Seymour Simon's Blog, page 24

Grade 5 Launches Its Paper Airplanes!

We received this great message and photo from a class this week:After reading Seymour Simon’sPAPER AIRPLANE BOOK, grade 5 students on the Caribbean island of Curaçao decided to launch their own. Students designed their own models and some followed the plans of Pilot Simon himself. After we tested each model, students were eager to make changes and try again. Isn’t that great? I have always loved flying paper airplanes, and I think most students do, too. If you would like to try, I have posted a paper airplane pattern that you can get you started.Click herefor the free download.

CONTEST! My Awesome Science Word

Seymour Simon is preparing to travel to visit five schools in Pennsylvania next week. It is easy to tell because we are seeing so many new readers on the Seymour Science blog. Students in the Pennsburyschool district - this AWESOME SCIENCE WORD contest is for you!Two lucky winners are going to receive personally autographed copies of Seymour Simon’s newly updated SCIENCE DICTIONARY, with more than 2,000 entries!Did you ever spend time browsing through an encyclopedia or dictionary? You might not have been looking for a specific word but just leafing through, finding cool topics and reading about them. For this contest Seymour Simon invites you to browse through hisonlineScience Dictionaryand find a word or image that you really like. Here is the link where you can find his Science Dictionary online:http://www.seymoursimon.com/index.php... is what you need to know to enter Seymour’s Awesome Science Word Contest:Take a look around in the online Science Dictionary and find a word that you think is an Awesome Science Word. Once you have decided on your word, you have to do three things:1. Tell us what your word is and explain the definition in your own words.2. Tell us why you think your word is awesome.3. Use your Awesome Science Word in a sentence to prove that you really understand what it means.Here is an example. Let’s say that I look at the online Dictionary pick "geyser" as my Awesome Science Word. I would write:Definition in my own words: A geyser is a hot, underground pool or stream of water that sometimes explodes into the air, releasing hot water and steam.Why it is awesome: I think it is awesome that hot water, smoke and steam can just explode out of the ground without any warning.Using it in a sentence: If you ever go to Yellowstone National Park, don’t walk too near the "Old Faithful" geyser, because you never know when it is going to blow!Here is how to enter once you have selected your Awesome Science Word:A. Click on the yellow "Comments" link at the bottom of the blog to enter the contest by sharing your word along with your definition, why you think it is awesome, and your sentence using your word. B. When you write you information, be sure to also tell us your name (first name only), your school, and your teacher’s name. That way we can find you if you are the winner!C. Be sure to post your entry by midnight on Thursday, December 13. The contest ends then. RULES:Two winners will be chosen randomly from all the correct entries.Older students may enter individually, and we will pick one winner.Students in grades K-2 may enter as a class and work with their teacher to enter the contest; there will be one classroom winner.Both winners will receive copies of the printed version of the SCIENCE DICTIONARY, autographed by Seymour Simon. This new book is completely updated, and being published by Dover Books on December 19. So, get to work and send us your entries today. Good luck!

Writing Wednesday: RESCUE!

Welcome to Writing Wednesday, which is about an item in today’s Science News. Sandhill cranes are an endangered species, and bird scientists in Mississippi are going to unusual lengths to try to save their chicks by moving the babies to the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge. The problem is, before you can move a chick, you need to catch it. "We don’t want to spook the cranes," whispered Megan Savoie, crane project director at the Audubon Species Survival Center. Ms. Savoie was dressed in a white bag, her arms raised high when she said this. The rescuers are capturing the babies by dressing up like an adult sandhill crane! Your Assignment: Imagine that YOU are one of the crane rescuers. In 50 words or less, tell us what would you whisper to the baby chicks so that they would not run away? How would you feel about being a rescuer?When you have finished your writing, you can post it here if you would like others to read it. Simply click on the yellow "Comments" link at the bottom of this post to enter your writing. Or you can share your writing with your family, friends or your class.Happy writing!Photo: The Associated Press

Cool Photo: Wild Horses

My choice for Cool Photo of the Week is this shot of wild horses thundering through a canyon. It was shot by photographerKatarzyna Okrzesik. Aren’t they magnificent?You can read more aboutHORSESin my book of the same name. Look for it in your library!Teachers - there is also a free, downloadable Teacher Guide to HORSES on this website.Click hereto access.

Meeting Mr. Simon at NCTE

We received this lovely note and photograph after the recent NCTE Conference in Las Vegas. It was fun to meet some of my Twitter friends there!It was SO much fun to meet you and your wife at NCTE! We are looking forward to getting on the Starwalk site with kids this winter and using the books as resources for our students’ inquiries.Thank you for your gracious welcome and visit. We’ll be in touch with student work.Happy Thanksgiving from Idaho!Angie Young and Jayna Eichelberger

Writing Wednesday: Spectacular Volcano!

Good morning, and welcome to Writing Wednesday. The Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island is once again spilling lava into the ocean. This volcano has been erupting continuously from its Pu’u O’o vent since 1983. However, it has been nearly a year since the lava flow traveled the seven-mile (11 kilometer) distance to flow into the ocean.When hot lava meets cold ocean waves, there is a spectacular display of steam and smoke. Tourists are traveling from all over to visit the volcano to see this rare and beautiful sight. Your Assignment: Look at this photograph and imagine that you are able to travel to Hawaii’s Big Island to see the volcano and lava flowing down to the ocean. Describe what it is like. What do you see? What do you hear? Smell? How does seeing the hot lava meet the ocean waves make you feel? When you have finished writing, you can share it with your class, friends or family. Or you can post it here for everyone to read. Just click on the yellow "Comments" button at the bottom of this blog to post your writing. Photo: Hugh Gentry / Reuters Note to Educators: Today’s Writing Wednesday exercise is designed to use in support of CCSS Writing Standard #3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

Blue Tuesday

Today’s Cool Photo of the Week is of hundreds of Blue Morpho butterflies gathered on a tree trunk in the rainforest. The blue morpho (Morpho peleides) is one of the largest butterflies in the world, with a wingspan from 5 to 8 inches (12 to 20 centimeters). If you spread your fingers as wide apart as you can, that’s roughly the size of a morpho butterfly! The blue morpho lives in the rainforests of Latin America, from Mexico to Colombia. They are only bright blue on top of their wings. The bottom side is a dull brown with many eyespots, so that when birds and larger insect predators are looking up from the ground, the morpho is camouflaged. Airplane pilots flying over the rainforest have reported seeing huge groups of blue morphos sunning themselves on top of the forest canopy. What a beautiful sight that would be!There is a photo of a Blue Morpho in my book BUTTERFLIES, where you can learn lots more about these beautiful creatures that smell with their antennae and taste with their feet. Or, you canclick herefor a video preview of the book.

Traveling LIke Spiderman

A gecko travels like Spiderman - using its sticky toe pads to walk up walls and across ceilings with ease.While those toe pads may seem simple, they are spectacularly designed, with millions of tiny hair-like structures called septulae (SEP-too-lay) that help them cling to any dry surface. A single gecko’s toe pads can hold the weight of two humans! Researchers have learned recently that this only works when the surface is dry. If a gecko gets wet feet, it loses its grip, along with its "Spiderman" powers!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are not going to do a Writing Wednesday post today because everyone here in the U.S. is preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday. It is a day when everyone pauses to think about all that they have and how fortunate they are. My wife Liz and I have many, many blessings to be thankful for, not the least of which is the fact that we have loyal readers and writers like you all. It is a joy to create this blog for kids who love science and nature, and we want to take a moment today to thank you for everything you do, every day, to make our planet Earth a better place.Happy Thanksgiving!

Cool Photo: Shipwreck!

I can hardly bring myself to call this the "Cool Photo of the Week." It is more like the ASTOUNDING photo of the week! This shipwreck was long buried under the sand dunes on Fire Island - a barrier island off Long Island, New York. The force of Hurricane Sandy completely reconfigured the beaches of Fire Island, and exposed the bones of this wrecked schooner. Park rangers think that it is the wreck of the Bessie White, which ran aground off Fire Island in either 1919 or 1922 - almost 100 years ago! The Bessie White was a four-mast Canadian schooner, went aground in heavy fog. The crew and the ship’s cat escaped in lifeboats, but they couldn’t save the ship or the tons of coal that it was carrying. Seeing the sand rearranged to the point that this buried shipwreck is revealed really gives you an idea of how strong the winds and surf are during a hurricane.