Explore Outdoors ~ Funky Fungi in the Garden!

Just last week or so I was clearing a patch of garden so I could plant garlic, when what should I spy - but these cool and funky fungi!

 

These are cup fungi - and they look just like cups, don't they!

What cool discoveries will you make this week?

 

Getting to Know Crows

This is the time of year when I see crows – lots of crows – gleaning grains from the cornfields and gathering in trees. I hear their caws in the morning, sometimes a single bird and sometimes a ruckus of noise. Crows are brilliant and brainy and worth getting to know. Here are two recently published books to help get your crow study started.

theme: birds, animal behavior, nonfiction

Crick, Crack, Crow!

by Janet Lord; illus. by Julie Paschkis 

32 pages; ages 4-8

Margaret Quinlin Books/Peachtree, 2024

Crow lives with his noisy family high in a treetop.

He is curious and loves to have fun … but mostly Crow likes to stir up trouble! He gets into some thieving trouble, some tricky trouble, and some trapped-in-the-dark trouble. With his ability to use tools and solve problems, Crow can usually get out of trouble. Until he finds trouble too big for one bird…

What I like about this book: I love the couplets of “Crick, crack, crow! Ready to go!” The words change throughout the book, depending on the situation, and kids will love anticipating the repetition. I appreciate the accuracy of how the author and illustrator depict crow behavior on the page. And I love the back matter, “Crick, Crack, Crow! So much to know!” Lots of great crow facts and resources for expanding the story and learning more about these brainy birds.

How to Know a Crow: The Biography of a Brainy Bird 

by Candace Savage; illus by Rachel Hudson 

120 pages; ages 9-12

Greystone Kids, 2024

This book takes you into the world of the American crow, starting in a crow’s nest … where, with a tap-tap crunch, one tiny bird breaks free from the egg. Readers will get an inside look at the family life of crows. It’s not just mama and papa bird, but brothers and sisters from previous years help take care of the babies. Good thing, too, because there are SO many jobs to do! There’s feeding, and nest maintenance, and taking out the trash, and protecting the nest. Plus, there’s an up-close look at the life of a teen-aged crow!

What I like about this book: So Many Things! There’s the pie chart showing the kinds of things crows eat, and the relative quantities thereof. There are “Crow Lab” sidebars with activities, such as a check list to determine whether your bird is crow or not-crow, and an experiment involving a nut and a string. There are mini-features, which focus on a particular aspect of crow life. For example, “Cawing 101” is all about how to understand crow language. There’s a list of ways you can help crows (and other birds) stay healthy. There’s a great book turn so you get a vertical page showing “high rise living” crow style. And throughout, the author raises intriguing questions, like: do crows have “culture?” Oh yeah, there’s an entire chapter devoted to “bird braininess.” Organizational features include a table of contents, a glossary, resources for curious kids (and adults), and an index. I give this book 5 feathers!

Beyond the Books:

Play a game of “I Spy a Crow” – keep track of where you see crows, and how many different kinds of behaviors you see them doing. You might see a group of them chasing a hawk, or a single crow on a telephone pole acting as lookout. Or, as in our neighborhood, a flock walking across harvested fields looking for leftovers.

Fold an origami crow. All you need is some black paper. It's not too hard - you can follow the video here.

Think about your neighborhood – or your yard – from a crow’s point of view. Draw a map showing large trees that might provide nesting spots, lawn or gardens for foraging, and snacking opportunities (pet food, compost bin). Here’s more info about crows from Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Learn how to speak in Crow. Check out these recordings from CLO and see if you can make crow sounds.

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers. And on Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copies provided by the publishers.

Explore Outdoors ~ I thought this was a Desert Plant!

 Last fall I discovered some yucca plants growing in one of the yards down in the village. It surprised me because I think of yucca as a desert plant, not one found in northeast gardens! But they have a wide distribution across the US and even up into the southern Atlantic states.

 The cool thing about yucca plants is that their leaves have lots of fibers curling off - I wrote about them in a previous post.

 

 

Those fibers look fragile, but if you spin them together they can make a pretty sturdy string.

 

As fascinated as I am about yucca fibers (and I am, because I enjoy twining and spinning anything from milkweed to grasses), I found their seedpods even more interesting.

The seeds themselves are flat, round-ended triangles, and thinner than I expected. I planted a bunch this spring and managed to get half-a-dozen seedlings (about 50% germination). The seeds took a long time to germinate, and the seedlings are slow-growing. On the plus-side, they seem to tolerate benign neglect. 

Though I may have to bring them inside for winter ...

Meet a Unicorn! OK - a Whale with a Tusk...

 

Narwhal: Unicorn of the Arctic 

by Candace Fleming; illus by Deena So’Oteh 

‎48 pages; ages 4-8

Anne Schwartz Books, 2024

theme: ocean, whales, ecology

You are a narwhal – shy, swift, small (for a whale).

Your ivory tusk sprouts from your upper left jaw, “thick as a lamppost, taller than a man.” Which is okay because, now that you’re full grown, you’re at least 16 feet long.  I hope you’ve got a good layer of blubber, because you’re living in the Arctic! On this winter day, when you poke your head through the ice, you spot another male. And so you do what guy narwhals do: you cross tusks. Clackety-clack! They sound like wooden sticks smacking each other.

Are you playing?

Fighting?

Showing off for a female?

What I like about this book: Through lyrical language and luscious art we come to inhabit the world of the narwhal, and meet other arctic creatures – some prey, one predator. When the narwhal dives deep, nearly a mile into the blackness of the ocean, we go too, relying on echolocation to find food. I like how Candace Fleming adds sounds: the clacking of tusks, the ticking of whale sonar. I love that there’s a gate fold that, when you turn the book, you get a very long illustration of the very deep dive to go hunting. I like that the book spans a year in the life of a narwhal, and the way the second-person point of view pulls the reader into the experience. And, of course there is Back Matter! Because we want to know more about the research and the lives of these secretive mammals.

Beyond the Books:

Learn more about narwhals and check out a video at National Geographic and more facts at the World Wildlife Fund.

Compare yourself to a narwhal. Grab a tape measure and some chalk and head out to the nearest sidewalk or driveway. Measure out a 15 or 20-foot-long Narwhal with a tape measure and chalk. If you want to include it’s horn, you’ll need to add another 10 feet! Now lay down at one end of the narwhal and have a friend or parent mark your body length. How many of your body lengths it would take to equal the length of a Narwhal?  

Make a chart to compare narwhals and unicorns. How are they alike? How they are different? For example, they both have horns. But where is the unicorn’s horn, and where is the narwhal’s?

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by Blue Slip Media

Explore Outdoors ~ Texture

 One of the reasons I find dead-on-the-stem flowers so interesting is their textures, and the contrast between them and the blooming flowers next to them. Though, given the lateness of the season, most of my flowers are naught but papery petals and seed heads at this point. And if I want to collect a few seeds to sow next year, I'd better be quick or the birds and squirrels will beat me to it.

 

 

This week enjoy the textures of the flowers 

you find around your neighborhood

Never too late for Ocean Science

If you missed your ocean-side vacation this summer, don’t despair. Today I’m sharing books and activities that will provide a perfect beach week feel! If you want to hear the gentle sound of waves on a beach while you read this post, click here.

Theme: oceans, animals, ecology

The Ocean Blue and You 

by Suzanne Slade; illus. by Stephanie Fizer Coleman 

32 pages; ages 5-8

Sleeping Bear Press, 2024    

Drip, drop raindrops plop. You’re cozy and snug inside Mama’s warm hug.

Sitting beneath an umbrella on a sandy shore, you listen to ocean waves swish and swoosh. And while you sleep, the creatures of the ocean are busy beneath the waves. Hungry sharks, elusive eels, stealthy stingrays go about their lives.

What I like about this book: The language is gentle and lyrical – so lyrical that it lulls you into exploring the underwater world before you realize that SCIENCE is happening! Readers visit deep waters, colorful coral reefs, and tidepools, meeting the plants and animals that live there. Tuck this book into your beach tote next time you go to the shore. And until then, why not think of it as a bath time read? Toss in a few plastic sea creatures, turn up the ocean sounds and take an indoor beach day. Oh, and I almost forgot: there is Back Matter! One last spread devoted to why exploring the ocean is so important.

Super Ocean Weekend: The Ultimate Underwater Adventure 

Written & illustrated by Gaëlle Alméras; translated by David Warriner

172 pages; ages 7-12

Greystone Kids, 2024    

This is the second book in the Science Adventure Club series, nonfiction books presented in “graphic novel” style. Friends, Castor and Squeak (a beaver and a rat) are camping on an island with Orni (platypus) and her cousin Echid (echidna). Fortunately, there’s a character introduction opposite the title page – and a table of contents so readers have a “map” of where they’re headed on this adventure.

There’s a lot of ocean science mixed throughout the adventures – and misadventures of island camping. Here are just a few of the things I like about this book: the plankton party; the tidepool discoveries; an entire chapter devoted to buoyancy; introductions to jellyfish, whales, and other creatures; and an adventure to the bottom of the ocean printed on dark pages and requiring the reader to turn the book for a long, vertical page for the deep, deep dive to the bottom of the sea! Back matter includes a quick guide to ocean creatures and shows four ways kids can be an ocean superhero.

Beyond the Books:

Grab a beach towel and lay it down in a sunny spot on the floor. Listen to ocean waves (here's another recording) while you try some ocean-inspired yoga poses. Be a whale! Or a jellyfish... you can find some poses on this page.

Draw a picture of your favorite ocean animal or plant. Yes, seaweed counts.

Try one of the ocean activities presented here.

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copies provided by the publishers.