Seymour Simon's Blog, page 60

Great Artwork!

I can't wrap up my memories of visiting Corpus Christi without a tip of the hat to the first graders at Crockett Elementary. I think that you guys are DINO-MITE, too! I loved your very, very tall poster!

Corpus Christi Kids Celebrate Reading & Writing

I met such smart, respectful, curious students in the four Corpus Christi elementary schools that I visited this week. Don't you love this shot of my conversation with kindergartner Alex Hernandez, with his classmates Elizabeth Garcia, Alizae Herrera and Noah Cardona looking on? This photograph is by Michael Zamora, a photographer for the Caller-Times newspaper. Thanks so much for posting this great online story with lots of pictures of the kids, the schools, and all the great posters and billboards they made for my visit. Look at this group of 3rd graders with their VOLCANOES poster. All the classes did lots of preparation for my visit, reading, writing, and creating artwork. There were huge murals on OCEANS and THE MOONthat were just great. Here's one of the fourth grade classes who read my book EYES AND EARS and wrote about it themselves. The school also had a writing contest, and I was proud to be photographed with the winners, my fellow authors! Thank you to all the librarians, teachers, principals and instructional technology specialists who helped to make this a great week! Librarian Alissa Gonzalez gave me a seed packet along with the paper bouquet, so that we can grow Texas bluebonnets in our garden this summer. I'll think of Corpus Christi every time I see those blue heads nodding in the breeze!

New Joke Today!

It is Friday, so what do you find on SeymourSimon.com?A NEW SCIENCE JOKE OR RIDDLE! Woo Hoo!Check the home page to find out why this cat is making such a horrrrrrrible noise!

Bird Watching on the Gulf Coast

I've been speaking in schools in Corpus Christi, Texas this week, which means I have had a chance to walk near the salt marshes and see the huge numbers of birds - many, many species - which live here at the Gulf Coast. We drove out to Portland, Texas ("over the bridge," as they say in Corpus Christi) and in short order saw a Great Egret, standing on one leg in the salt marsh, a White Ibis (given its name by the Ancient Egyptians, who considered ibis to be sacred birds), an American Avocet (sweeping its long bill through the shallow muddy water in search of food), an endangered Wood Stork, many Royal Terns (dapper in their black and white plumage, these elegant looking birds are cousins to the common gull), and a whole colony of Roseate Spoonbills. When we first saw this mass of pink birds, my wife and I thought they must be flamingoes (we're from New York City, so we don't know what we are seeing when it comes to Gulf Coast wildlife!). A very smart sixth grader told us what kind of birds these were. And of course, we saw many brown pelicans, one of the most common birds of the Gulf Coast. I have always loved to watch pelicans feed in the ocean. They start by hovering high over the water, scanning the waves for fish. When they spot food, they make a steep, hard dive, sometimes from as high as 50 feet (15 meters), and explode into the water - it is like a bomb going off when they hit. I learned something new about pelicans this week. The reason they can dive that way without being injured is that they have air sacs in their shoulders and neck that act like air bags in a car, and protect them from the impact when they hit the water. In order to identify and learn about all these birds, we bought a laminated bird identification folder with pictures and descriptions of typical bird life on the Gulf Coast. You can do this wherever you travel - hotel gift shops and souvenir stores almost always have them, to use for identifying local birds, fish, or wildlife. It is a great way to learn about nature wherever you go. Thanks to all the students, teachers and librarians in Corpus Christi for sharing your great city with me. It has been a fun week! Sun rising over Corpus Christi BayRoseate Spoonbills photo courtesy ofthe Tampa Bay Estatuary

What Do You See?

A reader named Emily C. wrote today with a question about my book, NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T. Emily asked: Why don't I understand some of your stuff in your book? It's confusing.Ahhh….welcome to the world of Optical Illusions! These pictures are a sort of riddle for your eyes. Some people see one thing when they look at a picture, other people look at the exact same picture and see something totally different. Of course, I don't want you to feel confused, but this book is designed to get you to look, think, look again, and then think some more. Think of it as a puzzle, and have fun with it. Here is a simple example of an optical illusion. Which of these lines look longer to you, AB or CD? Most people would say that AB is longer. But, if you measure them with a ruler, you will see that they are each exactly the same length. Try reading the book with someone else - your teacher, librarian, someone in your family, or a friend. It is fun when you each try to decipher each visual puzzle, and talk together about what you see. The more that you explore optical illusions, the more you will find that you can't always believe your eyes!

Cool Photo of the Week

It is Tuesday, so it must be time for…........TA DA! Cool Photo of the Week! This 6-month-old panda cub was born in captivity, and now it is being taught how to live in the wild. Researchers at the Hetaoping Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong National Nature Reserve in China are moving the cub to the second phase of its training, where it will live at a higher altitude and encounter rugged living conditions. So what is with the Halloween costumes, you might ask? The Chinese researchers believe that if the pandas are going to be successfully reintroduced into the wild, they must never have any contact with humans. So, they are dressed like grown up pandas! I wonder how they disguise their human smell?! Photo courtesy MSNBC.com "The Week in Pictures"

Water Part 2: What YOU Can Do

Water is essential to life on earth. We need water to grow food, keep clean, provide power, control fire, and last but not least, we need it to stay alive! Kids often ask me: If water is constantly being cleaned and recycled through the earth's water cycle, why do we need to conserve it? So let's start with understanding how this thing called THE WATER CYCLE works. 1. Evaporation. The sun heats water in rivers, lakes, and the ocean and turns it into vapor (fog, mist, or steam), and the vapor rises into the air. 2. Condensation. When the vapor cools down, it turns into tiny drops of water that cling to each other and form clouds. 3. Precipitation. The water falls from the clouds in the form of rain, snow, sleet or even hail. 4. Runoff. Some of the precipitation is collected in Earth's rivers, lakes, streams, and reservoirs. In our country, we clean this water in treatment plants and use it to meet our basic needs. However, there is not unlimited water for humans to use. While it's true that our planet Earth looks like a big blue ball because 75% of it is covered by water, a lot of that water is not usable in that form, either because it is salt water (in the oceans) or because it is frozen (in glaciers and the polar icecaps). For this reason, water is a limited resource that we must conserve and protect. There are other benefits to saving water. You save energy by using less hot water (reducing your family's carbon footprint), and when you're using less energy, you're also saving money. A win all around! What can you and your family do to conserve water? Here's how you can change your daily habits and make a big difference: · When it's time to brush your teeth, fill a glass of water, turn off the faucet, and brush for two minutes. Then, use some of the water in the glass to rinse your mouth, and the rest to rinse off your toothbrush. Voilà! Teeth brushed with just one glass of water. · If you use a dishwasher, follow these tips: a. Use the RINSE cycle when there are just a few dishes in the dishwasher (some machines call it "Rinse and Hold"). This will soften or remove most of the food waste on the dishes, so that they can sit for a few days until the dishwasher is full. Then, run the full clean cycle.b. If you like to rinse your dishes off in the sink before you put them in the dishwasher, don't keep the water running while you do it. Instead, put the stopper in the drain, run a couple of inches of water, and use your sponge or dishcloth to wipe the dishes before they go in the dishwasher. · Apply the same idea to doing laundry. Don't run the washing machine until you have a full load of wash. Remember, 1 in every 3 people in the world does not have access to clean, safe water to meet their daily needs. That is only going to get worse as our population grows. Water is an essential resource to sustain life. As governments and community organizations make it a priority to deliver adequate supplies of quality water to people, we all can help by learning how to conserve and protect this precious resource in our daily lives.Water Cycle Diagram courtesy JEA.com

Water: A Precious Resource

Here's a question that I am often asked: If water is constantly being cleaned and recycled through the earth's water cycle, why do we need to conserve it? The answer is simple: We use up our planet's fresh water faster than it can be replenished by nature. And here's the critical fact about water: About 75 percent of the earth's surface is covered by water, but only 1 percent of this is available for people to use. The rest is salt water or is frozen in polar ice caps and glaciers. NOW, do you see why it is important to conserve water? Water is an essential resource for life and good health. According to WHO (the World Health Organization), 1 in every 3 people in the world does not have access to clean, safe water that meets their daily needs. I decided to write about this today because I was inspired by thismagical and beautifulfilm, made by an artist in Brazil. We all need to be part of the effort to conserve water, use it sparingly and only as we need it. We must protect this precious resource, without which life is not possible.

Wonderful Librarians, Teachers, Kids, Dogs and Cats!

What a great time I had at Churchville Elementary School last week! The flurry of reading, writing and sharing by the students - which happened before, during and after my visit - was just wonderful! Look at this great bulletin board done by sixth graders. They read my GLOBAL WARMING book, used a Carbon Footprint Calculator to determine their own impact on Earth's atmosphere, and then wrote EARTH PLEDGES about their promises to change their own behavior to be better environmental citizens. Wonderful!A student named Taylor F. wrote today to tell me that she has read almost all of my books that are in her library - FIFTY-SEVEN (57) books. Wow! Taylor!! You must be one of my biggest fans!The comments and photographs are still coming in, including this one from a teacher and her son (a third-grader in the school). Hi Mr. Simon!Thank you so much for visiting Churchville! I am one of the third grade teachers there, and my son is a third grade student at Churchville as well!When we got home, we were so excited to talk about your visit!We love your books and enjoy reading them!On a side note, yesterday was our dog's 10th birthday!Ethan wanted to share this picture of our dog, Maveric, with you!Thank you again,Tara and Ethan Maveric is a beautiful dog, isn't he?I also received this letter from Mrs. Gorgol. Gail is the librarian at the school, and it is largely due to her efforts, along with Library Assistant Leslie Mulreaney, that the kids and I had such a great time exploring to the ends of the universe and learning about the animals that we each love the most!! Here is the beautiful letter she wrote.Dear Seymour,Your engaging website has been a rich resource for our students to learn about science. They have been reading your blog posts at school and at home and many have made personal connections to what they read. As a result of those connections, they were inspired to write comments of their own, send you photos, ask you questions and enter your contests. They did research and conducted a survey. They were excited to see their work published so quickly on your website and shared with a wide audience of readers across the country. This experience has been invaluable for our students as readers, writers and learners. We look forward to continuing to use your website to enrich our exploration and understanding of the fascinating world of science. Sincerely, Gail Gorgol / Librarian / Churchville Elementary School I think that I am the one who should say "thank you" to everyone at Churchville Elementary. You really know how to make an author feel welcome! I loved spending time with you all. Seymour Simon

Animals We Love

I had a great day today at Churchville Elementary School in Pennsylvania. Students there have been VERY engaged with the website and my blog for weeks leading up to this visit, uploading a poll that they conducted about their favorite dog breeds, posting pictures and stories about their favorite animals, doing research and answering questions to enter contests in order to win personally autographed photos and books. So, I was very pleased to arrive today and discover that the students had continued to write about their favorite animals on this wonderful bulletin board display! Nearly 50 kids used pictures, drawings and their own writing to tell the world about animals that they love. It is great to see a school full of active, confident writers. When I got back to my hotel tonight there was yet another lovely posting, from a Churchville student named Megan P. Her note is titled simply, MY DOG. Dear Seymour,This is my neighbor's dog. Her name is Nicci. She is a boxer. I love her, it feels like she is my own dog. I loved the presentation that you did today at Churchville. I was very interested.Your Friend, Megan Thanks, Megan. I loved today, too, and look forward to returning to Churchville Elementary tomorrow!