Seymour Simon's Blog, page 35

800-Pound Paper Airplane

As many of my readers know, I love to fold and fly paper airplanes. I have been doing it my whole life. But a 45-foot (13.7 meter) long, 800-pound (363 Kg) paper airplane? That is a little excessive, even for me! A few months ago, Arizona's Pima Air and Space Museum sponsored a paper airplane flying contest for kids. Hundreds of kids came, and their enthusiasm inspired the aerospace engineers at the museum to launch the Great Paper Airplane Project! Their project was completed on Wednesday, when a helicopter lifted the giant paper airplane high above the Arizona desert and then released it. The paper airplane flew at a speed of 98 miles (158 km) per hour. Now THAT is a paper airplane. I wish I had been there! Photo: Joshua Lott / Reuters Learn how to fold your own paper airplanes with Seymour Simon's classic PAPER AIRPLANE BOOK.Click here to download a free paper airplane pattern to print and fold!

5th Grade News Team Interviews Seymour

When Seymour Simon visited Carl Sandburg Elementary School in Springfield, Illinois last week, he was interviewed by the 5th Grade Sandburg News Team. Click on the "Play" button below to see their report. (Be patient - it may take a minute or two to load!).

Students Tell All About Seymour

Last week, Seymour Simon visited Carl Sanburg Elementary School, in Springfield, Illinois. The fourth and fifth graders made a wonderful book - 100 pages long! - about his life and his books. We decided to scan some of the book and make it into a video, which you can see here. Hope everyone enjoys it!

Kids Write a Biography

What a great day yesterday at Sandburg Elementary School! Everyone was wonderful, and the 4th and 5th grade students in Ms. Blickhan's class made an incredible book for me - 100 pages long! They covered my entire life, starting with growing up as a kid in a New York City apartment and writing my first book when I was in second grade…..and carrying all the way through my grownup writing career. Thank you so much - this is really a magnificent piece of work! Here is an example of one of the pages. I will post more from this great book when I get home. Thanks again to the Sandburg Elementary kids and staff. You made my visit to Springfield really special!

Guessing Game

Today, I am visiting Carl Sandburg Elementary School, in Springfield, Illinois. The most famous native of Springfield is President Abraham Lincoln, but this school is named after another Illinois native, the great poet Carl Sandburg. Although it's a sunny day today in Springfield, heading into Sandburg Elementary I am thinking about my favorite Carl Sandburg poem, called FOG. FOG The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then, moves on. Can you guess why this is my favorite Sandburg poem? Hint: What does he compare the fog to?

Writing Wednesday: Revisiting the GOAT STORY

Welcome to Writing Wednesday! Last week we are asked you to read the "goat story" below and then tell us whether you thought it was true or false, and why.The answer is that this nonfiction story was only partly true. Some readers caught some of the errors, some caught most of the errors, no one got them all. Read below to see the corrected story. The Goat Story: The word "goat" is thought to have come from an old SlavicEnglish word meaning "to jump." You can see how the animal got its name when you look at this photograph of a baby goat playing in the snow. Goats are one of the oldest domesticated species ("domesticated" means "wild" and unable tothe animal has been tamed and is suited to live nearand work with human beings). For centuries, people all over the world have kept goats for their milk, meat, hair and skins. Female goats are referred to asdoesornannies,male goats asbucksorbillies, and the babies are called kids.fawns. Goats are naturally curious animals who will chew on just about anything to find out if it is good to eat - including tin cans and cardboard boxes! They are browsing animals, and while they will not actually eat an inedible material like a can, they will taste just about anything so that they can decide whether it is good to eat.Their razor sharp teeth allow them to demolish metal as if they were sharks. Writing for Fun: If you feel like writing, make up a fiction story of no more than three paragraphs to tell us why the kid in this picture is jumping in the snow. When you are finished, click on the yellow "Comments" at the bottom of this post to enter your writing. Have fun!

Cool Photo: The Tiniest Cast

Today's "Cool Photo of the Week" is of a 3-week old baby squirrel, wearing a tiny cast on her arm after falling out of a tree. A couple in England were cutting branches off a tree in their yard, when they realized that one of the branches contained a squirrel's nest. They saw the injured baby squirrel on the ground and called Animal Rescue. They took her in, put a cast on her arm, and have been feeding her special milk that is similar to what her mother would have fed her. Photo: Tim Goode / Solent News & Photo Agency

And the Winners Are….....!

This week we ran a contest calledWHATKIND OF CLOUD IS THAT? for students at the K-8 school in Menands, NY, where I visited this week. I asked students to do some research about the three most common types of clouds, and to tell me which one they would be most like to see on a fair weather day. 67 students and classes left comments on the blog with their answers. Wonderful! How did I come up with a winner among the many correct answers? The winner was randomly chosen by a true random number generator on the websitewww.random.org. First we listed all the entries on page after page, in order of when they were received. Then we used the random number generator, first to pick a page number and then to pick a number on the page. The winning pick was Delia, a fourth grader. Here is what Delia wrote: Hi, Seymour Simon. You are my class's model right now. We are so excited to meet you we can hardly stay in our seats. The three types of clouds are stratus clouds, cumuls clouds and cirrus clouds. Cumulus clouds are found on a fair weather day. From Delia, 4th grade The class pick, for Kindergarten through second grade, wasMrs. Sposito's first grade class. They wrote: The three most common clouds are cumulus, stratus, and cirrus. The common cloud you would see on a fair day is cumulus. By: Mrs. Sposito's First Grade Class, Menands School Delia and Mrs. Sposito's classwill receive personally autographed copies of my bookWEATHER. Congratulations to both winners, and thank you to everyone who entered. There was some very good writing and thinking posted this week. I had so much fun meeting you all this week, and reading all your great writing on my blog. Please keep in touch by telling me about what book of mine you're reading, and what subjects you like the most!

Paper Airplanes and Animals

Look at these great notes from Mrs. Sposito's first graders at Menands School!Hi, Seymour Simon, I went on your blog. I went on Kids. I saw paper airplanes and I made one by myself. From: Alexa We loved your presentation. My favorite book was Earthquakes. I like the videos you made. Thank you for coming to Menands School. From: Mady I love that video you showed us. That one with the paper airplane. You sure are a good book writer! I hope you can make more books and come back when ever you can! From: Toby How was your day, Seymour Simon was it good or great? My favorIte part was when we all took a picture. From: Abbi I think you write a lot of books. Do you write nonfiction and fiction? From: Sabrina It was a pleasure to meet you, we had lots of fun. I thought the paper airplane was cool. How did you throw that long? Your books are the best I ever read. From: Reem I like your Shark book, your Baby Animals book and your Bats book. I like when you threw the paper airplane out the window. From: E-Sonne Thanks for coming to our school. Why do you write books? Do you like books? you are the best author! Why did you start writing in second grade? Why do you like animals? Are animals your favorite things? Why do you write nonfiction? From: Aditi Thank you for sharing your books. We love your books. We had a great time reading them. Thank you for coming. I loved your video. From: RoshniLearn how to fold your own paper airplanes with THE PAPER AIRPLANE BOOK!

Thank you, Menands Kids!

I had a wonderful time with the kids at the Menands School yesterday. Each group I spoke with were terrific participants, well-prepared, asking and answering good questions. We had a lot of fun together. These fifth graders prepared a presentation that included a music performance and an original poem! Here is a video of their performance; the words of their poem are below. Science and nature he knows very well, When he writes a book it surely will sell. Lions and tigers, planets and trees, Puppies and kittens and human disease. Tornadoes and blizzards, earthquakes and rain, He knows all about them, he uses his brain! Past and present, old and new, Unsolved mysteries he presents to you. Read Seymour Simon whenever you can, And when you do, you'll become his fan. Dogs are born both blind and deaf, Police dogs stop xxxxx?* and theft. Bloodhounds, terriers, yorkies and shar pei Are all kinds of dogs that love to play. Writing nonfiction, advanced technician, Animals, animals, animals! Outer space and weather, Science is his mission. He is the dean, he is the man, He can write about anything, yes he can! He's taught science, he's taught writing, Everything he writes is so exciting! Funny books, lots of laughs, Airplane books and tall giraffes. Science is his main theory, All those books must make him weary. Rattlesnakes, hyenas and devil rays make his book a fright, And sharks, bats, grizzly bears are animals that will bite. Vultures and Gila Monsters are an interesting lot But spiders are creepy and they're hard to stop. Writing nonfiction, advanced technician Animals, animals, animals! Outer space and weather, Science is his mission. Huge coastal storms, enormous hurricanes, He knows all about them, he uses his brain. The mystery islands, old and new. And how they formed, he'll tell to you. He knows how they start, he knows how they end, Writing so much he started a trend. *Fifth graders - I think I missed a word here or there. Someone write and help me correct these lyrics! And thank you again to Mrs. Ford, all the faculty and especially the kids at Menands School for a great day!