Gregorian Chant

We just learned about the Christianity in Britain.

Another part of early Christianity is Gregorian Chant.

This is a type of singing that monks or people in church would do, where choirs would sing very slowly with not a lot of different notes.

It was very popular in the churches for choirs to learn songs in Gregorian chant and then sing them during service.
They were usually sung in the Latin language.

Many people have believed for a long time that Pope Gregory I was the one who came up with this and told everyone to learn it, but other historians now think maybe it was someone else.

The legends say that a dove came down and spoke into Gregory's ear and told him what to do.


(from: wikipedia - gregorian chant)


Gregorian chant - Deum verum - Callixtus


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Great Fire of Rome

The Rescue - Horatio Greenough

We just learned about the Statue of Freedom by Thomas Crawford.

Another famous American sculpture is The Rescue by Horatio Greenough in 1850, built to be by the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.

In the early years of America, there were many wars between the American settlers and the Native Americans.

This statue shows a scared American pioneer woman holding her child, and a Native American warrior holding a tomahawk.
A large pioneer man is holding on to the Native American to keep him from attacking the woman, but also trying not to hurt the Native American.

In those days people were afraid of Native Americans and thought they were just savages that only wanted to kill Americans and did not know anything about the world like books or science or church.

So this statue was a way to show that the powerful Americans would come in and stop the Natives from killing people, and also help teach them how to be smart and good like Americans.

After the wars with the Native Americans were over, people looked at this statue again and did not like it anymore, because people felt differently about the past.

Many Native Americans were killed in the wars, and all of the land was taken over by Americans.
So when people looked at this statue they saw it as an American being cruel to the Native Americans.

In 1958 the statue was removed from the Capitol and put into storage, and later on in 1976 when it was being moved it was dropped and broken into many pieces.


(from: wikipedia - the rescue (statue))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Great Buddha of Kmakura

Russian - Six, seven, eight, nine, ten

We learned in Russian that 1-5 is раз (raz), два (dva), три (tri), четыре (chetyre), пять (pyat').
Now let's count up to ten!

6 шесть (shest') - sounds like she-s-t 文A

7 семь (sem') - sounds seh-m 文A

8 восемь (vosem') - sounds like voh-seh-m 文A

9 девять (devyat') - sounds like deh-v-yah-t 文A

10 десять (desyat') - sounds like deh-s-yah-t 文A



(from: wikipedia - russian academy of sciences)

Do you remember how to say it in other languages?

Norwegian: seks, syv, åtte, ni, ti

Greek: έξι, εφτά, οχτώ, εννέα, δέκα

ASL: Six, seven, eight, nine, ten

Italian: sei, setto, otto, nove, dieci

German: seis, sieben, acht, neun, zehn

Spanish: seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez

French: six, sept, huit, neuf, dix

Valve Seat

We just learned about the Valve Disc.

Another part of a valve is the Valve Seat.

We know that the holes where the water or gas come in are the ports, and that the part of the valve that closes those holes is the disc.
The part of the valve that touches the disc and makes it a tight seal so nothing can get through is called the seat.


(from: wikipedia - valve)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: L'Astronautique - Robert Esnault-Pelterie

Jellyfish Statocyst

We just learned about the Ocelli.

Another part of a jellyfish's body is Jellyfish Statocyst.

We've learned about the Octopus Statocyst before, and it's pretty much the same thing.

The jellyfish has a small sac in it's body, with small hairs on the inside, and a hard ball inside.
When the jellyfish moves around, the ball rolls around and touches the hairs.
These hairs tell the jellyfish which way is up or down and which way they are swimming.


(from: wikipedia - statocyst)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Cephalopod - Cirrus

Photoreceptor Cells

We just learned about the Cone Cells.

Another part of the eye is the Photoreceptor Cells.

These are the rods and cones that we already learned about.
The different photoreceptor cells all take light and turn it into chemicals and electrical signals that tell the brain what you are seeing.


(from: wikipedia - photoreceptor cell)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Alveolar Process

Antarctic Peninsula

We just learned about the West Antarctica.

Another part of Antarctica is the Antarctic Peninsula.

This is the most northern part of Antarctica that sticks out toward South America.

Many countries have made scientific bases to study the continent on this peninsula, because it has the mildest climate in all of Antarctica.


(from: wikipedia - antarctic peninsula)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pena Palace