Christianity in Russia

We just learned about the Christianization of Poland.

Another part of early Christianity is Christianity in Russia.

The places that are now known as Russia, Ukraine and Belarus used to be called Kievan Rus.
In that country, people didn't really believe in God.
There were two rulers through the years that chose to become Christian and help the country become Christian.

Olga was the ruler of this country, and she went to visit the Christian emperor Constantine.
He baptised her and she became Christian and came back to try and make her whole country Christian.

Many years later her grandson Vladimir who was not a Christian wanted to know what other religions were out there, so he sent people out to go study in the nearby countries.
He decided that Christianity was the best, so he became a Christian and then sent his sons to all of the lands to build churches and teach people about Jesus.


(from: wikipedia - olga of kiev)

(from: wikipedia - vladimir the great)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pope

The Bronco Buster - Frederic Remington

We just learned about the statue of Abraham Lincoln by Daniel Chester French.

Another famous American sculpture is The Bronco Buster by Frederic Remington, made in 1895.

Remington was born in New York in 1861.
He grew up learning to hunt and ride horses, and his father wanted him to be in the military like his family.
Frederic wanted to be an artist instead, so he learned to paint and sculpt at Yale University.

He really liked the cowboys and Native Americans from the south and west, so he traveled out to see a lot of them and then started to make paintings and sculptures of them.
One of his most famous sculptures is called the Bronco Buster.

This was a bronze sculpture of a cowboy fighting to control a wild bronco who is standing up and trying to get him to fly off.

It was so popular that it was given as a gift to president Theodore Roosevelt.


(from: wikipedia - the bronco buster)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mshatta Facade

Russian - My drink is cold

We just learned that in Russian:
This house is big: Этот дом большой (Etot dom bol'shoy)
This chair is small: Стул маленький (Stul malen'kiy)

Let's learn about more things we see every day.

To say My drink is cold, we say Мой напиток холодный (Moy napitok kholodnyy).

Here's how to say it:

My - Мой (Moy) - sounds like moh-ee 文A

drink - напиток (napitok) - sounds like nah-pee-toh-k 文A

cold - холодный (kholodnyy) - sounds like kho-loh-d-nee. The "kho" part here sounds kind of like the sound a cat makes when hissing.
文A


So all together Мой напиток холодный (Moy napitok kholodnyy) sounds like moh-ee nah-pee-toh-k kho-loh-d-nee.


(from: wikipedia - russian academy of sciences)

Norwegian: Min drikke er kald

Greek: Το ποτό μου είναι κρύο (To potó mou eínai krýo)

ASL: My drink is cold

Italian: La mia bevanda è freddo

German: Mein Getränk ist kalt

Spanish: Mi bebida es fría

French: Ma boisson est froid

Pulse Coder

We just learned about the Hydraulic Brake.

Another part of a machine is a Pulse Coder.

We learned before about a rotary encoder, a type of map that a spinning machine can use to tell how far it spins left or right.

A pulse coder is a type of encoder that can also tell a spinning machine how fast it is spinning.


(from: wikipedia - rotary encoder)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Falcon Heavy

Cougar

We just learned about the Cheetah.

Another type of wild cat is the Cougar, also called the puma, mountain lion, red tiger, catamount or Puma concolor.
There are a lot of other names that this cat has been called through the years.
So many, that it holds the world record for the animal with the most names, with over 40 names just in English!

Cougars are the fourth largest type of cat in the world, after the lion, tiger and jaguar.
They are about 3 feet tall, 8 feet long and weigh over 200 pounds.

These cats can not roar, but they have a type of screeching scream that can be heard very far away.
Their fur is usually just a light brown like a lion, but can sometimes be a little reddish or greyish.
They were named mountain lions, because their fur looks a lot like a lion's fur but they live in the mountains.

Cougars are very fast and can run up to 50 miles per hour.
They have big strong legs which helps them climb up into trees and mountains.

Even though they are called mountain lions, these cats can live anywhere from mountains to forests to deserts.
They usually live alone, except for baby mountain lions who live with their mothers for a few years.





(from: wikipedia - cougar)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Fried Egg Jellyfish

Lacrimal Punctum

We just learned about the Lacrimal Gland.

Another part of the eye is the Lacrimal Punctum.

When tears come out of the lacrimal gland, they help keep the eye nice and wet.
If the tears do not run down your face, they will actually drain out through a hole in your lower eyelid called the lacrimal punctum.


(from: wikipedia - lacrimal punctum)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Sulcus Terminus

Ernest Shackleton

We just learned about the explorer Robert Falcon Scott.

Another famous Antarctic explorer is Ernest Shackleton.

Shackleton had been on an expedition before with Robert Falcon Scott, but got sick and was sent home.

In 1908 he took a ship called the Nimrod to Antarctica, and were the first team to climb to the top of Mount Erebus, the tallest mountain in Antarctica.

In 1914 Roald Amundsen had already made it to the South Pole, so Shackleton went back to Antarctica to try and be the first person to cross all the way from one side of Antarctica to the other.

Shackleton took 2 ships, the Endurance and the Aurora.
The Endurance would land at the north side by the Weddell sea where they would start their journey, and the Aurora would land at the other side by the Ross sea as the ending point of their journey.

In 1915 the Endurance landed, but got stuck in the ice and sank into the sea.
The crew was stranded there with no way to get home and not enough supplies to get across Antarctica.
Shackleton led some of his men north across some of the ice, and on lifeboats to get hundreds of miles away to an island where they could be rescued.

In 1921 Shackleton was going to lead another expedition to try and sail all the way around Antarctica, but got sick and died before he could go on the journey.




(from: wikipedia - ernest shackleton)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Motte