Category: science

Cells are the Mini Version of the Big Thing

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Cells are the Mini Version of the Big Thing

Scientists and biology teachers make cells seem like the best kept secret on earth. That is until there is some major health problem or it’s time for a test. 

Now it’s not that hard to understand once it’s broken down to a basic level. This is the basic level right here.

Cells are very small versions of very large things. A long time ago, some say around 4 billion years ago, the very first living things on earth were single cell animals.  https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2018/01/31/581874421/be-humbled-our-oldest-ancestors-were-single-celled-organisms

Things on earth were not so calm and easy during that time, so the cells had to change constantly to survive.  Think of it as surfing on a giant wave during a tsunami in the middle of a hurricane. Things were really rough! All cells are alive, from the ones that make the grass, mushrooms, algae and plants to the ones that make insects, animals and humans! There are not just two or three cells that make these living things around you, it’s billions and trillions of cells!

When you think of a cell, I know you just think of a round clear circle with a small dark-colored circle in the middle. A cell is way more than that! It is a mini version of a complex animal. Some cells even have feet that they use to slowly walk to their food to eat (amoeba)! https://rsscience.com/facts-about-amoeba/

Amoeba: Parts and Structure with Characteristics and Diagram

Let’s start with the clear part of the cell, the cytoplasm and the cell membrane. The cytoplasm is the largest part of the cell. You can call it the cell’s body.  The cell membrane is the wall around the cell. It keeps its contents inside or keeps unwanted things out, just like you have skin covering your body to keep everything inside and bad things out. There are organs inside the cytoplasm usually referred to as organelles-small organs and they function somewhat like the organs do in your body. 

The nucleus is what you would call the brain of the cell. It contains the DNA and serves as the cell’s command center. The DNA is the memory of the cell and has the information needed to multiply. 

The mitochondria is responsible for producing a chemical called ATP which provides energy for the cell. Cells have hundreds of mitochondria that are covered by a membrane. It also has mitochondrial DNA. Think of this as the digestive system of the cell. If you look at it under a microscope, it looks like the digestive tract in mammals.

The Golgi body is another large organelle. It stores the lysosomes which digest and recycle toxins and waste. They contain proteins that break down amino acids, carbohydrates and phospholipids.  Whenever the cell dies, it self-destructs using its lysosomes.

The vacuole is the sanitation and water storage of the cell. It is the organelle that excretes the waste and stores the needed water for the cell. The large intestine has the same function in mammals.

Ribosomes function similar to the nucleus. They assist with translating the RNA, which comes from the DNA, into protein by sticking amino acids together. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320878#division

If you were a plant, then you would have this organelle-a chloroplast! The chloroplast allows the energy from the sun to produce food for the plant. That is why plants are green and you are not! Plant cells also have cell walls that keep all the organelles and water in and keep unwanted things out. 

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/cells-and-versatile-functions-their-parts/

Now you should have an idea of what a cell is and how it is a miniature version of every living creature. You know the parts of the cell and how they function and you shouldn’t have a headache from learning about it. Our bodies replace 33 billions of cells everyday. You have a complete replacement in 80-100 days. Do you realize that there is a new you every 2 ½ to a little over 3 months?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-bodies-replace-billions-of-cells-every-day/

It’s time to celebrate the new you!  With a little practice, you should be ready for bigger things now. 

Blood: The Trucking Company of the Body

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By Verhonda Wiltz

I know, you have never thought about your body in this way. Most of us don’t know how our body works or even care…. Until it stops working as it should!  Most of the time, when it’s not working at its best, it’s hard to get it repaired and back on track. So, it’s best to maintain it and keep it in good shape. In order to do that, you need to understand how it works.  Let’s start now with your blood.

Blood is the trucking company of your body. Think of it as a fleet of trucks and trailers. The blood cell is the truck/tractor, and the iron that is attached to the cell is the trailer.  It carries fuel, gases and other chemicals to your whole body and removes wastes from your body too. Blood travels along a superhighway of blood vessels called arteries, mainly used for deliveries, and veins for pickup.  There are also streets off the highway called arterioles and capillaries. Your body has over 60,000 miles of highway inside you.

The main business office for the blood trucking company is in the bone marrow. Bone marrow is deep in the center of your bones.  This is where your blood is made and released/dispatched onto the highway. 

The kidneys are the truck wash for the blood/truck. They clean the blood of all wastes and inspect and work with the spleen on removing old worn out blood cells/trucks from the highway. When it’s time to replace the blood cells/trucks, the kidneys dispatch a message to the bones/business office and new blood cells/trucks are released on the highway.

The spleen is the blood recycling center for old, worn out blood cells.  The spleen has a highway maintenance crew that repairs the highway when it gets holes, burns and scrapes in it. The highway must be kept smooth at all times to prevent traffic jams and multi-truck accidents. It also has a hazardous material crew that it sends out when infections occur. 

Now that you have the main operation procedure down, we will now follow a normal route of a red blood cell.  We will start with a new blood cell/truck.

= 

Red Blood Cell with iron = Truck with Trailer

The first assignment for the blood cell is to take the highway from the bones to the lungs for oxygen/air.  Traffic should flow smoothly because the highway only flows in one direction.  The blood cell/truck must first pass through a highway roundabout exit called the heart that leads the blood cell/ truck to the lungs. When the blood cell reaches the lungs, it turns onto one of many of the veins/streets and loads the oxygen/air into its trailer. Then it leaves the lungs by turning onto the arterioles/streets, goes back to the highway roundabout entrance at the heart and begins its trip to deliver the oxygen/air to one of the many other cells and organs of the body.  These blood cells/trucks are very fast!  They do this in less than one minute when you are resting, and much faster if you are running or scared!  

The next stop is to deliver this oxygen/air to the digestive system organs. The food processing center! The first stop is to deliver the oxygen/air to the stomach cells. That really doesn’t take much time at all. Then it is sent to the liver/sorting warehouse of the body to pick up some fuel called glycogen and deliver it to the leg muscle cells.  The blood cell/truck passes through an inspection weight station before leaving the liver to be sure the truck is running well and can deliver the fuel. If it is running well, it will take the glycogen to the leg muscle cells.  Don’t forget that there are millions of these red blood cells/trucks on the highways of your body making deliveries and pickups all the time. They even work when you are sleeping!

Now the blood cell/truck has made it to the leg muscle cells and delivered the glycogen, it must pick up some waste/carbon dioxide.  There are other types of waste that your body makes, but for the sake of time, we will take the carbon dioxide and deliver it to the lungs to be dumped outside the body. The blood cell/truck gets back on the highway and follows it south until it turns onto the veins and then heads north back to the heart.  It makes its exit at the highway roundabout again inside the heart, to the arterioles and delivers its load of carbon dioxide to the lungs where it is pushed out of the lungs, through the nose into the air.  

Every so often  it makes a delivery to the kidneys for waste dumping and gets an inspection at the spleen for best highway function. 

If it doesn’t pass inspection, usually every 20 days, it gets removed from the highway and sent to the spleen for recycling. 

Remember when I mentioned that the highway had to be kept smooth and the spleen was in charge of the maintenance crew? We are now going to talk about that maintenance team/crew.

The team consists of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets-small round shield shaped cells. This team patrols the highway and the streets to keep them smooth. If they find an area that needs repairing, they close the damaged area off and narrow the area while they work.  The white blood cells clean the area of dirt, germs and anything that is not a red blood cell, white blood cell or platelet. Some red blood cells bring fibrinogen, a special chemical that combines with the platelets to make a patch.  The team stays there until the patch is dry. Then the crew moves down the highway where they are needed next. 

Now we will get to the big part about this trucking company.  What do you have to do to keep this company going? How do you keep your fleet of trucks at their best?

This company needs lots of water! It keeps the highway smooth and free of traffic jams, and the kidneys need water to wash the trucks inside and out. 

=

Kidneys = Truck wash

Water is also needed for highway and street repairs.  So start by drinking lots of water every day. 

It is also important to eat foods with lots of iron. Spinach, collard, turnip, mustard greens, broccoli, fish, nuts, grapes, raisins, eggs and some red meat- beef, pork, lamb, chicken, sweet potatoes, turkey, quinoa and oats to name a few. You must remember that these foods are great, but you cannot eat them with cheese or drink tea or milk while you eat them. The iron washes out of your body if you do.

Small Pictures of Iron Sources For Kids

Sleep is when most of the inspections and repairs happen, so allow enough time for these processes to be done.  Exercise keeps the blood cells/trucks moving on the highway and prevents traffic jams and accidents. It’s important to keep moving! 

Now that you know about your blood, the trucking company of your body, it’s time to get it in top shape!

References

https://babyfoode.com/blog/iron-rich-foods-babies-toddlers-kids/#best-baby

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/how-wounds-heal

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/what-are-platelets-and-why-are-they-important

Click to access BODYSYSTEMNotes.pdf

https://www.lornelabs.com/news-events/blog/the-journey-of-a-red-blood-cell

https://reverehealth.com/live-better/how-body-systems-connected/

Images

http://clipart-library.com/clipart/415438.htm

Image by <a href=”https://pixabay.com/users/clker-free-vector-images-3736/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=24360″>Clker-Free-Vector-Images</a&gt; from <a href=”https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=24360“>Pixabay</a>

https://pixabay.com/illustrations/red-blood-cell-rbc-erythrocyte-1861640/

<a href=”https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/truck-wash”>Truck Wash Vectors by Vecteezy</a>

<a href=”https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/human”>Human Vectors by Vecteezy</a>

<a href=”https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/spleen”>Spleen Vectors by Vecteezy</a>

<a href=”https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/recycling”>Recycling Vectors by Vecteezy</a>

Iron Rich Foods For Kids

The Short Tale of Bark and Bite

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There were two dogs One was Bark and he was dark brown and Bite who was black.  They lived next door to each other and were the best of friends. They did everything together. Bark was known to bite and chew everything. He was curious and explored a lot by taking a bite and tasting things. Bite was very vocal and barked all the time. He always had a lot to say.

One day, while on their daily walk, they found a giant bone. Bark was so excited when he saw the bone and couldn’t resist! He had to bite it. It was so delish! Bite was a bit surprised and he sniffed the air as if it would tell him how the bone got there! Bark was in a hurry to get the bone home. Bite said the bone needed to be watched. They had never found bones this size on their walks. They walked this path everyday and never found a giant bone alone on the side of the path. Bark was not happy with Bite’s plan. He started to get mad and wanted to fight! He gave a low growl to Bite.  Bite did not like this challenge to fight,  The bone was just as much his and he was just as big as Bark. The two dogs growled, bit and rolled on the ground and other dogs started to gather around. Bark and Bite had such a loud fuss, soon all the neighborhood dogs were there to see the fuss. The fight lasted for quite a while. In the meantime, Blonde Bollo the poodle grabbed the giant bone and took it home. After an hour Bark and Bite came up for air and decided to rest, when they noticed that their giant bone had vanished into thin air! They searched and searched for the giant bone, but it was gone!  Bark and Bite ended their fight with a friendly hug and walked home together as usual that night! They promised each other that they would never fight each other again…..not even over a bone!

The moral of this story is: 

Bone here today and bone gone tomorrow, but real friends are forever!

What is the Smartest Animal on Planet Earth?

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My tablet, my tablet can you recall, what animal is the smartest one of all?

We tend to think of humans as being the most intelligent of all in the animal

kingdom, but there are others that are just as smart. We always hear about

the chimpanzees and the rats, but what about the other animals? 

Some animals live in the ocean, some fly in the air, and some walk with us

across the land… just what is animal intelligence? According to

Zooportraits.com:

We can define animal intelligence as the combination of skills and abilities that allow animals to live in and adapt to their specific environments.

They have found ways to change their habits and behaviors to adapt to the

Earth changes for millions of years!

Some animal species have been forming social groups long before humans

discovered Facebook, Instagram and other social media. Let’s look at a few

of the smartest animals on Earth!

Octopuses

The world’s smartest invertebrates, animals without skeletons, are

octopuses.

Octopuses should be smart…. They have eight legs and NINE brains!!! They

have more to work with than most of the other animals. Octopuses can

protect themselves by pretending to be other animals. They have also l

earned to use tools to survive. 

Octopuses can carry out complex tasks, such as opening a jar to get to its contents. Not only do they have a good short and long term memory but also a remarkable ability to learn new skills from the moment they’re born. For example, the mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus) is able toimpersonate other species in order to protect itself from predators. Well, at least a female giant Pacific octopus named Billye can. Biologists at the Seattle Aquarium put Billye’s strength and smarts to the test with a bottle-opening challenge. The clever cephalopod was able to unlock the top and access her snack in five minutes. Perhaps that’s unsurprising for a creature known to open clam shells and other stubborn-shelled mollusks without a shucking knife. [The 5 Smartest Non-Primates on the Planet] Yes, like chimpanzees, dolphins and crows, octopuses are among the special set of intelligent animals that have been observed using tools. In 2009, scientists reported they had watched veined octopuses (Amphioctopus marginatus) picking up discarded coconut shells and using them like mobile homes.

Whales and Dolphins

The largest brained animals of the ocean are the whales and dolphins. They

are also considered some of the smartest oceanic animals alive.

Whales and dolphins have large brains; brainy dolphins have a brain to

body ratio second only to humans. Large-brained creatures generally have

a few things in common: they live long lives; 

they are sociable; their behaviour is complicated…

Elephants

The largest brained animals on land are elephants. I know you have heard

that an elephant never forgets! There are other things elephants can do too!

Elephants are large animals with big brains. They are considered smart for several reasons: they break off sticks with their trunks, have incredible memories, and seem to be capable of empathy.  Elephants also work together to solve puzzles, according to researcher Joshua Plotnik from the University of Cambridge in England. In one experiment, two elephants had to drag ropes attached on either side to a table holding two food bowls. This required cooperation because only one elephant pulling wasn’t enough. 

Ducks, Parrots, Ravens and Crows

Now let’s look at some of our friends that fly! They have to be smart also, so

they don’t get lost. The sky is large you know!

This isn’t some quack of an inclusion. Ducklings imprint on their mothers, but scientists were curious about how the ducklings managed to differentiate between imprinted beings and non-imprinted. They put ducklings in an enclosure and trailed two different pairs of objects around on strings, one matching pair of shapes (like two spheres) and one pair of non-matching shapes (like a cylinder and a cube). After the duckling showed a tendency toward set, the researchers put the ducklings in a different enclosure with different matching and non-matching pairs. The ducklings would follow after whatever set best resembled their original imprint. So, if they followed the two spheres in the first enclosure, they would follow a set of matching cubes in the second enclosure. This tendency, according to researchers interviewed by the Christian Science Monitor, has only been seen in primates, crows and parrots before, indicating that ducks may be smarter than we’ve thought.

We all know parrots can reproduce sounds of the English language (or other languages). But some even have an understanding of the meaning of these words.   The most impressive example of this ability is Alex, an African Grey parrot, who knew colors and shapes and learned more than 100 English words. He was trained by Irene Pepperberg, a comparative psychologist at Brandeis University and Harvard.  Before Pepperberg’s groundbreaking work with Alex, “scientists had little expectation that any bird could learn to communicate with humans,” the New York Times wrote in 2007, following Alex’s death.

Ravens are more than the subject of dark themes by writer Edgar Allan Poe. They are also extremely resourceful animals that have been known to multi-task. Researchers from Canada and Scotland have shown that ravens use logic to understand their surroundings in a way that may surpass the ability of the great apes. The crow, a close cousin to the raven, is also an extremely smart bird.

Morell notes in an article for National Geographic: “New Caledonian crows are among the most skilled of tool-making and tool-using birds, forming probes and hooks from sticks and leaf stems to poke into the crowns of the palm trees.”

Pigs

This gives you a whole different way of looking at these animals! Would you

care to play a game against a pig?

Pigs are highly adaptable mammals with a keen ability to learn new skills. In fact, some studies suggest that an adult pig may have a level of intelligence comparable to that of a three year old child! This would make them far smarter than other domestic animals, such as dogs and cats.

The New York Times reports on researchers who have found that domestic pigs can use mirrors to find their food, and will try to deceive other pigs so they can “hog” more food. They also learn quickly and can do tricks ranging from jumping through hoops to playing video games with joysticks.

Bees

Entomologists, scientists who study insects, have been studying bees for

hundreds of years have found that most hives are 95% female bees! 

“These are, high, high, highly intelligent creatures,” said conservation biologist Reese Halter.1   Halter was speaking of the fascinating bee. Bees are already famous regarding their ability to communicate with other bees through complex dancing routines. Halter’s team also found that bees have puzzle-solving abilities. In 2006, scientists were amazed to discover that bees have a biological clock. They described it as, “An endogenous, physiological mechanism, whose exact nature has not been determined, that keeps time independently of external events.”It is actually more similar to humans than to insects. 

Bees continue to astound scientists when tested for cognitive abilities in the lab.  For example, the bees can learn to slide or lift caps, then subsequently push balls of escalating weight to access the reward. When the researchers put the bees who knew how to solve the puzzle in a hive with naïve bees, they somehow went on to communicate the solution to their unlearned kinfolk.6   Entomologists recently discovered that bees have a capacity to discriminate numbers. “Honeybees can identify a piece of paper with zero dots as ‘less than’ a paper with a few dots.”7 It has always been assumed that what separates man from the animal world (among other things) is an understanding of the abstract concept of “zero.” But Howard and his team have now shown that untrained honey bees have an understanding of an “empty set.” The authors stated, “Bees demonstrated an understanding that parallels animals such as the African grey parrot, nonhuman primates, and even preschool children.”    Loukola and his team concluded that the learning ability of bees is extraordinary. Such unprecedented cognitive flexibility hints that entirely novel behaviors could emerge relatively swiftly in species whose lifestyle demands advanced learning abilities, should relevant ecological pressures arise.8

What an example of Girl Power!

Dogs

We can’t forget some of our best friends!

“In many ways dogs may be more human-like than any other species, even non-human primates,” researchers wrote in a 2008 dog intelligence study published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. In a separate study, Brian Hare, an expert in canine cognition, showed that dogs can follow and respond to human gestures, like pointing and eye movements, without training. This so-called “theory of mind” ability “is so important to our species,” writes Slate’s David Grimm, “that without it, we would have trouble learning and interacting with the world around us.”   One the smartest dogs in the world (or at least with the most impressive vocabulary) is a border collie named Rico. Rico knows the name to more than 200 items — he can retrieve the object from a jumble of stuff after hearing the name only once. (Rico also took third prize in De Waal’s “Animal Noble Prizes”) Another dog, Chaser, knows more than 1,000 objects and can understand English grammar. She isn’t the first animal to have a basic understanding of grammar. Studies published in the journal Cognition in 1984 indicated that dolphins can also grasp elements of grammar. 

So maybe this is why they are used as service animals for us.

My tablet, my tablet now sitting on my lap,

Thank you my tablet with your Internet and Google too! 

Now we can be a little smarter than we were when we started!

 We can name other smart animals on the land, in the air and in the oceans

and learn more about them as we grow.

 This has been some good information to begin to know!

Baby Barnie Barnacle

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Baby Barney Barnacle was floating in the warm quiet lagoon when it was released from

its mother into the sea with hundreds of its tiny brothers and sisters.

He heard a voice that sounded soft and familiar, but he could not tell where it was

from. The voice told him to eat the plankton that floated around him and wait until

he could find a large hard surface to attach himself to and rest. The voice became

louder and told him to move away when a school of fish passed by to eat a few of his

brothers and sisters. When the tide washed out, the voice told him he had to look

out for crabs that thought he would make a tasty snack! He dreamed about how he

would rest for the rest of his life on that hard surface. It would become his

forever home and he would never have to leave. He would not have to work to look for

food like some of the other sea creatures. He would not have to fight for his food

or go hungry like some of the creatures in the sea and he would not have to worry

about being eaten. He could travel and see the world and eat the different foods

that the sea offered and he would be safe. While he was eating his meal of plankton,

a piece of wood floated by, it looked nice, but the voice told him it was not large

enough, so he let it float by. Some of Barney’s sisters attached themselves to a

boat that slowly passed by, but there was not enough room for Barney, so he

continued to float in the lagoon and eat his plankton and algae. Some of Barney’s

brothers attached themselves to the baby sea turtles as they swam from the beach to

the lagoon on their way out to sea. A lot of the sea turtles did not get very far

because the seagulls and the fish ate them! So Barney just stayed in the lagoon

eating his plankton.

One day, the lagoon became dark and the water churned and the waves crashed into the

lagoon! Oh my! Baby Barney thought. He had never been through this before! All of a

sudden, he felt a large pull and before he knew it, he was out of the lagoon and

floating on the large rough waves of the sea! The voice he usually heard was loud

and told him to hang on, things were about to get better. So Baby Barney continued

to float on a large wave out to one of the sea currents. Then the water became calm

and clear again. Everything looked new and different now. There was a large, gray,

slow-moving, flat surface coming close to him. The voice that usually spoke to him

told him go now and hang on. It was time for him to attach himself and ride. It was

a gentle ride and he was able to see lots of places and eat different food and he

was safe. He lived on the side of a large whale. Barney traveled for many years on

the whale. Barney was on his forever home.

Miles and the Invisible Twiga

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Miles was always loved the animals he saw in the zoo. He had books on the

animals of the jungles of the Amazon, Africa and Asia. He wore tee-shirts with

his favorite animals on them. Miles had models of the animals he saw in the zoo.

He even had his own model zoo! He had stuffed animals of monkeys, zebras,

hippopotamuses, but his favorite was the giraffe. He visited the giraffes in the

zoo every time he went. Miles even asked the zookeeper about the giraffes. Miles

had lots of books and magazines on giraffes and he learned a lot about them. He

knew what they ate, how the slept, where they lived, how long they lived and

what they liked. He always dreamed about caring for giraffes.

One evening one of Miles’ teeth came out. He showed the tooth to his parents and

they told him to place it under his pillow that night before he went to sleep

and make a wish. His mother told him that there would be a surprise the next

morning for him. So he rushed to get ready for bed, placed the tooth carefully

under his pillow and made a wish. He wished for a pet giraffe. Soon Miles was

fast asleep.

The next morning, Miles woke up. It was time to get ready for school. He quickly

looked under his pillow and saw a shiny silver dollar where he had placed his

tooth. Then he noticed a shadow pass by his bedroom window. He wondered what was

that? The wind was not blowing and there were no trees near his window! Miles

went to his window and opened the curtains and what did he see? It was a young

giraffe looking straight at him through the window! Miles could not believe what

he saw. His wish came true! He opened the window and the giraffe stuck his head

into Miles room and licked his face clean. Miles decided he would name his new

friend Twiga, the Swahili name for giraffe.

Miles hurried to get ready for school. He washed his face, brushed his teeth and

dressed for school. He rushed downstairs for breakfast with his parents. Miles’

mother greeted him good morning and served his breakfast. She asked him if he

received his gift for his tooth under his pillow. He had almost forgotten about

that gift and said yes he had. His father asked him what were his plans for his

gift and Miles told his parents he had not thought about it yet. Twiga was

looking into the kitchen window at Miles, but Miles’ parents could not see him.

He asked if he could be excused from breakfast to arrive at school early for a

new project. His parents agreed and wished him well for the day. Miles hurried

out the back door into the backyard and found Twiga standing near the door

waiting for him. Miles gave Twiga a hug and walked him to a grove of trees in

the far corner of the backyard for breakfast. Miles said goodbye to Twiga and

promised to return to him after school. Miles started to leave the yard and meet

with his friends to walk to school. His friends Randy and Jessica met him at the

gate. They came face to face with Twiga at the fence. They asked Miles how did

he get a giraffe in his backyard? He explained about losing his tooth and

placing it under his pillow after making a wish and finding Twiga at his window

this morning.He also told them that he doesn’t think his parents can see Twiga.

Miles reminded them that it they must leave now to get to school on time. They

began to walk down the sidewalk when Jessica noticed that Twiga was following

them. Miles tried to get Twiga to stay at home, but Twiga still followed him.

They noticed that the neighbors that were rushing to work did not see Twiga.

They passed by as though he was not there. When they left the neighborhood and

walked closer to town, they noticed that the old ladies and old men sitting on

the benches waiting for the bus could see Twiga and they would point and wave.

Miles, Randy, and Jessica finally arrived at school. All of the students stopped

and ran to get a closer look at Twiga. They welcomed him and pet him. The bell

rang and Mrs. Butler, the principal, shouted for all of the students to stop

standing in their groups and get to class before she places the whole school in

detention. She obviously could not see Twiga because she didn’t say anything

about him being there and she usually doesn’t miss thing. It looked like none of

the teachers were able to see Twiga. Twiga was too tall to come inside the

school, so he stayed on the playground eating leaves on the trees. He would

occasionally peep into the window of Miles’ classroom to see what he was doing.

Soon it was lunchtime and Miles, Randy, and Jessica met outside at the picnic

bench to eat lunch with Twiga. Soon more of the classmates came over to feed,

pet, and play with Twiga. All of the students enjoyed their time with Twiga,but

the teachers did not notice anything different. Lunchtime was over and the

students returned to their classes and Twiga returned to eating tree leaves and

twigs. It was three o’clock, the school bell rang time to go home. All of the

students rushed out of the school building. It was Friday and the weekend was

starting. Everyone could not wait to get home. Miles looked for Twiga. He did

not have to look far. Twiga was walking toward him with Jessica, Randy and a few

other classmates hanging on to Twiga’s legs as he walked. They decided to take

the long way home through the park. The children and Twiga enjoyed their time in

the park. The children played on the swings, the slides, the merry-go-round and

other play equipment and climbed on Twiga. Twiga enjoyed everybody at the park.

He even kissed a grandmother and grandfather sitting on a bench tending to their

grandchild in a stroller. They rubbed his nose and head as a thank you for the

kiss. It was now time to go home for dinner. Randy and Jessica were asking

Miles if he would allow Twiga to spend the night at their houses later during

the month. Miles said he would let them know after he had spent more time with

Twiga. They were soon at Miles’ house. Randy and Jessica said goodbye to Miles

and Twiga and went home. Miles walked Twiga into the backyard and closed the

gate. He asked Twiga not to leave the yard without him and Twiga nodded his head

as if he understood. Miles walked into the backdoor of the house. He could smell

the wonderful dinner his mother had cooked. Miles’ mother announced that dinner

was ready and instructed her husband and Miles to wash up for dinner. When they

all sat down to eat, Miles’ mother asked him if he had an interesting day and

Miles told her it was a very very interesting day. No need in telling his

parents more. So he left it like that!

The 2D Dream

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I had a dream that did not seem like a dream. It was really unreal.

I woke up one morning and sat up in my bed, but things just didn’t seem right. I

pushed my covers away and got up, walked to the bathroom as I usually do. I noticed

that the doorknob was harder to turn than usual. I thought no big deal and continued

into the bathroom. I turned on the water in the sink and washed my face and started

to brush my teeth and noticed that the toothbrush and toothpaste were flat. I

thought it must be another one of those strange mornings and continued getting ready

for the day. I tried to dress. I noticed that my jeans and shirts were flat like

clothes for a paper doll. There was only a front and a back. There were no sides. I

was trying to see how I would fit into that. I put on the clothes and I noticed that

they fit! I was now flat as a sheet of paper! I no longer had sides! I opened my

bedroom door and looked for my dog Bite. He was his usual shaggy-self waiting for me

in the hall next to the wall. When I went to him to pet his back, I noticed that he

had no sides either! Bite had only a front and a back with a flat tail! I ran to the

kitchen to find my mother who was also flat, cooking flat breakfast in the kitchen

while my flat father was reading the sports section of the newspaper. My family

acted like this was normal and nothing was wrong!

I quickly took Bite outside for a walk like I usually do before I leave for school.

It was a beautiful morning with the sun in the bright blue sky with white puffy

clouds. I walked Bite on his leash down the sidewalk and noticed that the houses

looked the same from the front, but there were no sides to the houses. You could see

the cars in the driveways, but only from the rear. There were no sides. The trees

were in the same places that they always were but they were flat. I hurried my walk

with Bite and returned home. I had a flat breakfast waiting for me. It was hard to

eat and I didn’t feel full. The hardest part about breakfast was drinking liquids.

They were in flat glasses and were hard to pour into your mouth. I grabbed my

backpack and ran to catch my bus. Everything weighed the same and things were still

hard to carry. I had a hard time seeing my bus because it was also flat. Everyone

acted like this was normal.

School looked the same except it was flat. There were no long halls anymore and it

didn’t seem crowded when you entered a classroom or hall. The gym seemed smaller and

unusual which make playing games very different, but no one seemed to notice.

Can you imagine playing flat basketball or flat volleyball? Everything else about

the day seemed normal: the computer, the English, and math assignments. It only

became odd when we went to science class. The science teacher discussed all of the

dimensions that are known to man so far. He acted like we had never experienced the

third dimension. School wasn’t out soon enough for me. I couldn’t wait to get home

and go to bed and wake up from this nightmare! I skipped dinner and didn’t do my

homework. For the first time since I was small, I was in a hurry to get to bed.Just

as I was falling asleep, the alarm went off and I woke up in my bed. It was six A.M.

A regular day in my regular world.

Everything was in 3D as usual. So was it all real or just a nightmare?

Berry Bear and Boo Bunny Travel to Bootes

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Berry Bear and Boo Bunny Travel to Bootes

Berry Bear and Boo Bunny were sitting in Berry’s cave one morning. They were doing their usual thing of eating berries, honey, and carrots when Berry Bear declared that he was bored and wanted to do something different. He told Boo Bunny that he had a spaceship in the field just below his cave and said that they should take a trip. Boo Bunny asked him where would they go? Berry Bear said they should leave earth and go to the nearest star that begins with a B. They should go to Bootes since both of their names begin with B.

Berry Bear had spacesuits that he and Boo Bunny put on and climbed into the spaceship and planned their trip. They took a compass and turned it north because Bootes is north of earth far in space. Three-two-one-lift-off! They were on their way to Bootes! They passed the trees, passed the birds, passed the clouds, they even passed the moon! Yes, the moon! Up, up and up they went, far into space! The sky was now dark with bright globs of lights! It was a beautiful sight! Berry Bear and Boo Bunny were moving so fast that in a snap of your fingers, they were there at Bootes. Boo Bunny told Berry Bear to find a good place to land, so they chose the planet Bot. It was a giant blue planet that circled around Beta Bootis, one of the stars in the Bootes constellation. Bot was not hot or cold and it had bright yellow clouds with a bright red sun in the sky.

The spaceship landed on Bot. Berry Bear and Boo Bunny were greeted by purple three-legged people of all sizes with heads that had a mouth and one large eye. They ran constantly from side to side. The people called themselves Bottoms. They greeted Berry Bear and Boo Bunny by grabbing their paws with their hands and dancing in a circle one time. Some wore a sunglass that covered their eye. They were very friendly and so many. Boo Bunny became so dizzy and fell down after greeting all of the bottoms. All of the buildings on Bot were shaped like pyramids and every Bottom had a pet at their pyramid house. They either had a six-legged dog or a six-legged cat. Some of the pets were plaid, striped or polka-dotted.
The Bottoms decided it was time to eat, so they took Berry Bear and Boo Bunny to their pyramid restaurant to eat. The Bottoms drove three-wheeled cars and trucks. When they reached the restaurant, they had green fizzy sodas and red and yellow vegetables, but they were tasty treats. The Bottoms said that they do not eat meat, but they have great treats to eat! They eat pink, blue and white ice cream with red, yellow and green drizzles on top. The meal was delicious to Berry Bear and Boo Bunny! They were full to the top! They were taken to see some of the animals that live on Bot, like the llama looking animal that they called the boojim. The boojim was silver with lots of curly fur. It ate the pink straw that grew on the blue ground. They also saw birds of all colors flying on their backs through the sky. They saw animals that looked like half furry orange elephants called buppers. They reached a river of yellow water that emptied into a yellow lake with fish that jumped every now and then. There were boats on the river that looked like Hong Kong Junks.

The red sun began to set and the Bottoms all went to their pyramid houses to get ready for bed. One of the Bottom families invited Berry Bear and Boo Bunny into their home to spend the night. Boo Bunny found it very interesting that the Bottoms sleep while hanging upside down from a rod inside the top of their pyramid home and they never fall off the rod. Boo Bunny and Berry Bear slept on the floor of the pyramid home.

When morning came, everyone woke up and started to get ready for the day. The bottoms came down from the rod, showered, brushed their teeth and ate the breakfast that the mother Bottom made. It was brown ham and red eggs. It did not look so great, but it smelled wonderful and tasted really good! Boo Bunny and Berry Bear thanked the Bottom family for inviting them for the night and prepared for their return trip home to earth. They said goodbye to all the Bottoms as they returned to their spaceship and boarded ready for their trip back to earth. All the Bottoms waved good-bye and gave them a present of twenty bottles of green fizzy soda to take with them on their journey home. Soon Berry Bear started the engines and before they knew it, Boo Bunny and Berry Bear were home drinking their green fizzy sodas and talking about the happy memories of their trip to Bot!

The Solar System Dance

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She was dancing her colorful dance with the sun,
When she was outdone by the smallest one, little Mercury closest to the sun.
Then she was circled twice by Venus day and night.
She and her moon are number three with the only visible life forms for all to see.
The fourth is the dance of the red one that is the goal for the next exploration.
Then in comes the rocky donut ring of small planets, rocks, dust and things.
Jupiter, the largest, comes spinning in the dance class full of gas.
Along comes Saturn twisting with her colorful rings!
In comes Uranus on its side with a slow roll.
Whirling rapidly like a big blue top, Neptune takes the solar floor on its outer edge like the rim of a bowl.
On the outer edge is a small piece to be barely seen, is Pluto dancing like in a dream.
Dancing together for billions of years in the Milky Way is the solar system we call home today!

Time

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Time.

It doesn’t travel in a line.
When we are young, it slowly passes.
The older we get, the faster it flies by!

We can’t see it.
We can’t smell it.
We can’t taste it.
We can’t feel it or hear it, but like the wind, we know it’s there.

It’s round like the face of a clock,
Or a sundial or the sun as it travels across the sky.
Round like a baseball, basketball, soccer ball or the moon.

Time waits for no one.
It passes invisibly, quietly without any sound.
Time sneaks upon us.

We only see the results after it has passed.
We lose time.
We save time, but we can’t show it.
We can’t find time.
We can’t count time.
We try to take time, but we can’t hold it.
We are out of time.
We only see the results of time as it passes us by.
Time’s up!

We can’t wait on time.
Time is a second.
Time is a minute.
Time is an hour.
Time is a day.
Time was yesterday.
Time was last week.
Time was last month.
Time was last year.
Tomorrow comes but is never here.
Time is today.
Time is now!