- Dogs are the most popular animals
- Tigers are the largest members of the cat family
- Dolphins are very intelligent animals
- Cheetahs are the fastest land animals in the world
- Elephants are the largest land living mammal in the world
- Lions are the second largest big cat species in the world and their roar can be heard 5 miles away
- Lionesses are better hunters than males
- Lions in the wild often rest for approximately 20 hours a day
- Wolves live and hunt in groups called packs and are the ancestor for all breeds of domestic dogs
- Cats and humans have been associated for nearly 10,000 years
- Cats conserve energy by sleeping 13-14 hours each day
- Sharks have no bones in their bodies and instead are made up of cartilage
- Some sharks have to move their entire lives because it forces water into their gills to help them breathe
- A frog is an amphibian and lays eggs in the water
- Amphibians can live both on land in the water
- Many whales are toothless
- Whales love to sing and they use this to communicate with other whales and also just for fun
- Whales support many different types of life because some creatures, such as barnacles and sea lice, attach themselves to the skin of whales and live there
- Chimpanzees are the closest living relatives to humans
Animal Spinning Tops
- The world’s largest spinning top is in China
- In some countries there are competitions for spinning tops to see which one can last the longest (the longest was 2 hours)
- Spinning tops have been in existence for thousands of years
- The earliest versions of spinning tops were made of clay
- Different types
- Twirling top - spun by manually twisting the crown
- Throwing top - A string is wrapped around body and attached to stick, When it is thrown, it causes the string to release the body
Ball in Cup Game
- The game itself has origins in Mexico in the 16th century
- The game was a favorite of Henry III of France but after his death people were no longer interested
- For 100 years only a few people played it but it regained popularity
- A variation of the game is Kendama in Japan and in England it is known as Ring and Pin
- You cannot use any other body parts except the hand holding the cup to get the ball in it
- It has many different names around the world
Bubbling Brew Finger Paints- Baking soda is a base and vinegar is an acid
- When they are mixed together they react to one another
- They also neutralize each other
- When combined, their pH is around 7
- Vinegar is a very common household ingredient that has been used for 10,000 years
- Baking soda is a man-made substance. Its main ingredients include common salt and limestone
Coffee Fossils
- Paleontology is a branch of biology that studies fossils
- We learn about dinosaurs and other ancient species based on fossils
- Fossil comes from the Latin word fossilis which means “dug up”
- The oldest known fossil is of algae that lived on rocks in South Africa 3.2 billion years ago
- Majority of fossils are found in a rock called sedimentary rock
- Most organisms do not leave fossils because their parts either decay or are destroyed
Duck
Paper Plate
- Ducks are found on every continent in the world except Antarctica
- A baby duck is called a duckling, an adult male is a drake, and a female is a hen or a duck
- A group of ducks is called a raft, team, or paddling
- All ducks have waterproof feathers
- A duck’s bill is specialized to help it dig into mud and to strain food from the water
- Ducks are omnivores meaning they eat both plants and meat
- Very few ducks actually “quack”
- There are more than 40 breeds of domestic duck
- Ducks have been
domesticated as pets and farm animals for more than 500 years
Origami
- It is the Japanese art of folding paper
- Origami literally means “to fold paper” in Japanese
- Two types or origami: ancient and contemporary
- Exact origin of origami is unknown but is estimated to have started two thousand years ago
- Art of paper folding believed to have started first in China
- Japanese took it and transformed it into an art form
- Legend has it that if an ill person folds 1000 paper cranes, they will become well
Paper Kites
- Kites date back to China when they built them to ward off evil spirits
- The Chinese view kites as a symbol of luck and happiness
- The smallest kite in the world which flies is 5 millimeters high
- The world record for the longest ‘kite fly’ is 180 hours
- Kite festivals are commonly held around the world
- Kite have been used for centuries for fishing
- The Philadelphia Zoo is the oldest Zoo in the United States (opened in 1874)
- In its first year of operation the Philadelphia Zoo had 813 animals and received 228,000 visitors
- Today the Phildelphia Zoo has more than 1,300 animals and 1.1 million visitors each year
- The third week in July is National Zoo Keeper Week
- Zoos have been around since 3500 BC
- Scientists found the oldest zoo in Egypt
- 600 million people visit zoos each year
- Germany has the most zoos than any other countries with 414 zoos
- Germany’s Berlin Zoo has the largest variety of animals of any zoo in the world
- The largest zoo in the United States is Red McCombs Wildlife with more than12,500 acres
- The United States has more than 350 zoos
