Happy New Year! Let’s get back in the swing of things by working on those typing skills.

1. Open the Touch Typing Tutor (Clicking this link will open the page in a new window so that you can keep reading these directions.)
2. Click Start Online Demo – remember that it takes a few minutes to load
3. Click the Begin button
4. Use your first name as your username – If you do not see a box to type your name, place your cursor in the area where there should be a box and click.
5. Choose Touch Typing as your course
6. Set the time to 35 minutes
7. Work your way through the lessons

After you finish, your Net Word Score will be recorded. If you can type more than 30 words per minute, then you can go on to Lesson 2; otherwise, keep working on those Home Keys.

When you are ready to start researching on-line, here are some sites to use. More resources will be posted later. Please start with these.

1. World Atlas – Choose your continent and then your country
2. CIA World Factbook – choose your country from the list of countries and then look for information
3. List of French Speaking Countries and direct links to their Lonely Planet sites
4. Lonely Planet Worldguide – choose your continent and then drill down to find your country
5. Travel Events Guide – this site is really slow to load, but has some good info about events, festivals, and cultures. Just use the drop-down menus on the left to find your country.

This is a review of everything that we have already covered.

Remember, HTML works with what are called tags. Each tag goes inside of two carrats that look like this: <>.

For every tag that is opened, it is also closed so that they look like this: <>

There is the list of tags that are critical for you to know. Each one is listed below.

1. body
2. head
3. p (paragraph)
4. a (anchor) and href (hyperlink reference) – when you put these together, you can make a hyperlink
5. strong (for bold)
6. em (for italics)
7. h1, h2, h3 (for headers)

You can also set colors for your body background and text. With HTML, you have to use hexadecimal colors. Click Here to get a list of colors. We will use this page today to add more color to our test pages.

Now we need to figure out what we are going to do while on our vacation. Use Lonely Planet to find a few activities for your destination. Once you get to the site, type your city and state into the search box. You may have to read about the entire state to find out about things to do in your city.

Ever feel like your family could be part of a comic strip? Now’s your chance! Use the Comic Creator to create a series of comics about how you think your Thanksgiving Dinner might go.

Requirements:

1. Each comic needs to pose a math challenge
2. Make sure you save a copy of each comic strip
3. You need to have reached a solution by your last frame

What is the highlight of your state? What would be the coolest thing to go see? Use the sites below to find out.

1. List of Parks and Monuments – choose your state and see what there is to visit
2. National Parks Guide – click on your state to see if there is a National Park to go see
3. InfoPlease – click on your state and then look for “attractions” or “things to see.” Every state is listed.

Now that you have your journals set up, you can start finding information. Let’s begin with our Welcome Facts

Find your state on this Enchanted Learning website, and then copy the information that you want into your journal. Click here to get started.

Once you have found the general information on your state, what can you find about your State Bird? Click here to go looking.

state info

Today, we are in the fact finding phase of our project. Use the websites below to fill in the general facts about your country. Make sure you Add Images to iPhoto Library if you see any that you may want to have in your brochure.

1. World Atlas – when you use this site, click on your country and look for info in red.
2. CIA World Factbook – choose your country from the list of countries and then look for information