Separation Station

Little Thunder had made a terrible mess. He had tipped the bag of chicken grain, the jar of nails and a bucket of sand all into one big tub.

"Oops," he said. "I was trying to tidy up."

Spike stared at the tub. "Now the chickens can't eat their grain. It's full of nails and sand."

"Don't worry," said Suzy. "We can separate it. We just need the right tool for each job."

"First, the nails," said Spike. He fetched a big horseshoe magnet and swept it through the mix. Click, click, click! The nails jumped up and stuck to it.

"Magnets pull out things made of iron," explained Suzy. "The grain and sand stay behind."

"Now the sand," said Little Thunder. "Can we use a magnet again?"

"Sand isn't magnetic," said Suzy. "But the grains are tiny. Grain is big." She held up a garden sieve. "A sieve lets small things fall through and keeps big things on top."

Little Thunder shook the sieve. Sand poured out like rain. The chicken grain stayed in the sieve, clean and golden.

Lima the cow wandered over. "Very clever. But what about this?" She nudged a bucket of muddy, salty water from the trough.

They poured it through a coffee filter first. The mud stayed behind, but the water still tasted salty.

"Salt has dissolved," said Spike. "It's too small to filter out."

"So we use sunshine," said Suzy. They poured the water into a flat tray and left it in the sun. By afternoon, the water had evaporated. A crust of white salt crystals sparkled in the tray.

"Magnet, sieve, filter and sunshine," counted Little Thunder. "Four steps!"

"And not one wasted," said Spike.

The chickens clucked happily over their clean grain.