Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2016 i Click Science and Discovery Magazine for Preschoolers and Young Children

Thanks for coming to the burn today and for your interest in prairie restoration. Most of the original prairie was turned into farmland. Now people are trying to bring the prairie back. So why are they going to burn it? Yeah. Then there won’t be any prairie left. Don’t worry. The prairie will grow back and be even better than before. My name’s Ben. I’ve been to lots of prairie burns. That firefighter is my dad. I’m Amy. And this is Martin. What about the animals? I saw a rabbit go in there. Yikes! We only burn a little bit of the prairie at a time. That way the animals can move next-door and find a new home. We’d better let them know! Everybody out! Moving day! Run for your…

The animal cookies we’d baked had finally cooled down enough to eat. I was biting the tail off a gingerbread donkey when I heard a loud eee-aw. For a second I thought it was my donkey braying. Then I realized it was Mom’s pager. Mom grabbed her coat and hurried to the back door while the pager beeped. My new friend, Kevin, had his mouth full of hippopotamus. He’d stopped chewing, and his eyes were big and round. He had no idea what was happening. “Come on,” I said. “Get your coat.” Mom was already out the door, but I could hear the dispatcher’s voice on the pager. Mom called back to us, “The alarm is for a fire at a house on Long Lake Road. The roads are so…

Some pine trees need fire before new trees can grow. Jack pine trees grow in dry, sandy places. Their cones are sealed shut with sticky stuff called resin. Resin keeps seeds inside the cone. Hot fire melts the resin so the cones can open. After a fire, the seeds fall out and sprout on newly cleared ground. Black fire beetles are so good at finding fires that scientists are studying them to learn how to build better fire alarms. The insects have tiny sensors hidden beneath their middle legs that can feel the heat of a fire more than 30 miles away. The beetles fly toward the fire and lay their eggs inside trees that are still warm. Why? Many months later, grubs hatch from the eggs and eat the…

Fire is what happens when you put together three things: fuel, oxygen, and heat. Fuel is stuff that burns. Some things burn more easily than others, but anything that burns can be fuel for a fire. You can’t see oxygen, but it’s all around you. When you breathe, your body takes in oxygen. It’s the part of air that we need to live. Fire needs oxygen too. Fuel and oxygen aren’t enough to make fire, though. Fire also needs heat. A match is made of stuff that burns easily. It’s surrounded by oxygen in the air, but it won’t light until a grownup rubs it hard against a rough surface. Once a fire is started, the fire itself can make enough heat to keep burning, as long as it has…

Fire can be plenty scary. If a house catches on fire or you burn yourself, it can be awful. But fire is also good. It keeps us warm, it cooks our food, and sometimes it’s just FUN. The candles on a birthday cake! Who doesn’t enjoy that? Or a 4th of July sparkler! It’s so exciting on a dark summer night. But when I’m done having fun, I always make sure the fire is out. Because fire is HOT and nobody wants to get burned.…