = 1000188
DISHMAN = 995904
DRIVEN = 997920
FRANKEL = 997920
HENRIK = 997920
HENRIKA = 997920
HORNACK = 997920
Henrik = 997920
KILLEN = 997920
KIMMEL = 1003860
KUPOR = 997920
MOORS = 1000350
MOPPED = 998400
MOROS = 1000350
Merise = 1000350
Mieres = 1000350
Moros = 1000350
PACKETS = 1003200
PINKIE = 997920
PLUMS = 995904
RIGGIN = 1000188
SHELVE = 1003200
SHOVED = 1003200
SIEMER = 1000350
SLUMP = 995904
SOWASH = 996360
SOYBEAN = 997500
STEEGO = 997500
STOPKA = 1003200
UTSEY = 997500
VARIANT = 997920
Virden = 997920
WALTMAN = 1004640
budlike = 997920
chuckle = 997920
clinked = 997920
comers = 1000350
cozies = 1000350
curing = 1000188
dogeys = 997500
driven = 997920
helves = 1003200
inhive = 997920
keslep = 1003200
lumps = 995904
lurked = 997920
misere = 1000350
moors = 1000350
mopped = 998400
nervid = 997920
pinkie = 997920
plums = 995904
pucker = 997920
remise = 1000350
rooms = 1000350
sercom = 1000350
shelve = 1003200
shevel = 1003200
shoved = 1003200
shows = 996360
slump = 995904
specked = 1003200
spoked = 1003200
stogy = 997500
suety = 997500
sulks = 1000692
swosh = 996360
typey = 1000000
uncini = 1000188
uncubic = 1000188
verdin = 997920
==========
Total matches: 75

More logo piccies!

Here's another one from Raneem. Can you figure out how she got the doughnut shape?

Lyna's amazing logo image

Here's Lyna's fantastic logo pattern - with very clever use of the 'fill' command and setfloodcolor:
Fantastic use of colour, Lyna! I think a few people will be asking you how to do that :) Well done!