Parable of the Good Samaritan

We've learned about Jesus' teaching stories called the Parable of the Sower,
the Parable of the Weeds
the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl,
the Parable of the Wandering Sheep,
the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant,
the Parable of the Wedding Banquet,
the Parable of the Bags of Gold,
and the Parable of the Two Sons.

Another Parable Jesus told is called the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus' told his followers that it is very important to love your neighbor.
Some of his followers asked what he meant by neighbor, so Jesus told a story about a man going on a trip.

In the story he told them that a man was traveling along a dangerous road, and robbers came and attacked him and beat him up.
He was laying in the road hurt very badly.

As he was laying there, a priest of the church came by and saw the Samaritan hurt in the road.
He did not help the hurt man, he kept walking.

Next came another person from the church, called a Levite.
He saw the hurt man and walked by too without helping.

Next came a man who was from the town of Samaria, called a Samaritan.
In Jesus' time his followers did not like the Samaritans, and the Samaritans did not like the people that were Jesus' followers.
They fought, argued and did everything they could to stay away from each other.

The Samaritan saw the man lying hurt in the road, a man that he normally would not like and may even have a fight with.
He went over to the hurt man and put bandages and medicine on him to help him heal.
Then he put the man on his donkey for the long journey to the next town and brought him to an inn.
At the inn he gave some of his own money to the person who owned the inn and asked him to please watch over the hurt man until he got better.
He even said that if the innkeeper had to spend money to help the hurt man, he would pay the innkeeper back.

Jesus said that even though the Samaritan was normally an enemy to the hurt man, he was his neighbor.

His people were very surprised that Jesus was telling them they had to be nice to people they didn't like!

His message for people was that we have to treat everyone in the world like our neighbor and love them and take care of them, even if we don't like the person or if they are our enemies.


(from: wikipedia - parable of the good samaritan)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: After Jesus' Birth

Neptune - Voyager 2

We've learned about space exploration of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.

Next up is Neptune.

Neptune is the last planet in our Solar System.
We used to consider Pluto a planet, but it is so far away we've never reached it with a spacecraft.

Voyager 2 is the only space craft to visit Neptune.
It took 9 years to get to Uranus, and 12 years to get to Neptune in 1989!

When Voyager 2 made it to Neptune, it studied the atmosphere, rings and moons.
It discovered something called the Great Dark Spot, and many geysers on one of the moons called Triton.

It found four rings and six moons.


(from: wikipedia - neptune)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Black Hole

Spanish - Counting to 900

We just learned how to count to 100 in Spanish! Wow!

What about 200 to 900?

In Spanish for the hundreds, they mostly use the first number and then cientos for hundred.
So 200 in Spanish is doscientos.

200 doscientos - sounds like dose-see-en-tohs /?/
300 trescientos - sounds like t-dayse-see-en-tohs /?/
400 cuatrocientos - sounds like koo-ah-t-doh-see-en-tohs /?/
500 quinientos - sounds like keen-ee-en-tohs /?/
600 seiscientos - sounds like say-see-en-tohs /?/
700 sietecientos - sounds like see-et-ay-see-en-tohs /?/
800 ochocientos - sounds like oh-cho-see-en-tohs /?/
900 novecientos - sounds like no-vay-see-en-tohs /?/


(from: wikipedia - Association of Spanish Language Academies)

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

Troposphere

The clouds in the sky are floating around in what is called Earth's troposphere.

All of the sky around the earth until you get to outer space is called the atmosphere, but the troposphere is the part closest to earth where all the clouds and air we breathe are.

(from: wikipedia - troposphere)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: ʻAʻā Lava

Spider Legs

Let's keep learning about spider bodies.

Spider legs can be long and fuzzy or short and shiny, but they have leg bones just like we do.

Our human legs mostly consist of 6 parts:
The femur or thigh bone, the patella or knee cap, the tibia and fibula for our lower leg bones, and the foot bones tarsus and metatarsus.

Just like us spiders have a femur, patella, tibia, metatarsus and tarsus.
They don't have a tibula, but they do have two other bones.
The coxa and trochanter are right before the femur, and the coxa is attached to the spider's body.

Spiders don't have any muscles in their legs, the muscles are all in their body.
So if a spider dies, the legs will curl up because the muscles aren't holding the legs out anymore.

When spiders are walking or running, they keep at least four of their eight legs on the ground.


(from: wikipedia - spider)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Echidna

Sigmoid Colon

We've now learn how food goes up the ascending colon on the right side of your body, across your transverse colon and down your descending colon.

After that the intestine curves back toward the middle of your body.
When it does this it makes a little curve upward.

This curve upward allows the body to get rid of gases without having to push out feces.

Feces is a fancy science word for poop, and we know passing gas means a toot!
These are all funny things we laugh about sometimes, but they are part of our bodies, and doctors have to know how they work so they can take care of us if we get sick.

So the curve up of the sigmoid colon lets us push gases out of our body without feces coming out too.


(from: wikipedia - sigmoid colon)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hand Muscles - Thenar

Alabama

We've learned a lot about other countries like Liberia, let's learn a little about the different states in the United States of America.

Alabama is the first state alphabetically, so let's start with them.

0 Alabama is on the South part of the US, with one little part of the state sticking out and touching the Gulf of Mexico.
It's nicknames are the Yellowhammer State for the bird called the Yellowhammer, the Heart of Dixie because the name Dixie was a name for the southern states, and Cotton State because they grow lots of cotton.

Their state motto is Audemus jura nostra defendere which means We dare defend our rights.

(from: wikipedia - alabama)

The Alabama flag has a red X on a white background. The shape of the X on the flag is called a St. Andrew's Cross.
Since Alabama was one of the confederate states in the Civil War, the X was put on the flag to remember the old confederate flag which was a blue X on a red background.

(from: wikipedia - alabama)

Alabama's state seal shows the many important rivers that flow through the state, like the Tennessee River and Alabama River.
(from: wikipedia - alabama)
Since part of Alabama is on the ocean, seafood is very popular there, like shrimp.

(from: wikipedia - shrimp)

The Marshall Space Flight Center near the city of Huntsville Alabama is a place where NASA launches rockets, and even tested the Space Shuttle.

(from: wikipedia - marshall space flight center)

Long ago a woman named Helen Keller lived in Alabama. She was both blind and deaf.
People thought that she would never be able to do anything, but a teacher came along and showed her how to make words with her hands.
After that she went to college, and worked to help other people in the world.


(from: wikipedia - helen keller)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: European Union