Tigers

We just learned about Lions.

Another big cat is the Tiger.

The tiger is the largest of the wild cats in the group of animals called "Felidae".

Tigers mostly live by themselves, except for the mothers when they are raising tiger cubs for about 2 years.

There are a lot of different types of tigers from different places.
Some have darker or longer fur, some are a little bigger, and some have stripes that look a little different.
Just like lions, there are also white tigers!
All the different tigers are in a group called "Panthera".

Tigers have stripes so that they can hide in the tall grass when they are hunting for other animals.
They have yellow irises in their eyes, and circle shaped pupils.

Boy tigers can grow to be 12 feet long, and weigh 675 pounds! Girl tigers are smaller, only growing to 9 feet and 360 pounds.
Their tails can be 2 to 4 feet long!

Tigers used to live all the way from the country of Turkey in the west to Japan in the east.
Now it mostly only lives in parts of India and China and a few other countries.
Tigers usually live in forest areas where there is water and other animals for them to hunt.

Even though we think about cats not liking water, tigers have no problem swimming, and can swim 18 miles in one day!






(from: wikipedia - tiger)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Crown Jellyfish

Field of View

We just learned about the Central Retinal Vein.

Another part of the eyes is the Field of View.

When we are looking forward with our eyes, we see the things in front of us, but not behind us.
We also can only see part of what is up, down, left or right without moving our head to see it all.

Some of this is because parts of our head that get in the way like cheekbones or eyebrows.
Part of it is because our eyeballs are pointed forward.
Some animals like a rabbit or a deer have eyes on the sides of their heads, so they can see almost all the way in front and in back of their bodies.

The whole space of things that you can see with your eyes without moving them is called your Field of View, or FoV.



(from: wikipedia - peripheral vision)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lingual Papillae

Weddel Sea

We just learned about the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf.

Another part of Antarctica is the Weddel Sea.

This is the water just to the East of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Some scientists believe this to be the clearest sea water in the whole world, and people have been able to see things down in the water over 250 feet deep.

The sea is about 1,200 miles across, and some sailors have said that it was the most dangerous sea on earth.
As people have taken their boats into this sea, sometimes the ice will flash freeze, and then melt again, and sometimes the ice will crush or tip over ships.

There are many animals who live in this sea, like the Weddell seal, killer whales, humpback whales, minke whales, leopard seals and crabeater seals.

There are also some penguins that live on the land in this area and swim in the sea.



(from: wikipedia - weddel sea)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Conwy Castle

King Charlemagne

We just learned about the Icons.

Another part of early Christianity is the rule of King Charlemagne, also known as Charles I or Charles the Great.

Around 770 AD a person named Charlemagne was the king over a lot of parts of Europe, like France, Germany and Italy.

There were a lot of people in those times fighting over who should be king or emperor, so Pope Leo III who was the head of the church in Rome told everyone to follow Charlemagne and that he should be the ruler over everyone else.

Charles loved reading, writing and music, so he helped make schools for people to learn and read the books of the Bible.
He also sent people to Rome to learn how to sing and they came back to the schools to teach people how to sing the Psalms of the Bible.

A lot of the writings of the Bible were in Latin or Greek, so Charles told people to make copies of them in other languages.
This made it so that everyone could read the Bible and learn about God and Jesus themselves.


(from: wikipedia - charlemagne)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Tetramorph

The Woman of Samaria (Rebecca at the Well) - William Henry Rinehart

We just learned about the sculpture Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument by Randolph Rogers.

Another famous American sculpture is The Woman of Samaria (Rebecca at the Well) made by William Henry Rinehart in 1861 in Washington, D.C.

Rinehart was born in Maryland, and gre up as a farmer working for his father.
He got a job as a stone cutter, and then started learning how to be a sculptor.

When he was 30 years old he moved to Italy to learn from some of the best sculptors in the world.
He made many marble statues and sent them back to America, mostly to Washington D.C. to be put around the nation's capital.


(from: wikipedia - william henry rinehart)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Ellora - Buddhist Caves

Russian - Horse, sheep, duck

We know that in Russian, dog is собака (sobaka)and cat is кошка (koshka),
cow is корова (korova), chicken is курица (kuritsa), and pig is свинья (svin'ya).

Let's learn more animals!

horse - лошадь (loshad') - sounds like loh-sh-ad 文A

sheep - овца (ovtsa) - sounds like ah-v-ts-ah 文A

duck - утка (utka) - sounds like oo-t-kah 文A


Also in Russia horses say И-го-го (ee-go-go), sheep say Б-е-е-е (beh), and ducks say Кря-кря (kr-yah).



(from: wikipedia - russian academy of sciences)

Norwegian: hest, sau, and

Greek: άλογο, πρόβατα, πάπια

ASL: horse, sheep, duck

German: Pferd, Schaf, Ente

Spanish:caballo, oveja, pato

French:French - cheval, mouton, canard

Poppet Valve

We just learned about the Ball Valve.

Another type of valve is the Poppet Valve.

This is a valve that is usually used to open and close for gas to come through.

In a car's engine there are valves used to help the fuel come in, and after it makes a big explosion there are valves to let the burnt up air out.



(from: wikipedia - poppet valve)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Bell X-1