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

Ghana

We just learned about the country of Uganda.

Ghana is a country in Africa on the West side of the continent, on the Atlantic Ocean.
Ghana's motto is Freedom and Justice

(from: wikipedia - ghana)

The flag of Ghana has horizontal stripes of red, yellow and green, with a black star in the middle.
The red, yellow and green colors are also on many other flags of countries in Africa.
The red is for the blood of the people who died fighting for freedom, the yellow is for the gold and other minerals that make a lot of money for the country, and the green is for the forests and nature of the country.
The black star is for the freedom of the African people.
The Ghana soccer team is nicknamed the black stars because of their flag.

(from: wikipedia - flag of ghana)

To eat in Ghana you might have koobi, which is salted dry tilapia fish.

(from: wikipedia - ghanaian cuisine)

The Kintampo Waterfalls are a popular place for tourists to go visit.

(from: wikipedia - kintampo waterfalls)

A special type of dance and music in Ghana is called kpanlogo, and uses a special type of drum.
It was created by young people who liked American rock and roll, and wanted to create their own type of music.

(from: wikipedia - kpanlogo (drum))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Scotland

Salt of the Earth

We just learned about the Beautitudes that Jesus talked about on his famous Sermon on the Mount.

Another thing that Jesus told his followers in his sermon is that we are the salt of the earth.

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

In the time Jesus was speaking, salt was very important. It was used to help food stay fresh, to help make candles last longer, to help plants grow and to make food taste better.

Since it was so important, when Jesus told his followers they were the salt of the earth, he was saying they were very important, and that they needed to be the helpful flavor of the world and helped save people.

(from: wikipedia - matthew 5:13)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Nebuchadnezzar

Solar - Convection Zone

After the Sun's core and the radiation zone comes the Convection Zone.

The convection zone is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium gases and plasma

When the stuff in the convection zone gets heated up from the radiation zone, it moves toward the outside of the sun.

The way that the cooler gases and plasma get heated and move away from the heat is called convection.

(from: wikipedia - convection)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Planet Alpha Centauri Bb

Sodium

We just learned about the metal element called Aluminum

Another important element is Sodium.

The salt that we put in our food is sometimes called sodium.

Sodium is one of the main chemical elements, the building blocks that make up our world.
It is on the Periodic Table under the name "Cl".

But the salt we eat is actually sodium mixed up with chlorine.

Sodium by itself is a solid shiny metal.

(from: wikipedia - sodium)

And chlorine by itself is a yellow gas.

(from: wikipedia - chlorine)

When they are combined together, they make sodium chloride the salt we eat.

(from: wikipedia - sodium chloride)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Periodic Table

Spanish - January, February

Let's learn the months of the year in Spanish!

We'll start with January and February.

January - Enero - sounds like ay-nay-doh /?/

February - Febrero - sounds like fay-bday-doh /?/


(from: wikipedia - Association of Spanish Language Academies)

Do you remember how to say it in French?
French - Janvier, Février