Small Cactus

Saggital

Axial

Spines are too dry and didn't get signal, alas.

Flower Scan : Lily

Three Lily Buds side by side.

Axial Acquisition 

Saggital Acquisition

Corn : Hi Res

Hi Resolution Stills

Understanding Phonics

Phonics Center Ideas. Phonics Center Ideas thumbnail

 Activities for Teaching Phonics Digraphs. Activities for Teaching Phonics ...

Phonics Scaffolding Activities. Phonics Scaffolding Activities thumbnail

There has been a long-standing and often contentious debate in education ...

Phonics & Conversation. Focuses on phonic awareness skills- the ...

Preschool boy reading. Primary schools are being encouraged to teach ...

 

... the basics: starting with phonics. She couldn't sound out the words ...

 That is essentially illiterate. And, despite pouring more money into ...

Firm Foundations overview. The Firm Foundations materials are made ...

  Our kindergarten literacy program is centred on "Jolly Phonics"

If your child has reached the age of four and has recently started at primary school then you will more than likely have started to hear the word "phonics" being discussed around school? But what exactly is phonics and what does it have to do with your child?

Teaching a child to read is one of the most important aspects of their education. It forms the foundation from which they can then progress and opens up a whole new world of reading to them. Phonics forms a huge part of this learning journey and is now commonly used in UK schools when teaching children how to read and write.

Let's look at phonics right from the start... when the child is first introduced to this teaching method they are shown the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that these letters make individually, rather than the name of the letter. So, for example when they are show the letter "a" (which adults will pronounce as "ay") they are taught the sound that this letter makes, so "ah" (much like the way it is pronounced when saying the word "cat").

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, yet these letters make a total of 44 sounds. Your child needs to be confident about the letters in front of them and the sounds they make before they can progress to reading with any degree of confidence. When they comprehend the sound an individual letter makes they can progress to the next stage; blending.

When two or more letters are used together their sound can change, and yet there is a patter than with repeated practice your child will become familiar with. This will then help to increase the child's level of fluency and will help them approach some more "irregular words".

Phonics has been proven to help not only children but also adults progress their reading skills. By teaching a child the sound a specific symbol means they are able to progress later in life when looking at words, breaking them down by sound and deciding upon the correct word within a split second. Phonics offers a good strategy for decoding words so that the child does not need to memorise the word by sight.

Phonics is now widely recognised as the most reliable and effective ways of teaching children how to read and as a parent you should familiarise yourself with the principles of phonics so you can support this learning at home.

New! Interactive 3D renders of Fruits and Veggies!!

My friends at TheVisualMD.com just sent me over a bunch of amazing interactive renders of my fruits and Veggies.

They are a MUST SEE!!

You gotta check them out!

Awesome!

New Hi Res Stills, with limited GIFs : Tomato

FULL RESOLUTION

Same deal as the cucumber, only partial volume was imaged.

New Hi Res Stills, with limited GIFs : Cucumber

FULL RESOLUTION

So in order to achieve High Resolution, I couldn't scan the cucumber in its entirety, 

Here is the GIF of the acquired space

Not as High Resolution but a cool view anyway

Jicama

Gradient Echo

Garlic

Axial

Coronal

Prickly Pear

This is a strange one. Actually nothing like a pear. Grows on a cactus.

Spin Echo

Gradient Echo

EDIT : I learned the hard way to handle these with gloves...
there are a ton of little spines on it...and they really suck.
So if you see some at a grocery store...handle with care.
They probably won't warn you. :(

Flower : Pink Mink Protea

Pink Mink Protea

Just in case you aren't aware of what this flower looks like...I certainly wasn't.

Broccoli REDO with cool 3D render

Kind of acts like a Silhouette Illusion

kind of...

Heirloom Tomato

High Resolution 

Banana, singular + Hires

Brussel Sprouts, several

Quince

Sunflower

So as mentioned, I'm trying out flowers. They are going to be a little difficult in GIF form since a sunflower is reasonably flat, therefore, I can't get as many slices in as I would like. It still works though, ill be adding a photoshopped/concatenated image of the slices of the sunflower, so you can see the petals and the anther. See Below

Flowers provided by the generous folks at Boston Wholesale Flowers

Concatenated 

Working on High Resolution Scans

Hello all,
So if you haven't yet, check out the Hi Res stills portion of the page. I've been focusing on making very nice images, perhaps for posters or printing?

Well regardless, these two are new and I'm very happy with them. Pomegranate and Bird of Paradise : Hi Res stills!
Click on them to see all of the goodness.

New Page!

NEW! HOT!

High Resolution still images of some of my favorite fruits and vegetables for your viewing pleasure.

See the right side of the page

Star Fruit

Interesting six pointed star shape. As opposed to the more common 5 point star fruit.

Spin Echo

Gradient Echo