Seymour Simon's Blog, page 25

Please Drop By at NCTE!

Our booth is up and we will be exhibiting at the NCTE convention all weekend in Las Vegas. If you are here, please come by booth 347 and say hello.I would love to show you my new eBook,A SHIPMATE’S GUIDE TO OUR SOLAR SYSTEM: EARTH, in our StarWalk Reader. As you can see by the way I am grinning here, I am just thrilled at the way it looks and sounds!

SeeMore Explorers: Red-Headed Bird

For today’s SeeMore Explorers posting, I decided to identify a bird that I see often at my bird feeder and on the nearby tree. I love watching birds at the feeder, and I keep a bird identification book on my desk, which I use to figure out what I am seeing. The one I use isStokes Beginner’s Guide to Birds, Eastern Region. There are lots of these kinds of books out there, and most organize the birds by color, so that it is quite easy to look them up. Just be sure that you are using a book specific to the part of the country where you live. Isn’t this a gorgeous bird? Here’s what I wrote on my Observation Log: The first thing I did was look for the red-headed woodpecker, because this bird certainly does have a red head! As soon as I looked, though, I realized that it was not a red-headed woodpecker. Those birds have a completely red head, all the way down to the shoulders - almost as if they are wearing a red hood. Quite nearby in the bird identification book was the red-bellied woodpecker, and that is what my bird is. It seems like a strange name, but it turns out that this bird has an orange patch on its belly, and that is where it got its name. I’d love to hear from my readers. What kind of birds do you see in the world around you? Which are your favorites?

Writing Wednesday: A Baby Bat

Good morning, and welcome to Writing Wednesday!Today we’re going to look at a portion of a book calledA PINKY IS A BABY MOUSE, written by Pam Muñoz Ryan and illustrated by Diane deGroat. In this book, the author is talking about the names for the babies of all different animal species, and she asks a question: What is a baby bat called? Your Assignment: Read the excerpt below and do some research. Find out what a baby bat is called, and then work with other students or friends to write a few more sentences about what you think is interesting, beautiful, or NOT beautiful about a baby bat. When you are finished, click on the yellow "Comments" link below to post your writing, or share it with your class.Note to Educators: Today’s Writing Wednesday exercise is designed to use in support of CCSS Writing Standard #7: Participate in shared research and writing projects.A PINKY IS A BABY MOUSEis one of the exclusive, recorded eBooks available in theStarWalk Kidsdigital collection.Click herefor more information about signing up for a free, 60-day trial for your school.

A Giant Among Children’s Nature Writers

Yesterday was a very special day, because I went to the memorial service for the great writer Jean Craighead George. She died this year at age 92, and her daughter Twig told me that her mother had still been writing up until four days before her death. Isn’t that wonderful? Jean grew up in a family of naturalists, in a house full of rescued wild animals. She once told an interviewer that when she started kindergarten she was shocked to discover that she was the only child who had a turkey vulture for a pet! She wrote in an essay for "Children’s Books and Their Creators": "I have discovered I cannot dream up characters as incredible as the ones I meet in the wilderness." Jean was an outdoorswoman her whole life, and many fellow authors and editors who spoke about knowing her yesterday described trips they made with Jean to visit the wolves in Yellowstone National Park, to the great aquarium in New Orleans, and to observe whales migrating in Alaska. Amy Kellman, a librarian from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a longtime friend of Jean’s, quoted a line from one of Jean Craighead George’s books in which she was describing a peregrine falcon named Oxie, who "did things her own way." Kellman said that she always thought Jean was describing herself when she wrote about the independent falcon.Her son, Dr. Craig George, is a Senior Wildlife Biologist in Barrow, Alaska, working with bowhead whales. Craig told the gathering that just a few years ago his mother camped with them on unstable ice, at minus 20 degrees, during the bowhead census. "She was absolutely fearless," he said. Jean Craighead George wrote more than 100 books. The most famous one was JULIE OF THE WOLVES. Have you ever read it? It is a wonderful story about a girl known as Miyax in her small Eskimo village; to her friend in San Francisco, she is Julie. When Miyax runs away from her village, she finds herself lost in the Alaskan wilderness. In danger of starving to death, Miyax survives by copying the ways of the wolves. She is soon accepted into their pack, and when she finally returns to her old life, she struggles to decide who she is - Miyax of the Eskimos—or Julie of the wolves? Here is a passage from the story: Miyax stared hard at the regal black wolf, hoping to catch his eye. She must somehow tell him that she was starving and ask him for food. This could be done she knew, for her father, an Eskimo hunter, had done so. Jean Craighead George was a great supporter of theWolf Conservation Centernear her home in Chappaqua, New York.At the end of yesterday’s memorial service, stories, we all sang "This Land is Your Land"......and then Twig asked for a minute of silence. As we sat quietly, the doors in the back of the auditorium opened and a trainer leading a white wolf entered the room. We all rose to our feet as this gorgeous creature, from the wolf sanctuary that Jean Craighead George loved, took the stage and looked at us all. It was magical. I admired Jean as a writer and a person. She was, and still is, an inspiration to my own writing. She will always remain one of the towering figures in children’s literature, one of the inspirational models for the rest of us in her field. Photo: Rocco Staino / School Library Journal

Calling all Teachers - CONTEST!

Usually when I run a contest on my blog it is a chance for students to win prizes. However, this week I want to tell you about a great contest that is designed for teachers to enter. WeAreTeachers is giving away a Nook Tablet and FREE one-year subscription to the StarWalk Kids digital library. That’s a $900 value! As you probably know, I am one of the founders of StarWalk Kids, and our goal is to provide an affordable solution for Schools and Libraries who want to use eBooks in their classrooms. Our collection of 150 great eBooks, both fiction and nonfiction, from authors and illustrators that you know and trust, comes with a free Teaching Links document for every book which links the text to Common Core Standards. Here is an excellent article, from today’s SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, about what we are doing with StarWalk Kids. Give this contest a whirl - everyone who enters automatically receives a free, 60-day trial subscription to our library. You must enter by November 30th, so don’t delay. Click here to enter and experience the StarWalk Kids collection, of which I am very proud.

The Wolves are Alright!

I am relieved, grateful and aware that we were extremely lucky in the aftermath of the Hurricane Sandy superstorm that has devastated communities all around us. We don’t expect to have power back for quite some time in my neighborhood, but amazingly, though there are downed trees all around us, our house was untouched. We were very, very fortunate, and our hearts ache for our friends and neighbors throughout the Northeast who are struggling to recover from terrible losses. In the midst of all this sobering news, I was so happy to receive this update today from the staff at the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, NY.They wrote: Although Hurricane Sandy did a number on our Center in South Salem, NY, everyone is safe and sound. Dozens of enormous trees fell victim to the storm’s powerful winds, tearing down several fences in their fall. Although several enclosures were compromised, the wolves remained safe and contained during the powerful storm.And so the rebuilding begins.

What is This Growing on the Tree?

Good morning. It’s Thursday, so it’s time for SeeMore Explorers. A couple of weeks ago, Seymour Simon and I took a walk up to Bash Bish Falls, the highest waterfall in Massachusetts. As we were walking along the creek, heading up the trail to see the waterfall, we came upon this interesting looking thing growing on the side of a tree. I took photographs from both above and below. It looks like a fungus, or maybe a mushroom. I decided to use the SeeMore Explorers Observation Log to try to find out what it is. I typed the words "orange brown tree fungus spongy bottom" into Google. The first website that came up in the search was a "Mushroom and Fungus Identifier" on a website called Healthy Home Gardening. This seemed promising. I opened on the website, and started clicking through lists of photos, looking for images that resembled what I had seen. I soon found several things that looked quite a bit like what I was looking for, and I noticed that all of them had the word "shelf" in their name. I could tell that what I was seeing was either a Shelf Mushroom or a Shelf Fungus. Back to Google, where I typed in "shelf mushroom" and did a Google image search this time. Sure enough, I found several credible, scientific websites with photographs of shelf mushrooms that looked very much like what I had found. What interesting things have you seen outdoors lately? You can download your own copy of SeeMore’s observation log here. Fill it out and share it with your friends, your classmates, your teacher or your family. Let people know what interesting things you are seeing, and what a good nature detective you are!

Writing Wednesday: Wild Goat

Good morning, and welcome to Writing Wednesday. Today, we’re going to share an excerpt from a lovely book by Caroline Arnold and Richard Hewett, called WILD GOAT. Once you have read this and enjoyed the photograph of these adorable kids, you can write about it and post your writing for others to read! Your assignment: Tell us what you learned from the words in this selection. What did the pictures teach you? How did the words and pictures work together to help you understand the world of these baby goats? When you have finished, click on the yellow "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog to post your writing.Note to Educators: Today’s Writing Wednesday exercise is designed to use in support of CCSS Reading/Informational Standard #6:Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text. WILD GOAT is one of the exclusive, recorded eBooks available in theStarWalk Kidsdigital collection.Click herefor more information about signing up for a free, 60-day trial for your school.

Cool, Ghostly Photo of the Week

We are a little bit late with our posting of today’s Cool Photo of the Week because of the power outages here on the East Coast. But, we’re back online just in time to share this special, COOL HALLOWEEN PHOTO OF THE WEEK!This ghostly sight is known as the Cygnus Loop Nebula, a supernova remnant that is about 1,500 light-years away from Earth. This nebula is the gassy remains of a supernova - the gigantic explosion when a huge star blew itself up.And since the Cygnus Loop Nebula looks like a ghost, it reminds me to wish all my readers a Happy, Out of This World Halloween! Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Why is Sandy the Frankenstorm so Dangerous?

Here are a few reasons why weather forecasters are so worried about Hurricane Sandy, nicknamed Frankenstorm. Sandy is a very large hurricane, one of the largest ever to strike the United States mainland. Instead of having winds and rain a few hundred miles across, Sandy is much bigger. That means many more millions of people are going to experience high winds, heavy rains and powerful storm surges along the coast.Sandy is a very slow moving storm. It will stay around for days rather than hours.Sandy is not weakening as it reaches the coast. It’s expected to join forces with cold air masses and become a hybrid storm like a Frankenstein Monster Storm or "Frankenstorm."Sandy arrives on the coast during a full moon, the highest tides of the month. Sandy’s winds combine with the high tides could push tidal waters 11 feet higher than normal.Sandy will bring in cold air and snow as well as wind and rain. Cold air will join with the warm air of a tropical storm and bring snow as well as wind and rain. So the problems of cold weather storms and warm weather storms are wrapped into one.Sandy is likely to affect New York City, the nation’s largest city. That’s bad news for a city whose many subway tunnels are lower than the surrounding ocean waters. All in all, Sandy the Frankenstorm is no joke. It’s a dangerous storm that may turn out to be the worst in the history of the Northeast United States.