Saturday, December 31, 2016

Reliquary of St. Maurus


We just learned about the Gloucester Candlestick.

Another ancient sculpture is the Reliquary of St. Maurus.

Just like the Shrine of the Three Kings these are sarcophagi, coffins with people's bones in them.
Inside the silver plated golden covered boxes are the bones of St. Maurus, St. John the Baptist, and St. Timothy.

During World War II, this reliquary was buried underneath a church to protect it from armies that would steal it.

It was buried for around 40 years and forgotten, until someone went looking for it and dug it up.


(from: wikipedia - reliquary of st. maurus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Composition II - Mondrian

Friday, December 30, 2016

ASL - Red, Orange, Yellow

We just learned about the alphabet in ASL.

Now let's learn some colors!

red - Hold up your pointer finger in front of your chin below your mouth, and pull it down two times, almost like you are scratching your chin.

orange - Hold your hand out like a fist in front of and below your mouth, and squeeze it two times, almost like you are squeezing a bottle of orange juice into your mouth.

yellow - Hold up your hand in the finger spelling sign for "Y" and spin your hand two times.

Here is a helpful video showing these signs:

Learn to sign: COLORS in American Sign Language - Meredith ASL



ASL
(from: wikipedia - american sign language)

Italian: rosso, arancione, giallo

German: rot, orange, gelb

Spanish: rojo, naranja, amarillo

French: rouge, orange, jaune

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Slag


We just learned about the Smelting.

When a blacksmith is smelting to get the iron out of iron ore, the left over stuff is called slag.

It looks kind of like glass, sand or rocks, and was usually thrown away as waste.


(from: wikipedia - slag)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Firestorm

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Snake - Skull


We just learned about the snake skeleton.

Part of the snake's skeleton is the skull.

Sometimes when a snake has to eat a really big meal, it has to open up it's mouth very large.
Some people say that the snake has to unhinge or unhook it's jaw.
This is not really true, because the snake's jaw is already split open at the bottom middle, even before eating anything.

So when they have to eat something big, their bottom jaw spreads out to the left and the right to get big enough for their meal.

(from: wikipedia - snake skeleton)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Keeshond

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Parasympathetic Nervous System


We just learned about the Sympathetic Nervous System.

Another part of the Autonomic Nervous System is the Parasympathetic Nervous System, sometimes just called the PSNS.

Remember the Sympathetic Nervous System gives us the "fight or flight" feelings.

The PSNS gives us what we call the "rest-and-digest" feelings.
These are more for when you are sitting at rest, eating or just relaxing.


(from: wikipedia - parasympathetic nervous system)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Heart - Blood Flow

Monday, December 26, 2016

Olympic Mountains


Remember we're learning about the moutain ranges in the Pacific Coast Belt on the North American Cordillera.

We just learned about the Insular Mountains.

Another mountain range in the Pacific Coast Belt is the Olympic Mountains.

These mountains have water on three sides, with the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Seattle to the east.
Because they are surrounded by so much water, the western slopes are the wettest place in the lower 48 states, which doesn't include Alaska and Hawaii.

The tallest mountain in this range is Mount Olympus, which is different from the famous mountain in Greece.


(from: wikipedia - olympic mountains)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Great Bear Lake

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Leah


We just learned about the person from the Bible named Rachel.

Another person from the Bible is Leah.

Leah was Rachel's older sister, and when Jacob asked to marry Rachel, her father said he had to marry Leah first.
She was sad that Jacob loved Rachel, but she had six sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun) and one daughter (Dinah).

Her son Judah would be the ancestor of David, who was the ancestor of Jesus.
Rachel died in childbirth of her son Benjamin, so when Jacob was laid to rest in his tomb he was put next to Leah.


(from: wikipedia - leah)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Third John

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Gloucester Candlestick


We just learned about the Stavelot Triptych.

Another famous sculpture is the Gloucester Candlestick.

This candlestick is made of bronze, which is a mixture of a bunch of metals like copper, tin and silver.
People believe this candlestick was made up of a bunch of old melted coins.

It has many sculpted little statues on it from the bottom to the top. There are dragons at the bottom, and at the top are the four people who wrote the Bible gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The candlestick has words written on it in Latin. Translated to English they are:
"This flood of light, this work of virtue, bright with holy doctrine instructs us, so that Man shall not be benighted in vice."

This means that sculpture can remind people to follow the teachings of the Bible and live a good life full of light, and not do bad things and live in the darkness.

There are some sculpted figures on the candlestick that are trying to climb up toward the light, and others that are trying to crawl away from it toward the bottom.






(from: wikipedia - gloucester candlestick)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Revolving Torsion Gabo

Friday, December 23, 2016

ASL Alphabet

We just learned how to Count to ten in ASL.

Signing the ASL alphabet is called "fingerspelling".

Here is a helpful video showing these signs:

ASL ABC Lesson and Song - Learn Sign Language Alphabet - My Smart Hands



ASL
(from: wikipedia - american sign language)

The Italian alphabet looks the same as the English alphabet.

The German alphabet has the letters ä, ö, ü, ß

The Spanish alphabet:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G
H, I, J, K, L, LL, M, N, Ñ
O, P, Q, R, RR, S, T, U
V, W, X, Y, Z

The French alphabet:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G
H, I, J, K, L, M, N
O, P, Q, R, S, T, U
V, W, X, Y, Z

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Smelting


We just learned about Pig Iron.

Removing metals like iron from iron ore is called smelting.

The rocks that have metal in them get heated up, and the metal ends up separate from the leftover waste.


(from: wikipedia - smelting)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Fire whirl

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Snake - Skeleton


We just learned about the Snake - Molting.

Another part of snake biology is the skeleton.

Snakes only have a skull, backbone and ribs, and a few small bones left over from when snakes used to be lizards and had legs.
They can have 200 to 400 vertebrae in their backbone, depending on the type of snake.


(from: wikipedia - snake skeleton)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Samoyed