Senegal

We just learned about the country of Senegal

Senegal is a country on the north west part of Africa, right on the Atlantic Ocean.

(from: wikipedia - senegal)

The flag of senegal is a green stripe, a yellow stripe with a green star in the middle, and a red stripe.
The green, yellow and red are the Pan-African colors that are shared by many other African countries to help join the countries together as one continent.
The green stripe and star are for hope, the yellow is for arts, learning and money and the red is for the blood of the people fighting for the country.

(from: wikipedia - flag of senegal)

To eat in Senegal you might have thiéboudienne, which is fish flavored with parsley, lemon, garlic and onions, then cookied with tomato paste and vegetables and served with rice.

(from: wikipedia - senegalese cuisine)

In Senegal the people use salt wells to help get valuable salt from the ground.

(from: wikipedia - sine-saloum)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Belgium

Parable of the Wandering Sheep

We just learned about Jesus' teaching stories called the Parable of the Sower, the Parable of the Weeds and the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl.

Another parable Jesus told was the Parable of the Wandering Sheep.

Jesus told his followers about a shepherd who had a hundred sheep.
Even though he had a hundred sheep, if just one of them wanders off he goes off to find it.
And when he finds the sheep he is very happy that day that he found it.

He told his followers that we are like the sheep and Jesus is the shepherd.
He cares for every single one of us, even though there are many people on the earth.


(from: wikipedia - parable of the lost sheep)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mark

Mars - Pathfinder, Opportunity, Spirit & Curiosity

We just learned about the exploration of Mars with the Viking missions.

We've learned about the spacecrafts that flew near the planet Mars, and the ones that landed on the planet to take measurements.

The latest and best spacecrafts to visit Mars have been rovers.
These are types of spacecrafts that travel to the planet, then a small thing like a car drives around the planet studying it and sending information back to scientists on Earth.

The US has had some really good luck sending rovers to Mars!

1997 - Mars Pathfinder
2003 - Two rovers: Opportunity and Spirit
2012 - Curiosity

These rovers have really helped us learn about the planet Mars, the dirt and air and send back lots of great pictures!

(from: wikipedia - curiosity (rover))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Black Dwarf

Spanish - Counting to sixty nine

We just learned how to count to 59 in Spanish, let's keep going!

60 sesenta - sounds like say-sen-tah /?/
61 sesenta y uno - sounds like say-sen-tah ee oo-n-oh /?/
62 sesenta y dos - sounds like say-sen-tah ee doh-ss /?/
63 sesenta y tres - sounds like say-sen-tah ee t-day-ss /?/
64 sesenta y cuatro - sounds like say-sen-tah ee koo-ah-t-doh /?/
65 sesenta y cinco - sounds like say-sen-tah ee see-n-koh /?/
66 sesenta y seis - sounds like say-sen-tah ee say-ss /?/
67 sesenta y siete - sounds like say-sen-tah ee see-ay-tay /?/
68 sesenta y ocho - sounds like say-sen-tah ee oh-choh /?/
69 sesenta y nueve - sounds like say-sen-tah ee noo-ay-vay /?/


(from: wikipedia - Association of Spanish Language Academies)

Do you remember how to say it in French?
French - soixante, soixante et un, soixante-deux, soixante-trois, soixante-quatre, soixante-cinq, soixante-six, soixante-sept, soixante-huit, soixante-neuf

Oxygen

We just learned about Potassium.

Another chemical element is Oxygen, called "O" for short on the Periodic Table.

Oxygen might just be the most important element for humans on the whole planet.

The air we breathe has oxygen that goes into our lungs, which is carried off to parts of our body in our blood.

Water is made up of the chemicals hydrogen and oxygen.

When you burn wood in a fireplace, the fire needs oxygen to keep burning.

And remember that all elements can be gas, liquid or solid depending on how hot or cold they are?

Liquid oxygen is super cold, almost -300 degrees!
When we sent a space shuttle up into outer space, we used a huge tank full of liquid oxygen to burn because it is such great fuel.

(from: wikipedia - oxygen)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Electroluminescence

Kakapo

The kakapo is a type of parrot that lives in New Zealand.

It is not like a normal parrot, because it can not fly!
The kakapo lives on the ground and hunts for food at night.

Because it does not fly, the kakapo is a heavy slow bird and has been hunted by people and other animals a lot.
The kakapo has a very good sense of smell, and also has a special smell on it's body that other kakapos can smell from far away.


(from: wikipedia - kakapo)

Other animals sometimes can smell the kakapo smell and then they come and eat the kakapo. There are not that many kakapos left, so they are an endangered species and the people of New Zealand are trying to protect them.

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hedgehog

Villi

We've learned now that the duodenum, ileum and jejunum are all part of the small intestine.

Inside your intestines are small things along the walls like little fingers.
These are called your intestinal villus, or just one of them is called a villi.

They are very small, and they help the intestines absorb all the good things from your food that your body needs.

(from: wikipedia - intestinal villus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Calf Muscle