Did you know that today is director Chris Columbus’s birthday? The 52-year-old has really made a name for himself in Hollywood since he his days as a film student in New York City. Check out how he got his start in this biography we found at movies.nytimes.com:

Screenwriter/Director Chris Columbus sold his first movie script for Jocks while still a film student at New York University; although heavily rewritten by others for the screen, this piece got Columbus’ foot in the big-time door. His breakthrough script for producer Steven Spielberg was for Gremlins, and was allegedly inspired by its writer’s dreams of mice at his fingers. The film, which blended warmth and whimsy with slapstick and some truly mean-spirited moments, was even more vicious than what was seen onscreen before it was cleaned up by Spielberg, himself. The success of Gremlins secured Columbus future writing assignments on such Spielberg projects as Young Sherlock Holmes and The Goonies (both 1985).

He also developed the concept for a 1986 television cartoon series, Galaxy High School, about an extraterrestrial school populated by weird-looking space aliens. Columbus was eventually given a chance to direct the medium-budget teen comedy Adventures in Babysitting in 1988. He followed this with Home Alone (1990), directed from a script by John Hughes, which made incredible amounts of money and planted Columbus firmly on the Hollywood “A” list. Columbus continued to alternate between writing and directing as a Hollywood fixture in the ’90s, churning out such box-office bonanzas as Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), among other titles, before directing two even bigger blockbusters: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) and its sequel the following year, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Have a great one, Chris!

Today is International Literacy Day, and what better way to celebrate than with word games? Here’s a fun one we found at crayola.com/lesson-plans called Word Worms:

Challenge yourself to come up with new words based on vocabulary or spelling words! This brainstorming session results in colorful art.

1. Play this word game in pairs, small groups, or with the whole class! Begin by creating a setting for your Word Worms. On a large dry-erase board, draw a colorful scene with Crayola Dry-Erase Markers. You might draw a ground line with a few plants with staggered roots below ground. Draw a large worm that is crawling.

2. Choose a word from your current vocabulary or spelling list and write it inside the worm. That is the key word for the activity.

3. On each plant, write what type of word will be written on its roots. Use a different color for each category, such as “person,” “thing,” “related word,” “synonym,” or “antonym.”

4. Fill in as many words on the roots as you can think of for each category. Challenge each other to see who can think of the most words that are appropriate. Simply use a facial tissue to erase and then rewrite.

If you have children who are learning how to read, be sure to check out http://www.storylineonline.net, select a book, then watch and listen as a famous celebrity reads the book aloud. Each book includes subtitles that can be turned on or off.

Happy reading!

Today we’d like to wish a very happy birthday to a talented young actress, Evan Rachel Wood! She’s come a long way in her 22 years. Check out this biography we found on Starpulse.com to see how she got her start:

Evan Rachel Wood was born in Raleigh, NC, where her father Ira David Wood ran a theater company. Along with her two brothers, she acted in her dad’s stage productions before getting small roles in made-for-TV movies. In 1995, she made several guest appearances on the CBS drama American Gothic, as the daughter of Mrs. Russell (played by real-life mom Sara Lynn Moore). Her next regular role was Chloe on the NBC sci-fi police drama Profiler. She left the show to join the cast of the popular ABC family drama Once and Again as Rick’s daughter Jessie. Along with child actor co-stars Julia Whelan and Meredith Deane, she won a Young Artist Award for her work on the show.

Other TV appearances include Touched by an Angel, The West Wing, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In 1998, Wood made her first feature film in Timothy Hutton’s directorial debut Digging to China. In the starring role of Harriet Frankovitz, she played a ten-year-old girl who befriends mentally challenged adult Ricky (Kevin Bacon).

Her big breakthrough came in 2003 as the star of Catherine Hardwicke’s directorial debut Thirteen, which was partially written by teenage co-star Nikki Reed. Launched into semi-stardom by the well-marketed movie, she was then offered a part in Ron Howard’s Western The Missing, also starring Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones. In 2007, she starred in the Beatles-inspired musical Across the Universe, and appeared in The Wrestler in 2008.

Most recently, she appeared in HBO’s vampire series True Blood. You can catch her in theaters in four days when The Conspirator opens.

Today, we’d like to wish a very special happy birthday to a singer who doesn’t need an introduction – or a last name!

Beyoncé Knowles has come a long way from the girl who was born 29 years ago in Houston, Texas. She started performing when she was only seven years old, and won over 30 local competitions for her combined dancing and singing skills. Along with her cousin Kelly Rowland and classmates LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett, she joined an adolescent singing group. Her father signed on to be the girls’ manager, eventually quitting his full-time job to focus on the group that would be called Destiny’s Child. The group gained momentum in the 1990s, appearing on Star Search in 1992 and changing members several times before being signed to Columbis Records in 1997. Four studio albums later, the group has officially become the best-selling female group of all time, with such smash hits as “Jumpin’ Jumpin’,” “Bills, Bills, Bills,” “Say My Name,” and “Survivor” bolstering the girls’ momentum.

In 2001, Beyoncé became the first African American female artist and second woman ever to win the annual ASCAP Pop Songwriter of the Year Award. That same year, she began focusing on her acting career with an appearance in the MTV drama Carmen: A Hip Hopera. In 2002, she starred opposite Cuba Gooding, Jr in the romantic comedy The Fighting Temptations.

In 2003, she released her first full-length solo debut album, Dangerously in Love, which reached multi-platinum status and led to four Top Ten singles and five Grammy awards. The following year, Destiny’s Child reconvened to release Destiny Fulfilled. The group released a one last album of greatest hits entitle #1’s and then decided to disband.

Beyoncé then turned her full attention to her solo career, releasing her sophomore album Bday in September 2006 and appearing in the movie Dreamgirls. At the American Music Awards in 2007, she made history as the first woman to win the International Artist Award.

Also in 2007, she landed the role of Etta James in Cadillac Records, for which she also served as a co-executive producer. n April of 2008, Beyoncé secretly wed longtime-boyfriend Jay-Z in New York. Later that year, she released her third studio album,  a double-disc effort called I am… Sasha Fierce, which allowed her to explor both mainstream sounds and traditional R&B.

In January 2010, Beyoncé again made history when she became the first female artist to win six Grammys in one night.

Hope it’s a great one, Beyoncé!

Today we’d like to wish a very happy birthday to the talented singer Gloria Estefan! As one of the 100 best-selling music artists and with seven Grammy awards, she is the most successful crossover Latin music performer in the world. Check out this biography we found onthebiographychannel.co.uk to see how she found her way to such shining success:

Gloria María Fajardo’s father, José, was a bodyguard for the president of Cuba. When she was one, Fidel Castro took over the country, and her family fled to the United States. Having joined the US army, Gloria’s father was sent to Vietnam in 1966. When he returned, he was no longer able to work and the young Gloria helped care for her father as well as her little sister.

Music became an important means of escape, and she enjoyed singing and playing the guitar. At high school, in 1975, she met Emilio Estefan, who invited her to sing some songs with his band. The band was so impressed that they invited her to sing regularly with them, changing their name to the Miami Sound Machine.

After graduating from college, Gloria and Emilio were married and, in 1980, their band won a recording contract with CBS Records. The Miami Sound Machine played music that mixed Cuban styles with American pop and rock. Their first four albums were recorded in Spanish, and were very popular within the Latino community in the United States.

They made their first English-language album in 1984, ‘Eyes of Innocence’. Their next album, ‘Primitive Love’, combined English words and tunes with Cuban rhythms, and was a big hit. Gloria made her first solo album, ‘Cuts Both Ways’, in 1989, but tragedy struck soon after: in 1990, the Estefans were riding in their tour bus when it collided with a truck. Gloria’s back was broken, although her husband and son were less seriously injured.

While Estefan recovered, she continued to write new songs. Despite doctors’ warnings that she might never walk again, her next public appearance was only six months later, and soon she was back on tour.

She made a twentieth-anniversary album in 1999 and an album, called ‘Alma Caribena’/'Caribbean Soul’, in 2000.

Hope it’s a great one, Gloria!

Today, we wish a happy 38^th birthday to one of Hollywood’s golden leading ladies, Cameron Diaz!

Cameron was just 16 when a photographer discovered her at a party and her modeling career began. She traveled all over the world for several years before landing her very first acting role opposite Jim Carrey in The Mask. After the film, she took some acting lessons and tested her skills in smaller, independent films.

In 1997, Cameron dazzled audiences when she appeared opposite Julia Roberts in My Best Friend’s Wedding. She followed up that role with another success as the titular character in There’s Something About Mary. From there, Cameron found nothing but success with starring roles in Charlie’s Angels and Shrek. After her role in Martin Scorcese’s Gangs of New York, Cameron became the second actress in the “20-million-dollar club,” joining Julia Roberts as leading ladies whose asking price per picture is $20 million dollars.

You can catch Cameron leaping into the superhero genre in The Green Lantern, coming this January 14, 2011.