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Show AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Thursday, July 19, 2007 notes NEWS AND IDEAS FROM CLASSROOMS AND EDUCATORS THANKSGIVING POINT SLEEPOVER if .J 4 Page 4 CATHY ALLREDNorth County Wayne Jackman of Sandy brought eight girls including two daughters for their birthday to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosnorzzz. Right, Wayne Jackman helps Paige Jackman, 1 1, and Jacey Stewart, 1 1, with their triceratops 3-D wood puzzles. Dinosnorzzz keeping kids awake Cathy Allred NORTH COUNTY STAFF "Dinoslayers" stomped "The group that can beat John's group" at Thanksgiving Point's Dinosnorzzz scavenger hunt Friday night. Group leader Jeff Bond said his group's name was a hopeful hope-ful one. "That's because we beat his group every month," group leader John Bass said and grinned. "That's because we cheat." Fifty-three children, ages 4-14, 4-14, arrived at 7 p.m. ready for adventure, alert and excited. First they watched a newly released re-leased 3-D movie on dinosaurs and got a guided tour of the museum. The scavenger hunt followed with clues hidden in museum exhibits. Participants were supposed sup-posed to find the exhibits that went with the clues. Both losers and "cheaters" of the hunt got to choose prizes, a colorful dinosaur mask or a flying dinosaur made from styrofoam. Whether traveling from far away or living in Thanksgiving Thanksgiv-ing Point's shadow, the families come to have fuf). Sari Schachtel's family from Palm Springs, Calif., spends their summers in Prescott and visited Thanksgiving Point last year. "My kids talked about it all winter," Schachtel said. Treasure hunting not TrixieWalker NIORTH COUNTY STAFF Crystal Larsen was only four years old when she started start-ed hunting for treasure with her mother, Beverly Larsen. Four years ago they took up the sport of geocaching, where GPS receivers are used to locate lo-cate hidden caches. "Crystal loves looking for treasure and hiking to find it," Larsen said. Geocaching became a sport in May 2(KX), when the U.S. government allowed accurate GPS locating technology to be available to the public. The first cache was placed the next day, and in September the Web site, geocaching.com, was announced. At that time there were 75 known caches in the world; there are now many thousands. The 20-mile radius around the American Fork zip code (84003) alone includes 2,049 hidden caches. The only equipment needed for geocaching is a GPS unit and an Internet connection to locate the caches. GPS units range from $100 to $1000, with the more expensive units including maps, downloading and other advanced features. An inexpensive unit is accurate and works great for hunting caches. Internet access is available avail-able at the American Fork library for those with a current . . . r .. ... - i The Roedersheimers of Eagle Mountain have been to the museum before too. Katelyn Roedersheimer, age 4, likes the "Our Earth begins ..." room with its myriad of stars twinkling in the darkness. dark-ness. "It feels like you're flying," fly-ing," she said softly. But her favorite activity at Dinosnorzzz isn't sleeping under the stars, but under the dinosaurs. Kelley Giles came with her son Noah Giles, age 8, and two of his cousins. Their older cousins cous-ins got to go to Dinosnorzzz earlier in the summer and Friday Fri-day was their turn. Tessa Giles said she wanted to sleep by the fish tank instead in-stead of under the dinosaur. She got her wish. Wayne Jackman of Sandy brought eight girls including two daughters, 11 and 13, for their birthday. It is also Dinosnorzzz's birthday. birth-day. In its seventh year, the sleepover activity has evolved into a fully developed program. The scavenger hunt has been added and a hot breakfast of cinnamon rolls and waffles with juice. For the adults, there is hot coffee or caffein-ated caffein-ated soda to help them make it through the last two hours of the program. Some of the younger children had bed heads and a zombie gaze during dur-ing the morning activities. When asked the time they went to sleep early Saturday 'S, Associated Press TJ Magrane, 1 1, foofes at a "travel bug" found in a geocache found in Islamorda, Fla. The sport involves using GPS units to locate items hidden by others with coordinates posted on the Internet. library card. Elizabeth Ostler, 15, said her family of seven enjoys geocaching together. "It's kind of like a treasure hunt and adventure," she said. "Before this, we used our GPS unit for orienteering." Caches may include a box of trinkets, lead the cacher to a historic sight, or include games and riddles. Cache hunters are encouraged to beware of "muggles," or noncachers, who could vandalize or remove the cache. Caches are hidden by aficionados of the sport. If you go Dinosnorzzz When: Second weekend of every month Where: Museum of Ancient Life Cost: $39 per child, $29 per adult, $4 discount per person with Thanksgiving Point membership Contact: 766-5015 Web site: www.thanksgiv-ingpoint.com www.thanksgiv-ingpoint.com morning, the teenagers shout out "Two" and look quite pleased with themselves. Jack-man, Jack-man, however, mouths "four" and nods his head emphatically. emphati-cally. "That's a little late, but we had some older kids," Bass said. The group leaders spend the night in the lobby in case a sleepwalker or confused preschooler pre-schooler should wander away from their family. Some of the younger kids and a few parents are looking a bit sleepy by 9 a.m." "That's OK, we'll catch up," Schachtel said. "That's all that matters. It's better than camping camp-ing outside." After just a few hours of sleep, one 6-year-old was . too excited to sleep, there's a quick trip to the restrooms and everyone meets for break just for kids Jerry Hansen, a.k.a. Sir Gerald, is president of the Utah Association of Geocachers for the coming year and has hidden hid-den many game and treasure caches. "I learned about geocaching from articles in the newspaper in the spring of 2002," he said. "It sounded so fun I went right out and bought a GPS. I've found I've gotten more exercise exer-cise recently than I've gotten in the last five years." Hansen has also been involved in-volved in geocaching events, where cachers gather from 7 K -1 . 'v fast. The-fhree groups begin rotating between .building 3-D triceratops puzzles.folding origami ori-gami dinos or gently chipping away stone from a fossil. Group leaders toss out jokes and tall tales about the museum mu-seum while they guide their guests through the activities. "I don't recommend you fold your laundry this way," Bond says while folding origami dinosaurs. di-nosaurs. Bass relates to his group how replicas of fossils were made drove the staff crazy for about a month. They were originally made out of a softer material, he said. "When the heaters in the museum kicked on, the fossils would soften up and collapse," Bass said. "The paleontologists would pose dinosaurs reading in the bathroom or leaning up against walls. "They decided they needed to use harder material for the dinosaurs," he said. A quiet buzzing noise comes from the paleontology room on the other side of the museum from the origami and puzzle stations. Wearing safety glasses and using air stribes, children softly drill stone away from their Green River formation imported from Wyoming revealing re-vealing fish fossils shapes. "They are 15-million-year-old original fossils," Rick Hunter of Lehi, Thanksgiving Point paleontologist, said. anymore around the state and can win prizes. He said that the first cache he ever placed, "The Bookworm Cache," is still "active "ac-tive and going strong." Caches are located all over the world; U.S. soldiers have even placed them in Iraq. Geocaching Geo-caching is a great way to see the sights while traveling on family vacations. "As a mom, I find it's a great way to get my kids outdoors," Larsen said. "Because they're using a GPS, they still think they're playing with electronic devices." Courtesy photo From top: MacKenzie Pedersen, Paige Thunnell and Xandra Peterson are part of the Mischief Makers play being presented at Lone Peak High School. Lone Peak High School I LPHS presents play as benefit Lone Peak High School's Pillow Theater will present The Mischief Makers," Mak-ers," a fun, interactive play for children, teens and adults. Money raised will go to Primary Prima-ry Children's Medical Center. Throughout the show, the audience is invited to participate partici-pate with sound effects, props and even asked to march on stage with the characters. "The Mischief Makers" is the comical story of three of the most cunning and clever tricksters in folk history: Anansi the Spider, Raven and Reynard the Fox. These three engage in a contest of stories to see who is, truly, the greatest great-est Mischief Maker ever. The play continues July 19, 20, and 21 at 1 p.m. at Lone Peak High School, 10189 N. 4800 West, Highland. Free face painting and crafts will be from 12:15-12:45 to prepare audience members for their participation. The director, MacKenzie Pedersen, a senior this year at Lone Peak, is doing this play as her senior project. "Children are my inspiration for taking on this project," she said. "I can't wait to see their faces as they participate and enjoy the production. As a bonus, I get to raise money for Primary Children's Medical Medi-cal Center, who saved my life when I was a baby and saved the lives of two of my good friends in the past year." "The Mischief Makers" stars seasoned actors: Paige Thunnell as Raven; Xandra Peterson as Reynard; MacKenzie MacK-enzie Pedersen as Anansi; and Nikko Pedersen as the voice of Nyame. Tickets are $5 and are available avail-able at the door or at Kohler's in Highland. For large groups, call 796-0434. There is limited seating. HARRY POTTER EVENTS Hutchings Museum Advanced Wizards Half Day Students will study advanced potions, Quidditch (weather permitting), magical magi-cal creatures in Amber, and spend an hour with master magician Professor Neilson from the Mayan. Each witch and wizard will also receive his or her own Harry Potter Delta Education Secret Sightings Sight-ings Optical Illusions kit along with tons of magical things to take to your muggle home. The class is July 30 from 12:30-4:30 12:30-4:30 p.m. for ages 8-12. Cost is $50. I Time Turner Yule Ball The museum will host the Time Turner Yule Ball on July 31 from 6-9 p.m. Cost is $28 and is an activity geared for 8- to 14-year olds. There are eight prefect positions available avail-able for 14-to 16-year-olds. A magical night of complete mysterious games, live animal and chemistry magic (make your own edible potion). Participants Par-ticipants must come dressed as a wizard or magical being. American Fork Library t Library hosts Harry Potter Pot-ter movie marathon The American Fork Public Library Li-brary is having a Harry Potter Movie Marathon The movies start at 6:30 p.m. and are free but those who attend must reserve a seat there is a limit of 60 people. Movies are made possible by a grant from Target stores. July 23 will feature "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." There will be a Harry Potter Pot-ter birthday party for all ages on July 30 from 6:308:30 p.m. Tickets cost $5 per family. Attendees may take classes in transfiguration and divination, contribute to the newest edition edi-tion of "The Monster Book of Monsters," visit Honeyduke's for a treat, and help Neville find his toad. They will earn points for their house in the competition for the coveted Housecup. And, if they dare, they may snatch a dragon's egg- Lehi City Public Library I Harry Potter Day This popular activity at the Lehi City Public Library now requires re-quires registration. Children can sign up at the library, 120 N. Center St., for a two-hour session of games, activities and giveaways. The library's final celebration for "the boy who lived," muggles are invited in-vited as well as wizards (in costume). The library will be closed on July 28 as the "elves" will be on strike the day following the party. Eagle Mountain Public Library I Harry Potter in "Deathly Hallow's" J.K. Rowling's "Deathly Hallows" will be released on July 21 and the Eagle Mountain Public Library Li-brary has preordered three copies. The books will not be put on hold until the library receives the copies the following follow-ing week. Pleasant Grove Public Library "Deathly Hallow's" released re-leased Nearly 100 people could be waiting for the midnight toll at the Pleasant Grove Library on Friday night to check out "Harry Potter in the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling. The Pleasant Grove Public Library staff will opening open-ing the library at that time so patrons could have the book at the same time as those who purchase it at stores. There will be approximately approxi-mately 28 Deathly Hallow books, cassettes and CDs available. Those who are first in line and have been on the year-old waiting list will be allowed al-lowed to check the items out. The library is located at 30 E. Center St. Timberline Middle School Upcoming dates to remember: remem-ber: Aug. 1 Mail in registration registra-tion deadline Aug. 6 New student registration reg-istration (new to the area), 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 10 Registration 10 a.m. to noon and 5-6 p.m. Aug. 8, 9, 10, 14, 15 Class changes by appointment only Aug. 16, 17 School closed for teacher meetings Aug. 16 Back to School Night, 6:30-9 p.m. Aug. 20 First day of school for seventh graders only Aug. 21 First day of school for eighth and ninth graders only Aug. 22 All students attend at-tend I PTA Reflections contest The Parent Teacher's Association has announced the theme for the 2007-2008 school year as "I can make a difference by ...." Subjects falling within that theme can be painted, photographed, sculpted, danced, written, played or sung. Contest guidelines and due dates will be given out once the school year commences in August by each school's PTA. TimpanogosCave I Let s Go Fishing Program Pro-gram will be Friday from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Mile Rock Picnic Area. Ranger Brad Woostenhulme will teach basic fishing techniques. Bring your own poles or use one of those available to practice what is learned. There is no charge. I The Crystals of Timpanogos Cave Saturday from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Timpanogos Cave visitor's center. Come take a good look at crystals found in the caves with Ranger Rang-er Royce Shelley. These attending at-tending will learn how to build a Crystal Kit to grow their own crystals at home. I Legends, Ghosts and Folklore Folk-lore Monday from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Timpanogos Cave Visitor Center. Ranger Ken Kyburz presents legends, ghost stories and folklore of the surrounding area in a multi-media presentation. |