Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Karen W. on 29/07/2006 17:13:26
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I have a little "boy" friend that wants me to post a few science questions for the forum. He asked me to answer them, but what a joke!
Moi answer science questions! I thought you might enjoy these. Please any responses should come in 4 year old terms and not mentioning God as we cannot uses religious reference to a child at school!
1. Teacher why did god make all of the earths, and only make ours with plants and oxygen to breath in our lungs? Why did he make all the others with no oxygen or gravity? ( Get this, He is a 4 year old!)
2. Teacher how does the plants get that chlorophyll in them so we can breath oxygen?
3.How are we going to breath Gods oxygen if that place keeps cutting down Gods trees? ( points at truck company next door who hauls all the trees out in their trucks to go to the mill!)Yikes! Kid is really bright!
4.Do brown trees or Grass make oxygen for us to breath?
5.Teacher, Why do we have Gravity on this earth?
6.Teacher Karen,are we going to go live on the other planets, like Saturn?
Well as you can see this little fellow has some very good questions for his age and he reminds me abit of a cheeky little fellow we all know and love! Maybe someone can shoot me back a couple really simple answers , he will be thrilled you answered! He loves space and the like, I have already printed him a couple of photos from the other forums.
Thank you all very much and keep in mind, I'm curious also!
Always a student! ........ Karen
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I will try and answer – hope it will neither be too complex, nor too patronising, but I may well get the balance wrong in a few places.
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Originally posted by Karen W.
1. Teacher why did god make all of the earths, and only make ours with plants and oxygen to breath in our lungs? Why did he make all the others with no oxygen or gravity? ( Get this, He is a 4 year old!)
Smart 4 year old. Thinking of putting him in for Mensa [:)]
The answer is that we don't know how many planets (Earth's) do exist with an oxygen atmosphere.
We know that only our Earth has oxygen amongst the planets in our solar system, but we do not know how many solar systems there may be out there, or how many of them may have a planet like our Earth.
We only know of the one, our own. Some scientists believe there may be millions of planets like ours out there, we just haven't been able to find them yet. It may turn out there are millions like us, or it may turn out that we are truly unique, and there is only one Earth with oxygen in its atmosphere.
Incidentally, when the Earth was originally formed, there was no oxygen in its atmosphere. It is only after the first plants (not plants in the way we would view them, more algae than plant) started to live on our Earth that the Earth started to develop an oxygen filled atmosphere. When the first algae started producing oxygen, it was actually poisonous to all the life that had previously grown up without oxygen (that life was very primitive, and left very little trace on the Earth – complex life like animals only started developing once there was oxygen).
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2. Teacher how does the plants get that chlorophyll in them so we can breath oxygen?
Just as you inherit your eyes or you hair from your parents, so plants inherit the chlorophyll from their parent plants. Plants have mothers and fathers just like people. They are a little different in the way they actually produce their babies, but nonetheless they do have to have a mother and a father plant. In some species of plants, you have male plants and female plants that give you a separate mother and a separate father, while some other plants have both male and female in the same plant, so a baby plant will have a separate mother and father plant. Some plants can be both male and female at the same time (so can some animals, such as snails and worms), so they can be both mother and father (not always to the same babies – so they may be mother to one baby and father to another).
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3.How are we going to breath Gods oxygen if that place keeps cutting down Gods trees? ( points at truck company next door who hauls all the trees out in their trucks to go to the mill!)Yikes! Kid is really bright!
All green plants will produce oxygen, whether it is a tree, a blade of grass, or green moss or algae. That we cut them down does not matter so long as there is more to fill there place.
All things die and are born. There is no problem that something dies, the problem only occurs if nothing is born to take its place.
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4.Do brown trees or Grass make oxygen for us to breath?
Someone may correct me on this, but I think the answer is that if it is not green, it will not make oxygen.
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5.Teacher, Why do we have Gravity on this earth?
We have gravity everywhere. If you pick up a tennis ball, that tennis ball will have gravity; but because the tennis ball is very small and light, there is only a very very small amount of gravity it has. Because the Earth is very much bigger, it has much more gravity. Because the Sun is even bigger yet, it has even more gravity than the Earth (but because the Sun is so far away, so it looks very small, and we only feel a very small amount of the gravity of the Sun).
Why does everything have gravity? We don't know – we only know that that is the way things are.
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6.Teacher Karen,are we going to go live on the other planets, like Saturn?
We cannot do it yet. We do not know if we will ever be able to do it or not.
Saturn is a very very big planet. It is very much bigger than the Earth, so the gravity on Saturn is very much stronger than on Earth, so everything will feel very heavy on Saturn. I don't know if we would ever be able to live in a place where everything is so very heavy – but who can say for sure what the future will hold.
George
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Thanks George, I see on my Paper here he also asked, and I missed it , what is gravity? he knows its what makes us stay on the ground, ie, or a ball or apple fall down, but wants to know what it is also?
Thanks george, I will copy this and take it to him. we can share it at circle time, he will be thrilled!
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quote:
Originally posted by Karen W.
I see on my Paper here he also asked, and I missed it , what is gravity? he knows its what makes us stay on the ground, ie, or a ball or apple fall down, but wants to know what it is also?
Gravity is like a spring that pulls everything towards everything else.
The bigger (heavier) a thing is, the more powerful the pulling force (which is why heavier things will fall more heavily – but that falling is really in both directions, as a spring pulls in both directions).
A small apple has very little weight, so the force pulling between it and the Earth is very little. The force between one apple and another apple, although it is there, is so very little that is it almost impossible to measure (with modern instruments, it is just about possible to measure it, but you cannot feel the force in ordinary everyday life). If you have two very heavy objects, like two Earths pulling towards each other, the force would be so string that nothing on this Earth would be able to stop it.
The other thing about gravity, and this is what makes it different from a metal spring, is that the further away two objects are, the less they feel the gravitational force that pulls them together. In fact, if you climb up a very high mountain, because you are a little bit further away from the Earth, you will be a very little bit lighter. As you get into space, you will be lighter yet, because you are further from the Earth.
One thing one has to be careful with is the mistake some people make in believing that the reason astronauts are weightless is because they are so high above the Earth. While it is true that gravity at that distance from the Earth is less than on the surface of the Earth, it is still not free of gravity. The reason why astronauts are weightless is because they are spinning around the Earth at exactly the right speed to exactly balance the residual pull of gravity that they do feel. This spinning has a centrifugal force that is exactly the same force that a person feels if they spin around with their arms outstretched (and maybe with some weights in their hands) that feels like it is pulling their arms off – so too, the spin of the spaceship around the Earth is trying to pull the spaceship away from the Earth, but it is calculated to be exactly the right amount of pulling away from the Earth to balance that amount of gravity between the spaceship and the Earth that is trying to pull the spaceship down to Earth.
I hope the above makes sense – maybe some of it will have to be rephrased for a 4 year old audience, but hopefully will give you a starting point.
I know it may be a bit complicated – I did not want to simplify it to the point of giving wrong information, but hopefully it has not made the result unintelligible to the target audience.
George
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My first reaction is that he is one sad screwed up kid who has been taught the wrong things.
The first message to get over is that the universe made itself from simple beginnings and was not made by a big bloke in the sky called god who designed each bit individually.
Once he has understood that maybe he can rephrase som questions in a reasonably scientific way that we can begin to answer.
But to take the questions seroisly and replace the word god with "evolution" or somethig similar.
Question 1 other planets do have gravity and some of them do have atmospheres but as their size and distance from the sun is different their gravitational fields and the elements from which they were built is slightly different. to go into the compositions of the planets and atmospheres in detail would take too long here.
question 2 is that plants manufacture their clorophyll and use it to extract energy from sunlight releasing oxygen as a waste product and polluting the air for plants they evolved on the earth before animals and the animals evolved to exploit this oxygen in the atmosphere because it can be used a a quick source of energy allowing animals to move around a lot quicker than plants
Questions 3 & 4 grass and all green plants make oxygen so there is no immetiate problem but we must not have too many people on the earth so that there is no room for grass and tree to grow and produce oxygen
Question 5 gravity is a property of all matter its strength depends on how much matter you have in one place The earth is a medium sized planet bigger planrts and stars have stronger gravity while smaller planets and moons have weaker gravity. evena lump of iron as big as a football has some gravity ant with very careful measurinf instuments it is possible to measure this gravity in a laboratory.
Gravity is produced by mass because it slightly distorts the space around the mass meaning that it is always very slightly "down hill" towards a mass.
Question 6 It is easier to send robotic space probes to planets to investicate them because they dont need air food and water like human beings and it doesnt matter too much if you cant get them back or they go wrong.
small numbers of human beings have been to the moon and may go to panets like mars but it bis unlikely that human beings will go a long way like jupiter or satrun for a very long time because the energy and life support problems are so big and the journeys tak such a long time (several years) It is not possible for very many people to leave the earth using current technologies because the energy requirements are so great so most people will always have to make do with this planet. that is why we must look after it very carefully.
Learn, create, test and tell
evolution rules in all things
God says so!
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quote:
Originally posted by Soul Surfer
My first reaction is that he is one sad screwed up kid who has been taught the wrong things.
I rather think that is an inappropriate judgement to make of a 4 year old trying to push the boundaries.
Certainly, he comes to life with certain preconceptions that may not accord with our own views of life, but that makes him no more screwed up than any other 4 year old. Most 4 year olds wouldn't even be asking those questions, so to regard him as screwed up because he is asking those questions come with the word 'God' attached to them I think is a little harsh on the poor lad.
At 4 years of age, he has a long long time in which to revisit the questions he asks, and develop more sophisticated visions of reality. So long as he keeps asking the questions, he will have the opportunity to keep improving the answers.
George
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Thank you george, and I agree.
Soul Surfer, As I stated in my above post God has to remain out of this equation for now as we are not allowed to teach or critizize this childs belief or the way his parents are bringing him up! That is indeed an individual learning process as George stated he will have many oporunities to revisit these questions as he grows. I am thrilled that he has the presence of mind to be asking questions that are so very complicated for a child of his age. I appreciate your imformation. ......Thanks .....Karen
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Karen,
Could you do just one favour – give me some comment on how the answers were received. It would be nice to know that they satisfied the questioner (or, if not, how so).
George
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George I will do that as this week we will be sharing them, I will take some notes and follow up on here. George Thank you so much for taking the time to care about that!
Love to ya.....karen
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quote:
My first reaction is that he is one sad screwed up kid who has been taught the wrong things.
Hmmm, do you think we can nominate Ian to appear on that TV programme "Grumpy Old Men"? [:p]
The 4 year old sounds like a wonderfully bright kid. (When my kids were 4, the only sorts of questions they asked were of the "Are we nearly there yet?" or "Why do I have to eat my vegetables?" variety. [:(!])
I can't improve on George's or Ian's answers, but a couple of thoughts:
a. I vaguely remember from A-level biology (many years ago) that there are a few NON-green plants that do photosynthesise. (But only a few - I think it was only some forms of algae.)
b. Is the 4 year old familiar with magnets? (Do you have any fridge magnets yourself, Karen?) I just thought it would be something to help him think about gravity. George's "springs" analogy is very good, but he (the boy) might be puzzled about the existence of "invisible springs". Perhaps you could say that gravity is a bit like (though definitely not the same as) magnetism - there's an invisible force that you can feel, pulling two objects together, but that force becomes less noticeable the further apart the two objects are.
Just a thought.
Anyway, you have my respect, Karen, for wanting to do your best to answer this boy's questions fully and accurately.
(Just one question, though: When you say you "have a little boyfriend", you're not actually dating him are you? I know it's fashionable for women to take "toyboys" these days, but don't you think 4 years old is pushing it a little too far? [:D][:D][:D])
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quote:
Originally posted by Karen W.
I see on my Paper here he also asked, and I missed it , what is gravity? he knows its what makes us stay on the ground, ie, or a ball or apple fall down, but wants to know what it is also?
Gravity is like a spring that pulls everything towards everything else.
The bigger (heavier) a thing is, the more powerful the pulling force (which is why heavier things will fall more heavily – but that falling is really in both directions, as a spring pulls in both directions).
A small apple has very little weight, so the force pulling between it and the Earth is very little. The force between one apple and another apple, although it is there, is so very little that is it almost impossible to measure (with modern instruments, it is just about possible to measure it, but you cannot feel the force in ordinary everyday life). If you have two very heavy objects, like two Earths pulling towards each other, the force would be so string that nothing on this Earth would be able to stop it.
The other thing about gravity, and this is what makes it different from a metal spring, is that the further away two objects are, the less they feel the gravitational force that pulls them together. In fact, if you climb up a very high mountain, because you are a little bit further away from the Earth, you will be a very little bit lighter. As you get into space, you will be lighter yet, because you are further from the Earth.
One thing one has to be careful with is the mistake some people make in believing that the reason astronauts are weightless is because they are so high above the Earth. While it is true that gravity at that distance from the Earth is less than on the surface of the Earth, it is still not free of gravity. The reason why astronauts are weightless is because they are spinning around the Earth at exactly the right speed to exactly balance the residual pull of gravity that they do feel. This spinning has a centrifugal force that is exactly the same force that a person feels if they spin around with their arms outstretched (and maybe with some weights in their hands) that feels like it is pulling their arms off – so too, the spin of the spaceship around the Earth is trying to pull the spaceship away from the Earth, but it is calculated to be exactly the right amount of pulling away from the Earth to balance that amount of gravity between the spaceship and the Earth that is trying to pull the spaceship down to Earth.
I hope the above makes sense – maybe some of it will have to be rephrased for a 4 year old audience, but hopefully will give you a starting point.
I know it may be a bit complicated – I did not want to simplify it to the point of giving wrong information, but hopefully it has not made the result unintelligible to the target audience.
George
-
My first reaction is that he is one sad screwed up kid who has been taught the wrong things.
The first message to get over is that the universe made itself from simple beginnings and was not made by a big bloke in the sky called god who designed each bit individually.
Once he has understood that maybe he can rephrase som questions in a reasonably scientific way that we can begin to answer.
But to take the questions seroisly and replace the word god with "evolution" or somethig similar.
Question 1 other planets do have gravity and some of them do have atmospheres but as their size and distance from the sun is different their gravitational fields and the elements from which they were built is slightly different. to go into the compositions of the planets and atmospheres in detail would take too long here.
question 2 is that plants manufacture their clorophyll and use it to extract energy from sunlight releasing oxygen as a waste product and polluting the air for plants they evolved on the earth before animals and the animals evolved to exploit this oxygen in the atmosphere because it can be used a a quick source of energy allowing animals to move around a lot quicker than plants
Questions 3 & 4 grass and all green plants make oxygen so there is no immetiate problem but we must not have too many people on the earth so that there is no room for grass and tree to grow and produce oxygen
Question 5 gravity is a property of all matter its strength depends on how much matter you have in one place The earth is a medium sized planet bigger planrts and stars have stronger gravity while smaller planets and moons have weaker gravity. evena lump of iron as big as a football has some gravity ant with very careful measurinf instuments it is possible to measure this gravity in a laboratory.
Gravity is produced by mass because it slightly distorts the space around the mass meaning that it is always very slightly "down hill" towards a mass.
Question 6 It is easier to send robotic space probes to planets to investicate them because they dont need air food and water like human beings and it doesnt matter too much if you cant get them back or they go wrong.
small numbers of human beings have been to the moon and may go to panets like mars but it bis unlikely that human beings will go a long way like jupiter or satrun for a very long time because the energy and life support problems are so big and the journeys tak such a long time (several years) It is not possible for very many people to leave the earth using current technologies because the energy requirements are so great so most people will always have to make do with this planet. that is why we must look after it very carefully.
Learn, create, test and tell
evolution rules in all things
God says so!
-
quote:
Originally posted by Soul Surfer
My first reaction is that he is one sad screwed up kid who has been taught the wrong things.
I rather think that is an inappropriate judgement to make of a 4 year old trying to push the boundaries.
Certainly, he comes to life with certain preconceptions that may not accord with our own views of life, but that makes him no more screwed up than any other 4 year old. Most 4 year olds wouldn't even be asking those questions, so to regard him as screwed up because he is asking those questions come with the word 'God' attached to them I think is a little harsh on the poor lad.
At 4 years of age, he has a long long time in which to revisit the questions he asks, and develop more sophisticated visions of reality. So long as he keeps asking the questions, he will have the opportunity to keep improving the answers.
George
-
Thank you george, and I agree.
Soul Surfer, As I stated in my above post God has to remain out of this equation for now as we are not allowed to teach or critizize this childs belief or the way his parents are bringing him up! That is indeed an individual learning process as George stated he will have many oporunities to revisit these questions as he grows. I am thrilled that he has the presence of mind to be asking questions that are so very complicated for a child of his age. I appreciate your imformation. ......Thanks .....Karen
-
Karen,
Could you do just one favour – give me some comment on how the answers were received. It would be nice to know that they satisfied the questioner (or, if not, how so).
George
-
George I will do that as this week we will be sharing them, I will take some notes and follow up on here. George Thank you so much for taking the time to care about that!
Love to ya.....karen
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quote:
My first reaction is that he is one sad screwed up kid who has been taught the wrong things.
Hmmm, do you think we can nominate Ian to appear on that TV programme "Grumpy Old Men"? [:p]
The 4 year old sounds like a wonderfully bright kid. (When my kids were 4, the only sorts of questions they asked were of the "Are we nearly there yet?" or "Why do I have to eat my vegetables?" variety. [:(!])
I can't improve on George's or Ian's answers, but a couple of thoughts:
a. I vaguely remember from A-level biology (many years ago) that there are a few NON-green plants that do photosynthesise. (But only a few - I think it was only some forms of algae.)
b. Is the 4 year old familiar with magnets? (Do you have any fridge magnets yourself, Karen?) I just thought it would be something to help him think about gravity. George's "springs" analogy is very good, but he (the boy) might be puzzled about the existence of "invisible springs". Perhaps you could say that gravity is a bit like (though definitely not the same as) magnetism - there's an invisible force that you can feel, pulling two objects together, but that force becomes less noticeable the further apart the two objects are.
Just a thought.
Anyway, you have my respect, Karen, for wanting to do your best to answer this boy's questions fully and accurately.
(Just one question, though: When you say you "have a little boyfriend", you're not actually dating him are you? I know it's fashionable for women to take "toyboys" these days, but don't you think 4 years old is pushing it a little too far? [:D][:D][:D])
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Sorry if my first comments came over a bit strong. I hoped that my answers would provide the counterbalance. It is vital that he gets good clear scientific answers.
Learn, create, test and tell
evolution rules in all things
God says so!
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Yes I agree with you and your other answers did offer that counter balance. I am taking them down today after I print this .
Solvay thanks for your magnet Idea, that is a good idea! I will also use that as I am a magnet freak, they amaze me too. I do alot of things with the children with magnets. No Boy toys here!LOL See Topic, I corrected my faux pas! Thanks solvay!
George I thank you too! I will let you know how it goes. I think I might pose his second set of questions from todays decussion and carry out this theme for the week as he is so interested, and like a magnet he draws the other chiildren in with his own curiosity! Thanks guys!
Karen
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Wow! That is an incredibly bright kid...Mine asked questions such as...what did we do before microwaves, why is the sky blue? why are we walking on grass and not the sky?(did offer gravity and wish I would've thought of the magnet idea...brilliant!) Why do cats not come to you when you call them by there name and you can't teach them tricks? Why is my skin olive and the crayon is a different color...(yes, I used tan and went through the same thing when they found the tan crayon...pigmentation was harder to explain..but used the crayola idea as each crayon do the same thing, only they add color to a picture...using paper as an example one crayon it looks okay, but when you add several colors...it makes a beautiful picture..Out of my 3 kiddos...2 drove me the most nuts with questions that were hard to come up with answers and they started at age 3...but no gravity, no planets, etc...stars, yes...wondering if they could touch one or not...but that is as far as it went...
George great answers! Solvent...very good! You deserve a hug Ian! LOL grumpy old men? LOL
"Lo" Loretta
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Good on the lad!
Question is how long will it be before he is ground down by the conventional wisdom (which he has to do to pass exams)and still retain that essential curiosity to challenge that "wisdom" to find the solutions that currently evade mainstream physics?
Graham
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Well Friends, It has been a dandy day thanks to our esteemed friends in Physics, Astronomy,Cosmology! You all were good enough to help me little friends at school by answering some rather good questions that 1 young man asked. We shared two of the answers to day at circle with discussion that insued and had quite a n exhilerating day with my 3 to 5 year olds. Amazing what they think of! Tony's quote, "Never underestimate youth" Really rings true today. My little class of 3 to 5 year old shined today as brighty as the sun! They were outstanding and very excited that you all took the time to send them real answers! If I could take a pic, and send it to the forum I would! We are not allowed to take photos of our children for the obvious reasons. But they were Glorious today and with their attention span we only discussed two answers and decided to follow up with this for the entire week! they were really jazzed about You all answering the questions.They had some lovely comments to. I will post those this weekend so you all can see their responses. I tried to write down everything with the help of my assistant teacher. I want to assemble the things from the week and let you all see.
Thank-you all, Friends, and it is truely a pleasure to know you all. You are great people!
Karen
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Look forward to it..hearing kids and their thoughts can be most amusing...one time I was teaching S.School...my youngest son was 5, I asked the class if Jesus was coming to your home today, what would you offer him...he raised his hand and yelled Kool-Aid! I had to turn around to keep from laughing...I had just taught him how to make it and told him he was the best in town making it...as he was very proud of this factor...hehe I miss not teaching kids and know you have a very rewarding job...at least they are innocent in their answers....You are wonderful Karen!
"Lo" Loretta
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Thanks Lo it is a great job and I do love it and the children!
Karen
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it reflects...you are the Queen!!!!
"Lo" Loretta
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LORETTA! You are making me blush! What a beautiful comment you old mush Bucket YOU!
Karen
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shhhh, don't tell no one..aagghh! LOL
"Lo" Loretta
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Secrets safe with me!!!!!!! SH!!!! DID I HEAR SOMEEONE SAY SECRET?
Karen
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LOL I think you are pretty loud here...shhhh!
"Lo" Loretta
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Well, we had alot of fun with the gravity last week! I have taken some pictures that my assistant teacher will email me later in the week as she left and forgot she had the camera! I will post the ones I can. The children cannot be in the pictures, for privacy reasons, But We have many other pictures available. I want to post you their comments and other questions pertaining to the week and your wonderful answers. So it will be later this next week! Please be patient it will take me some time to get everything transferred to the computer!! Once again Thank-you all so very much!!!!
Karen
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WE LOOK FORWARD TO IT!
"Lo" Loretta
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quote:
Originally posted by moonfire
WE LOOK FORWARD TO IT!
Indeed so.
George
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Heya Handsome!!!
"Lo" Loretta
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How you doing George? How was the anniversary Party?
Karen