Smarten up and skip the

caffeinatedbeverages Good sleep builds brains!

You probably know that drinking caffeine, especially too late in the day, can keep you from falling asleep at night. And you may also know that caffeine is in more than coffee and energy drinks: It’s also

in Coca-Cola, Mountain Dew and even some root beers and other sodas.The problem is, even when caffeine drinkers do sleep, they don’t sleep as

soundly as others do, and deep sleep is when young brains develop.Researchers in Switzerland gave immature rats what would be like three

or four cups of coffee a day for humans. Sure enough, they didn’t sleep as deeply as rats without caffeine, and it effected their brain development.

Baby rats are timid, but become more curious and active as they mature. But as they grew older, these caffeinated rats remained fearful and more cautious than caffeine-free rats. Photo by Andreas Rejbrand

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ColoradoKids CK ReporterAbe Lamontagne

Lakewood

DeDiCATion, DisCiPLine, DAnCeSaranya Budamgunta’s pas-

sion for traditional dance started when she was 10.

For seven years since then, she worked preparing for her recent professional dance debut, her Bharatanatyam Arangetram.

Bharatanatyam is a Indian classical dance style in which each gesture, movement and facial ex-pression matters.

For the Arangetram, a sort of “graduation,” the dancer does a rigorous two hour solo with a live orchestra.

There are 3 aspects of this dance form. One is Nritta which means pure dance. The second one is Natya which means expressions. The third one is Nritya a

combination of pure dance and meaningful ex-pressions.

Saranya said that she trained with her teacher three times a week for two hours including prac-ticing at home.

She took baby steps and once she got a part of her routine perfect she would add the next part.

Saranya reminds herself to keep breathing and smiling, not allowing herself to overthink anything

or to get dis-tracted during the long dance.

Before she goes on stage, she stretches and does yoga poses, medita-tion and breath-ing exercises to calm her nerves.

Saranya sparkled on stage in a gor-

geous costume custom stitched in India. It takes 2 or 3 hours to get her dressed in it, because each piece has to be tied and pinned tight to make sure everything stays in place during the dance.

I thought it was interesting how she had bells wrapped around her feet and the orchestra kept time with her, and I could not believe how long her hair was and how detailed they made it look.

Her performance also grabbed my attention through the precise facial expressions that go with each specifi c gesture, while the stamina Saranya needed to dance continually for 20 or 30 minutes at a time was impressive.

But Saranya has no plans to make dance a career, she says. “My goal lies in becom-ing a doctor. Dance will always be something that I enjoy and cherish. My Aran-getram is not an ending but merely a milestone in my dancing journey. ” Photos courtesy Budamgunta family

This past spring, we wrote about the danger sea turtles are in, from careless fi shing methods and from destruction of habitat.

We also reported on what coastal communities in North Carolina and Florida were do-ing about it, things like bring-ing in furniture from beaches to avoid disturbing turtles as they come ashore to lay their eggs and turning off yardlights that confuse babies as they try to fi nd the ocean and safety.

They also had volunteers pa-trol the beach to protect turtle nests from intruders.

These measures seem to have been part of some very good news from Florida: Com-pared to two years ago, nests of the green sea turtle doubled in the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge there, and went from 19 to 104 nests on the coast near Sarasota.

One wildlife expert told the Herald-Tribune paper in Sarasota the improvement was “astounding.” Photo by Dcrjsr

TurTLes enJoyeD AVery GooD yeAr

October 1, 2013

But as they grew older, these caffeinated rats remained fearful and more cautious than caffeine-free rats. Photo by Andreas Rejbrand

By Salina Garza13, a CK Reporter from Westminster

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2” is a fun-loving movie

with some action. It is a sweet movie and very kid friendly.

This is another story about the boy named Flint who wants to be an inventor.

In the first movie, he made an invention called the “FLDSMD-

FR (Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator)”, which made giant food.

In this second movie, the LIVE Com-pany has to come and clean it up.

The head person and founder of LIVE, Chester V, an inventor Flint really looks up to, asks him to help with the cleanup.

Chester says that the island has been overrun by living food!

They have to go to the island and find the FLDSMDFR. So, Flint, Sam (his girlfriend) and the rest of the gang, set off to

find it. This is a

very excit-ing movie that had the whole audi-ence rolling with laugh-ter most of the time.

With its very clever jokes and

action packed scenes, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2” also had some strange music which kept me on the edge of

my seat.Though it is called 2, that

doesn’t mean that you have to have watched the first movie to be able to understand this one; they have a recap of what hap-pened in the first movie at the beginning.

This movie would also, with-out a doubt , be great for both boys and girls because of its combination of “action” and “cute” factors.

I saw it in 3-D but I think that it would have been just as good in 2-D. The colors were wild and fun.

I loved this movie and highly recommend it.

It would be completely worth it to go see it.

Like writing? Author Dan Gutman has some weird tips to help you!

Do you want to improve your writing? Check out Dan Gutman’s new

book, “My Weird Writing Tips!”

It tells you tips, tricks, and secrets about writing. The book is easy to read and funny.

It has interesting phrases and cool comics on almost every page.

The book has two sections: one on how to write a good story, the other on grammar.

These two sections are very helpful because they explain how to come up with good ideas for a story and how to keep your reader intrigued.

The book also shows you how to spell hard words, when to use exclamation marks, periods and commas, where to add an apostrophe in hard and confus-ing words, and what words you

need to use to make your writ-ing better.

Here are some of his “weird writing tips:”

If you can’t figure out what to write about in a story, you can just look around and see what inter-ests you. For example if you always look at the blackboard, write about it.

A talking blackboard that doesn’t like to be written on could make a fun story.

You can find ideas every-where!

And, in case you forget how to spell words, you can think of words that represent each letter, for instance, for the word “geography” you could just re-

member “George Eastman’s Old Grandmother Rode A Pig Home Yesterday.”

My favorite spelling tip was how to spell two confusing words: “desert” and “dessert.”

Gutman says that since you always want seconds on dessert, you have to write a second “s” in that word.

The book is full of great tips, but the most important tip from Dan Gutman is “If you want to be a better writer,

read everything you can get your hands on. Read like crazy!”

And I would recommend you start with “My Weird Writing Tips” no matter what age you are.

The story on Page One tells of training, practice and discipline. Look through today’s newspaper for stories or pictures of people doing things that required a great deal of practice, training and dedication. Write a brief essay about how you think they must have worked to get where they are today.

Beyond these four pages

Cloudy with a chance of an enjoyable second helping

By Natalia Goncharova10, a CK Reporter from Fort Morgan

Colorado Kidsis produced by

Denver Post Educational ServicesExecutive 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

By Megan Lindsey,10 , a CK Reporter from Fort Collins

When you think of Afghanistan, you may think of a broken country, ru-ined by years of war, but do you

think of schools?

Elizabeth Suneby has written a book called “Razia’s Ray of Hope: One Girl’s Dream of an Education,” the true story of a girl in Af-ghanistan’s struggle to get to go school.

Razia Jan won the argument, got to go to school, and is today founder of Razia’s Ray of Hope Foundation, an organization dedi-cated to educating girls and women.

She’s also director of a new girl’s school in Afghanistan.

I met them both when they appeared at the Tattered Cover Bookstore.

Razia Jan was born in Afghanistan and lived there for several years before moving to Massachusetts to study. She stayed there 38 years and has a son and a one-year-old granddaughter named Esme.

In 2008, Razia returned to Afghanistan to improve the lives of girls by starting a girl’s school there. Today, the Zabuli Education Center for Girls has 350 girls reading, writ-ing, adding and subtracting.

Jan teaches at her school, where her fa-vorite subject is English, because, she says, “The more they understand, the better their lives will be.”

Elizabeth Suneby has always like to write better than to talk, so, when she went to a fund raiser for Razia’s foundation, she was inspired to write a book about it.

That book turned out to be a splendid, in-formal story. In fact, it is her favorite of all her books, she says, because she feels it can truly make a difference.

“Razia’s Ray of Hope” has really neat il-lustrations, a collage of fabrics, photographs, and illustrations meant to be of a desert-like area, with pops of color.

This book is a great way to acknowledge education for girls and women and Razia Jan’s bravery.

But then again, Razia Jan did say, “If I didn’t do something because I was scared, I’d never do anything at all.”

True story of Afghan girl’s determination

By Cara Dulin,11, a CK Reporter from Castle Rock

NIE is N-E-W!Visit our brand-new website

The Denver Post’s Newspapers In Education (NIE) is getting a brand-new look online! New site features include:

• Colorado Kids on Tuesdays• Mini Page on Wednesdays• Kid Scoop on Thursdays • “This Week in History” quizzes to help teachers• New ways to compare and contrast local media content

Visit the new website today atwww.ColoradoNIE.com.

SudokuRules: Every row across, every column down and each of the six smaller boxes must contain numerals 1,2,3,4,5 and 6, one time and one time only. The solution to this week’s puzzle is on Page 4.

3 5

6

4 6

5 2

5 4

3 5 4

Author Elizabeth Suneby (left) and Razia Jan (right), now grown and living in Afghanistan, where her school helps girls overcome the barriers she once faced. Photo by Cara Dulin

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

The amazing Terry Jones presents a collection of three different books:

“Fairy Tales,” “Fantastic Sto-ries,” and “Animal Tales.” Each book is quite funny.

Terry Jones uses creative imagination in “Fairy Tales” and “Animal Tales.”

Many of the ani-mals have human characteristics.

“Fantastic Sto-ries” had really funny stories.

For example, the title “The Ship of Fools” made me want to laugh before I even read the story.

“Animal Tales” has some in-teresting details to read about: “Sometimes he would take them alive and crush all the bones in their bodies,” from “The Flying King.”

The most enjoyable parts of the books are the wording.

For example, in the story “The Butterfly Who Sang,” Jones writes this sentence: “After that, the frog came every day to listen to the but-terfly sing, though all the time he was really feasting his eyes on her beautiful wings.”

The word that popped out for me was “feasting.” I can picture him staring at her wings like they’re the most beautiful things he will ever see!

Each book has something in common; they each tell a les-son or have a moral.

My favorite moral is in the book Fairy Tales, in the story “Corn Dolly.” You need to be happy with the things you have rather than the things

you want. The series of

books contain 20 or more stories in each one. The lengths of the sto-ries vary.

“The Song That Brought Happi-ness,” in “Fantastic Stories,” is my favorite.

The reason I liked that story, is

that the Wandering Minstrel sang all the time. I would sing all the time if I could too.

The suggested age for read-ing this series is eight and up, but I’d recommend that moms, dads or teachers should read these books to children at or around this age.

I had some trouble reading, and understanding some of the words, but enjoyed them when they were read to me by my mom or dad.

They would, however, be an easy read for children middle school age and up.

Have too much zucchini overflowing your gar-den? How about making

zucchini bread?

There are lots of zucchini bread recipes on the internet. I like my recipes to be rated so I know whether other people like them or not. That’s why I go onto allrecipes.com.

Here’s a recipe that will be sure to make your taste buds happy.

Be sure you have all your ingredients be-fore you start. I had to borrow a teaspoon of baking powder from a neighbor (Thanks, John!).

Mom’s Zucchini Bread3 cups all-purpose flour1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon baking soda1 teaspoon baking powder3 teaspoons ground cinnamon3 eggs1 cup vegetable oil2 1/4 cups white sugar3 teaspoons vanilla extract2 cups grated zucchini1 cup chopped walnuts Grease and flour two 8 x 4

inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in

a bowl.Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and

sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the

creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until

well combined. Pour batter into prepared

pans.Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or

until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

I thought this was a quick and easy recipe.

The instruc-tions were very clear, but since Denver is high altitude, I added an extra 10 minutes to the baking time.

I recommend this recipe for

anyone who knows how to read a recipe and measure ingredi-ents correctly.

Be sure to ask an adult for help when putting stuff in the oven, because you can burn yourself if you’re not careful.

Then clean up right after you cook or your mom might take away your kitchen privileges!

I liked this zucchini bread be-cause it was moist and chewy.

Mine had green specks in it. If you want to hide the fact that it’s made out of a vegetable, you can peel the zucchini.

Overall, I think both moms and kids will agree this is a great way to add vegetables to your diet. Photo by Jade Santoro

‘AmAzinG’ AuThor TeLLs AmAzinGLy funny TALes

mAke The besT of zukes

You’ll find full-length versions of these stories and more at

If you enjoy writing and are 14 or under, why not join us?

Sudoku

Solution

421635

635214

154326

316452

542163

263541

By Ashley Gaccetta,9, a CK Reporter from Longmont

By Kylene Santoro,11, a CK Reporter from Morrison