Hello and welcome to Science Thursday! I'm Miss Rachel and today, we're going to learn about skeletons! Did you know that there are 206 bones in the human body? The largest bone is called the femur, or thigh bone. The femur is one of the bones that helps us stand up and walk. The smallest bone, called the stapes, is located inside the middle ear. The bones of the middle ear help us hear by conducting sounds from the ear drum to the inner ear. Our skeletons are very important. They are what allow us to stand up, sit down, dance, eat, and move. The bones in our body form a frame that give us structure and shape. While many animals have skeletons (scientists call these animals "vertebrates", many other animals - jellyfish and worms are two examples - do not. Scientists call these animals "invertebrates". The photos below will show you, step by step, how to make a picture of a human skeleton using construction paper and Q-Tips. This fun craft project can help young children learn the parts of the body and can help older children begin to learn the names and locations of some of our 206 bones! Hello and Welcome to Science Thursday! I'm Miss Rachel and today, we're going to learn about the phases of the moon!
Have you ever noticed that the moon looks different at different times of the month? Sometimes, we see a crescent moon on the western horizon, just after sunset. At other times, we see the moon as a full circle rising in the eastern sky, just after full dark. Sometimes, the moon looks like half a circle directly overhead and sometimes, we can't see the moon at all! Today, we're going to do a craft project that will help us learn the phases of the moon. We'll be making something I like to call a moon clock. Follow the instructions in the photos below and make one along with me! The moon has eight phases and takes about 29 days to move through all eight phases. The phases of the moon are: New Moon Waxing Crescent Moon ("waxing" means getting bigger) First Quarter Moon Waxing Gibbous Moon Full Moon Waning Gibbous Moon ("waning" means getting smaller) Third Quarter Moon (sometimes, this is called the Last Quarter Moon) Waning Crescent Moon ...and back to the New Moon again. You can see each of these phases illustrated in the photos of the "moon clock". The moon looks like it grows and shrinks and grows again as time passes, from crescent moon to full moon and back to crescent moon again. But in reality, the moon stays the same size from night to night. It only appears to change because of how the Earth's shadow moves across it. When the moon is new, the Earth's shadow covers it entirely, and so it is not visible to us in the night sky. As the month progresses, the Earth's shadow moves and, each night, more and more of the moon is revealed. It takes about 2 weeks to go from a new, or dark moon to a full moon that is completely visible in the night sky. In another 2 weeks, the shadow of the Earth will creep back over the face of the moon and the phase of the moon will change from full back to new again. Once you've made your moon clock, you'll need to make sure to keep the hand pointed at the correct phase. You can sometimes tell the phase of the moon just by looking out your window, but at other times (if the weather is cloudy, for example), you'll want to use an almanac. Here is a link to the Moon Phase Calendar from the Old Farmer's Almanac: https://www.almanac.com/astronomy/moon/calendar October, 2020 is a special month because it has not one, but TWO full moons! When a month has two full moons, the second full moon is called a Blue Moon. Blue Moons are rare - they only happen every two or three years! Here is a list of all the moon phases the month of October, 2020, to help you get started: October 1: Full Moon (Harvest Moon) October 2-8: Waning Gibbous Moon October 9: First Quarter Moon October 10-15: Waning Crescent Moon October 16: New Moon October 17-22: Waxing Crescent Moon October 23: First Quarter Moon October 24-30: Waxing Gibbous Moon October 31: Full Moon (Blue Moon) Hello and welcome to Science Thursday! I'm Miss Rachel and today, we are going to use some household and backyard items to build an Insect Hotel.
An Insect Hotel is a warm, safe place where helpful insects like solitary bees and ladybugs can spend the winter. Follow the steps in the photographs below to build your very own Insect Hotel! This activity comes from one of the books in our children's non-fiction collection, "Plant, Sow, Make and Grow: Mudtastic Activities for Budding Gardners" by Esther Coombs. This book is available to be checked out or reserved for curbside delivery! |
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