Explore Outdoors ~ Go on a Bee Walk

 One of the best ways to get to know your local pollinators is to go outside and meet them. So today let's head out and meet some bees. 

First, a bit about what bees look like. They have three body parts (head, thorax, abdomen), long slender antennae, large multi-faceted eyes, two pair of wings (that's 4 wings in all!) and, if they're female, a stinger at the end of their abdomen. 

Chances are you're familiar with your neighborhood bumble bees and honey bees, and you may have met a few shiny metallic green sweat bees. For this bee walk, take a notebook and pencil - or a camera - so you can take notes, draw pictures, or take photos of bees you see along the way.

Things to observe on your bee walk:

• how big is your bee?
• what colors does it have on its abdomen?
• what is the pattern of the colors?
• does it have longer antennae than other bees?
• is its abdomen flattish?
• what sort of sound does it make?
• what flowers does it visit?
• also note the date, time of day, and basic weather observations

If you are looking for bee guides, you can find a short North American Bee Identification Guide (free) at Pollinator Partnership. They have some state guides as well. They have a longer Beginner Bee Field Guide available for free download as well.

Happy Bee watching!

Books to welcome summer

theme: summer, wildflowers, night

Summer officially begins next week! Here's a fun pop-up book to kick off vacation:

Summer
by David A. Carter
12 pages; ages 3-5
Abrams Appleseed, 2018

The summer day is long and warm...

Each spread in this book features brief text and depicts plants and animals that children might see during the summer.

What I like about this book: It's fun! When you turn the page, a plant or tree pops up (plus the squash that vines from one side of the spread to the other). Birds, animals, fruits, and the occasional feature are labeled, and there is plenty of detail to explore on the page. It almost begs kids to get up and head outside to explore summer. My recommendation: tuck this one in your picnic basket.

 Ultimate Explorer Field Guide: Wildflowers
by Libby Romero
160 pages; ages 8 & up
National Geographic Children's Books, 2018

I love the NGK field guide series. They are sturdy field guides that are just the right size for tucking into the pocket of a back pack. It's not as detailed as the Peterson guide, but it makes up for the lack of entries with vibrant photos and is organized in a fun way that groups flowers by the sorts of questions one might ask. For example, one chapter highlights invasive flowers, another one draws your attention to petal shape.

The front pages introduce wildflowers, how they grow, and where to find them. Front matter is where you'll find a diagram of flower parts, a checklist of things to take along on a flower hike (remember a hand lens!), and some tips on protecting wildflowers.

Flowers are introduced by common name, scientific name, and a paragraph of general information about the species. In addition to a photo, there are often drawings that show basic features to help with plant identification. Plus lots of wildflower watching tips.

Nature's Lullaby Fills the Night
by Dee Leone; illus. by Bali Engel
40 pages; ages 3-7
Sterling, 2018

Moths with powdery wings do soft gently stir the air aloft.
Their flitter-flutter lullabies barely whisper, "Close your eyes."

Spiders spin, crickets sing, tree branches shuuush in the breeze. The lyrical language paired with dark blues of a night world will certainly bring calm after a busy day.

What I like about this book: It's quiet - a lullaby that celebrates the night world. Drifting parachutes sprinkle seeds, night creatures sing, and all around us the mama and papa birds and fish and deer tuck their young in, and snuggle up for a good night's sleep.

Beyond the Book:
Show how summer looks, smells, sounds, and feels. Draw pictures, cut photos from a magazine, and create a collage or map for the season. Add labels where needed.

Go on a listening walk. You can do this during the day or at night, in the city or in the country. Notice the different sounds you hear.

Get to know your wildflower neighbors. The best way to learn who they are is to take a field guide with you, so you can compare petals and leaves of flowers to the descriptions in the guide book. There are some online guides. Here's one, and here's another.

Today we're joining the STEM Friday roundup - and we're also joining others over at Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event in which bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's site. She keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture Books. Review copies from publishers.

Eating Bugs with Rebecca Petruck

Boy Bites Bug 
By Rebecca Petruck
272 pages; ages 8 and up
Amulet Books, 2018

I love finding STEM-related fiction, especially when it involves insects! Boy Bites Bug is about middle school and growing up, discovering who you are who your friends are. It’s also about wrestling, racism, and respect. And, of course, bugs – some swallowed by accident, some on purpose.

This was the winter of the stinkbug invasion in our house, so I particularly loved the opening lines of the book: The intrusion of stinkbugs clumped on the ceiling in a back corner of the library, a splotch like crusty dried mud. 

Of course one of those bugs ends up in Will’s mouth! But instead of becoming an outcast, he becomes “bug boy”, and kids good-naturedly tease him by making up names for lunch items in the school cafeteria: French flies; maggot-aroni and fleas.

Turns out that people all around the world eat bugs as part of their meals. They’re a great source of protein. So Will decides to do a class project on eating insects, and enlists the aid of Eloy Herrera. Eloy agrees, in exchange for Will’s help with wrestling. As their friendship grows, Will’s friendship with Darryl cools. Darryl had called Eloy a racial slur, and seems jealous of the time Will spends with his new friend. Meanwhile there’s wrestling practices and… where did that box of live crickets come from?

I love that this book has back matter: a guide to eating bugs, and a few recipes. Author Rebecca Petruck even rustled up some grubs to taste test: waxworms in cookies, crickets in tacos, and earthworm jerky. Last week she graciously squeezed time between school visits to answer a few questions. 

Archimedes: This isn't a book about insects, but one about becoming a more thoughtful human. So what made you want to use entomophagy as one of the focal points? 

Rebecca: When I began thinking about a new novel, I actually started with the ideas behind edible insects. It took a while to find the story. It evolved naturally, I think, from the facts of edible insects being significantly healthier for the planet in that they use far fewer resources to raise while producing the same, more, and often better nutrients than “traditional” meats and many other food sources.

Our planet is experiencing climate change of a type not seen in millions of years, when Earth was not a homo sapiens friendly place. But, our country is not friendly to all homo sapiens either. Human rights are for everybody, no exceptions. I don’t recall a conscious moment of thinking, “These two facts go together.” It was that special alchemy of the brain making a connection.

We must respect the planet. We must respect each other. Our physical survival, as well as our emotional integrity depend on it.

Archimedes:  Tell us how you did your entomophagy research: what experts you talked to, field trips, events, publications? 

Rebecca: I immediately read The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook by David George Gordon, Edible by Daniella Martin, and National Geographic’s Ultimate Bug-opedia. All were invaluable in educating me and providing me with all sorts of cool buggy facts to use throughout Boy Bites Bug. 

I made dishes like cricket tacos and waxworm cookies from ingredients that arrived alive. I also sampled a variety of treats from several edible insect online shops. I interviewed leaders in the entomophagy community like Christina Socha of Bugs,Inc, and Stacie Goldin of Entomo Farms, who are making huge moves in the Canadian food market. And I follow an entomophagy group on Facebook with posts by leading chefs and edible insect advocates from around the world.

I think the biggest takeaway for me was how contagious their enthusiasm is. They genuinely love edible insects for their tastiness and feel passionately about insects’ healthfulness for our bodies and our planet. It’s a triple win!

Also, I went to Triton Middle School, where Boy Bites Bug is set. I was a seventh grader for a day, and I attended a wrestling team practice and later a tournament. Because a main character, Eloy Herrera, is Hispanic-American, I hired four Latinx middle school students in Minnesota to read an early draft of the manuscript, received notes from all, and was able to interview two of them. I also became a fangirl of Chef Enrique Olvera and modeled Eloy’s dad after him. (An episode of Netflix’s “Chef’s Table” features Olvera.)

Archimedes: What do waxworms taste like? (I haven't tried them yet)

Rebecca: They taste like soft macadamia nuts. In Boy Bites Bug, I describe the waxworms being overcooked in cookies and making the texture leathery and the worms a bit flavorless. That happened to me, too. Bake small cookies like the recipe recommends, and that problem is solved.

I ordered my waxworms from San Diego Waxworms. They arrived alive in two small containers of sawdust. That entire scene in Boy Bites Bug is pretty much a recreation of my experience.

Archimedes: I would feel bad about eating bee larvae. Are there any bugs you wouldn't eat?

Rebecca: I haven’t eaten bees because of the collapse of so many bee colonies, though there is a delicious-seeming recipe in Gordon’s cookbook called “Three BeeSalad.” I want to note that the first edition was printed in 1998, and the dramatic increase of colony collapse spiked in 2006. Responsible insect foraging and farming is as important to any entomophagist as the safe preparation and eating of insects.

As far as eating bugs, I’m game to try anything once. But I haven’t gone out of my way to track down dung beetles or cockroaches, both of which are edible. And I will never again eat earthworm jerky. Blech!

Head over to this page on Rebecca's website for some discount codes for edible insect online shops. You can also read the first five chapters of Boy Bites Bugs.

Thinking that you want to try eating some insects? Then check out this book:

Insects, An Edible Field Guide 
By Stefan Gates
144 pages; Ebury Press, 2018

This book covers more than 70 edible bugs from all over the globe. Part field guide, part cooking guide, it provides what you need to know before diving into dining on insects. It’s divided into sections by continent: northern Europe, southern Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, and Australia/Pacific Oceania.

The introduction includes safety issues (don’t eat arthropods if you have a shellfish allergy), and the environmental and nutritional benefits of chowing down on insect protein. While not a cookbook, it does introduce readers to a diversity of insects that you might not have thought edible.

 Today we're joining the STEM Friday roundup. Head over to see what other cool resources STEM bloggers are sharing. Review copies from publishers.

Tall Tall Tree & a field guide

themes for the day: trees, nature, nonfiction

Tall Tall Tree
by Anthony D. Fredericks; illus. by Chad Wallace
32 pages; ages 3-8
Dawn Publications, 2017

Creeping, hopping, zipping
Throughout the redwoods green
Are many different creatures
Who are very seldom seen.

Waaaay up, high in the world's tallest trees is an entire world teeming with life. Most people don't get to see the animals who live in those tall, tall trees - but this book takes you on a field trip into that world.

There are lots of animals up there, living at skyscraper heights: eagles, bats, owls, salamanders. From one to ten, the author introduces us to some of the residents of the redwood tree.

What I like about this book: There are "hidden" animals on each page. For example, when our attention is directed to the slimy banana slugs, will we see the other animal up there in the tree? There's even a "find the hidden animals" challenge in the back matter - Yes! there is back matter! There is also additional information about the redwoods and some STEAM activities in the back matter.

Ultimate Explorer Field Guide: Trees
by Patricia Daniels
160 pages; ages 8-12
National Geographic Children's Books, 2017

This is a tree-mendous field guide, perfect for tree-huggers of any age. Introductory pages include "what is a tree?" and give a quick lesson on how to get to know leaves - as well as a warning about poison ivy so you don't accidentally pick any of those leaves for your collection. There are plenty of tree entries, each with a photo of the entire tree and close-up of leaf or needle, flowers, nuts, cones, or fruit. In addition to general information there are some fun facts.

Every so often there's a special feature that gives you a closer look at trees growth patters, flowers, seeds, or some other cool thing. One thing I wish they had included: photos of bark for each tree described - for those of us who go out tree-watching in winter. 

Beyond the Books:

What's your state tree? Find a photo of it. Was it featured on a stamp? Find out here.

What sort of animals use the trees in your neighborhood? Adopt a tree and keep track of the birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and insects that live on it or gather food from it. Draw a picture of your tree - and make a map showing how to find it.

Become a tree bark-ologist. Find two trees with different kinds of bark. Jot down your observations of each tree trunk: is the bark smooth or rough? is there a pattern? Make a bark rubbing and tape it in your field notebook. Or take photos.

Today we're joining the STEM Friday roundup - and we're also joining others over at Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event in which bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's site. She keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture Books. Review copies from the publisher.

Birds and bugs

So... you may have noticed over the summer that I love bugs. Ants, bumble bees, clear-winged hummingbird moths, beetles of all colors and kinds! And I found a cool field guide perfect for kids who want to learn more about insects.

Ultimate Explorer Field Guide: Insects

By Libby Romero 

160 pages; ages 8-10

 National Geographic Children’s Books, 2017

This is so much more than a field guide. Introductory pages tell where to find insects, how to be safe around insects (avoiding stings, bites, and defensive chemicals), and how to protect insects. Each page introduces an insect, giving its scientific name along with notes about ecology and behavior and photos. There are text boxes noting things to look for, listen to, plus hands-on activities (how to draw a dragonfly), plus plenty of “Insect Inspector” side bars. Every few pages you’ll find an “Insect Report” focusing on specific features: wings, how to tell an insect from a “bug”, and the art of insect deception.

Helpful back matter includes a photographic “Quick ID Guide”, a list of books and apps for discovering more, a glossary, and index. And all of that is in a pocket-sized guide with tough, flexible covers.

 

Bird Braniacs

by Stacy Tornio and Ken Keffer;  illustrated by Rachel Riordan

104 pages; ages  5 - 13

Cornell Lab Publishing Group, 2016

The subtitle for this book is "activity journal and log book for young birders." It is meant to be written in, drawn in, shared with friends. Part activity book and part birding journal, Bird Brainiacs is the perfect book to tuck in a backpack, or toss in the picnic basket when heading off to the park. There are quizzes, “mad-lib” fill-in-the-blanks, games, nature challenges, personality questionnaires, word scrambles, and bird facts. I love the hands-on science stuff: a do-it-yourself bioblitz, bird count, and nest-watching. There are enough bird-log pages to get you started on a summer’s worth of birding plus some how-to-draw pages for the doodler in us all. I know the age range is for up to 13 years, but heck, this looks like fun for the whole family. 

Drop by the STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. Review copies from publishers.

Make a Back Yard Field Guide

One of the neat things about science is that you can walk out your back door and learn something new. One fall my kids dug through the compost bin looking for isopods (roly-polies, plant lice) for some studies they wanted to conduct. In the process they uncovered a lot of interesting stuff: worms, centipedes, sprouting seeds.... enough to make cataloging the compost pile that day's study.

Another week we decided to take a closer look at the insects living in the milkweed patch, and later we examined the insects hanging around goldenrod.

In the process we collected notes and sketches of our observations in a sun-faded blue notebook that resided on the windowsill where we watched birds. Over the years our "Window Ledger" grew into a field guide.

I wish I'd taken the next step: snap photos of the things we observed (and the kids holding frogs, kneeling in the garden to watch spiders), print the pages, punch holes and stick into a binder. You can get some good ideas about creating your own field guide from "Flora, Fauna and Family Togetherness"in this month's National Wildlife magazine.