SouthernCalifornia,Baja hit by

wildfi res

If you are a veteran of Colorado’s wildfi res, you can well imagine what people in Southern California and south of the border in Baja are going through as the season’s fi rst major wildfi res have arrived.

NASA released this photo last week, and we added labels to help show how fi res were, at the time, already visible from satellites as they burned towards neighborhoods in the California suburbs.

The larger of the fi res in Baja California, Mexico, were in less populated areas at the time, but a 600-acre fi re near the border spread into San Diego County Friday before fi refi ghters there were able to control it.

Additional fi res have since broken out near San Diego and elsewhere in the area, which has been hit with one of the most severe droughts in recent history. For up-to-the-date conditions on the fi res in Southern California, see the link at ColoradoNIE.com

2013

ColoradoKids CK ReporterMihir Mahale,

Highlands Ranch

tHiS iS truly A monSter HitWARNING:

This is not your dad’s Godzilla.

Modern technology enables movie produc-ers to provide a fully

immersive movie, accompanied with unbelievable 3D graphics, fantastic sound, and an incred-ibly realistic Godzilla.

“Godzilla” is the 28th movie featuring the King of the Mon-sters and this year marks the 60th anniversary of the fi rst “Godzilla” movie.

This one starts in 1998: A Japa-nese nuclear reactor releases radiation, but is stopped in time.

Everything looks safe, but the nuclear plant explodes after unknown seismic activity.

The government evacuates everyone, and a quarantine zone is set up for the next 15 years.

Joe Brady (Bryan Cranston) was among the evacuees and he always suspected a cover-up.

After he is arrested for tres-passing in the quarantine zone in 2014, his son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) fl ies to Japan to con-

vince him to end his obsession. Instead, they sneak into the

quarantine zone, and discover that the nuclear disaster was a cover-up for what really hap-pened and they are arrested for trespassing.

There is evil brewing in the plant and the mystery of what Japan is hiding is revealed.

An unknown monster emerges and threatens San Francisco.

Ford follows the new enemy and Godzilla to San Francisco to help save the city and his young family.

Godzilla emerges for the fi rst time in years and only he can save the planet from the evil creatures.

The world holds their breath to see if Godzilla is friend or foe as he fi ghts against the wicked creatures that threaten the exis-tence of the human race.

People from 12 year olds to adults of all ages would enjoy this movie, but it is rated PG-13 and I would not recommend this to anyone under 12 because of intense fi ght scenes and terrify-ing images of these huge beasts.

Last August, we reported that doctors in the Middle East had traced a serious virus to camels there.

At the time, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus was almost entirely in that part of the world, and 44 people had died from it.

Now the death toll from MERS has risen to 152, out of 495 total cases, and two of those 495 cases have been found in the United States.

At this point, the only people with the MERS dis-ease have lived on or recently been to the Arabian peninsula; both US cases were working in health care there. Another American caught the virus from one of those people, but did not get sick from it.

Last week, the World Health Organization said it is not yet an emergency, but that people there who work with camels should wash up often and health workers everywhere should ask patients if they’ve recently been to the region.

Photo/B. Simpson

merS no longer Simply A middle eASt proBlem

By Logan Butler,12, a CK Reporter from Littleton

history. For up-to-the-date conditions on the fi res in Southern California,

May 20, 2014

Anyone can ski, with guidance

Being blind is a hard way to live one’s life. When it comes to skiing and being blind, those two would not seem to mesh, but one

program closes that gap.

Foresight Ski Guides in Vail, started in 2000 when Mr. Davis lost his vision.

He wanted to be able to ski, and share that same love with many other blind kids and adults.

In 2002 the first adults started blind skiing with Foresight Ski Guides. Since then, the program has expanded with now around 25 guides helping blind clients ski every winter.

The way blind skiing works is that the guide skis behind the blind skier, and verbally tells the patient where to turn. As one might imagine there is a lot of trust involved in this.

One senior guide, Bill Murphy, stated that his favorite part about giving lessons to blind skiers is the improvement that comes so quickly.

“I see so much change in so little time, because of the trust established between me and my cus-tomer,” he says. “That is the only element we can rely on.”

The relationship Bill creates with his clients is remarkable, and is a key aspect to the success of the customer.

The trust that Foresight Guides builds with its clients is part of why the Heltons, now living near Atlanta, Georgia, were able to have a life- chang-ing experience with this Blind Skiers Program.

Gracie Helton has been blind since she was four, and Mark Davis met her in Colorado Springs,

never imagining the impact he would have on her in the near future.

As Gracie’s mom Rebecca Helton stated, Fore-sight was a major way that Gracie was able to boost her courage to deal with her situation, and also to experience major trust, which is hard for many who are blind.

Now 12, Gracie and her family jump at every op-portunity to ski with Foresight Ski Guides when-ever they can.

This program at Vail is giving kids like Gracie opportunities that they would never have had.

Foresight Ski Guides end this year successfully, and hope next year to reach even more blind kids and adults.

To learn more about the program catch the live link at ColoradoNIE.com

ck Kids and adults can find live links to information about stories in Colorado Kids at www.ColoradoNIE.com

“This is not your dad’s Godzilla,” the review on Page One begins. Some new versions of things are better, some are not as good.

Look through today’s paper for something that has been around for awhile but has been recently changed. Do you like the changes, or were they a mistake? Explain your answer.

Beyond these four pages

AB

C

CK Readers take their vacation seriouslyWe’ve never had this

happen with one of our on-line questions:

Nobody at all chose one of the possible answers.

However, we don’t expect you to feel too bad about it.

We asked you about your plans for this summer, and none of you chose “summer school” as your main activity.

Summer, you seemed to say, is for reading, workouts and the

arts, plus a bit of doing nothing.Here’s what we asked, and

what you told us:When summer finally gets here,

which of these will you do the most of ?

A. Lazing back, reading and enjoying the sunshine 54%

B. Regular workouts, hiking or organized sports 24%

C. Dance, art, other similar structured activities 22%

D. Summer school 0%

Since more than half plan to do some reading, tell us this:

What kind of reading will be at the top of your summer list?

A. I’ve got a list from school.B. Something different, maybe

a type of book I haven’t tried.C. I’ve got several books I’ll

finally have time to get to.D. Who knows? That’s part of

the fun of unassigned reading.To answer this question, go to

www.nextgen.yourhub.com

we asked, you answered

By Ben West,13, a CK Reporter from Denver

Colorado Kidsis produced by

Denver Post Educational ServicesStories without bylines are

written by the editor.Executive Editor: Dana Plewka

dplewka@denverpost.comCK Editor: Mike Peterson

coloradokidseditor@gmail.comWe welcome your comments.

For tools to extend the learning in this feature, look under“eEdition lessons” at:

www.ColoradoNIE.com

eEditions of the Post arefree of charge for classroom use.Contact us for information on all

our programs.

Denver Post Educational Services101 W. Colfax Ave.Denver CO 80202

(303) 954-3974(800) 336-7678

Confidence! Senior Guide Bill Murphy with a happy

client at Vail. Photo provided

Just last month, we told you about a huge iceberg that had broken off Antarctica’s Pine

Island Glacier and was floating in the Amundsen Sea.

Even though it is 21 miles long and 13 miles wide, the iceberg it-self isn’t very much of a danger.

There isn’t a lot of ship traffic that close to Antarctica, so it’s unlikely any ships will run into it.

And it’s already in the ocean, so, as it breaks up and melts, it won’t make the ocean level rise. (When the ice that’s already in your soft drink melts, the drink doesn’t overflow, does it?)

But the way big chunks of ice keep breaking off the ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland does have scientists quite wor-ried.

Now a pair of new reports have given them more reason to be concerned: NASA has just an-nounced that researchers expect a lot more melting of glaciers in Antarctica, especially those near the Amundsen Sea, and a second report suggests that the melting

will happen even if we cut back on greenhouse gases that 97% of scientists who study the topic blame for at least some of the changes in Earth’s climate.

Should you be worried?Well, being a “mile high”

means we don’t have to worry about being under water here.

But you might worry about your grandchildren getting to enjoy coffee and maple syrup.

As the climate changes, some places will get warmer and some will get colder, and coffee bush-es and maple trees are just two examples of plants that may not grow well where they are now.

And some places around the world will likely have to build walls to keep out rising sea levels from the melting of Antarctica and Greenland’s glaciers, includ-ing Boston, New Orleans, Florida and other low-lying areas.

By the time you are old, you’ll have seen many changes in how we live because of the climate, and your kids will likely live long enough to see many more.

Should you worry about Antarctica’s ice?

BrainteaserOn this date in 1570, Abraham Ortelius published the first mod-ern atlas. Do you need one to answer this week’s questions?

1. What three states meet Colorado at Four Corners?

2. On what continent would you find the nation of Uruguay?

3. Walsenburg is in this Colorado county, which has no parents.

4. Penguins are found in the wild on four continents. What are the three continents that have no penguins?

5. Name the river that flows through Cairo, Egypt.

6. Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei share this large island.

7. Steamboat Springs is in the county named for the state’s first governor. Name it.

8. When it is noon in Colorado, what time is it in New York?

9. Which is the largest of the Great Lakes?

10. Name the nation between Colombia and Costa Rica.(answers on Page Four)

Glaciers flowing into the Amundsen Sea are melting at a higher rate than expected. If you’d like to know more about this problem, look for the links to both news reports and scientific sites at ColoradoNIE.com

“The American West in Bronze,” now showing at the Denver Art Museum, is the largest collection

of bronze artwork ever in one show, and includes works created between 1850 and 1925.

The exhibit includes four themes: Native Americans, Cowboys, Wildlife, and Pioneers.

In the Native American section, the larg-est, there are artists like Frederic Reming-ton, one of the first artists to work in bronze.

Most of the sculptures in this section were made using sand casting, which cre-ates a texture that makes the statuettes seem more life-like and allowed the artists to add more detail.

The Cowboy section included Rem-ington’s first, famous bronze sculpture, “Bronco Buster.”

The statues in this section show cowboys

with their horses and, since when I think of the West, I always think of cowboys and horses, this section really captures the Wild West for me.

My favorite part of the exhibit is the wild-life. Museum employees and volunteers call this section “the zoo,” because, when the artists sculpted animals, they didn’t sculpt them by seeing them in the wild. Instead,

the artists sculpted them from studying them in zoos.

Artists were attracted to animals that were only found in the West, like buffaloes or bears, and one of the buffalo statues was turned into a public monument in Washing-ton DC.

The last section was the Pioneers. Women were often featured in this sec-

tion because the statues were made dur-ing the suffrage movement, when women were trying to get the right to vote, but the section also includes statues of prospectors mining gold.

This exhibit is not only educational but also unique.

The bronze pieces in the exhibit were all made in the same 75 year time period and, after visiting it, I not only knew more about Western America, but I appreciated the art more, knowing that each artist constructed these pieces through hard labor.

I recommend this exhibit to all families: however, you better hurry because it is only at the museum for limited time.

For dates and ticket information, catch the live link at ColoradoNIE.com

‘WeSt in Bronze’ A golden opportunity

BrainteaserSolution

(see Page Three)10 right - Wow! 7 right - Great! 5 right - Good

3 right - See you next time!

1. New Mexico, Arizona, Utah. 2. South America 3. Huerfano (“orphan”) 4. North America, Europe,

Asia 5. the Nile 6. Borneo 7. Routt 8. 2 pm 9. Superior 10. Panama

By Nicole Dresen,12, a CK Reporter from Winter Park

“Switched at Birthday,” by Natalie Standiford, is about two girls

who have nothing in common, except for the same birthday.

Lavender is short, awkward, and not popular but has a kind and understanding family who always hugs and kisses.

Scarlet is tall, fit, pretty, but her fam-ily isn’t exactly fun to live with.

She has an annoy-ing stepbrother and a mean stepfather. Scarlet is also a wonderful soccer player.

Scarlet and Laven-der are not fond of each other, and rare-ly agree. However, one thing they agree on is their wish to

switch bodies. When their wish

comes true, it gets to be a big mess.

With their identi-ties switched, Scar-let and Lavender start having prob-lems with school, boys, sports, and other things.

The girls are wor-ried that things will never go back to normal.

A creative thing

the author did with this book is that in every chapter, the narra-tor alternated between Scarlet and Lavender.

This book is good for ages eight through ten, and for any imaginative people who like adventure.

“Switched at Birthday” was also really good because I felt like I knew the characters and they were my friends.

Natalie Standiford did a great job on this novel.

imAginAtion, Adventure join in fun novel

By Sofia Morfin ,9, a CK Reporter from Denver

‘The Cheyenne’ by Frederick Remington, a 1901 bronze from the Denver Art Museum’s own col-lection. Photo/Denver Art Museum

Youth-written stories that appear here also appear on

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