ʻAʻā Lava

Did you know that there are different types of lava?

One type of lava is called ʻAʻā, pronounced like ah ah.

ʻAʻā means rough, stoney lava.
The lava looks rough, and has blocks in it that are called clinkers.


(from: wikipedia - lava)



Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Muffler

Echidna

Echidnas look kind of like a cross between an anteater and a hedgehog.

Just like a hedgehog, they have spines on their body that are poky to keep predators away.
And just like the platypus, they lay eggs like birds do!

Echidnas eat small insects with their tongues, just like anteaters do,
and some of them even have spikes on their tongue.

(from: wikipedia - echidna)

A baby echidna is called a puggle!


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lion's Mane

Hand muscles - Thenar

Just like the wrist muscles, there are many muscles in your hand that do different things.

Let's start with the thenar muscle.

The big muscle that's part of your thumb is called the thenar.

It's responsible for all the movements of your thumb!

(from: wikipedia - thenar eminence)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Esophagus

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!