Parable of the Rich Fool

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,
the Parable of the Two Sons,
and the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Another parable Jesus told his followers was about a rich man whose farm grew so well that at harvest time he had so much grain from his crops that he didn't have enough room to store it all.

He decided to build himself bigger barns to store all of his extra grain so he could just relax and be rich for the rest of his life.
God was angry with the rich man and said he was being very foolish, because that night the man was going to die!
Since he kept all the grain and money to himself, all the things he had stored up for himself would not help him.

Jesus was telling his followers that we need to build up our treasures in heaven instead of on earth.
When we die we can't take all of our things with us, but if we have used the things he gave us to help other people then we are building up treasures in heaven for after we die.


(from: wikipedia - parable of the rich fool)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Jesus as a young boy

Mona Lisa - Da Vinci

One of the most famous paintings in the whole world is the Mona Lisa.
It was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the most famous artists of all time.

It might seem like just a nice painting of a woman, but there were many reasons why people liked it so much.

You might notice in the painting that the woman is sitting in front of what looks like a sky and mountains. She wasn't really sitting in front of that place, Da Vinci drew the background from his imagination. In the time when Da Vinci was living, people usually only painted pictures of real places they had in front of them. To paint an imaginary place without something to look at was a very big deal!

Da Vinci painted the woman's face and hands to look very bright compared to her hair and outfit. When something bright is put up against something dark it is called contrast, and artists sometimes use it to help things stand out more.

The painting also has very dark lines around the woman's hair and body, and the background looks fuzzy and has lighter colors. This helps make the woman look more important in the picture, and makes the background look far away.

The Mona Lisa also has very good perspective. That means it looks ike the woman's arms are in front of her body and the painting is behind her. Even though it is a flat painting, it looks almost like a real person was sitting there. These days we have 3D movies to go see, but in those days making a painting that looked real was the closest thing they had to 3D.

Da Vinci made this painting about 500 years ago, and even to this day it is one of the most well liked paintings in the world.

(from: wikipedia - mona lisa)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Planetary Nebula

German - Hello and Goodbye

We've now learned a whole year of Spanish words.
Muy bien!

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

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

Hello - Hallo - sounds like hah-low /?/

Goodbye - Auf Wiedersehen - sounds like ow-f vee-dah-zane /?/


(from: wikipedia - Goethe Institute)

Do you remember how to say it in Spanish?
Hola! Adiós!

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

Water Vapor

We just learned about the Troposphere
Let's keep learning about weather!

We've learned that clouds are tiny little bits of water floating in the air.
The water that turns into clouds usually starts off as water vapor.
That's kind of like the steam that comes up in the air from a pot of boiling hot water on the stove.

You really can't see water vapor that's in the air around us, but we have tools that can tell us how much is in the air.
When we're measuring water vapor, we call that humidity.

Even though the air around us is all invisible, we know that there is such a thing as dry air and wet air.
Usually we say it is very humid if the air is wet.

In the desert, there is not much water vapor around, so that air is very dry.
In the rainforest or in places with lots of water and very hot temperature, there is a lot of water vapor around, so it is very humid.

The water vapor can eventually rise and turn into clouds, so if the air is very humid there will be more clouds.
If it is very dry, there will be no clouds.

(from: wikipedia - water vapor)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pāhoehoe lava

Spider Cephalothorax & Abdomen

The main part of a spider's body is split up into two pieces:
cephalothorax and abdomen

The cephalothorax is where the head is and where the legs are attached.
The abdomen is the lower body part that has other organs like the spider's heart, lungs and the spider's silk.


(from: wikipedia - spider anatomy)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lobsters

Appendix

We've now learned about the cecum, ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon and sigmoid colon.

One interesting part of the large intestine is called the vermiform appendix, or sometimes just the appendix.

It's a small tube connected right below the cecum.
The used up food goes to your ascending colon, and your appendix is hanging below that.

Scientists aren't really sure what the appendix is for. Some think it is part of our body that we used to need long ago when we mostly just ate plants and not meat.
Others think it has to do with helping some of the things called bacteria that live in our colons and help us digest food.

Sometimes the appendix can get sick and cause problems in our bodies.
Since we don't really need the appendix, doctors can do a surgery called an appendectomy to cut it off.


(from: wikipedia - vermiform appendix)

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hypothenar

Alaska

We just learned about the US state of Alabama.

Alaska is the biggest state in the whole US.
It is way up North, you have to drive up through Canada to get to it.
It's nicknames are: The Last Frontier and the Land of the Midnight Sun.
The name land of the midnight sun comes from the summer nights in Alaska. During the summer solstice the sun is out for a whole day and night!
Alaska is so far North that in the middle of the summer the days are very very long, and in the middle of the winter the nights are very very long.

It's state motto is North to the Future.

Since Canada is between Alaska and the rest of the US, it is not part of what we call the contiguous 48 states or sometimes the lower 48 states.
Contiguous means next to each other or touching.


(from: wikipedia - alaska)

The flag of Alaska is a blue background with the Big Dipper star constellation, and the North Star.
The blue is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaskan flower.
The North Star is because Alaska is the state furthest in the North.
The Big Dipper is for the Great Bear which stands for strength.

(from: wikipedia - flag of alaska)

The state seal of Alaska shows mountains and the northern lights. There is a building that stands for mining, a train for the railroads, and ships for all of the traffic in the sea. The trees are for the many forests in Alaska, and the farmer with his horse are all for the farming in the state. A fish and a seal on are for the fishing and seal hunting.
Alaska is the only state that has a seal on its seal.

(from: wikipedia - seal of alaska)

Sometimes when people think of Alaska they think of the Inuit or Native people (sometimes called Eskimos) igloos and polar bears.
The Alaska Natives are the people who were living in Alaska for a very long time in the snow and ice.

(from: wikipedia - alaska natives)

Mount McKinley in Alaska is the highest peak in all of North America at over 20,000 feet.

(from: wikipedia - mount mckinley)

For many years Alaska was a part of the country of Russia.
In 1867 the US bought Alaska from Russia, which many people thought was a silly move.
They even called it "Seward's Folly" named after the person who bought it.
Then one day they found a lot of oil under the ground in Alaska, which was worth a lot of money!
They built an 800 mile long giant metal pipe to carry all the oil to the rest of the country, and it is called the Alaskan Pipeline.

(from: wikipedia - trans-alaska pipeline system)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Vatican City