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

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

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

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

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

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

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




(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

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

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

Sympathetic Nervous System

We just learned about the Autonomic Nervous System, which is part of the Peripheral Nervous System.

One part of the Autonomic Nervous System is the Sympathetic Nervous System.

This part of our nervous system gives us what we call the fight-or-flight feelings.
That means when something happens that scares you or hurts you, this helps make your decision for whether you run away or whether you fight back.


(from: wikipedia - sympathetic nervous system)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pulmonary Artery

Insular Mountains

We just learned about the Coast Mountains in the Pacific Coast Belt, in the North American Cordillera.

Another mountain range in that belt is the Insular Mountains in British Columbia, Canada.

These mountains were made from lava, and created the Vancouver Islands and the Haida Gwaii Islands.
The bottom of these mountains goes below the sea level, which is called not fully exposed.

There are still many earthquakes in this area.


(from: wikipedia - insular mountains)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lake Baikal

Rachel

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

Another person from the Bible is Rachel.

Rachel was one of the wives of Jacob.

While Jacob was running away from his brother Esau because he had stolen Esau's birthright and blessing, he was working for a man named Laban.
He saw Laban's daughter Rachel and thought she was very beautiful, so he asked Laban if he could marry her.
Laban said he had to work for him for 7 years before he could marry her, and he agreed.
After 7 years he had the wedding, but Laban tricked him and made Jacob marry Rachel's older sister Leah first.
He agreed to work for Laban for another 7 years and then married Rachel also, so he had two wives.

Rachel was very upset for a long time because she could not have babies, but then after a long time she was able to have two children, Joseph and Benjamin.

(from: wikipedia - rachel)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Second John

Stavelot Triptych

We just learned about the Shrine of the Three Kings.

Another ancient roman sculpture is the Stavelot Triptych.

We learned before that a triptych is like a sculpted book that opens and closes.
This triptych opens up, and has two smaller triptychs in the middle.

The smaller triptychs are much older, and are said to have held small pieces of the cross that Christ died on, as well as some dirt from Christ's tomb, and a piece of his mother Mary's robe.

The triptychs are made of gold, jewels and glass, and have pictures showing saints, mother Mary, and the story of the Christian Emperor Constantine's mother when she traveled to find the cross that Christ died on.


(from: wikipedia - stavelot triptych)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Dance - Objectless Composition - Rodchenko

ASL - Six, seven, eight, nine, ten

We Counted to five now let's count to ten in ASL!


Remember for 1-5 your palm was facing toward you.
For 6-9, hold your hand out in front of you, with your palm facing away from you.
Hold up all your fingers, but hold down one for each number:

6 - Pinky finger.
7 - Ring finger.
8 - Tall finger.
9 - Index finger.

For 10, close your fist, put your thumb up, and wiggle your hand around.

Here is a helpful video showing these signs:

ASL Numbers 1-10 | Sign Language - My Smart Hands




(from: wikipedia - american sign language)

Italian: sei, setto, otto, nove, dieci

German: seis, sieben, acht, neun, zehn

Spanish: seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez

French: six, sept, huit, neuf, dix

Pig Iron

We've now learned about Sponge Iron and Wrought Iron.

Another type of iron made in a forge is Pig Iron.

This is iron after it has gone through a blast furnace, it is stirred and stirred while heated.
There are a lot of things called impurities in the metals, that make the iron harder to work with or not look as nice.
After heating and stirring, the metal can be cooled and turned into little metal bricks nicknamed "pigs".

They got this nickname because the way the iron was made in molds, it looked like a bunch of little piglets with a larger mother pig.

When they broke off the small pieces from the mother sow, they called them pigs.



(from: wikipedia - pig iron)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Dust Devil

Snake - Molting

We just learned about Snake Scales.

Another part of snake biology is when snakes shed their skin, called molting, sloughing or ecdysis.

Snake skin cane get dirty, worn out, and even covered with bugs like mites or ticks.
So to keep their skin fresh they will peel off the outside layer and have fresh skin and scales underneath.

Usually when a snake is getting ready to shed its skin, it goes and hides somewhere safe.
Then the new layer of skin underneath the old layer gets gooey and slippery.
The snake finds a rough or sharp thing to catch the dry outer skin on, then they keep slithering along.
Just like pulling a sock off, the snake pulls its old skin off and then goes on its way with a nice clean fresh skin.

Younger snakes can shed their skin 4 times a year, and an older snake may only shed their skin 1 or 2 times a year.


(from: wikipedia - snake scale)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: American Eskimo Dog

Autonomic nervous system

We just learned about Brachial Plexus

Remember we learned that the Nervous System is split up into two parts, the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS).
And that part of the Peripheral Nervous System is the Somatic Nervous System.

Another part of the Peripheral Nervous System is the Autonomic Nervous System.

This part of your nervous system controls your internal organs, like your heart, stomach or liver.


(from: wikipedia - autonomic nervous system)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Right Ventricle

Coast Mountains

We just learned about the Yukon Ranges in the Pacific Coast Belt of the North American Cordillera.

Another mountain range in the Pacific Coast Belt is the Coast Mountains.
On the west side of these ranges is a temperate rainforest, which then leads to ice fields and glaciers in the middle, and on the east side is plateaus and forests.

This mountain range has the largest bunch of ice fields in the world.


(from: wikipedia - coast mountains)


(from: wikipedia - coast mountains)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lake Tanganyika

Jacob

We just learned about the Bible person Esau.

Another person from the bible was Jacob.

Jacob was Esau's younger twin brother.
The Bible says that when Jacob was born, he was holding on to Esau's leg.

One time when Esau came back starving from hunting, he was so hungry he gave Jacob his birth right in trade for a bowl of stew.

Jacob was always his mother Rebekah's favorite, because he helped out around the camp while Esau was out hunting.
One day when his father Isaac was going to give his blessing to Esau, Jacob went in and tricked his father into giving him the blessing instead.
Isaac was blind, but Esau was very hairy, so Jacob put on some fur to pretend to be him, and Isaac gave him the blessing.

Esau was so mad at Jacob that he wanted to kill him, so Jacob ran away from home, and didn't come back to see Esau again for a long time.

Later on Jacob's name gets changed to Israel


(from: wikipedia - jacob)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: First John

Shrine of the Three Kings

We just learned about the Brunswick Lion.

Another Romanesque art sculpture is the Shrine of the Three Kings.

These are three golden sarcophagi, which are boxes for holding people's bodies after they have died.

The three people whose bodies are in the boxes are said to be Three Wise Men or Three Kings from the Bible that brought gifts to Jesus.

They are made of wood, then covered with gold and silver, and over 1,000 jewels and beads, and even some cameos.

The golden outside has 74 sculpted pictures of apostles, prophets, and stories from the Bible.


(from: wikipedia - shrine of the three kings)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Tatlin's Tower

ASL - One, two, three, four, five

Let's count to five in ASL!

All of these are with your hand out in front of you, and your palm facing toward you.
Hold up these fingers for each number:

1 - Index finger.
2 - Index finger and tall finger.
3 - Index finger, tall finger and thumb. (not ring finger!)
4 - Index finger, tall finger, ring finger and pinky.
5 - All five fingers.

Here is a helpful video showing these signs:

ASL Numbers 1-10 | Sign Language - My Smart Hands




(from: wikipedia - american sign language)

Italian: uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque

German: Ein, zwei, drei, veir, fünf

Spanish: Uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco

French: Un, deaux, trois, quatre, cinq

Blast Furnace

We just learned about the Wrought Iron.

Another tool for metal working is the Blast Furnace.

A blast furnace is like a giant bloomery, so it's a big chimney with ore going in the top, fire and air getting blown into the bottom, and it burns for a long time.


(from: wikipedia - blast furnace)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Supercell

Snake - Scales

We just learned about the Snake's Internal Orgas.

Another thing that makes snakes different is their scales.

Snakes scales are used to help them slither along the ground, or even to climb trees.
The scales help them feel vibrations on the ground, meaning that an animal is near.
They help them stay warm and hold in the water so they can live in hot places, and they help the snake hide.

Even though snake scales have some color, they are mostly see through, and the color comes from the skin underneath their scales.
Their scales have many different shapes depending on where the scales are on their body, like their head, belly, back or tail.


(from: wikipedia - snake scale)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Whippet

Brachial Plexus

We just learned about the Coccygeal Plexus.

Another part of the nervous system is the Brachial Plexus.

These are the nerves coming from the lower cervical nerves (C5, C6, C7, C8), and the first thoracic nerve (T1).

It controls feeling and movement in the chest, shoulder, arm and hand.


(from: wikipedia - brachial plexus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Right Atrium

Yukon Ranges

We just learned about the Talkeetna Mountains in the Pacific Coast Belt of the North American Cordillera.

Another famous mountain range is the Yukon Ranges in Alaska and Canada.

There are a bunch of other smaller "sub ranges" inside the Yukon ranges, called the Anvil Range, Dawson Range, Miners Range, Nisling Range, Ogilvie Mountains, Nahoni Range, Pelly Mountains, Big Salmon Range, Glenlyon Range, Saint Cyr Range, Ruby Range, Russel Range and Wrangell Mountains.

The Wrangell Mountains are mostly from volcanoes, and are some of the largest shield volcanoes in the US.


(from: wikipedia - yukon ranges)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lake Michigan

Esau

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

Another person from the Bible is Esau.

Esau was the first child of Isaac and Rebekah.
Even from the day he was born, he was very hairy.

He grew up to be a hunter, and his father Isaac really liked him because he was strong and good at hunting.

The story of Esau is told in Genesis chapters 25 - 36.

(from: wikipedia - esau)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Second Peter

Brunswick Lion

We just learned about the Muiredach's High Cross.

Another famous sculpture is the Brunswick Lion, made in the year 1166 in Brunswick Germany.

The statue was made for the Duke Henry the Lion who lived at Dankwarderode castle.

It weighs almost 2,000 lbs, is almost 6 feet tall and is over 9 feet long.
The statue is a hollow bronze sculpture, and was the first large hollow casting like that in a very long time.

There is an old folk tale about the Duke Henry the Lion, saying that he went on a trip and saw a lion battling a dragon.
He helped the lion and together they killed the dragon.
So the lion became his friend, and came home with him.


(from: wikipedia - brunswick lion)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge - Lissitzky

ASL - Dog, Cat

We just learned how to ask if someone speaks ASL.

To say dog in ASL, first pat your thigh a few times with your hand, like you are calling your dog over.
Then hold your hand out with your fingers closed and your palm facing up.
Snap your fingers twice, but it doesn't matter if it makes sound.
These motions are like if you were calling your dog over.

To say cat in ASL, you make the hand shape for the letter F, which also looks like the sign for OK.
Hold it up by the side of your mouth, but with your pointer and thumb not closed yet.
Pinch your fingers together, and pull them to the side.
This motion is like if you were a cat and had whiskers, and you were pulling on your whiskers.

Here is a helpful video showing these signs:

ASL Lesson 9: Animal Signs - Look! We're Learning!




(from: wikipedia - american sign language)

Italian: cane, gatto

German: Hunt, Katze

Spanish: perro, gato

French: chien, chat