Seymour Simon's Blog, page 36

Writing Wednesday: Goat Story

Welcome to Writing Wednesday! Every week there is a new opportunity to publish your own creative writing on the Seymour Science blog. This week, we are asking you to read our "goat story" and decide whether you think it is true or false, and why. The Goat Story: The word "goat" is thought to have come from an old Slavic 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 to live near 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 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! Their razor sharp teeth allow them to demolish metal as if they were sharks. Your assignment: Read the information in these three paragraphs and tell us whether you think it is true or false (not true). And tell us your reasons for deciding. When you are finished, click on the yellow "Comments" at the bottom of this post to enter your writing. Note to Teachers and Library Media Specialists:I have created a Guide called “Writing Exciting Nonfiction,” which you can download by clicking on this link. It outlines different techniques that I use in my writing, and includes many examples from my books. I have posted it so that you can use it with your students. Please let me know if it is helpful, and share any other feedback about how we can make this blog a productive tool for you to use in exploring and encouraging nonfiction writing with your students.

Cool Photo of the Week

For today's Cool Photo of the Week, we could not resist posting this adorable photograph of a Eurasian Red Squirrel. If you live in Europe or Asia, this is a common tree squirrel. Those of us who live here in North American are used to seeing its cousin, the Eastern Grey Squirrel. Our grey squirrels are bigger, and they don't have these very cute ear-tufts!

We love SeeMore Readers!

I am going to visit a school in Menands, NY later this week, and in preparation for my visit, Ms. Sposito and her first grade class have been reading my books. What a nice surprise to find the lovely photographs and notes that they have been uploading today! Abbi and Sabrina wrote:We loved your KILLER WHALES book Seymour Simon. We liked the part about the blowhole. The picture of the pod looks like a group of whales huddling together to have a meeting. How did you get the photo under the water?Toby and Varun are fans of AMAZING BATS: We like how you added all the facts about the different kinds of bats. How do you know this much about the gigantic flying fox? Leilah and Mady learned some surprising things from BABY ANIMALS: We loved your Baby Animals book. We were amazed when we read that a humpback whale is 12 feet long at birth. We were also surprised to find out that baby garter snakes don't live with their mothers. Alicia, Roshni and Brody wrote: We read your book AMAZING BATS. We loved it! There were some parts we really liked. We thought it was disgusting but cool when we read that the ghost bat eats rats. We wondered, does the little brown bat's stomach hurt when it eats 600 bugs an hour? We think it is silly to sleep upside down!

Understanding Tornadoes

Following last week's storm systems that unleashed devastating tornadoes in the Midwestern and southern U.S., many readers are writing to ask about tornadoes and why they happen. You can check your library to see if they have my book, TORNADOES, which explains these terribly destructive storms.I have also written often about Tornadoes on this blog. Here is a link that will take you to a list of all my tornadoes blog posts. There is lots of good information for you there. My heart goes out to kids, families and communities in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina, whose lives were affected and in some cases, forever changed, by these powerful storms.

Kids' Questions for Seymour

Students in Springfield, Illinois and their teachers are preparing for my visit next week. They sent me a number of questions which I decided to answer here, so that everyone can read. Tommy W. asked: Have you ever been diving before? (SS) Yes, I used to love scuba diving, seeing the fish and collecting shells. It is an amazing world under the sea! In fact, my next book, which is coming out this summer, is about CORAL REEFS. Izzy wants to know: How many dolphins are there in the world? (SS) This is a hard question to answer, since there are at least 45 different dolphin species, and they live all over the world. Some species are declining or endangered, other species are growing and doing well. Scientists estimate that there are about 170-million dolphins currently living on Earth. You can learn a lot more about dolphins in my book about these magnificent creatures. Tyler C's question: How long have you been a discovering all this knowledge?(SS) I have loved nature since I was a little kid. Although I grew up in the Bronx - a very crowded part of New York City - the natural world was all around me. There is weather in the city, just as there is in the country. You can see the sun, moon and stars from a rooftop in the city. And I explored a vacant lot on my street, which wasn't exactly a park, but still had birds, earthworms, small plants, and trees. In fact, when I grew up one of the first books I wrote was called SCIENCE IN A VACANT LOT. Maddie R.: How do you get all of the pictures in your books? Have you everbeen bitten?Sydnee wondered much the same thing: How do you take pictures of sharks without getting bitten? (SS) I am asked this a lot because photographs are such a big part of telling the stories in my books. Sometimes I travel to places myself and take the photographs. I have photographed glaciers in Alaska, volcanoes in Hawaii and wildfires in California. Other times, I arrange to use other people's photographs.Often these kinds of photographs are taken by the biologists who study the animals because they are with them so often, and have many opportunities to catch just the "right moment" on film.These photographers also use very specialized camera equipment, so that they can photograph a dangerous animal from a safe distance, even though the photograph looks as though they are very close by. This distance keeps them from startling the animal, provoking an attack or scaring it away. Thanks for writing everybody. Although I am happy to answer your questions, I am really more interested in hearing your thoughts about science, nature and fascinating animals. Please come on my Seymour Science blog regularly and use "comments" to tell me what you are discovering as you are reading here. I am looking forward to meeting you all very soon!

A Seymour Acrostic!

One of the really special things about being a children's author is that you receive many letters and notes from readers who love your books. Yesterday I received a note that was so sweet and wonderful, I decided to publish it here for others to read. Thank you, Lilly in third grade! Hi.i'm Lilly. I am nine and in third grade. I love your non-fiction books especially BIG CATS. My favorite animal is a big cat, it is the cheetah. I am kind of obsessed with cheetahs. I would love if you could answer some questions I ask you…what's your favorite animal, How many pets do you own, What city do live in. Could you please send me a few pictures of animals. Have you ever encountered a cheetah? You are so inspiring to me… you inspire me to do what i love. You say we should protect wildlife which i agree. I have anacrostic just for you…Spectacular Eccentric You have a beautiful heart Marvelous On my mind every time I see an animal U r awesome Rescuing animals in words Somebody to know Inspiring Magnificent One of my favorite authors Notice how wonderful you are at writing Thank you SO much for your lovely letter and wonderful acrostic. I'm so touched and pleased at what you wrote, Lilly. Cheetahs are great big cats and they are fascinating. I've only seen cheetahs in zoos and I'm afraid that I don't have pictures of the animal to send to you. I only use photos of wild animals that are taken in the wild (not in zoos) in my books, so I get the photos from scientists who study the animals in nature. I'm not sure I have a single favorite wild animal, but I do enjoy reading and writing about them. The first book I wrote and that was published when I was an adult was a book about animal behavior and I've written dozens of books about all kinds of animals since then.I live near New York City, and although I don't have pets any more, I do miss my dog Nova and my two cats, Mittens and Newty Fruity. In fact, I have been reading about aquariums all week. I always used to keep and breed fish, and I think I'm going to start again because I miss it!Thank you, again, Lilly, for making my day very happy, indeed.

CONTEST: What Kind of Cloud is That?

Seymour Simon is preparing to travel to visit a school next week. It is easy to tell because we are getting so many comments from new readers on the Seymour Science blog. Students in the Menands, NY schools - this contest is for you! Two lucky winners are going to receive personally autographed copies of Seymour Simon's book WEATHER! Here is how you enter Seymour's Cloud Watching Contest: 1. Have you ever heard the expression "March comes in like a lion, but goes out like lamb?" There is often blustery, snowy, windy weather at the beginning of March. And that means this month is a perfect time for cloud watching. 2. Do some research and tell us which are the three most common types of clouds. And, tell us which type of cloud are you most likely to see on a fair weather day. 3. You can find your information on this blog, in Seymour's books about weather, or using other resources, like the library and the Internet. 4. Click on the yellow "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog entry to enter the contest by writing what you have learned about clouds. 5. When you write your information, be sure to also tell us your name (first name only), school and email address. If you do not have an email address, tell us your teacher's name, so we can contact you if you are the winner. 6. Be sure to post your entry by midnight, Friday, March 9. The contest ends then. 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 WEATHER, autographed by Seymour Simon. So, get to work and send us your entries today. Your comments will be invisible until everyone has a chance to enter. Once the contest is over, we will post everyone's writing. Good luck! For Families, Teachers and Media Specialists: Did you know that there is a free, downloadable "Teachers Guide" for WEATHER? In fact, there are guides for all of Seymour Simon's Smithsonian books. Become a member of SeymourSimon.com today by clicking on the "Educators and Families" header. We hope you use these extensive, free support materials with your children.Photo: Seymour Simon

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Seymour Simon

The Development Studies Center posted an extensive, new interview with Seymour Simon this week. Educators will enjoy reading it, and we think it will be very helpful for students doing Author Studies, as well. Interviewer Jennie McDonald really did her homework, and she asked Seymour questions that no one had ever asked him before. The result is an interview in which you learn a lot about Mr. Simon, from how he learned to read, to how he decides what to put in and what to leave out of a book, to the story of a childhood experience like A Night at the Museum! Click here to read for yourself. And then click "Comments" below and tell us what you think!

Expressive Owl Writing

We had some excellent writing submitted for last week's WRITING WEDNESDAY story about the barn owl. Our writers appealed to the reader's different senses (sound and sight), and used strong action verbs to describe the owl's hunt for prey. The first author is a regular Wednesday contributor. As the owl swoops around, blending into the sky, the owl is going fast without going wooossshhhh. On the hunt for mice. -Will in Ohio Two students from Singapore also joined in on Writing Wednesday. For our North American readers who may not have studied Southeast Asia yet, Singapore is an island nation just to the north of Indonesia, and it is made up of 63 islands! Here is what they wrote:The owl lifted off the branch with a powerful stroke of his spectacular wings. He let a hoot slip out and ring in the air. He listened to the silent night to hear the scurrying feet of his dinner. There it was, a nice plump mouse. He broke into a dive and opened his claws wide, as wide as they would go. He felt the warm body of the mouse and forced his claws closed over the warm body. Then prepared himself for a feast. -Pollyanna The Barn Owl glided through the air, flapping its wings in a perfect rhythm. Eyes narrowed down at the little mouse hurrying to get home. Swooping down the owl listened to the little feet of his dinner scurrying away. He folded his wings up tight, opened his sharp claws and dove in for the kill. After closing his sharp claws on the mouse the owl immediately lifted himself higher and higher into the sky and went back to his nest and put dinner on the table for the rest of the family. - Erin

Leap Day the Frog Way

The Smithsonian Institution is celebrating Leap Day with fun facts about frogs and their leaping abilities. Did you know that before the New Guinea bush frog leaps at a strange frog it puffs itself up and shows its blue tongue? Now THAT would be a sight to see!There are more fun Leap Day frog facts and a frog song on the Smithsonian website. Click here to see for yourself.