Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Turtle scutes


We just learned about the Wolverine.

When you look at a turtle's shell and see the lines marking out different shapes on it's back or belly, those areas are called scutes
turtle scutes
(from: wikipedia - turtle shell)

The scutes are like scales on a snake, and each scute has a name for where it is on the shell, like cervical, vertebral or marginal.

The scutes are made of keratin, the same as a rhino horns, whale baleen plates and our fingernails and hair!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Occipital Bone


We learned before that the Frontal Bone and Parietal Bones are part of the Neurocranium.
Also part of the neurocranium is the occipital bone, located in the back of your head.
occipital bone
(from: wikipedia - occipital bone)



Monday, April 1, 2013

Columbia


The second largest country in South America right after Brazil is Columbia.
Columbia
(from: wikipedia - columbia)

46 million people live in Columbia, and they speak Spanish.
To say hello you would say Hola.

Columbia is well known for producing coffee, flowers, emeralds, coal, and oil.
passion flower

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Leviticus


Let's keep learning about the other Books of Law in the Old Testament.

We already learned about Genesis, and Exodus. Next up is Leviticus.

The word Leviticus just means a book about the Levites.
The Levites were the group of people that God picked to be in charge of keeping his laws.

So the book of Leviticus is mostly about rules or laws that God made for his people.
There are over 200 different laws in Leviticus!



(from: wikipedia - book of leviticus)


Saturday, March 30, 2013

Kuiper Belt


Remember we talked about Pluto and how it's part of something called the Kuiper belt?
(kuiper rhymes with viper)

Well it turns out that lots of things are floating around in that area,
over 100,000 different things called Kuiper Belt Objects or KBO for short.
kuiper belt
(from: wikipedia - kuiper belt)

They come in all sizes, some even close to the size of Pluto!

Friday, March 29, 2013

French - The chair is small


We learned last time that to say This house is big
you would say Cette maison est grande

Let's learn more about the things we see every day.

To say The chair is small you would say La chaise est petit
The - La - sounds like lah /?/
chair - chaise - sounds like shez /?/
is - est - sounds like ay /?/
small - petit - sounds like puh-tee /?/

All together it sounds like lah shez ay puh-tee /?/

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Solid, Liquid, Gas


We just learned a little about Light Bulbs.

Have you ever gone sledding in the snow?
What about swimming in a pool?
Have you ever seen water boil on a stove?
What about a bright neon sign for a store?

If so, then you've seen the four types of matter in our world:
solid, liquid, gas and plasma
states of matter
(from: wikipedia - states of matter)

We see water all the time in three of the four types.
An ice cube is water when it's solid, and the steam that rises from boiling water is actually the water turning into a gas.
There are lots of types of solids made from things other than water,
like the dirt you walk on, or the chair you sit in.

Solids can turn to liquids when they get hotter, like lava is actually rock as a liquid!

Sometimes gases are really hot like steam from water,
but sometimes gases are just normal temperature like the air we breathe.

Plasma is what happens when a gas gets really hot, and when the parts of the gas get really full of energy, and whenever you see a bright neon sign, it's filled with plasma!
neon
(from: wikipedia - neon sign)