Play a game & Feed hungry people!

With the Spring season just around the corner, minds at America SCORES must turn to service learning and our Writing for the Community curriculum. During this season our coaches and students set a great example by taking part in community service projects that focus on issues affecting their neighborhoods.

As members of the SCORES community here in LA and around the country, we should follow the lead of our youth and do our part to serve our community. A fun, easy and rewarding way to do this is through the wonderful website of FREERICE.COM. Freerice.com is trivia based web page that donates 10 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program for every question you answer correctly.

Freerice allows everyone to be a part of the quest toward ending world hunger while also providing free educational services. Subjects to test your knowledge on the website include art, chemistry, English, geography, French, German, Italian, Spanish & math.

So test your knowledge, spread the word & lets do our part to feed the hungry around the globe!

LETS SEE HOW MANY GRAINS OF RICE WE CAN RAISE BEFORE OUR NEXT POST ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4! LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW WITH YOUR RICE COUNT! DO IT AS AN INDIVIDUAL OR AN OFFICE!

CLICK THE PICTURE BELOW TO START PLAYING!

Share your voices. Share your talents. Share your arts. They can help you.

The America SCORES program model helps children express themselves through the art of creative writing, specifically poetry. But poetry is not, nor should be, the only means children should have to express their feelings, personality or ideas. Art Share LA describes themselves as a "community arts incubator whose mission is to shape lives through art, education and community action." These arts include dance, instruments, drawing and many other forms that this organization facilitates. Check out the video below and then check out their website.





Art Share LA Website

Get Lifted by Get Lit!

Get Lit is a Southern California non-profit that uses literature, in particular Slam poetry, to help urban High School students succeed by expressing themselves through an intricate flow of passion and prose. Scott Gold wrote a great article about the program in today's LA Times that anyone involved in youth education and empowerment should read. Click the link below to be redirected to the article and check out the audio slide show featured on the same page (or you can link directly to the slide show using the second link below). Please read this article and share it with friends and family. I hope it inspires you as much as it inspired me.


Get Lit Players bring poetry's emotions to other L.A. teenagers


Audio Slide Show

Also check out their website at www.getlit.org

DrEAms into REAlity: EA LA DAY 2009

CLICK THE PICTURE ABOVE TO WATCH A SLIDE SHOW OF OUR DAY!

Last week Electronic Arts opened their doors to LA SCORES. Through all their kindness and cooperation our Palms Middle School students were given a peek into the science and art of creating video games. Our day at the studio showed how a real world job can seem surreal and the virtual world of games can seem increasingly realistic.

Our day began with a studio tour through two production floors of EA Games. While on these floors we learned about the different stages of development that each game goes through before hitting the shelves at your favorite store. The length of pre-development research and engineering that each game requires can seem overwhelming but is all part of creating a fun and challenging gaming experience. During this our students were able to look over the shoulders of testers, engineers and other employees and ask questions about what they were doing and what games they were working on.
















After the tour we watched the movie Ginga, which documents the life of 10 different Brazilians through futsal. Once this ended a senior staff member of EA came for a Q & A with our kids. This transitioned to a trivia game about things seen and heard during our tour. Correct answers were rewarded with EA Game T-Shirts.














The day concluded with a very special trip to the EA video game store, where all our kids were able to have a free video game. Our kids were elated about their new game and thankful to all of EA who made the trip possible.




















From all of us at LA SCORES we would like to express our gratitude to Aaron Kaufman, Amir and Tim for making this possible and the EA staff for their generosity and accommodation.

The Lesser of Two Evils

Part of the mission of America SCORES is to fight the growing epidemic of youth obesity. One way we try to combat this is by promoting a healthy and active lifestyle through regular exercise and soccer. In addition to this, we also do our best to be good role models and positive influences when it comes to eating habits. And while it would be amazing if we all ate five small meals a day with all our fruits and veggies, we must reconcile with the fact that we have cravings that have to be satisfied and sweet teeth that seek indulgence. So instead of trying to avoid our favorite spots all together we need to be aware what items to avoid at our favorite spots. So to help us all, here are a few tips from the book series "Eat This, Not That".


Dominoes Pizza
EAT THIS : 2 slices thin crust : 470 cal
NOT THAT: 2 slices ultimate deep dish: 780 cal

Subway
EAT THIS: 6 inch double roast beef: 360 cal
NOT THAT: 6 inch tuna: 530 cal

Burger King
EAT THIS: Whopper Jr (no mayo) w/garden salad: 365 cal
NOT THAT: BK Big Fish w/tartar & fries: 1000 cal

Taco Bell
EAT THIS :2 grilled steak soft tacos fresco style: 320 cal
NOT THAT: Baja Beef chalupa: 410 cal

Baskin' Robbins
EAT THIS: 2 scoop hot fudge sundae (chocolate & vanilla): 530 cal
NOT THAT: 2 scoops on sugar cone (french vanilla & peanut butter n chocolate): 840 cal

Chipotle
EAT THIS: Chicken Burrito bowl:489 cal
NOT THAT:Chicken Burrito: 1,169 cal

This next one blows me away!

Dunkin' Donuts
EAT THIS: Ham, Egg & Cheese English Muffin sandwich: 310 cal
NOT THAT: Multigrain Bagel w/ lite cream cheese: 500 cal

*From the book "Eat This, Not That" by David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding

A Lesson in Poetry

Here are some interesting tips for young poets made by Robert Hass,Poet Laureate and Co-founder of River of Words, a California based non-profit whose hands-on approach to education seeks to foster students' creativity through participation in art and poetry. Read his six tips for young poets below and check out the organization with the link at the bottom of the page.

TIPS FOR WRITING POEMS, by Robert Hass

1. Get something down on paper. Or as the Irish short story writer Frank O’Connor said, “You can’t revise nothing.” Waiting for inspiration is like waiting to be asked to dance. If inspiration comes, it comes. And it will come more often if you show you are interested.

2. Pay attention to what’s around you. If you write nature poems, look at things. If you write poems about people, notice them. There are ways to practice noticing: teach yourself the name of some of the birds in your neighborhood, the trees; learn the names of the stars overhead. Listen to the wind. Look at the way light falls on your street at different times of day.

3. Pay attention to what you’re feeling. A lot of poetry has to do not with knowing what you feel, but discovering what you feel. Sometimes, if you notice what you’re feeling, a phrase or an image for it will come to you out of nowhere. It will be a place to start and the result may surprise you. It’s hard not to present to the world the feeling you think will please other people by having or seeming to have. Poetry ought to be the place where you don’t have to do that.

4. Pay attention to your own mind. No thought is too weird for poetry. And everyone has weird thoughts all the time. Some people are just good at not noticing that they have them. Noticing is what makes any kind of art fresh and interesting.

5. Say your poems out loud to yourself until you’re pleased with how they sound. Some thoughts are quick, some thoughts are slow and deep. Some skip, some pace slowly. The pleasure of poetry for people who write it a lot is mostly here, whether you write in rhyme with a definite beat, or write in the rhythm of natural speech. The poem isn’t finished until it’s pleasing to your ear.

6. Read lots of poetry. It will give you ideas about what poetry can do, techniques you can try. And real feeling will put you in touch with real feeling. Someone else’s originality will make you feel yours.

River of Words Website