Volcanoes

Native Hawaiians knew all about volcanoes. According to them, volcanic eruptions were caused by Pele, the beautiful but tempestuous Goddess of Volcanoes. Pele had frequent moments of anger, which brought about eruptions. She was both honored and feared. She could cause earthquakes by stamping her feet or volcanic eruptions and fiery lava by digging with her Pa'oa, her magic stick. Pele had a long and bitter argument with her older sister, Namakaokahai. The fight ended up forming the Hawaiian Islands. Read more of this story...

Discovery Kids offers you their "Volcano Explorer" where you can go inside a volcano and even make your own volcano science project! Be sure to click the link at the bottom of their page to learn all about the last days of Pompeii.

Picture by Siddharth, Age 9, India

VOLCANO WORLD is a website designed for kids that includes virtual field trips, adventure stories, help for teachers, volcano FAQ, games and fun stuff and, of course, a kids' art gallery (see sample above).

Find out how much you know about volcanoes with this fun activity from National Geographic Kids.

Mount St. Helens VolcanoCams will let you see a volcano live, as in right now, during daylight hours in the State of Washington.

You can visit Mt. Shasta in California or view it "live" on its own webcam HERE or HERE. Mt. Shasta's last major eruption was in 1786 and earned Mt. Shasta the nickname, "Lighthouse of the Pacific." Mt. Shasta is actually a series of four overlapping volcanic cones and as a mountain, it stands alone, not connected to any nearby mountain, rising abruptly to nearly 10,000 feet. Read more about Mt. Shasta HERE.

Mt. Shasta, California


Mt. Etna, Italy

Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is in an almost constant state of activity.The fertile volcanic soils support extensive agriculture, with vineyards and orchards spread across the lower slopes of the mountain and the broad Plain of Catania to the south. You can view live webcams of Mt. Etna HERE.

This CBS video shows an exciting view of one of Etna's most recent eruptions:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Do you know the difference between lava and Magma? Do you know how many volcanoes there are in the world? HERE'S A WEBSITE with lots of volcano facts for kids.

And here are some great books on the subject of volcanoes. If you want to find out more about the book, just click on the image. SECURITY CAUTION FOR KIDS: Do NOT click to download or "buy" anything or put your personal information in a form on a website unless you TELL YOUR PARENTS FIRST that's what you want to do.

A Live (Sort Of) Picture of the Sun

Courtesy of NASA. Thanks, NASA.

The Discovery Channel has a whole bunch of great images of our sun here. Here's just one of them:

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter (including other planets, asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and dust) orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 99.86% of the Solar System's mass. The mean distance of the Sun from the Earth is approximately 149.6 million kilometers (93.0 million miles), and its light travels this distance in 8 minutes and 19 seconds.

Once regarded as a small and relatively insignificant star, the Sun is now known to be brighter than 85% of the stars in the galaxy, most of which are red dwarfs.
The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy at a distance of approximately 24,000–26,000 light years from the galactic center, moving generally in the direction of Cygnus and completing one revolution in about 225–250 million years (one Galactic year).

The Sun's magnetic field gives rise to many effects that are collectively called solar activity, including sunspots on the surface of the Sun, solar flares, and variations in solar wind that carry material through the Solar System.

The sun was formed about 4.57 billion years ago when a hydrogen molecular cloud collapsed.

The above information came from this article on Wikipedia.

KidAstronomy has a bunch of great articles about the planets in our solar system and they have an article about the sun.

SunTrek is a website designed for kids to help them discover more about the Sun and its impact on Earth. There's adventure waiting there!

BOOKS ABOUT THE SUN
(various age levels)

Fun with Kaleidoscopes

THE KALEIDOSCOPE PAINTER

This is one of my favorite places to goof off while online. The JAVA Applet allows you to move your mouse around to "paint" a kaleidoscope. You can change brush size, too. The above image was made by me using their "Dynabrush" option which changes brush size automatically and constantly as you paint. I've used this applet to make images for web graphics or at least, tiles and textures that are then used to create other images. Here are some more variations (resized to be much smaller than their original size so they don't take up too much space here):

When you combine them all together in an animation "timeline," this is what you get:

You are welcome to save any of these images to your own computer and use them on your own webpage or blog or email, but kids need to tell their parents FIRST before they download (save) ANYTHING to their computer.

There are even more ways to have fun with kaleidoscopes besides this applet. To make your own kaleidoscope, GO HERE. To have fun with FREE online kaleidoscope coloring pages, GO HERE.

Here are a collection of online resources for kaleidoscopes:

And here are some great books and other fun with kaleidoscopes... Kids, remember, these places are selling something and you need to show this to your Mom and Dad. Don't try to buy anything online all by yourself.

Have fun with this interactive kaleidoscope! Just move your mouse cursor over it and see it change:

The Hubble Site

FROM THE WEBSITE:

Since the earliest days of astronomy, since the time of Galileo, astronomers have shared a single goal — to see more, see farther, see deeper.

The Hubble Space Telescope's launch in 1990 sped humanity to one of its greatest advances in that journey. Hubble is a telescope that orbits Earth. Its position above the atmosphere, which distorts and blocks the light that reaches our planet, gives it a view of the universe that typically far surpasses that of ground-based telescopes.

Hubble is one of NASA's most successful and long-lasting science missions. It has beamed hundreds of thousands of images back to Earth, shedding light on many of the great mysteries of astronomy. Its gaze has helped determine the age of the universe, the identity of quasars, and the existence of dark energy.

The Hubble Site is such a massive resource, I could spend days and days there and never run out of things to see and do and learn. I love this website! You will, too.

The number one fascinating thing (for me) about this website are the incredible picture galleries that show our solar system, planets, nebulae and more. It is always amazing to look at these photographs of what's out there in space. It really is a magical universe. Be sure to click on the top link above the main picture - the link says, "Picture Album."

If you want to make your own model of the Hubble Space Telescope, you can do it because this webpage shows you step-by-step how to build it. What a great idea for a science fair project!

There's a special section here for teachers and a reference desk that everyone can use. Kids, you'll find some homework help here but the WHOLE website is fun and packed with great stuff that I know will help you in school.

Try the Glossary to brush up on your outer space vocabulary. Do you know what an "Accelerating Universe" is? What's the difference between a blue star and a brown dwarf? Exactly what is radiation, anyway? Think you're an expert on outer space? Go ahead. Take a peek.

Plan on spending a whole lot of time here because you can really get into this stuff. This place is 100% NOT boring. It is F-U-N.

And here's a fun list of books about the subjects of the Hubble Space Telescope and outer space. Remember, a book list is also a list of things to buy and kids need their parents' permission and help to do anything like that. I'm making book lists because I think parents and teachers appreciate that sort of stuff.

Ice Cream!

Do you like ice cream? Millions and millions of people all around the world love ice cream. Ice cream was probably first made in China by combining fruit with ice and then found its way to Europe. King Tang (A.D. 618-97) of Shang, China was known to have combined fruit and ice and milk to make an iced cream product.

As far back as 345 B.C., after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, he ordered that fifteen huge trenches be dug in the ground and filled with ice imported from a far distance just so he could have his favorite iced fruit dessert. 2,000 years later, that favorite dessert is still served up pretty much the same way and we call it a snow cone.

The Roman emperor Nero (A.D. 37-68) was an ice cream lover.

Ice cream has been around the USA since the early origins of our country. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson as well as Dolly Madison and other famous Americans served it to guests. New York City is home to America's very first ice cream parlor which opened in 1776 (the year America declared its independence!).

When ice started being mixed with salt in the production of ice cream, that provided a major breakthrough in ice cream technology. The hand-cranked feezer came along in the 1800's with more than one person applying for a patent, claiming they were first to invent it.

When mechanical refrigeration was invented, the ice cream shop or soda fountain parlor was born. 31 Flavors Ice Cream, anyone?

The first ice cream cones that you could hold in your hand and walk around with were first served at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Chocolate-covered ice cream (also known as Eskimo Pies) was created in 1920 by Chris Nelson who owned an ice cream shop in Iowa and noticed that one of his customers was having a hard time choosing between an ice cream sandwich and a chocolate bar.

Find out even more information about ice cream here (not very young kid-oriented, exactly, but it is a great resource for older kids and parents and teachers).

Americans annually consume about 6 gallons of ice cream per person -- that's roughly 19,200 calories. What flavor of ice cream is YOUR favorite? How many other people say it's their favorite, too? Here is one top ten list made by news channel, CNN:

1. Vanilla (29%)
2. Chocolate (8.9%)
3. Butter Pecan (5.3%)
4. Strawberry (5.3%)
5. Neopolitan (4.2%)
6. Chocolate Chip (3.9%)
7. French Vanilla (3.8%)
8. Cookies n' Cream (3.6%)
9. Fudge Ripple (2.6%)
10. Praline (2.7%)

The Top 10 Ice Cream Consuming Countries in the World are:

1. United States
2. New Zealand
3. Denmark
4. Australia
5. Belgium / Luxembourg
6. Sweden
7. Canada
8. Norway
9. Ireland
10. Switzerland

If you and your family enjoy making your own ice cream, you can find some good recipes here, here, here, and here.

Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Website has a special fun section for kids. SAFETY WARNING FOR KIDS AND PARENTS: Even though I'm sure this is a safe website, it does offer downloads of fun stuff so, kids, you must tell your parents FIRST that you want to download something before you actually do it. That same advice goes for the following webpages that offer lots of fun activities all having to do with ice cream:



If you like to make your own webpages or you like to have fun email stationery or you need pictures of ice cream for any reason, you are welcome to use any of these images and backgrounds:


And here's a fun list of books about the subject of ice cream. Some are stories and some are recipes and other things. I think there's something here for every age level so check out the whole list. Remember, a book list is also a list of things to buy and kids need their parents' permission and help to do anything like that. I'm making book lists because I think parents and teachers appreciate that sort of stuff.

Whales and Dolphins (Cetaceans)

Cetaceans are mammals that live their entire lives in the water. They include whales, dolphins and porpoises. The largest living creature on the Planet Earth is the Blue Whale. Watch this video about the Blue Whale and you will be amazed:

Sometimes, whales sing songs to one another because that's how they communicate. A lot of people like to listen to recordings of whale songs. This next video lets you hear songs of the humpback whale:Dolphins' brains are as intelligent in their own dolphin way as we humans are in our way of thinking. Like humans, dolphins love to play and have fun even after they become adults. This video shows the playful behavior of dolphins, showing off their surfing skills during a human surfing contest: If you've enjoyed these videos and you'd like to learn more about dolphins and whales, you'd probably like these websites:

Dolphin Picture Gallery from hi-tech dolphin.com -- I used some of their photos in the mini-slideshow below this list (as well as pictures from other sources). This website is not designed for small children but it does have numerous resources on dolphins.

What is a Whale? from Enchanted Learning -- a fantastic website! Be sure to check out ALL of their whale links.

National Geographic for Kids has a whole interactive section on the bottlenose dolphin with pictures and videos and even e-cards that you can send!

The Dolphin Institute in Hawaii takes you on an interactive journey exploring the world of whales and dolphins. I linked to the Kids Section.

Dolphin Research Center -- Wow, they have games, fun facts, adopt-a-dolphin, dolphin camp, help marine mammals, and coloring!

The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary -- sections for teachers and students and even a Kid's Corner with fun activities.

"Whale" from Wikipedia -- tons of information and links to resources and other topics having to do with whales and marine life.

"Dolphin" from Wikipedia -- also has tons of information and links to resources and other topics having to do with Dolphins and marine life.

Save the Whales -- learn their song and join children around the world on Thursday, May 13, 2010 to sing for the whales! Save the Whales focuses on educating the public, especially children, about marine mammals and the fragile ocean environment.

Whales.org -- great information resource with pictures and video.

The Latest News on Dolphins and Whales -- from Science Daily.

David's Dolphin and Whale Photos -- one of the largest collection of dolphin and whale pictures on the Web! This is the place for all fans of whales and dolphins.

Whale-Watching-Web -- All the large whale species and many dolphins and porpoises can be seen regularly on a wide range of tours, lasting from an hour to two weeks. Whale watching is a non-consumptive use of whales with economic, recreational, educational and scientific dimensions.

WhaleNet -- has sections for teachers, students, and the general public.

And here's a fun list of books about the subjects of Dolphins and Whales. Remember, a book list is also a list of things to buy and kids need their parents' permission and help to do anything like that. I'm making book lists because I think parents and teachers appreciate that sort of stuff.