Friday Fun Fact Oct 30

 Candy Corn!

image from Parker Feierbach

Today is National Candy Corn Day!

Candy corn was first introduced in the 1880s.  According to alwaysatreat.com website:

"...its tri-color design was considered revolutionary. Lack of automated machinery meant that candy corn was only made seasonally, likely starting production in late August and continuing through the fall. It has remained unchanged for more than 100 years and is a favorite at Halloween."

What's the right way to eat candy corn?  White end first? Eat it whole?  You can survey your friends and family to decide!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Monday Fun Fact Oct 26

Grand Canyon Cloudburst

image from Conde Nast Traveler

If you have ever travelled to or have seen pictures of the Grand Canyon, you know how breathtakingly beautiful it is!  It is so enchanting that musical composer Ferde Grofé wrote the Grand Canyon Suite. One of the pieces in this musical suite is called "Cloudburst".

I said that music can create images in your mind - well "Cloudburst" does an amazing job of creating the sounds of a frightening thunderstorm!  You can hear the wind, thunder and lightning!  Take a listen to it here.  The scary wind starts to blow at the 2:57 mark:

                           https://youtu.be/iCaX-t_P5q0

image from Follow the Cougar

I would listen to this song many times when I was a child, and I would wrap myself in a blanket when the thunder and lightning began! It was so good and scary!!

 Ferde Grofé, wrote The Grand Canyon Suite between 1929 and 1931.  A suite in music is an ordered set of musical pieces.  Ferde Grofé initially titled his music Five Pictures of the Grand Canyon, and when you listen to them, you can picture those as well!  You can hear and see the sun come up in "Sunrise" and the donkeys braying in "On the Trail".  

image from Grand Canyon Deals

Enjoy!

 

Friday Fun Fact Oct 23

 

Sink or Float?

You have two cans of soda:  one is a Coke, and the other is a Diet Coke.

You place them both in a tub of water.

What happens?

image from physics.upenn.edu

As you can see, the can of Diet Coke will float in water, but the regular Coke can sinks.   Both cans contain mostly water, but the can of Coke also has sugar in it.  The sugar makes the liquid more dense than pure water, so the can sinks.

On the other hand, the can of Diet Coke contains less than a gram of sweetener, so the density of the liquid is the same as pure water, and the can floats.

According to Penn Physics (University of Pennsylvania):

"Due to the difference in density, the can with the sugar in it sinks while the diet can floats. For a further refinement, mix in a bunch of salt--the density of the salt water increases enough that the sugared coke now floats." 

                    More Fun....

           

You can create a "candy slide" to safely deliver treats this Halloween in a socially distanced manner.  You could also win a prize for it!  Here is the information:

https://columbiastemalliance.com/socially-distant-candy-device-contest/

Have a great weekend!

Monday Fun Fact Oct 19

 Trolls and Starman!

Music can create images in your head, and the music of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" is just one of those!

  Edvard Grieg wrote music to accompany the story of Peer Gynt, a young boy who runs away into the mountains where he is captured by mountain trolls and meets their king.  Peer eventually escapes after being chased by all of the trolls!

The musicians playing this piece use a method called "pizzicato"  on their stringed instruments to make the sounds of Peer tiptoeing out of the hall.  "Pizzicato" means to pluck the strings on your instrument instead of using a bow.

 Listen to the music here and see if you can picture in your mind the images of Peer running away from the trolls:

"In the Hall of the Mountain King"

Here is another version of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" being played on an enormous musical organ at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest (Palace of Arts), Hungary.  

https://youtu.be/dBoGdJ54oWI

SpaceX's Starman just did a flyby of Mars in his Tesla Roadster!

image from Space.com

Starman is a mannequin dressed in an astronaut's suit who is seated in a red Tesla Roadster.  Starman and his Roadster were launched into space on November 5,  2018 aboard SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, and he has travelled 1.3 billion miles in less than 2 years.

You can read more about Starman in his Tesla Roadster by going to DOGO news in the Destiny Library in the Electronic Library of your CPS Portal.

That's all for now.  See you on Friday!

Friday Fun Fact Oct 16

Seahorses!

The seahorse is an interesting creature of the ocean!  Found in tropical and temperate salt water, you can find seahorses living in coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass beds.

The seahorse has no stomach, so it eats almost constantly.  Seahorses swim upright, using their dorsal fin as a propeller.

A seahorse does not have eyelids, so it sleeps or rests with its eyes open.  It wraps its tail around reeds or coral to keep from drifting while resting.

The female seahorse deposits eggs into a pouch on the male seahorse.  The male seahorse then carries the eggs in his pouch until the baby seahorses emerge, fully developed.

The seahorse is a fascinating creature! 

Shepard Students Share Fun Facts!

Olivia C. in 4th grade:  Orange snow once fell in Siberia!

Violet B. in 4th grade:  The next full moon will be on Halloween in 2020!

Shepard Students Share Jokes!

 

Leiland in 3rd grade:  Q:  What do you call cheese that is not yours?

 A:   Nacho cheese!

  Cora in 3rd grade:      Q:  Why did the student bring a ladder to                                                                          school?

                                   A:  Because he wanted to go to high school!

Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!  

See you next week!

Monday Fun Fact Oct 12

Polar Bear Disguise

image from World Wildlife Fund

Polar bears have thick white fur that blends very well into the snow and ice that they live in.  

Polar bears actually have two different kinds of fur:  the short and dense  underfur that is against their skin, and the longer and more coarse guard hair. 

This guard hair is transparent, and it scatters sunlight so that the polar bear looks white.  However, the guard hair also absorbs the heat from a polar bear's body instead of transmitting that heat into the air.  In this way, the bear is able to keep the heat in his body and stay warm in the cold Arctic air.

Because the polar bear's guard hairs keep his body heat in, he is invisible to a thermal camera. Thermal cameras detect the heat lost by a subject as infrared, but because a polar bear's guard hair keeps that heat in, a polar bear may not always be seen on this type of camera.

That's all for today.  See you again on Friday!

Friday Fun Fact Oct 9

Parrotfish and Pumpkins!

This friendly guy is a parrotfish!

Arthur Telle Thiemann took this picture of the Mediterranean fish, and he named it "Smiley".

 "Smiley"'s  photo is a finalist in the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. This award seeks to raise awareness of wildlife conservation, and it was founded by Tom Sullam and Paul Joynson-Hicks.

The Nature Conservancy website says:

Parrotfish are colorful, tropical creatures that spend about 90% of their day eating algae off coral reefs. This almost-constant eating performs the essential task of cleaning the reefs which helps the corals stay healthy and thriving.

So . . . those teeth are real!  And they do an important job!

image from iStock

And now say "hello" to the pumpkin!

According to www.Childrensmuseum.org  

"With the longer nights of fall, pumpkins on the vine gradually slow down and stop their production of chlorophyll. This green pigment, necessary for photosynthesis, degrades and the carotenoids are revealed, causing the pumpkin to change color to shades of orange, red and yellow."

So pumpkins change colors in the fall, just like leaves on the trees.

And as you can see in the picture, pumpkins can also be white, blue, and green.

Very cool!

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Monday Fun Fact Oct 5

A Goat's Eye

image from Wallpaperflare

 

Did you know that goats have rectangular pupils in their eyes?

Goats have rectangular pupils so that they can see in panaramic view.  Because they are smaller prey, they can see predators coming from a much wider perspective.  

Do you know other animals that have rectangular pupils?

Have a great day!

Friday Fun Fact Oct 2

 All for Fall!

Beautiful fall colors are starting to show as the nights are growing longer.  The chlorophyll production that keeps a leaf green starts to slow down as the nights grow longer, and the "hidden" colors of the leaf start to show:  reds, yellow, and oranges. 

You can watch a great video about this on BrainPop in your CPS portal. Go to BrainPop and type "Autumn Leaves" in the search bar.

BrainPop Jr - also in your CPS portal - has a video about Fall.  Type "Fall" in the search bar and enjoy!

Today is also National Custodians Day!  Shepard school has wonderful custodians who keep our school clean and safe. Thank you to you all!

Have a wonderful weekend!