Seymour Simon's Blog, page 42

Christmas in Nature

As school winds down and we head into the winter holiday, I want to share two great natural images for the Christmas season. First, the Christmas Tree worm (Spirobranchus giganteus).These festive-looking creatures are found throughout the world's tropical oceans. The "trees" are almost like crowns - each worm has two, and they are used for both eating and breathing. Look at them again - they are almost like a fish's gills. The second image comes from the Hubble Telescope, which captured this photograph of a Christmas ornament in space! It is actually a huge wave of energy from a supernova - the explosion of a star in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small galaxy about 160,000 light-years from Earth.For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon's exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!

The Winter Solstice

The winter solstice is this week for us in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun rises late in the morning and sets early, the day is the shortest, the night is the longest of the year. The solstice happens at the same time for all of us, everywhere on Earth, but the local time is different depending upon the time zones. For us in the North America this year, the solstice is in the morning hours of Thursday, December 22. The sun is the source of all light and warmth for living things on Earth, our home planet. So you might think that the longest night means that every animal is sleeping and the plants are resting for the winter. But even in the snow and the dark, life goes on. Lakes and ponds may freeze over, but many water animals and plants are active beneath the ice. You can often see deer and other animal tracks on snowy fields. Snow buntings and chickadees search for seeds on snowy trees and bushes. Pines, spruces and other kinds of evergreens keep their leaves all winter long.The sun is low in the sky all day long, shadows are long and it's a wonderful time of year to photograph out-of-doors. The winter solstice is also a time to celebrate the return of the light. After the solstice, days get longer and the nights shorter. It's the endless cycle of the seasons! So many things you can do over your winter vacation from school! Here are some ideas. Try to catch snowflakes on a small piece of black material. Look at each snowflake closely. Use a magnifying lens is you have one. Are they all alike? Maybe you can draw what you see, or take a close-up photo?Look for animal tracks in the snow. Can you identify any of them?Which kinds of birds stay all winter long: Seed eaters or insect eaters? Why do you think that's so? Take photos and try to identify the birds you see.Do you know how to identify the star constellations? Which ones are more easily seen in winter?Are all snows alike? Do all stick to the trees the same way? I'd like to hear from my readers about their winter solstice explorations!Photo: Liz NealonFor those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon's exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!

Dreidel in Space!

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, the traditional Festival of Lights, celebrated by Jewish people all over the world. Do you know that Hanukkah was once celebrated onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery by astronaut Jeff Hoffman? Click here to see video of what happens when you spin a dreidel in a low gravity environment!Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish readers! For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon's exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!

Naughty or Nice?

The Cool Photo of the Week is a reindeer in conversation with a cat. What do you suppose they are talking about?!For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon's exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!

The Snowiest Places

As a major winter storm begins hammering parts of the High Plains in far northeast New Mexico, northwest Texas, western Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas, we started wondering about the snowiest places. Where in the U.S. do people get the most snow every year?According to the Weather Channel, #5 on the "snowiest list" is Lead, South Dakota. Lead is in the northern Black Hills, where powerful north winds swirl through the surrounding hills.Average yearly snow:201.4 inchesPopulation:3,124Snowiest month:March(35 inches)Snowiest day ever:52 inches(March 14, 1973)Record Depth:73 inches (March 1, 1998) #4: Truckee, California. Truckee is in the Sierra Nevada mountains, which have a long, deadly history of burying pioneers and wagon trains, as well as modern trains, in the mountain passes during huge snowstorms.Average yearly snow:202.6 inchesPopulation :16,180Snowiest month:February(44.3 inches) #3: Hancock, Michigan. Why do they get so much snow in Hancock? In addition to the fact that it is in the far northern part of the U.S., Hancock is also close toLake Superior, and the cold winds pick up moisture from the lake.Average yearly snow:211.7 inchesPopulation:4,634Snowiest month:January(65.6 inches)Snowiest day:26.5 inches(January 18, 1996)Record depth:73 inches (February 28, 1937) #2: Crested Butte, Colorado. At an elevation of 8,860 feet, Crested Butte has a history of spectacular New Year's storms!Average yearly snow:215.8 inchesPopulation:1,487Snowiest month:January(39.5 inches)Snowiest day:31 inches(January 1, 1982)Record depth:120 inches(December 31, 1923)#1 - the place in the U.S. that gets the most snow - is Valdez, Alaska. Why do they get so much snow? One of Earth's most common low pressure systems, the "Aleutian low," settles in each winter just to the southwest of Valdez. When this happens, large amounts of moisture from the Pacific Ocean flood into southern Alaska and because the air is cold, the result is heavy snow. Consistently. EVERY year!Average yearly snow: 326.3 inchesPopulation: 3,976Snowiest month: December(71.9 inches)Snowiest day:47.5 inches (January 16,1990) Army of Snowmen Photo Courtesy of Nerd Approved.

Bonnes F

One of the fun things about working with illustrators on your books is that when the holidays roll around, they often "gift" you with one of their drawings!This week I heard from Doug Cushman, who illustrated three of my "Let's Try it Out" books. Doug lives in France, which is why his greeting is in French ("Bonnes Fêtes" means "Happy Holidays). Isn't he a lovely artist?!Image Copyright Doug Cushman 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Happy Christmas, Puppies!

I received a letter this week from a school librarian friend, Donna Smalley at Eagle Spring Elementary in Humble Texas. I still have very fond memories of all the kids I met in my visit there last year!"Every year for the last 3 years, the library at Eagle Springs Elementary in Humble ISD hosts a food/toy drive for the animals at the Houston SPCA. The students and their families are so generous, and this year they donated over 400 pounds of food and treats for the animals!In addition to these donations,Girl Scout Troop 9390 decided to make this effort their Community Service Project.They collected toys and food, but theydid something else very special. Last Saturday, they baked over 100 homemade, fresh dog biscuit treats for the dogs. A spokesperson at the SPCA said the biscuits would be used to make friends with the new animals that come into the shelter during theholidays." What a great story. Instead of just thinking about what they want to receive, these scouts thought about giving - and they remembered the animals. Way to go, girls! This story also gives me a chance to remind everyone about the many animals that are given as gifts and then abandoned after the holidays. Don't give an animal to someone unless you are certain that the family you are giving it to is willing and able to take care of it and be its family for life. An animal is not a toy, it is a living being that deserves to be cared for and loved.For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon's exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!

Surprise Visitor

A New Zealand woman arrived home yesterday and found an unexpected visitor - a baby seal, asleep on the sofa! The fur seal pup was nicknamed "Lucky" because he managed to cross a busy road, push into the house through a cat door, and climb up some stairs to get to the couch in the living room.What a clever little pup! The woman called animal control. Wildlife experts came and woke Lucky up from his nap and released him back into the sea.I once discovered baby flying squirrels living in my attic, but I've never experienced anything as interesting as a seal on the sofa. Wouldn't that be exciting?! Photo: Christopher Clark/Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai

Cool Photo: Baby Sloth

Today's Cool Photo of the week is of Avie, a tiny two-toed sloth. She is being raised at the Aviarios Sloth Sanctuaryin Costa Rica, a place for baby sloths who lost their mothers to power lines or road traffic or other accidents.She is an omnivore, and eats both leaves and fruits. Sloths spend most of their time in the rainforest canopies of Americas, sleeping up to eighteen hours a day. Perfectly adapted to living in the trees, sloths are also strong and graceful swimmers. The mother bears one infant at a time, and carries it clinging to her belly for up to a year as they move through the trees, learning the ways of the sloth.

Fishing for Sharks

Here's a cool idea. Daniel and his teacher, Ms. Vega, have created a game called "Fishing for Sharks." The paper sharks in the tank all have questions taken from my book. The student "catches" the shark on his fishing line, and answers the question about sharks. Nice job, Daniel!