Madagascar

We just learned about the African country of Mozambique.

Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean off the Southeast coast of Africa.

(from: wikipedia - madagascar)

The flag of Madagascar is white, red and green.
The red and white are for an old kingdom called the Merina kingdom, and the green was the color of the poor people in the country.

(from: wikipedia - flag of madagascar)

To eat in Madagascar you might have voanjobory sy henakisoa, which is a type of groundnut cooked with pork.

(from: wikipedia - malagasy cuisine)

A musical instrument in Madagascar is called the valiha, which is like a long tube with guitar strings strapped to the outside of it, that you play like a guitar.

(from: wikipedia - valiha)

In Madagascar they have a custom called famadihana, where every seven years families dig up the bodies of their famiy members who died long ago, wrap them in fresh cloth, then dance around their burial tombs.


(from: wikipedia - famadihana)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Poland

Eye for Eye

We just learned about Jesus teaching people about the Light of the World.

In the Old Testament, there was a law saying an eye for an eye, meaning that if you fought with someone and poked out their eye, then you would have to get your eye poked out in return.

This all was a way to keep people from being mean to each other so they didn't get punished.

When Jesus came along, he told people that if someone slapped you on one side of the face you should not hit them back.
Even more than that you should turn the other side of your face even if they wanted to hit you there too.

Jesus wasn't telling us to go get beat up by a bully, he was just trying to tell us that we shouldn't fight people, just walk away from fights.

(from: wikipedia - beatitudes)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Job

Solar - Corona

We've learned about the Sun's core, radiation zone, convection zone and photosphere.
The area outside the surface of the sun is called the corona which comes from the word crown.

Even though the corona is outside the surface of the sun, it is even hotter than the surface!
The photosphere surface is about 10,000 degrees F, and the corona is over 5,000,000 degrees F.

(from: wikipedia - corona)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Canis Major

Spanish - May, June

Let's keep learning the months of the year in Spanish!

We've learned that January and February are Enero and Febrero and March and April are Marzo and Abril.

May - Mayo - sounds like mah-ee-oh /?/

June - Junio - sounds like hoo-nee-oh /?/


(from: wikipedia - Association of Spanish Language Academies)

Do you remember how to say it in French?
French - Mai, Juin

Copper

We just learned about the metal element Lead

Another chemical element is Copper, called "Cu" for short (from the latin word "cuprum") on the Periodic Table.

Copper is a shiny red-orange colored metal that has been used for a long time as a metal for making tools, weapons, and even roofs.

Even though eating metal sounds like a weird thing, there are traces of copper in some foods that are required for your body to be healthy.


(from: wikipedia - copper)

When copper is outside for a long time, it turns green!
Probably the most famous thing made of copper in the USA is the Statue of Liberty. When the statue was first created out of copper metal, it was a shiny red-orange color, but through the years the copper has turned to the green color we see today.

(from: wikipedia - statue of liberty)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Resistors

Osprey

We just learned about the type of bird the Loon.

The osprey is a large bird that lives near the water, and is such a great fishing bird it has nicknames like sea hawk, fish eagle, river hawk and fish hawk.

To catch fish, the osprey flies over the water, sometimes up to 130 feet above the water. When it sees a fish in the water, it dives down feet first and grabs the fish in the water with it's claws (sometimes called talons).
The osprey is very good at holding on to the slippery fish because it has two talons pointing forward and two pointing backward, so it can really grab the fish.
It also has sharp scales (called spicules) on the bottom of its feet, that are like spikes that keep the fish from getting away.


(from: wikipedia - osprey)

The osprey's eggs are whitish with red-brown splotches on them. The bird call is a high pitched whistle, that people call cheep cheep or yewk yewk.

(from: wikipedia - osprey)

The osprey can grow to be two feet long, and almost six feet wide.
They are found in almost every part of the world, from the United States to Australia.

(from: wikipedia - osprey)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Dragonflies and Damselflies

Stomach - Protease

We just learned that the stomach has hydrochloric acid in it to help break down your food.

It also has things called proteases that are special chemical molecules that also help break the food down for your body.


(from: wikipedia - protease)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hyoid Bone