SUMMER BIRD FUN!

 

Hooray!  It's summer reading time!

It's the perfect time for reading to launch investigating, exploring, and having FUN!!!!

Here's a beginning for enjoying all of that with animals that can be found wherever you live...

BIRDS

Go Bird Watching

Go for a walk. Or sit quietly outdoors, look and listen.  If you have binoculars, take those along too. A book showing pictures of local birds is great to have handy. So is a notebook and pencil for taking notes and sketching.

• What are your local birds doing?
• How are the birds you see different?  
• Do you see a lot of one kind?  Only a few of another? List the names of any you know or can identify.
• What activity do you see birds doing most often.
• Pick a favorite. Sketch it. 
• Pretend you can understand birds. Write what you think two birds are saying to each other.
• Think of someone you want to tell about your birdwatching adventure. Send them an email or a letter and share the fun.

Some birds, such as cardinals, are colored so males and females easily spy each other. 

Male red. Female brown. Why might the female being this color help her stay safe when on the nest, incubating eggs?

Listen To The Birds

Outdoors, listen to all the different bird voices. Try mimicking them and listen for them to call back to you.  Once you're back indoors, play the BIRD SONG game. It's a great way to discover the sounds some familiar North American birds make.

Turn a mask into "birdy" Fun.

Eating Like A Bird

Then visit this PBS website to have fun, "Eating Like A Bird." You'll explore what it's like to have different kinds of bird beaks when it's time to eat.

Next, take this fun challenge.

Now for some fun books for summer reading about birds. Enjoy!

Of course, I had to include one of mine. 😃 Did you see it? It's in such good company here!

IN HONOR OF ENDANGERED ANIMALS--GO BATTY!

 

It's time for ENDANGERED SPECIES DAY

 Sadly many species (kinds) of bats are endangered.

But they are really worthy of our appreciation 

SO.....

To get to know bats better check out the books I've written about bats...so far. I bet there will be more!

About the biggest and littlest bats...and bats with really big or little features that help them thrive.

The "true" story of how an orphaned baby bat is adopted by a new mother. Mexican free-tailed bats really do adopt orphaned babies. 

All about bats and how their bodies are amazingly built for flight.

Why these little bats are in trouble--plus how scientists are working to help bats survive.

Of course, I've also tucked bats into three more books. Look inside these to find the bats! 

NOW have some batty fun!

Visit My Cave

What's it like to live like a bat? 

FIND OUT!  

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.

WHAT DO YOU THINK!?

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 out in the open in trees instead of in caves?

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.  Scatter 50 popped kernels on the floor or ground.  Count to ten. Then have people dash around placing 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 (popcorn) 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 the remaining “insects” multiply.  

WHAT DO YOU THINK!?

1. How much of an effect did the “bats” have on the “insect” population?

2. What limited how much of an effect the bats could have on the insects? 

3. What do you think would happen to populations of insect pests if there weren’t any bats?

KICK THE BLUES--YOU CAN DO MAY!

 

KICK THE BLUES! 

RUN, SKIP, DANCE THROUGH MAY! 

What If You Had Animal Feet!? will help!

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. 

FOOT SWAP

What if one day a rhino woke up with another animal's feet!? In fact, with kangaroo feet! What could a rhino do if it could hop like a kangaroo? How might a rhino have a problem living with kangaroo feet?

Now, imagine other foot swaps.

What would each of these animals do it could do before? What problem might it have?

      *A Mountain Goat with Rhinoceros feet?
*A Cheetah with Kangaroo feet?
*A Barn Owl with Cheetah feet?
*A Giant African Millipede with Green Basilisk feet?

I hope this Foot Work makes you HOPPY!?

MAKING THE MOST OF MARCH--YOU'VE GOT THIS!

 While there are 31 days in March, some mark events so much fun they worth a little extra.

CHECK THESE OUT!

March 1: YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK was established by Congress in 1872. It became the first National Park in the US. But soon people became worried that the wolves living there were killing the deer. So, wolves were hunted until by 1926 no more remained in Yellowstone. That turned out to be a DISASTER! 

The deer herds grew so large they ate and ate all the plants they could find till there wasn't enough to eat--especially during the winter. Not only were the deer dying, the forest trees were struggling because the starving deer were eating the buds and bark, killing the trees. Finally, in 1995--almost 70 years later--people decided wolves needed to be reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park to restore the natural way the habitat functioned.  

Of the books I've written, one of my favorites is FAMILY PACK (Charlesbridge). It tells the true story of one very special wolf, Female #7, who was one of the first wolves released into Yellowstone. 

You see, those working on reintroducing the wolves believed they could capture wolves in Canada and put them together when they released them in Yellowstone to create packs. They knew wolves do best when they have other wolves to hunt with them. But Female #7 wanted no part of that! In fact, she went out on her own as soon as she was released into the park. And what happened next was AMAZING! HISTORIC! Enjoy this special story.

Read on your own or share my reading it.

March 7: NATIONAL CEREAL DAY  

What's your favorite kind cereal? Make a bar graph by asking that question of at least 20 people. And record the results.  Here are some fun cereal facts:

• The cereal industry uses over 800 million pounds of sugar a year
• The average American consumes over 160 bowls of cereal a year
• CheeriOats was the original name for Cheerios
• Corn Flakes was the first boxed cereal to offer a prize

We don't usually think of food as being an invention--but cereals were invented. 

March 13: EARMUFF DAY It really is. And time to thank Chester Greenwood for creating them in 1877. He called them "Champion Ear Protectors".

Now, it's your turn to create a really useful invention. Create an earmuff--face mask combination so people can stay healthy and have toasty warm ears on frosty March days. Draw a picture. Give it a name!

ONE MORE DAY TO CELEBRATE

March 29: EARTH HOUR was founded by the World Wide Fund for Nature in Sydney, Australia in 2007. The goal is to have people think about climate change by turning off all non-needed lights for one hour. But here's another way to celebrate on March 29th. 

Take time to appreciate all of Earth's oceans because climate change will hit them hard--in fact it already is. And that effects all the ocean animals from the surface to the deepest depths. Explore the different layers and investigate some of the animals living in each layer as I read to you... 

I'M READING WHAT IF YOU COULD SNIFF LIKE A SHARK?

 

Ready to have fun?!

Then share my book WHAT IF YOU COULD SNIFF LIKE A SHARK? (published by Scholastic)

HERE WE GO...

WATCH! WONDER! ACT!

 

Check out this AMAZING chance to watch elephants in action. Each little elephant symbol represents a real elephant living along the Ewaso Nyiro River in northern Kenya. 

The elephants--the real ones--are wearing satellite tracking collars as part of Dr. Lain Douglas-Hamilton's Save the Elephants study. The graphic just shows the elephants from late May through early June 2015. 

What an amazing chance to see real elephants moving around their range near the river. See them interacting with each other.

*After watching--what is 1 more thing you would like to find out about these elephants?

*After watching--what is 1 thing you learned about the way elephants move around where they live? 

*After watchinng--what is 1 way you could use what you discovered about the elephants to help keep them safe?

Click here to explore more...

CREEPY GOOD!

 

EXCITED to share! Augmented Reality lets the spiders in my Lerner Publishing book become 3-D and MOVE. Not scary--just AWESOME way for kids to learn. It's the future of Picture Books here NOW!!!!!