IS IT TOAD WEATHER YET?!

TOAD WEATHER is one of those books you can have fun reading more than one time.  So after you read it the first time, read it again and again as you have fun with these activities.

Compare and Contrast

Can you find ways things change for Ally during her rainy day adventure in TOAD WEATHER?

1.  How does Ally feel about a rainy day at the beginning of the story?
     And when she's walking home with Mama and Grandma at the end of the story?

2.  When she first gets outside, Ally starts to hurry.  How is this different from the way Ally walks through the puddles?

How does Ally walk while carrying toads across the street.

How does Ally walk when she's on her way home?

3.  Looking out the window at the beginning of the story, Ally thinks the rainy day is just gloomy gray. But outside, she thinks it's like being inside something colorful.

What is that something? 

Why does she think that?

What Happened When?

Ally discovered a lot of things during her TOAD WEATHER adventure. 

She counts five of them as surprises. 

List those surprises in the order they happened. 

Which one did Grandma think wasn't a nice surprise.

Its On The News

Pretend you are a television news reporter. Based on what happens in the story, write a TOAD WEATHER news report about this event.

Include a quote from Ally about what it was like to help the toads.

Include a quote from Grandma too.

Another Story

Ally isn't the only child who discovered the migrating toads. Look at the little boy and his mother on pages 18 and 19.  Now, write a short story about his adventure. Be sure to tell why you think this boy and his mother are outside on a rainy night. Did they come especially to help or just happen onto the scene?

From the picture, how do you think the boy feels about the toads?

Tell why you believe he did or didn't help the toads.

Toads Eye View

Now tell about this TOAD WEATHER night from one toad's point of view.














Make this a story about an American toad. That's the kind of toad featured in TOAD WEATHER.


Tell how the toad goes from its home in a nearby park to a reservoir on the other side of a busy street. Be sure to include real facts about these toads.  Find out more about American toads online at these websites.
BioKids: Critter Page about American Toads
Fairfax County Schools American Toad Page

Make your story an adventure by giving the toad a couple of close calls. A bird or a dog might almost catch it. It might almost get hit by a car before someone carries it across the road.

Extra Fun

And don't miss this website--Doug Wechsler Author and Photographer--American Toad. You'll see photos and learn about the stages an American toad goes through during its life.

It's a special site to visit after reading TOAD WEATHER because Dr. Doug Wechsler was one of the expert's who shared information and checked the facts included in this story.

Now, just for fun, draw lines on a white paper plate, dividing it into four parts. Then draw and color a picture of one stage of the American toad's life cycle on each part of the plate.

Egg

Tadpole

Toadlet

Adult

Then poke a pin through the center of the plate into a sturdy plastic straw. Spin the plate to see the toad's life cycle repeat over and over again--just as it does in real life.

RESEARCH GREAT LEOPARD SEARCH

I'm often asked  how I do the research for my books. So let me walk you through the research that led to THE GREAT LEOPARD RESCUE.

First, I have to tell you I LOVE what a detective job this is. You see, for me, it's all about tracking down and interviewing the key suspects--I mean people whose experiences or scientific studies are critical to the story. 

First, a news story caught my attention. Basically, it reported that there are only about 50 Amur leopards still living wild and free. I thought--OMG--that's like two classrooms of school kids--PERIOD! 

And, the story reported that because of this extremely small wild population, there was an effort underway to start a new wild population in Russia where these cats live. It would be a way to make sure, if anything happened to the existing population, there would still be wild Amur leopards.

That launched me into doing a lot of reading about Amur leopards: news stories on-line, scientific journals, pretty much anything I could find to dip my toe into the information sea to figure out what I didn't know. 

I'm sure that sounds crazy but I go into a book with just the seed of an idea. Then by beginning to dig into the topic I start to figure out what I don't know about it so I can map out what I need to find out. That's how I get to the heart of the story in order to share it. I feel like when I write I'm reading the book aloud to my reader--the two of us are brain-to-brain sharing the journey of the story. And that story primarily grows out of my interviewing a lot of different people each of whom contribute a piece of the puzzle that is the story.

The first interview for THE GREAT LEOPARD RESCUE was with Barbara Meyer in October 17, 2014. I'd discovered the Colchester Zoo in the UK had Amur leopards. When I talked to the zoo's public relation's person, she told me about Barbara, a photographer who had spent years at the zoo with special access to these big cats photographing them. Barbara offered my first "close-up" insights into the behavior of Amur leopards. 

And that led me to be sure of three things: 
1) these were amazing cats who deserved to exist wild and free.

2) I needed to talk to researchers who knew wild Amur leopards. I mean people who had actually spent time with them in the wild. They were the only ones who  could tell me about the Amur leopards roaming their native habitat in far northeastern Russia.

3) I wanted to know all the details of the plan to start a new wild Amur leopard population in Russia. 

CAN YOU SPOT THE LEOPARD?

Next up was an interview with Dale Miquelle who lives in Russia. 




No I didn't go there for real, although I would have loved this opportunity. But more and more mentally I travelled into Russia as I dug into the research for this book. And I did side research to learn about the trees, climate, terrain, seasons of the Amur leopard's home habitat. 

Back to Dale Miquelle--he first went to Russia in 1992 with the Hornocker Wildlife Institute to study Amur tigers (also called Siberian tigers). He moved on to a project on Amur leopards in 1994. Then he stayed and became director of the Russian Wildlife Society. In fact, he settled and married and made his home in Russia. As we talked, he flowed in and out of speaking English to me and Russian to others in his office. 

Dale was a wealth of information about Amur leopards, the Land of the Leopard (a national park created to protect the remaining leopard population), the Lazovsky Nature Reserve (site chosen for the introduced population), the politics of protecting wildlife in Russia, and he became my first gatekeeper.  By that I mean my research journey always really gets going when someone says to me, "You also need to talk to... And here's their contact information." 

I always finish my interviews by asking my key experts, like Dale, if they'll be an expert reader for my book to check what I'm sharing is absolutely accurate. I also ask if they have any photos to help bring the story to life. And I ask if can I contact them again, if I have more questions. Of course, as I go deeper into my research I always have more questions.

One of the people Dale connected me to was Darron Collins. He had worked with the World Wildlife Fund for a decade focusing on the Amur leopards. He was very tuned in and involved in the effort to found this new wild population. And he brought the place as well as the cats to life for me. I remember him saying, "I'll never forget standing on an exposed peak in Russia with my guide pointing out China in one direction and Korea in another. So this big cat lives in all three countries, making it the most diplomatically challenging wild animal on the planet."

WHOA!

Darron also talked to me about what it looked like and felt like to walk through the forests where the Amur leopards live--"on the Russian side it's much like being in the Appalachian forest in North Carolina." I'd lived in Asheville, North Carolina and hiked in those forests in all seasons. So I could see it, smell it, feel it.

And Darron talked about the Russian Zapovedniks which are big areas like national parks but totally set aside for wildlife. The only people allowed in are scientists and guards watching out for wildfires and for poachers (illegal hunters). 

Darron shared about studying Amur leopards using camera traps to "capture" them. He shared what he'd learned about the wild leopard's behavior, use of the forest, even their rare social interactions as males and females come together to mate, females raise young, and adults have chance encounters in the forest with other adult leopards. That mainly happens because the forests where these big cats live are fragmented due to logging and people building roads and even towns. Then Darron shared this chance sighting of a wild Amur leopard. 

"It was amazing. I was setting up camera traps and the guy I was with tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up and saw the cat. It's more like you've seen a ghost because it's so on the brink of extinction."

Another expert Dale Miquelle referred me to was John Lewis. He's the Director of Wildlife Vets International and he opened a key door into this story. That's partly because he was the person most in touch with those in Russia who were choosing the reintroduction site--the forested area where the new Amur leopard population would be launched. And he was closely involved in helping to make decisions about how Amur leopards would be introduced to live wild and free in this new location.

Over the better part of the next two years, John and I talked on a number of occasions about the reintroduction project. He also shared fascinating stories about the times he had the opportunity to be literally hands-on studying wild Amur leopards. 

That happened because people patrolling to protect those rare 50 Amur leopards noted where they saw tracks and scat (droppings). Then they put up camera traps in those areas to "capture" the cats on film. Where the photos recorded frequent Amur leopard traffic, they set leg snares--traps that would catch a cat without harming it. And John stood by with his team ready for action. As soon as and Amur leopard was caught, it was darted with a tranquilizer gun. 

Next, John and his team took over. They weighed the cat, measured it, took blood and tissue samples--checked everything possible about the cat's health. 




In addition to lots of  scientific information, John shared something more. He talked about actually getting to touch some of these rarest wild animals on the planet. 

John said, "Of course, there's usually a little moment during the whole procedure when I pinch myself and say, 'this is really cool.' Then I snap back into professional mode." 

Jo Cook was fascinating to talk to for another reason. Based in the U.K., her job is to keep track of all the Amur leopards in zoos anywhere in the world. She knows all about their health and their family history. Her job for this project was to choose which of the zoo leopards would travel to Russia to become the founding parents for the new population. The parents would go back to their zoo homes; their cubs would live wild and free.

This is a VERY IMPORTANT JOB. By the time I finished the book, the founding pairs had not yet been chosen. But how they would be chosen and how bearing and raising cubs to become the pioneers for the reintroduction program had been set. Be sure and check out how that program will work in my book THE GREAT LEOPARD RESCUE. It's fascinating!

There were more expert interviews--but I'll share just one more--Linda Kerley. She's the Amur Tiger and Leopard Project Manager for the Zoological Society of London. She had moved to Russia to study the tigers. 

Then she stayed to study Amur leopards. She married and worked with her Russian husband Michael Borisenko to continue those studies, using a creative approach. They trained dogs to track Amur leopard scat (droppings) in order to send it to scientists. Scat was easy to find during the winter when the ground was snow-covered. However, it was nearly impossible to spot in other seasons on the leaf-covered forest floor. But scientists needed to analyze this resource. They needed to learn what prey Amur leopards needed to be able to catch to eat in all seasons. That would help scientists and politicians work together to choose the site for the new wild population. 

Linda's story of training dogs for this unique job was fascinating. But the "WHOA!" moment was when one of her dogs actually met a big cat. 

"Our dog went up on a ridge, reached the top of this rock as I was climbing. I stopped and turned to talk to my husband when the leopard jumped our dog. My husband and I charged, yelling and--luckily--chased the leopard off. But that dog wouldn't track scat anymore. We were getting such valuable information from this project, though, that we couldn't stop. So we started working with another dog."

Now you have a little behind-the-book insight into the research journey I traveled for THE GREAT LEOPARD RESCUE. Every book is a new journey of discovery--a fresh opportunity to connect with amazing on the front line of discovery researchers.

I do LOVE researching my books--love sharing what I discover with young readers. 

ARE YOU READY TO MARCH THROUGH MARCH?!

March Fourth is National March Forth And Do Something Day. 

I LOVE it because March is a "capitonym"--a word whose meaning changes depending on if it's capitalized or not. So capitalized it's this month and otherwise it means a way to walk. So, while you march on this March day, have fun with WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET!? 

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. 

Remind them to dance as if they had their favorite animal feet. 

Afterwards, ask the children to tell how it was different to dance with that animal’s feet. Next, have them tell how they think it would be different to do each of these things if they had that animal’s feet.

• Take a bath
• Pick up their room
• Make their bed

Now, let them pick another animal’s feet, start the music, and dance some more!

BEASTIE SHOE SHOP

Start by having children list all the kinds of shoes they can think of. That list will include: boots, sneakers, loafers, high heels, waders, sandals, high tops—and more.

This animal's shoes will need to be big and tough!

As a class, vote on one animal from WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET!? to treat to their very first pair of shoes. 

Share building a list of ideas to answer these questions:

• What should those shoes do for the animal’s feet?
• What material will the shoes need to be made out of to fit the animal’s habitat and behavior?
• What special features could be added to the animal’s shoes to make them extra special?  

Have the children work alone or in small groups to draw and color pictures or make models of their special animal’s new shoes.

MY NEAT FEET

The Rest of the Story

Have children look through WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET!? and pick their favorite picture of a boy or girl with animal feet. Now have them tell the rest of the story.

Each of those pictures shows only one moment in a story. Challenge children to imagine--and tell--the rest.

• What led up to the moment shown in the picture?
• What is really happening in the picture?
• How is this story likely to end?

For example, look on page 19 at the boy digging for treasure with aardvark feet. How did he get the treasure map and find the right spot to dig? 

How does he feel about finding the treasure? And what kind of treasure did he find?

What will he do now that he’s found the treasure? How will it change his life?

NEW FEET

I'm sure everyone will agree that the animals in the book  have totally cool feet. For this activity ask children to pick an animal that isn’t in the book. 

Have them dig into books and work with older students or adults to search on-line and find out about that animal. 

Most important, encourage them to find the answers to these two questions:

1. What are that animal's feet like?

2. How does the animal use its feet to move and stay alive?

Next, like WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET!? have children make two-pages (a left hand/right hand spread) for their animal. On one page, they should answer the two questions. On the second page, they should share at least one super fun way it would be cool to have that animal’s feet for a day.

FOOT SWAP

Ask children to imagine what it would be like if one day an animal woke up with different feet. What if....

A Mountain Goat had White Rhinoceros feet?

A Cheetah had Eastern Gray Kangaroo feet?

A Barn Owl had Cheetah feet?

A Giant African Millipede had Green Basilisk feet?

A Wolf had Duck-Billed Platypus feet?

Or make up another foot swap.  

Challenge children to think of something totally cool that animal could do with its new feet. Be sure they also consider how that swap might cause serious problems.

Okay, these activities got you started. Now, MARCH FORTH and come up with even more. 

smile emoticon

HAVE A BLIZZARD OF FUN!

I grew up in northern Ohio and I've been to Antarctica so I KNOW snow!

If you live where winter is snowy, here are some ways to explore and have fun.

Collect Snowflakes

While no two snowflakes are ever exactly alike (as far as anyone knows), they are all hexagone--six-sided crystals. Snowflakes take several main shapes.

If you want to catch some snowflakes, chill a clean glass slide or a small mirror in the refrigerator. Take the cold glass outside and allow a few flakes to collect on it. You may need a magnifying glass to see the snowflakes if they are very small.

To preserve snowflakes so you can even take them inside with you you'll need a can of plastic spray--the kind artists use on chalk drawings.


Chill the spray along with the clean glass slide. Carry the glass slide outside on a piece of cardboard. This keeps your body heat from warming the glass. Spray the glass lightly with the plastic coating. Let snowflakes collect on the glass. Take the preserved snowflakes inside and let the plastic coating completely dry (about fifteen minutes).

Check out this book about Wilson Bentley.
His photos of snowflakes became world famous.

Now you can examine the snowflakes with a magnifying glass or a microscope if you have one. No need to rush. These snowflakes will stay crystal-clear forever.

What is it?!

Look at the bottom of the blog to find out....

Treat The Birds

You can get a good look at birds that spend the winter in your neighborhood, if you invite them to dinner. An easy treat to make is a peanut butter pinecone. Loop a string around the top of a pine cone and tie a knot. Next, smear peanut butter on the cone and roll the cone in birdseed. Then have an adult partner hang the pinecone where birds will be able to perch and eat. 

Now, keep watch. Use bird books and search on-line to help you identify the birds visiting your bird diner. Also, answer these questions:

1. What time of day do the birds come to eat? 

2. Do the birds come more on stormy or sunny days?

3. Do the birds take turns and feed one at a time? Or do they compete to eat?

4. Which birds usually chase other birds away?

Create a colorful bar graph to share the data you collect about your dinner guests.

Remember, to replace your pinecone with a fresh treat from time-to-time to keep the dinners coming back for more.

And when you're ready to warm up inside, curl up with one of my newest books.

Do you know what this is?

It's a photo taken in the Arctic of a cup of hot tea tossed into the air. The liquid was boiling hot but instantly froze into tiny crystals.

QUCK--BEFORE SUMMER IS TOTALLY OVER!

Okay, some places it's time for school to start again. But there is still going to be summer weather for a while even where winters get icy cold.  So here are ten things you should definitely try while you can enjoy getting outside.

1.  Make something out of mud. Even better do it after it's rained. What is that mud like? How is different from dry dirt? Is there one way it's still the same? Take pictures of what you made and send me one to share here. 

2. Play flashlight tag in the dark. 

3. Go on a shadow hunt to find the following shadows. But take an adult along because grown-ups need to have fun too:

a. Find a shadow with a bright hole in it.

b. Find the biggest shadow you can. Figure out what made it.

c. Find the littlest shadow you can. Figure out what made it.  

4. Fly a kite. But make one first. Here are sites with easy how-to instructions.

Easy Paper Kite

Kites For Everyone

How To Build Kites

5. Make a FOOT painting. Sure, you've probably done fingerprinting. But have you ever painted with your feet? It will really let you STEP UP as an artist. Try mixing your own paints first. Here's some how-to sites to help you. Then send a picture of your art work. I'll share it on my blog. :-)!

 

How To Make Your Own Fingerpaint

Homemade Edible Fingerpaint

Homemade Fingerpaint

6. Look at the world through a magnifying glass. Especially something you never thought to look at closely before. See anything that surprised you?  

7. Put on a puppet show with puppets you make yourself. Here's some sites with ideas to help you do just that.

Puppet Craft for Kids

How To Make Puppets

How To Design Hand Puppets

8. Learn one constellation you didn't know in the night sky. Find out what story people used to tell about it. Then make up a new story yourself.

Here's my favorite constellation ORION. And here's a couple of sites with star stories, including ones about Orion.

Windows To The Universe

SkyServer

Hope you have fun with these activities. I'll share more soon. And, of course, I'm always as close as reading one of my books. Like BUTTERFLY TREE. It's about a special kind of surprise that happened to me once right about this time of year. 

Or imagine WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL TEETH!?

SUMMER'S COMING--PUT ON A SCIENCE MAGIC SHOW!

I've recently been sharing virtual Skype visits with schools. Part of my visit is a science magic show so I've been getting requests to share my secrets. I'm happy to do that because the truth is that discovering how the world works is the real magic--and what science is all about. So here goes. Follow the steps for each activity and you can make science magic too. Just be sure to check with an adult before you start. Even better ask an adult to be your partner and have fun exploring science magic together.

Make Air Pressure Hold A Plate

This could get messy so work over a sink. Even better try this outdoors. 

You'll need:

A study plastic plate

A paper towel

A sturdy plastic glass (juice size works best)

Fill the plastic glass nearly full of water. Fold the paper towel into fourths and place it on the middle of the plate. Next, turn the plate and towel over the cup like a lid. Hold the plate against the top of the cup with your fingers while you turn the whole system over.

Now the glass is on top. Be sure it is straight up and down. Hold on to the cup with the hand that isn't pressing up on the plate. Then--slowly--take your hand away from the plate. The plate won't fall and the water will stay inside the glass.

Air pressure makes this work. Even though it's invisible, air has weight and takes up space. Air is also al around you so it exerts force on you and objects and other people from all directions. As gravity pulls down on the water inside the glass a partial vacuum is created in the air-filled space inside the glass. Now the downward force of the water and air inside the glass is less than all the upward pushing force of air on the plate. You can see how much larger this surface is than that covered by the water inside the glass. The wet paper towel helps by making a tight seal between the glass and the plate. This keeps any air from slipping inside the glass. If that happened, the air rushing into the glass would push the water out. Then there would be a flood and you'd get wet. 

Use Air Pressure To Plug Leaks

You can poke holes in a bottle full of water without it leaking--with the help of air pressure.

You'll need:

an empty 1 or 2 liter plastic soft drink bottle with a screw-on cap.

3 pushpins (the kind used to display things on a bulletin board)

Work outdoors or at the sink. Fill the bottle to the very top with water. Screw on the cap, making sure it's tightly sealed.

Next, stick the pushpins into the bottle, one at a time. Then have your adult partner hold the bottle by its cap while you carefully twist and tug out the pushpins. 

Surprise! If water leaks out at all, it quickly stops or slows to a tiny trickle.

Did the bottle magically plug the holes? Of course not. Squeeze the bottle to prove it. Water will spurt out the holes. But when you stop squeezing the water will immediately stop flowing.

The magic is that air pressure is at work again. Air doesn't simply push down, it exerts force in all directions. The force of the air pushing in on the water at the holes you made is greater than that of the water inside the bottle pushing out. 

What do you think will happen when you take the cap off the bottle, letting air push down on the water inside the bottle? Try it--just be sure the bottle is over the sink.

Make Air Vibrate and Create Squawky Cans

Want to make strange sounds? You can with a little help from science.

You'll Need:

two cans of different sizes (cleaned and dried)

Sturdy packaging twine

2 paperclips

scissors

tape

a piece of clean sponge (about 1 inch by 2 inches)

Have an adult partner use a nail and hammer to punch a hole through the bottom of each can. The hole should be just big enough for the twine to slip through.

Next, cut a piece of twine about twice as long as the can's height. Thread one end of the twine through the hole and tie to a paper clip. Rest the paper clip on the can bottom and tape in place. Repeat these steps with the second can.

Now, wet the sponge and squeeze out the water.

To make your can squawk, hold the can in one hand. With the other hand, pinch the sponge against the string and give it a jerk. This makes the metal-can bottom vibrate. That in turn creates waves of air. When those waves reach your ear and your brain interprets the signals it hears, you hear the spooky noises.

Can you think of some other things you could make vibrate to produce squawks and weird noises? You'll probably think of lots more but here are three to get you started:

A balloon--Blow it up and grip it between your legs so you can use both hands to stretch its neck Then control how much air escapes.

A comb--Hold it in one hand and run your fingernail back and forth across its teeth.

An empty glass soda bottle--Put the rim next to your lower lip and blow a strong blast of air across the opening.

Use Fast Moving Air to Float A Ball In Mid-Air

A blowdryer makes this science magic trick happen.

You'll need:

A blow-dryer

A Ping-Pong ball

Hold the blow-dryer with the nozzle aimed straight up. You may want your adult partner to do that for you. When the dryer is switched on to "high", place the ball in this column of fast-moving air so it's about 5 inches above the nozzle. Let go of the ball and quickly take your hand away.

As long as the air current iss shooting striaght up, the Ping-Pong ball will float suspended above the dryer's nozzle.

This "magic" happens because fast-moving air has less pressure than more slowly moving air. So the Ping-Pong ball is trapped inside the column of fast-moving air. Here the ball is pushed upward by a jet of air with enough force to keep it from falling, but not enough to blow it any higher.

What you've discovered is also the basic law of nature that helps airplanes fly. When viewed on edge the upper surface of an airplane's wing is curved and the lower surface is flat. Air slips over a curved surface more quickly than it does over a flat surface. So there is less air pressure on the upper surface of the wing than there is beneath the wing, giving the airplane lift.

Can you guess why airplanes take off into the wind?