European Union

We just learned about the country of Turkey.

Europe is a land of many small nations that are very close together, but with many people living there.

Through history, many of the nations have had wars with each other,
but now 28 of the countries have made an agreement to work together
in what they call the European Union, or just the EU.


(from: wikipedia - european union)

Before the EU, countries like Italy had money called the lira, France had the Franc, and Germany had the deutsche mark.
Now many of those countries have accepted a new type of money called the Euro,
and all the countries in the EU will accept it as money.


(from: wikipedia - euro)




Kid Facts - Blast from the past: United States of America

Jesus' birth

We just learned about John the Baptist.

Let's learn about Jesus' Birth.

We know from the four Gospels that Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph
in a manger (which is like a barn) in Bethlehem.

An angel appeared to Mary telling her that she would have a baby and he would be the son of God!
An angel appeared to Joseph telling him to call the baby Jesus.
An angel appeared to shepherds in the field telling them to come see the baby.
An angel appeared to the wise men telling them to come see the newborn king.

That's a pretty big deal for a baby being born, but this was not just any baby it was Jesus!


(from: wikipedia - nativity of jesus)




Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Third Commandment

Star System

Remember we learned that a planetary system is a star
with a bunch of planets spinning around it, like our solar system.

There are also stars out there that have other stars spinning around them!

We call those star systems


(from: wikipedia - star system)

So far scientists have only discovered star systems with up to 7 stars in them.


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Solar System

Spanish - Hello and goodbye

We've now learned some French words for 52 weeks.
That's a whole year of French! Tres bien!

Let's try another language now, how about Spanish?

First let's learn how to say hello and goodbye.

Hello - Hola - sounds like oh-lah /?/

Good bye - adiós - sounds like ah-dee-oh-ss /?/


(from: wikipedia - Association of Spanish Language Academies)

Do you remember how to say it in French?
Bonjour! Au Revoir!

Magma

We learned that when a volcano erupts, it shoots out lava which is melted rock.

But where does that lava come from?

Underneath the ground below the volcano, the melted rock is called magma.

(from: wikipedia - magma)

Once it shoots out from the volcano we call it lava, but underground it is called magma.

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pistons

Duck

We just learned about the Naked Mole Rat.

Another fun animal is the duck!

There are many colors and types of ducks in the world.
Some of them are so beautifully painted that people carve and paint wooden ducks to look just like them!

Ducks are mostly aquatic animals, which means they live around water.


(from: wikipedia - duck)

Some types of ducks have what looks like a comb inside their beak.
This is called pecten. Ducks will get a big mouthful of water and food, and then squish the water out of their mouth. The pecten keeps the food from squishing out with the water.

(from: wikipedia - duck)



Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Giraffe Horns

Forearm supinators

Let's keep learning about the muscles in the human body!

We've now learned that the forearm flexors are used to help flex your elbow together,
the forearm extensors are used to move the back of your hand toward your forearm, or spread your fingers out.
and the forearm pronators are to turn your wrist so your hand is facing away from you.

The last of the four forearm muscles we're going to learn about is the supinator muscles.

The opposite of the pronator, the supinator is when you turn your wrist to move the palm of your hand to be toward your face.
(from: wikipedia - pronation)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lumbar Vertebrae