Mozambique

We just learned about the country of Ghana.

Mozambique is a country in Africa on the Southeast part of the continent, right on the Indian Ocean.

(from: wikipedia - mozambique)

The flag of Mozambique has stripes of green, white, black, white, yellow.
The green stands for the riches of the land, the white is peace, the black is the African continent and the yellow is the country's minerals.

There is a red triangle that stands for the country's fight for freedom, a gun that stands for defense, a book that stands for learning, a garden hoe that stands for farming, and a star that stands for their government.

(from: wikipedia - flag of mozambique)

There are many fruit farms in Mozambique, so a big part of every meal is fresh fruit like mangoes.

(from: wikipedia - mango)

Since Mozambique is on the ocean, it has some beautiful beaches like Ponta Do Ouro which means Point of Gold.

(from: wikipedia - ponta do ouro)

Some of the people in Mozambique have dances they do to scare away evil spirits, and they paint their faces like a scary mask.

(from: wikipedia - mozambique)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Italy

The Light of the World

We just learned that in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount he called his followers the Salt of the Earth.

In the next part of his sermon, he calls his followers the Light of the World.

You are the light of the world.
A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Jesus is saying that people look to his followers to show them God's love,
so make sure to show God's love so we are like a bright light shining for everyone.

(from: wikipedia - light of the world)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Return from Exile

Solar - Photosphere

After the Sun's core, radiation zone and convection Zone comes the last part of the sun on the outside.

The photosphere is the outside shell of the sun, the part that we see that gives light to our planet from space.

The photosphere is super hot, at over 10,000 degrees F.

It is mostly made up of things called granules which are huge bubbles of plasma over 600 miles wide!

The granules rise up from the convection zone, then after about 8 minutes they cool off and go back down to a smaller size.

(from: wikipedia - granule (solar physics))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Sirius

Spanish - March, April

Let's keep learning the months of the year in Spanish!

We've learned that January and February are Enero and Febrero.

March - Marzo - sounds like mah-d-zoh /?/

April - Abril - sounds like ah-b-deel /?/


(from: wikipedia - Association of Spanish Language Academies)

Do you remember how to say it in French?
French - Mars, Avril

Lead

We just learned about the element sodium that is part of what we call salt.

Another chemical element is Lead, called "Pb" for short (from the latin word "plumbum") on the Periodic Table.

Lead is another type of metal found in the earth.

Just like graphite lead can be used to write on things.
It is also easy to work with and make into things like pipes, so for a very long time many water pipes were made out of lead.
Lead was also used to make paint for a long time.

People have now learned that lead can be poisonous to people, so we have stopped using lead for pipes or paint.


(from: wikipedia - lead)

Lead is still used today to help protect us from radiation. When you get an X-Ray at the dentist's office or a doctor's office, they sometimes put a big heavy apron on you. Inside the apron is lead, protecting you from the X-Rays.

Lead is a very heavy atom, so it can stop any bad radiation from getting to your body.

(from: wikipedia - lead)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Circuit Board

Loon

We just learned about the Sea Anemone

Another type of animal is the Loon.

Loons are black and white birds that spend most of their life on water.
The name loon comes from old words that meant awkward or clumsy, because they do not walk very well on land.

Loons catch their food by swimming along and then diving head first into the water to catch fish, frogs, crayfish, snails and other small things in the water.
They are very good divers and they can hold their breath for up to 90 seconds while looking for food.

Loons don't have teeth, so sometimes they will swallow small rocks that will stay in their stomach, so if they swallow something with a hard shell like a crayfish the rocks will help slowly break the crayfish's outer shells and they can digest them.

(from: wikipedia - loon)

The loon is such a famous bird that in Canada it is on their one dollar coin.


(from: wikipedia - coins of the canadian dollar)

They nicknamed their coin the Loonie.

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Horse Withers

Stomach - Hydrochloric Acid

While the food that is in your stomach is getting mushed up by the peristalsis, it is also getting turned to mush by a chemical called hydrochloric acid.

This acid is so strong that if you had a glass of just hydrochloric acid and you touched it with your hands, it would burn your skin.

Luckily your stomach has this gooey slimy stuff in it called mucus all along the walls of your stomach that protect it from the acid.

(from: wikipedia - stomach)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Ear Bones - Hammer Anvil Stirrup