Friday, March 8, 2024

Monday, February 19, 2024

GO BATTY FOR BATS!

 


Reading BATS: BIGGEST! LITTLEST! is the perfect way to start getting to know these amazing animals.  Then keep on exploring and learning about bats as you have fun with these activities.


Visit My Cave


What's it like to live like a bat?  

Cover a table on three sides with a blanket or paper to create a cave.  Have your family or a group of friends crawl inside your pretend cave with you.  While you're there with this group, think about these questions.

  1. Why is a cave a good home for small bats, like Mexican Free-tailed Bats? 
  2. Why do you think big bats, like Grey-Headed Flying Foxes, camp in the open in trees instead?
  3. What are some problems to sharing a cave with other bats?

What Good Are Bats?

Check out the hand-like structure of a bat's wings.

Try this to find out.  
Take a large bowl of popcorn kernels to the gym or outdoors to a paved area of the playground.  Work with friends to scatter 50 popped kernels on the floor or ground.  Count to ten. Then have people place two more popcorn kernels next to each original kernel.  This is as if the insect pests have multiplied.  






























Now pretend you are an insect-hunting bat. Have four others pretend they are too.  While someone counts to five, have each “bat” pick up all of the insects they can carry.  Then have other children place two popcorn kernels next to each remaining kernel.  

Repeat these steps two more times, having “bats” collect “insects”.   Then have any remaining “insects” multiply.  

Now look at the results.
  • How much of an affect did the “bats” have on the “insect” population?
  • What limited how much of an effect the bats could have on the insects? 
  • What do you think would happen to populations of insect pests if there weren’t any bats?

Bats for Good Measure

Again, here's a good chance to see the arm and hand-like structure of a bat's wing.

The wingspan of the largest flying foxes can be up to 6 feet (about 2 meters).  Take string that length. Find at least 5 things about the same length.  What are they?  
Now, measure each of these things.  Find out how longer or shorter each is compared to a large flying fox’s wingspan. 
  • The teacher’s desk
  • The class’s two shortest students lying head to feet on the floor.
  • The classes two tallest students lying head to feet on the floor.
  • Your teacher’s armspan (from fingertip to fingertip with both arms stretched out)
The wingspan of the Bumblebee bat is 6 inches (15 centimeters).  Take a piece of string that length.  Find at least 5 things about the same length.  What are they?
Now, measure each of these things.  Find out how much longer or shorter each is compared to a Bumblebee Bat’s wingspan.


  • The smallest book in the classroom
  • Your pencil
  • The shoe of the student with the littlest foot
  • Your right hand span (from thumb to little finger with your hand spread wide).  Draw around your hand span on a piece of paper. Then compare to your bat wing measuring string.
I hope you've enjoyed this chance to dig deeper into BATS: BIGGEST! LITTLEST!  Check out the other books in this series from Boyds Mills:


Wednesday, January 10, 2024

TAKE A BITE WITH GREAT WHITE SHARKS!



Size Matters to these hunters!

An adult Great White Shark never stops growing.  So it gets a little longer every year of its life.  They're born alive and about four feet (1.2 meters) long at birth.  One of the biggest kinds of sharks, adults often grow to be 20 feet (6 meters) long. Measure off a piece of string that length. Stretch it out on the floor and lie down next to it with your feet at one end of the string. Set something, like a pencil, across the string next to your head. Use a measuring tape to find out how many feet/meters shorter you are than a Great White Shark.

Now, find at least 3 things about the same length as a Great White Shark.  What are they?  Now find out how much longer or shorter each of the following things is compared to a Great White Shark.

*The class's two tallest students lying head to feet on the floor
*Your teacher 

Now peek inside my Scholastic book that features great white sharks to discover more.

READ AND DISCOVER!
How does a great white shark sense smells underwater?
click on image to make larger and read.
When would having a super sense of smell be GREAT?
When would having such a good sense of smell be BAD?
NOW CHECK OUT MORE
BONUS FACTS ABOUT GREAT WHITES:
Pups are on their own immediately after they are born.

Great White Sharks swim while sleeping. They breath through gills and need to move to push water through their gills.

Their bodies are not designed to let them swim backwards. So they can't backed up.





Thursday, November 16, 2023

WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET FUN!?

 


HOP! SKIP! STEP into WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET FUN!


LET’S STOMP


Have each child choose his or her favorite animal feet. 

Choose some foot stomping music and have the children spread out at least an arm’s length apart. Then turn on the music and have kids dance where they’re standing. 

NOW, imagine having kangaroo feet. Invite them to share how that might change how they do each of these activities:
  • Run a race
  • Take a bath
  • Play baseball



The Rest of the Story

The picture below shows only one moment in a story captured in WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET!?. Now imagine--and tell
  • What led up to the moment shown in the picture?

  • What is really happening in the picture?

  • How is this story likely to end?




NEW FEET



Now have children think about which of the animal feet in WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET!? they would like to have--for a day.

WHICH ONES? WHY?

Click to link to getting your very own copy of WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET!? coming soon also as a Level 2 Reader.



Sunday, November 5, 2023

CAN YOU MAKE SENSE OF THIS MYSTERY!



                 What is in the bag, Beau?


That is my cat, Beau, using his senses to try and predict what is in the mystery bag.


Challenge your Ss to do the same using their less used senses: hearing, smell, and touch. 

First, make up mystery bags. Lunch sized bags are fine. Use a marker to number each bag: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Make numbers big and in the middle of one flat side of the bag. Use scissors to poke a small hole next to the number on each bag

Put a handfull of one of these Mystery Items in the first  bag, fold the top over and staple shut. Repeat till  each item is sealed in its own bag. 

Mystery Items:
pennies
unwrapped peppermint candies
cotton balls
popcorn
M&M candies


Next, divide Ss into 5 small groups.  Tell everyone what 5 items are in the Mystery Bags. Give each group a bag. Challenge Ss to use their senses one at a time to collect information about what's in the bag. After each observation, challenge them to use their past experiences and these observations to try and identify the mystery object inside their bag.

Have Ss use their sense of hearing first.  Have them shake the bag and listen. 

Next, have Ss gently poke and squeeze the bag. What do they observe using touch? Does that make them want to change their earlier prediction about what's inside the bag? If so, what do they now think the mystery item might be?

Challenge Ss to use their sense of smell this time and repeat the process.  They'll need to make observations, consider what they may have smelled in the past that had that scent, and decide if they want to change their prediction.

Have each group write down the bag number and which item they believe is in that mystery bag. 

Now, have groups switch bags and repeat the observation tests. 

Once every group has examined all 5 bags, allow Ss to open the bags and see what is inside.

Were they right? Which sense helped most?

AND how did past experiences and knowledge about the mystery objects help!?

Beau guessed right! His mystery bag held Kitty Treats.  Now, he's enjoying a book and a nap.

CLICK HERE and I'll read one of my books.






Tuesday, October 10, 2023

WATCH WILD INVENTIONS AND SHARE THE ACTION!

 


Readers are already having fun discovering the action in WILD INVENTIONS--my newest book from my Lerner Publishing Sandra Markle Science Discoveries series. Are you?

Here's you're chance to get a peek inside the book at one chapter. Investigate how termites and honey bees cool their homes but in 2 very different ways. 

Honey bees leave the hive, gulp in a stomach full of water (actually 2 because a bee has 2 stomachs), and back at the hive spit the water out to wet the walls. Then they beat their wings to fan the wet walls and cause evaporation that cools their home.


MOUND building termites create huge dirt mounds full of tunnels they build one bit of mud at a time that act like air ducts. They keep remodeling the tunnels day and night to direct air flow. Because of this and changing outside air temperatures compared to those inside, the termite's keep hot air rising/cool air sinking. And the interior temperature of their home stays just right for the termites day and night.

NOW!

Watch the video and share the activity to have fun with air heated/rising and cooled/sinking. 

 Wishing you Happy Reading and Discovering!



Friday, September 15, 2023

TALK LIKE A DOLPHIN!

 


Hi, Readers! Did you have a chance to share my newest Scholastic book on Storyvoice? I've had lots of requests to share the steps for the activity. 

And even if you didn't have a chance to share the live Storyvoice action, I know you'll want to share this FUN ACTIVITY. 

You'll be able to make sounds the way dolphins do--by moving air. You can also do what I did to make up your own dolphin name.

CLICK TO PLAY

Don't miss reading to share all the FUN! 



I'LL READ TO YOU: RACE THE WILD WIND

  Relax and enjoy as I read to you. Click to start RACE THE WILD WIND (Bloomsbury) And enjoy your own copy from Amazon