Episode 4: Squircles

Click here to listen to Squircles

Hello All,

We are excited to introduce our first "flashlight" episode. A "flashlight" episode is shorter than other episodes, but we think you'll find them just as illuminating. In honor of this being our first "Flashlight", we are giving away some great books generously donated to us by our sponsor, Barefoot Books. Their books are original, entertaining, and so imaginative. There are two ways to enter and you can do just one or both!

The first way is to draw a squircle by listening to the poem. Now, take that squircle and make a picture. Your picture can be just one squircle colored in, or a bunch of squircles put together to make something new. Your picture can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. We'd love to see what you can come up with using your imagination! Send your works of art to nightlightstories@gmail.com. We will post all the entries in our Fan Art slide show for everyone to enjoy.

The second way is to simply leave us a comment on the blog telling us THREE shapes you see throughout your day and where you saw them. One winner will be chosen randomly on Valentine's Day, February 14th, 2009 to receive a set of five books from Barefoot Books. We look forward to seeing your creations.

Speaking of creations, entries are starting to come in for the Goosie Card contest. The details for that contest are outlined in episode #3.

This episode and any past or future episodes is protected under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License which means that you have permission to share these stories but don't sell or alter them in any way.

As always, I look forward to watching the glow grow brighter with the many stories we can share together.

What did you say? A word of the day!

That is right! In our story there are many juicy words

that are fun to learn and say! I am going to post some words

from the story that would be fun to try to use in your

conversations throughout the week.

Squircle: a mathematical shape with properties between those of a square and those of a circle.

Phenomenal: highly extraordinary or prodigious; exceptional.

Fret: to feel or express worry, annoyance, discontent.

Galore: in abundance; in plentiful amounts.

Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peak at a couple of the books

you could win from Barefoot Books! We look forward to

sharing these wonderful treasures with you!

JUST ADD IMAGINATION!

Try these activities to keep your imagination glowing after hearing the story.

1. Use different shapes and colors to create a pattern (blue circle, red square, orange squircle, blue circle, red square, orange squircle)

2. The directions to make a squircle are in a specific order. It is important to follow the directions in the order they are given to have success in creating a squircle. Think of something you do everyday that is important you do in a specific order.