Lions and Ostriches and Elephants, Oh My!

 Today I’m sharing a couple books that feature animals: a counting book for the littles, and a nonfiction book about elephants for the 7-and-up crowd.

theme: rhyme, counting, elephants

Five Hiding Ostriches 

by Barbara Barbieri McGrath; illus by Riley Samels 

32 pages; ages 3-7

Charlesbridge, 2022

Five little ostriches, huddled in one spot. The first one said, “It’s getting rather hot.”

The second one adds an observation, then the third, fourth, and fifth… and when a lion is spotted it’s Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! through the brush. The ostriches want to hide, but what does the lion want? He isn’t interested in ostriches for supper.

What I like about this book: It’s a fun read-aloud about five worried birds – and their penchant for talking when they should be quiet. And a lion. And  a game of hide-and-seek. The illustrations show the savannah habitat where lions and ostriches hang out, though usually not together. What makes it a STEAM book are the fun ostrich facts revealed in the back matter. For example: they don’t really bury their heads in the sand. But they do try to disguise themselves as rocks. Back matter also includes a game kids can play with their friends.

Elephants!: Strange and Wonderful 

by Laurence Pringle; illus. by Meryl Learnihan Henderson 

32 pages; ages 7-10

Astra Young Readers (Boyds Mills), 2021   

From the jacket: The trunks of elephants are remarkable, but so are their feet, teeth, ears, and skin. Elephants walk on their tiptoes and despite their size move very quietly. Their wrinkled skin holds water and their ears act as air conditioners…

The book opens with a comparison of Asian and African elephants. Pringle shows the ways elephants use their trunks, their teeth and tusks, and gives readers a glimpse into their family lives. He also includes the way humans have interacted with elephants, from mythology to the ways people have used them to help haul things and as transportation.

What I like about this book: I like the comparison of modern elephants with prehistoric pachyderms – and yes, that word is used. Thankfully there’s a glossary at the back! Another thing at the end of the book is a section about environmental issues and threats to elephants, including the ivory trade.

Beyond the Books:

Find out more about ostriches and lions. San Diego Zoo has a page about ostriches at 

 https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/ostrich and a page on lions at  https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/lion. 

Make up your own hide-and-seek game about lions and ostriches, or wild animals that live in your area.

Make some elephant art. Younger kids might have fun making elephants out of a handprint. And you can find out more about elephants at https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/elephant

Today we're joining Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event 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 publisher.

Explore .... Indoors with Sock Science!

On any other Wednesday we'd be heading outside to do a nature break. But this week I wanted to play around with some sock science (and math). Because it's that time of year when you might need a snow day activity. Or maybe just something to do on an otherwise dreary day. 

When my kids were littles, their "laundry job" was matching socks. It's a great way to develop math and science thinking. Sometimes we'd roll sock pairs into balls and play sock-hockey in the kitchen or "toss the sox in a box." Here's some other sock science to play around with:

Red Sock, Blue Sock

If you have a bunch of unmatched socks hanging around, how many pairs can you make out of them? Let’s say you have six misfit socks: blue (B), yellow (Y), green (G), purple (P), stripes (S), and dots (D). Six socks means three pairs, but you can create more than three combinations. Think about what you can mix with blue: BY, BG, BP, BS, and BD. That’s five potential combinations. Then, if you look at combinations with yellow (but not counting BY because you already have it) you could get four more: YG, YP, YS, and YD. How many new combinations can you get with the green sock? Purple sock? Striped sock? If you add all the potential combinations together, how many are there?

Secret Sock Codes 

Socks exist in two states: rolled up and flat. That makes them perfect for creating coded messages, like Morse code which uses combinations of dots and dashes. What if you use a rolled sock as a “dot” and a flat sock as a “dash” to create messages? For example, an A would be a rolled sock followed by a flat sock. I would need seven socks to spell my name in Morse sock code. But ... you don't have to stick with Sam's code. You can make your own Secret Sock Code.

Do Socks Fly?

One little-studied sock phenomenon is flight behavior. While rolled socks have been used as substitute hockey pucks, snowballs, and hacky sacks, I don’t know of any studies that compare how well socks fly under various conditions. Perhaps you will be the first to document such things as how far socks fly when they are rolled up or flat, wet, dry, or frozen. To be totally consistent, you’d need to create a launching device.. perhaps a rubber-band catapult?

Further Sock Research

There are tons of fun books about socks, ducks (or others ) that wear socks, and even how to make socks. But here are a few of my favorites:

Odd socks by Michelle Robinson

Five stinky socks by Jim Benton.

Have you seen my new blue socks? by Eve Bunting

Ducks don't wear socks by John Nedwidek

A sock is a pocket for your toes by Elizabeth Garton Scanlon

note: these activities were first published as part of my "Archimedes Notebook" science column in Ithaca Child, Fall 2017.

When Socks go Missing

The average person loses 15 socks a year. That’s 1,264 over a lifetime! At the average cost of $2/sock, that can really add up. 

The mystery of sock disappearance is so perplexing, that in 2016 Samsung commissioned psychologist Simon Moore and statistician Geoff Ellis to figure out why our socks go missing in the wash. After surveying about 2,000 households in the UK, they developed the Sock Loss Index (SLI): 

In the formula, 'L' stands for 'laundry size' which is calculated by multiplying the number of people in the household (p) with the frequency of washes in a week (f).

'C' stands for the 'washing complexity.' This includes how many types of wash (t) households do in a week (darks and whites) multiplied by the number of socks washed in a week (s). Although, who among us counts the number of socks we toss into the hamper?

The second part is the product of the “positivity” (P) of doing the laundry times the degree of attention (A). Positivity is measured on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being “hates doing the laundry” to 5 being “loves doing laundry”. To calculate Attention, add how many of these things you do at the start of each laundry. Do you check pockets? Unroll sleeves? Turn clothes right-side out? Here’s a video of the scientists explaining how they calculated the SLI.

Then there’s the completely different problem of where socks go when they disappear. Here are some locations people often find lost socks: one sock still in the hamper; dropped by or between washer and dryer; under the bed or couch; in a shoe; in someone else’s drawer; in a toy box; outside (taken by pet or fallen off a line); clinging to another piece of clothing (we once found a sock weeks later stuck in a sleeve!); or in the lost socks box. Where do your lost socks go?

Drop by on Wednesday for some Sock Science!

Much of this post comes from my "Archimedes Notebook" column in Ithaca Child, 2017.