Celebrating Charles Darwin!

Once upon a time there was a little boy who collected birds' eggs and sea shells, beetles and coins, moths and minerals. He wasn’t a very good student, school just bored him. He had some difficulties in memorizing but he never tired of studying the details of the natural world. He was born in Shrewsbury, a rural town in England and he spent hours watching birds and lying under the dining-room table, reading.

As a teenager, he was thrilled by chemistry, biology, botany and geology. His father wanted him to be a doctor. But as he studied at the University of Cambridge, his teachers recognized his potential. Finally, his true talent for natural history blossomed.

One day he was invited to join a ship called Beagle for a trip around the world. It was time to follow his dream! He went as the ship's naturalist and for most of the next five years, the Beagle surveyed the coast of South America. He was free to explore the continent and islands, including the Galapagos and he filled dozens of notebooks with careful observations on animals, plants and geology, and collected thousands of specimens, which he sent home for further study.

Darwin later called the Beagle voyage "by far the most important event in my life," saying it "determined my whole career." By the time he returned, he was an established naturalist, well-known in London for the astonishing collections he had sent ahead. The Beagle voyage would provide Darwin with a lifetime of experiences to think about and the seeds of a theory he would work on for the rest of his life.

Charles Darwin was born on February 12th, 1809 and this week we celebrate his 200th birthday!

All images taken from the book “The Tree of Life” by Peter Sis

more BOOKS about Darwin
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000332901
http://www.charliesplayhouse.com/Bibliography.pdf
http://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Charles-Darwins-Recipe-Book/dp/0980155738
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3884822/Revealed-the-recipes-that-fuelled-Charles-Darwin.html

TOYS
http://www.charliesplayhouse.com/index.html
http://www.amazon.com/EVOLVING-CHARLES-DARWIN-PC-PLAYSET/dp/B001FXCNE2
http://www.science.siu.edu/zoology/darwin/#bobblehead

Learn all about CHARLES DARWIN – LINKS
http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Evolution/Darwin.htm
http://www.darwinfoundation.org/en/library/children
http://darwin-online.org.uk/
http://www.aboutdarwin.com/index.html
http://earlyhumans.mrdonn.org/evolution.html
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/
http://encyclopedia.kids.net.au/page/ch/Charles_Darwin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
http://darwin.gruts.com/
http://darwinbeagle.blogspot.com/

EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS
http://www.darwin2009.cam.ac.uk/
http://www.darwin200.org/
http://darwin-online.org.uk/2009.html
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/darwin/slideshow.html
http://www.kent.ac.uk/whatson/darwin/index.html
http://www.darwin200.org.au/events/
http://www.gulbenkian.pt/darwin/home.html

VIDEOS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7875657.stm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWaQ3wXylOM
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4471435322910215458
http://science.discovery.com/videos/galapagos-beyond-darwin-reviewing-darwins-findings.html

Fada Moranga loves playing Picasso!

"Moranga" by Fada Moranga

Create your own Picasso head!

click Mr.PicassoHead

Picasso exhibition in Portugal, Portimao (Algarve)

AN EXHIBITION of art inspired by and featuring the works of Pablo Picasso will mark the opening of a new art gallery in Portimão on Sunday, from August 24th to October 19th.

The exhibition, Olhar Picasso, Picasso Look, idealized by Rui Paes, the first of its kind to be held in the Algarve and will be divided into three areas, works by Picasso, an exhibition of photography of Lee Miller and an area dedicated to works of art from Portuguese artists inspired by Picasso.

Works by Picasso on display will represent the various mediums used by Picasso in his artwork; engravings, ceramic sculptures and of course his paintings that have become synonymous with the modern art movement.

Children are also invited to learn about Picasso and his art by becoming involved with the Discovery of Picasso area of the gallery where children are invited to acquire new knowledge and experiences through painting at the gallery.

Galeria Arade
Parque de Exposições de Portimão, 8500-726 Portimão Portugal

Tel.: 00351.282 410 440 / Fax: 00351.282 410 445 / E-mail: geral@expoarade.pt
Up to 14th September open 15.00 to 23.00. From 15th September open 10.00 to 18.00

Fada Moranga loves Miffy!

Miffy's website

Miffy was created in 1955 by Dick Bruna

Miffy's original Dutch name is Nijntje [nɛɪ̯ncǝ] which stems from a toddler's pronunciation of the word "konijntje" meaning "little rabbit".

The other characters that appear in the books are her family: Miffy's parents, her Grandmother and Grandfather, Aunt Alice, and her Uncle Bob, who appears in Miffy Goes Flying. A new brother or sister for Miffy is introduced in Miffy And The New Baby. She also has many friends, Boris and Barbara Bear, who first appeared in 1989 and are boyfriend and girlfriend, Poppy Pig, who appeared in 1977, and her niece Grunty, Snuffy, who appeared in 1969, and other bunnies such as Aggie and Melanie. Miffy has been on TV with her friends since 2003.

Dick Bruna's books have now been translated into 40 different languages, and over 80 million copies have been sold all over the world. He has won many awards for his books and in his hometown, Utrecht, there is a square named after Nijntje, the Nijntjepleintje (lit: Nijntje Little Square, to retain the rhyme) and in 2006, the Centraal Museum opened a permanent exhibition, the "Dick Bruna Huis".

Official Miffy Shop

Personalised Miffy Book

In the Garden with Miffy

Rui Paes - UK Exhibition

Chipping Norton Theatre, Oxfordshire

Tuesday 8th - Saturday 19th May

more information here

Rui Paes