Happy Earth Day!

April is a month full of celebration: poetry, square-root day (4/4/16), and Earth Day!

photo from NASA

So here we are, stuck to the ground by gravity, spinning our way through space, and everything we need - air, food, water - is on this planet with us. From space, the earth looks like a blue marble. Self-contained. Self-reliant.

What can You do to take care of your corner of the earth?

What about recycling? Perhaps you will turn ripped jeans into book covers, bags, rugs...(or something else).

Maybe you'll figure out a way to collect and conserve water to use for watering a garden (make a rain barrel) - or if you have too much rain,  you might want to plant a rain garden to help slow storm water run-off.

Plant a garden for the pollinators. Sow seeds for asters, purple coneflowers, and sunflowers. Let goldenrod, milkweed, and Joe-pye weed grow. Mow less, and watch as bees and butterflies visit wildflowers in the tall grass.

Go on a scavenger hunt to learn more about the plants and animals that share your part of the world. Instead of collecting items draw pictures, write poems, take photos. Here's a list to get you started:

Look for: two different kinds of leaves, moss, a vine, a dead tree, flowers
Listen for: the sound of the wind, bird songs, buzzing of insects, moving water, frogs
Touch: tree bark, wet mud, rocks with different textures, rotten wood
Smell: pine tree, flower, damp earth, fresh grass

Woolly Bear Secrets Revealed

The Secret Life of the Woolly Bear Caterpillar

by Laurence Pringle; illus by Joan Paley

32 pages; ages 5 - 7

Boyds Mills Press, 2014

“Bella is no ordinary caterpillar,” writes Laurence Pringle. “She is a banded woolly bear...” So begins this introduction to the secret life of a well-loved caterpillar.

Bella has 16 legs – how do you even walk on 16 legs? Not to worry – Pringle explains how different legs help Bella climb, move, and even help her eat. And eat. And EAT… woolly bears, it turns out, eat a lot. And produce a lot of frass (a cool word for caterpillar poop).

Bella eats all summer long, and then finds a safe place to sleep away the winter. In the spring, wooly bears wake up and start eating. Again.

Perhaps you’ve seen Bella and her buddies wandering about your yard searching for tender grass and tasty dandelion leaves to nibble. If so, take a few moments to watch them. If you have a glass plate or petri dish, put a woolly bear in it and watch how they walk. If you have a sandy area, put a woolly bear down and see what sort of tracks it makes.

Then help it get to a green and grassy place  because soon, very soon, Bella will spin a cocoon and change into an Isabella Tiger Moth. And then, one day later this summer, she’ll lay her eggs that will hatch into baby woolly bears.

Pringle gives us a great view into the every day life of a common caterpillar, and Joan Paley's bright and bold illustrations are perfect for spring. 

Drop by STEM Friday to see what other science books and resources bloggers are sharing.  Review copy provided by publisher.

A Vernal Pool is Not Just a Puddle!

The Secret Pool

by Kimberly Ridley; illus by Rebekah Raye

32 pages; ages 7-10

Tillbury House, 2013

"A shimmer. A twinkling. Do you have any inkling of what I am?"

Themes: animal, nature, nonfiction

You might walk right by a vernal pool and not notice it. Or you might think it's just a puddle in the woods. But vernal pools are more than puddles...

Opening: "I'm a watery jewel called a vernal pool. I sparkle, but that's not the only reason I'm precious. Many creatures of the forest depend on me."

In this book you meet the frogs and salamanders and birds and fairy shrimp that depend on a temporary pool. You see the life above and the life below the waterline. Along the way you learn what "vernal pools" are, the life cycle of frogs and salamanders, and how to go "pool hopping".

What I like about this book: I love the artwork! Rebekah Raye's illustrations make you just want to plunge right into a pool yourself. I like the way author Kimberly Ridley tells the story from the point of view of the pool itself. The text is easy to read, with rhyming words tucked in here and there, and alliterations sprinkled throughout. About fairy shrimp, for example: "Slim and frilly, they swim willy-nilly.... tickling me with their feathery feet."

There's a sidebar on each spread, so readers can learn how to tell the difference between frog and salamander eggs, what tadpoles look like, and the predators who use the vernal pool as a snack bar. And there's a helpful glossary at the back.

Beyond the Book: Spring peepers are usually the first frogs we hear around our area. It's a bit chilly for frogs at the top of the hill where I live, but my friends in the flatlands say they can already hear frogsongs at night. You can listen to the sounds of frogs from the Sandhills of Nebraska here.

Sing a Frog Song. One of my favorite counting songs is "Five Little Speckled Frogs". Sing along, or make up your own song about life in the vernal pool.

Go on a Listening Walk. Walk into the woods or find a place to listen outside for about 10 minutes. Write down all the spring sounds you hear. Which ones are made by animals? Can you tell what animals are making those noises? Are there any noises that aren't made by animals?

Play Vernal Pool Bingo. I borrowed this idea from UC Davis. Create bingo sheets that feature different plants and animals that live in vernal pools. This would be fun to play in the car while driving to a natural area - or while sitting near a pool.

Make a Vernal Pool in a Bin. Line the bottom of your bin with leaves - or paper leaves that you cut out of colored paper. Then pour in some hydrated water beads (a mix of blues and greens with clear beads would be neat). When you're out and about, look for some rubber or plastic frogs and salamanders that you can put in your pool. Or draw the animals you see in the book, and cut them out to put in and around your pool.

Drop by STEM Friday to see what other science books and resources bloggers are sharing.   Today's review is part of PPBF (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.

  On Monday we'll pool-hop over to join the Nonfiction Monday round-up, where you'll find all kinds of great nonfiction for children and teens.  Review f & g provided by publisher.

Making Your Yard Bird Friendly

Tired of mowing the lawn? Let the grass grow a bit taller this year – and if the neighbors say something, tell them you’re creating a “bird friendly” yard. Taller grass means more bug habitat – bugs that provide nutritious meals for baby birds. Of course, that means that you’ve got to quit spraying insecticides, but they’re not healthy for you or the birds.

You can also plant some flowers for the birds. The bees and butterflies will sip nectar and collect pollen all summer, but come fall the birds will snack on the seeds. Here are some flowers that provide birdseed in the fall:

•  Bee balm (Monarda)
• Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
• Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta):
• Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus)
• Lavender (Lavendula)
• Sunflowers (Helianthus)  

Leave the dead flowers standing. You might think that a garden or dried up plants is ugly, but the nuthatches, titmice, and chickadees scouring the branches for insect and spider eggs will love it. So will cardinals and goldfinches harvesting seeds from the plants.

Check out what else is happening on STEM Friday.

Checking out Bird Nests

This is a good time for a walk around the neighborhood, to check on which birds have returned and are busy building nests. Our phoebes have returned and are cleaning up their old digs, and I see other birds flying off with bits of grass grasped tightly in their beaks.

Birds like messy yards… places with tall grass, brush piles and shrubs to hide in. Our forsythia is a favorite place for nest-builders. The birds use all sorts of things as construction materials: dried grass, twigs, pine needles, leaves, lichens, tufts of fur – even strips of foil and pieces of plastic bags.

Gather some nesting materials and build your own nest. When you're done, test it out by putting some chicken eggs inside. Then go check out who is nesting in your back yard - and what they are using to build their nests.

Check out what's happening at STEM Friday.

A Backyard Field Trip

We're caught on the cusp of a changing season. The last drops of maple sap are being collected and the maple moths are getting bolder.

This week is the perfect time for a backyard field trip. Head outside to see what sort of critters you see on the snow, or under the snow, or around the snow. Check for bird tracks in the mud, greening grass and crocuses, and stuff the snowplows left behind.

This week will be a good one for watching stars - the quarter moon is waning and by next Sunday it should be completely dark. The geese have been migrating north, but will there be as many flying on a moonless night?