Into the Meadow with Mouse

The Mouse and the Meadow
by Chad Wallace
32 pages; ages 3-8
Dawn Publications, 2014


"One day a little meadow mouse was crawling through a field
Staring in amazement at the wonders it revealed.
The grassy open meadow put his courage to the test,
For he had never left the comfort of his mother's nest."

And so begins the adventures, and coming-of-age tale, of a meadow mouse. The illustrations give us a close-up view of life in the meadow. We meet a spider and honeybee, and watch a caterpillar metamorphose into a chrysalis. But all is not fun and games in the meadow; there are predators to avoid! I love the back matter, where the author delves into such things as whether - and how - animals talk, what altruism looks like in the animal world, and what meadows are. 

Beyond the book: Take a field trip to a meadow. How do you find a meadow? Look for any field habitat that is mostly grass and other non-woody plants... and around here that means hay fields. As you explore your meadow, look for some of the animals that mouse found on his wandering. Take along a notebook and some colored pencils so you can draw some of the plants you find.

One square foot of meadow. Measure out a square foot in your meadow - that's 12 inches by 12 inches - and write down everything you find in that area. You'll probably need more than one sheet of paper! And you'll need to get on your knees so you can get a close look at the ground.

Grow your own meadow. You don't need a lot of space - just a few sunny square feet of lawn near the edge that you don't want to mow any more. The wild flowers and open space will attract birds and other wild life that you can watch. Here's some meadow-growing ideas.

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

Wordless Wednesday

Very Hungry Caterpillars

gypsy moth caterpillar (creative commons)

How much can a single caterpillar eat? A lot! Caterpillars are basically eating machines. They need to be if they hope to get through all those instars (larval stages), into a cocoon or chrysalis, and reach adulthood in time to mate or migrate.

One summer the gypsy moths were so numerous we could hear frass dropping on leaves like rain. Bits of leaves littered the ground - crumbs dropped by the herbivorous gluttons devouring our forest canopy. Reference books mentioned that gypsy moths could defoliate entire forests - but there was not one word on how much an individual caterpillar consumed.

So we decided to take prisoners and find out for ourselves. Or plan of action: give them leaves and see how much they eat over 24 hours. Sounded easy enough.... So we made up cozy homes cells for our captives, one caterpillar per gallon jar, and gave them leaves. Before feeding them, though, we traced each leaf onto a piece of centimeter graph paper. That made it easy to approximate leaf area by counting squares and parts thereof. The next day we took out what was left of the leaves and traced them. Now we could figure out how much they ate.

Summer is the perfect time to go caterpillar watching. And there are so many things to discover about caterpillars: what they like to eat, how they move, where they hang out in the hot part of the day...

Here are a couple of handy resources for budding caterpillarologists (people who study caterpillars):

Everyone needs a field guide, and Caterpillarology is full of hands-on ways to look at these guys.

Also check out  the Butterfly School.

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