Science for Kids

September 3 – International Vulture Awareness Day

Posted by

0

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-vulture-view-cover

About the Holiday

With their bald pink heads and dusty brown feathers vultures and turkey vultures may not be the peacocks of the bird kingdom, but they play a crucial role in the environmental cycle. These scavengers live on carrion, clearing away and “recycling” the carcasses of dead animals. Because of the vulture’s appearance and stereotypical depictions, their plight as an endangered species goes largely unnoticed. Environmental groups in South Africa and England established today’s holiday (also known as International Turkey Vulture Day) to promote awareness f the declining number of vultures, a cause that has been picked up by zoos and other conservation groups around the world.

Vulture View

Written by April Pulley Sayre | Illustrated by Steve Jenkins

 

In the clear blue morning sky the vultures soar. “Wings stretch wide / to catch a ride / on warming air / Going where?” One turkey vulture scans the ground, dipping and tilting as it searches for its breakfast. A snake rattles and hisses in the rocks. The vulture passes it by. A golden fox gazes silently into the distance, but the vulture flies away. A bear half-way up a tree would be easy prey, but the vulture lets him continue his climb.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-vulture-view-fox

Image copyright Steve Jenkins, courtesy of us.macmillan.com

The turkey vultures are searching for a particular meal. They “smell the air. / They sniff, search, seek / for foods that… / REEK! The aromas of the landscape rise to the vultures. Are they attracted by the “fragrant flowers? / No, no.” “That spicy smoke? No, no.” Maybe “that stinky dead deer? Yes, yes!”

The vultures descend to dine on their “rotten” meal. Afterward they clean themselves in the nearby water and preen their feathers. Still hungry, “they hop, flap, soar / to look for more.” As the sun sets the vultures’ “wings glide, wings ride / through cooling air.” They come from all over to vulture trees—beautiful, bare silhouettes on the sky—to “settle and sleep, like families.”

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-vulture-view-vultures-eating

Image copyright Steve Jenkins, courtesy of us.macmillan.com

With the rising sun and the warmer air, the vultures take to the sky again in search of their singular meal.

Intriguing facts about how vultures fly, the seven species of vultures, why and how vultures feed on carrion, nesting behaviors, and vulture festivals around the United States follow the text.

In this Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book, April Pulley Sayre brings a poet’s sensibility to the misunderstood vulture. In her lyrical lines the sights and smells of the vulture’s terrain and the vulture’s flight patterns are elevated to educate young readers of the actual beauty of this distinctive species. The benefits vultures provide to the environment as well as their familial attachments make these birds some of the most fascinating animals in the wild kingdom. Who among us doesn’t look up at the circling majesty of birds of prey? Sayre’s text gives readers the bird’s eye Vulture View.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-vulture-view-soaring-vulture

Image copyright Steve Jenkins, courtesy of us.macmillan.com

With his signature cut-paper collage illustrations, Steve Jenkins gives shape to the vulture’s world. The mottled dark body and the wings and tail fringed with white meet layers of pink that form the vulture’s wrinkled head. The rattlesnake is a smooth combination of greens and browns while the fox is brilliantly orange and soft. Hills and mountains jut from the bottom of pages, and a bony carcass lays amid tall grass, decaying and attracting a vulture. As the birds streak through wispy fiber clouds to descend upon the vulture tree in the shadowy evening, readers will come to appreciate the life and role of the vulture.

Ages 4 – 8

Henry Holt and Company, 2007 | ISBN 978-0805075571

Wow! You will find a wealth of information on April Pulley Sayre‘s website which includes her many books, educators’ resources, and much more information on natural history topics.

Even just hovering over the icon links on Steve Jenkins‘ website is fun—and there’s so much more to discover once you click on them!

International Vulture Awareness Day Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-vultures-coloring-page

Valuable Vultures Coloring Page

 

Vultures are a valuable part of our ecosystem. Here’s a printable Valuable Vultures Coloring Page for you to enjoy. Why not try your hand at using cut or torn paper like Steve Jenkins does in Vulture View to fill in the design?

Picture Book Review

August 22 – National Tooth Fairy Day

Posted by

0

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-tooth-by-tooth-cover

About the Holiday

Today’s holiday celebrates the mythical (shhhh!) fun of the Tooth Fairy. When a child loses a tooth, they put it under their pillow and that night the Tooth Fairy comes, takes the tooth, and leaves money. What the sprite does with the teeth is a mystery and many theories abound. The mystery of how the whole thing got started is explained here! I had never heard this story, so was excited to find it in my research!

In 1927 Esther Watkins Arnold wrote an eight-page play called The Tooth Fairy. In the same year none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle claimed that fairies and gnomes were real and by proof published pictures of two girls surrounded by “verified” fairies. In 1928 schools began performing Esther Arnold’s play, and kids took it to heart, leaving their teeth under their pillows. The rest of the story is, as Sherlock Holmes would say, “Elementary!”

Tooth By Tooth: Comparing Fangs, Tusks, and Chompers

Written by Sara Levine | Illustrated by T. S. Spookytooth

 

“Open wide!” a little girl with a good set of teeth herself encourages on the first page of this fun nonfiction book. “Look at all the chompers in there.” Mirror in hand she proceeds to reveal that human teeth are unusual because we are mammals, and mammal teeth come in different shapes and sizes. In fact there are three distinct types. A little boy takes over to describe them. Incisors are the four flat teeth in a person’s mouth—two on the top and two on the bottom right in front.

The four pointy teeth next to the incisors are canines, and the rest of the teeth are molars. Other mammals also have these teeth, and you can tell what an animal eats by which type is largest. For example, say your incisors were bigger than all your other teeth and they were so big they stuck out of your mouth even when it was closed, then you would be a beaver…or a squirrel…or a rabbit. These animals are herbivores and their oversized incisors help them break into nuts and scrape bark from trees.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-tooth-by-tooth-human-teeth

Image copyright T. S. Spookytooth, courtesy of Lerner Books

From here on Tooth by Tooth offers up amusing illustrations and “what kind of animal would you be if…” questions to spark kids’ powers of recognition. How about if your canines were so long they poked out of your mouth? Well, then you could be a “seal or a cat or a dog or a bear!” All these animals eat meat and need the sharp teeth to do it.

What if you had really tall molars? Then you’d be a “horse or a cow or a giraffe!” These guys use their molars to grind up grass. And if all your teeth were the same height? Come on…you know! You’d be you! Because humans eat plants and meat, we “need teeth that do many different jobs.”

But there are a lot more wacky teeth out there waiting for us to brush up on. So let’s get started. What if “two of your top incisors were so long that they grew out of your mouth and pointed to the sky? What if they were so long you could use them to carry your school bag?” You’ve probably guessed this one—you’d be an elephant. While an elephant’s tusks aren’t used for eating, they are used to procure the bark, roots, and other plant material that make up the elephant’s diet.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-tooth-by-tooth-beaver

Image copyright T. S. Spookytooth, courtesy of Lerner Books

What if you could almost trip over your canine teeth? Yep, you’d be a walrus, and you would use those sharp bad boys to poke holes in the ice to grab your favorite oysters and clams. But after eating they’re not done using their teeth. “After diving down for a meal, walruses can use their tusks to pull themselves back up onto the ice for a nap. Imagine if “your top and bottom canine teeth curled up out of your mouth so you had two pairs of tusks?” Or if your one upper canine grew through your upper lip and kept on growing?  Or if you had no teeth at all? Yikes! The remarkable answers are just a read away!

Fish, amphibians, and reptiles also have teeth of a sort, but because they are all the same shape and size, they don’t get special names—that doesn’t mean you can ignore them, though, because sharks are among this group, and you know what they can do!

More information about mammals, mammal teeth, a glossary, and a list of online and print references follow the text.

There’s nothing like the Wow! factor to capture kids’ attention, and Sara Levine uses it to humorous and fascinating effect in Tooth by Tooth: Comparing Fangs, Tusks, and Chompers. After giving a solid description of each kind of tooth and what it is used for in language that kids use and will relate to, Levine begins her guessing game that leads to even more discovery. We’ve all seen elephants and walruses with their mighty tusks, but how many know what they are really used for? And what about warthogs and narwhals? It’s all here in this creative nonfiction title.

T. S. Spookytooth took a big bite out of the “how to make kids laugh” manual in illustrating each question and type of tooth. Pictures of girls and boys with enormous teeth jutting this way and that will make readers glad to be human. And while the animals that belong to each molar, incisor, or canine sport the scarf, bow, or head band of its human counterpart, they are clearly and scientifically drawn to provide full understanding. Animal skulls also demonstrate the placement of teeth. The cover, with its close enough to eat you view of a very scary mouth is a show stopper and will attract kids as soon as they see it.

Ages 5 – 9

Millbrook Press, Lerner Books, 2016 | ISBN 978-1467752152

Check out Sara Levine’s website for more books, stuff for kids, teachers’ resources, and more!

View a gallery of T. S. Spookytooth’s art and read his biography (?!) on his website!

National Tooth Fairy Day Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-kid-shaped-maze

Smile! Kids are A-maze-ing! Maze

 

Smile with those pearly whites as you find your way through this printable Kids are A-maze-ing maze! Here’s the Solution!

August 20 -World Honey Bee Day

Posted by

0

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-the-honeybee-man-cover

About the Holiday

In 2009 beekeepers in the United States petitioned the United States Department of Agriculture to establish an official day to commemorate honey bees and beekeeping. Since then the holiday has expanded world wide, and the plight of the bee population has become a global concern. Bees are a crucial component in sustainable farming, and even home gardeners know their harvest will be successful when they see bees hovering nearby. Bee enthusiasts commemorate the day by planting flowers that will attract these tiny dynamos, such as lavender, marjoram, and borage. To celebrate, why not try some local honey—you might fall in love with the taste, like Fred in today’s book!

The Honeybee Man

Written by Lela Nargi | Illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker

 

At dawn on a July morning, Fred awakes to begin his day with his “enormous” family. His morning routine consists of a cup of tea and a climb back upstairs and through a hatch in the ceiling that takes him to the roof. “All around is quiet Brooklyn city—brownstones and linden trees, a tall clock tower, and bridges in the distance.” But nearby is another, tiny city. It consists of only three houses, but inside are “thousands of tiny rooms made of wax.”

The summer morning smells of “maple leave and gasoline and the river and dust. He turns to the tiny city and inhales its smaller, sweeter smell—a little like caramel, a little like ripe peaches.” He bends down to the three houses to wake their residents. “‘Good morning, Queen Mab. Good morning, Queen Nefertiti. Good morning, Queen Boadicea,’” he calls before greeting the rest of his family: “‘Good morning, my bees, my darlings!’”

Inside the houses the bees are busy. The queens are laying eggs while the workers build wax rooms, nurse bees feed the babies, and others are getting ready to find fields of flowers for nectar. Fred dreams of the marvelous flowers the bees may find to flavor their honey. He imagines the bees flying low over the flowers moving among them and wishes he could soar with them too.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-the-honeybee-man-on-the-roof

Image copyright Kyrsten Brooker, courtesy of Schwartz & Wade

Fred watches the young bees uncertainly leave the hive and swirl off into the air. The older bees “zip out of the hives and throw themselves at the air, embracing it with their wings.” When a few land on Fred’s arm, he gently flicks them on their way. He spies on them from his rooftop as they disperse into his backyard garden, other neighborhood gardens, and perhaps, if Fred is lucky, to “blueberry bushes somewhere across town.” He sees the bees “dive into sweet pea and squash flowers. If he were closer, he could see them using their tubelike tongues to drink in flower nectar, which they store in honey sacs inside their bellies.”

The bees fly slowly home weighted down with their treasure. Fred knows that inside the hive the bees will go to work, some will do the waggle dance that tells other bees where the flowers are, some will take the nectar and store it in the wax rooms, and others will fan “their wings to evaporate the water from the nectar so it will turn to honey.”

At the end of August Fred knows it’s time to collect the honey. He carefully enters the tiny houses, removing the honeycomb from the top. In his own home he cuts the wax caps of the comb and the honey begins to flow. A special spinning machine squeezes every drop from the honeycomb. He pours the honey into jars and labels them “Fred’s Brooklyn Honey, Made by Tireless Brooklyn Bees.” In the evening Fred sits on his stoop chatting with the neighbors. He gives each a jar of golden honey.

As night falls Fred opens a jar of honey as the bees huddle “back in their own city, waiting for the rays of tomorrow’s sun to call them up and away over Brooklyn.” Fred dips a finger into the honey and tastes. “It is sweet, like linden flowers. It is sharp, like rosemary. It is ever-so-slightly sour. “‘Ah,’ says Fred, absorbing these happy flavors. ‘Blueberries!’”

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-the-honeybee-man-in-the-garden

Image copyright Kyrsten Brooker, courtesy of Schwartz & Wade

Lela Nargi’s lovely city-based nature book brilliantly likens the tightly packed, exhilarating environs of Brooklyn to the stirring realm of the beehive. Through Fred’s love of his bee family, Nargi lyrically and with marvelous metaphors and verbs reveals the fascinating world of bees as well as the rich and satisfying life of one particular beekeeper. Readers organically learn fascinating facts about the ways bees collect nectar and transform it into delicious honey as well as why honey can have so many flavors.

In her gorgeous illustrations, Kyrsten Brooker uses the golden hues of honey to paint not only the beehive but Brooklyn as well, giving the two “cities” a sense of cohesiveness and equality. Fred, older, with his cup of tea and blue slippers is shown gently and lovingly taking care of his bees, even as he still has their spirit of adventure. Brooker’s combination of oils and collage fuse the dreamy quality of the text with the concreteness of its facts to create a unique book that would be perfect for quiet story times, rainy afternoons, or bedtime.

If there is such a thing as a child’s nature cozy, The Honeybee Man is it, and it would make a wonderful gift and a delightful addition to anyone’s library.

The endpapers provide detailed diagrams of the various types of bees, beehives, flowers, the waggle dance, and even a bee’s stinger. Nature lovers will relish the two pages of “amazing facts about honey, honeybees, and beekeepers” that follow the story.

Ages 5 – 10

Schwartz & Wade, Penguin Random House | ISBN 978-0375849800

You can find books for children, articles for adults, and so much more on Lela Nargi’s website!

World Honey Bee Day Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-bees-and-hive-coloring-page

Bees and Hive Coloring Page

 

The world of the honeybee is mysterious and marvelous! Here’s a printable Bees and Hive Coloring Page for you to enjoy!

Picture Book Review

August 15 – National Relaxation Day

Posted by

0

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-whoosh!-lonnie-johnson's-super-soaking-stream-of-inventions-cover

About the Holiday

Relaxation Day was founded in 1985 by then fourth-grader Sean Moeller, who already knew a thing or two about balance in life when he suggested that “cleaning and real work are not part of relaxation.” Today’s holiday gives you permission to kick back and enjoy yourself. The subject of today’s book invented a great way to take advantage of a day off—and also demonstrates that sometimes work and relaxation go hand-in-hand!

WHOOSH! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions

Written by Chris Barton | Illustrated by Don Tate

 

Lonnie Johnson had a way with stuff. In his hands bolts and screws, gears and springs, spools, clothespins, “spare parts his dad let him bring in from the shed, and various other things he’d hauled back from the junkyard” fueled Lonnie’s ideas for inventions and rocket ships. The kids at school loved to watch him launch the rockets he’d devised on the playground. Lonnie wanted to have a career as an engineer. Getting there took a lot of determination and courage. Once, the results of a standardized test said that he would not make a good engineer. Lonnie felt discouraged, but he knew that the person who had graded his test didn’t know him—or Linex.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-whoosh!-lonnie-johnson's-super-soaking-stream-of-inventions-young-lonnie-inventing

Image copyright Don Tate, courtesy of charlesbridge.com

Linex was the robot Lonnie had built from scrap metal. “Compressed –air cylinders and valves allowed Linex’s body to turn and its arms to move. The switches came from an old, broken jukebox. Lonnie used a tape recorder to program Linex, and as a bonus the reels looked like eyes.” Lonnie’s goal was to enter Linex in a science fair, but first he wanted to be able to program it. It took several years before he discovered how. Using his little sister’s walkie-talkie, Lonnie took Linex to the “1968 science fair at the University of Alabama—where only five years earlier, African American students hadn’t even been allowed.” Lonnie’s team won first place.

Lonnie went to college at Tuskegee Institute, where he realized his dream of becoming an engineer. His career “took him beyond Alabama—way beyond.”  He went to work for NASA. Before the orbiter Galileo could be sent to Jupiter, Lonnie developed a system that would ensure the craft would have a constant supply of power for its computer memory in case the main power was lost. Some fellow scientists doubted his idea would work, but it did. “As it photographed Jupiter and its moons, Galileo was supported by the power package that Lonnie designed.”

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-whoosh!-lonnie-johnson's-super-soaking-stream-of-inventions-linex

Image copyright Don Tate, courtesy of charlesbridge.com

Even though Lonnie worked for NASA, he continued tinkering with his own ideas—in his own workshop. One problem he was trying to solve involved the need for the world’s refrigerators and air conditioners to have a cooling system that didn’t use the damaging chemical R-12. “He had an idea for using water and air pressure instead.” He built a prototype and experimented with it in his bathroom sink. When he turned his pump and nozzle on, a stream of water blasted across the room.

Suddenly, Lonnie saw another use for his invention—as a water gun. He created a design small enough for children’s hands, and tested it at a picnic, where it was a hit. Lonnie took his idea to a toy company…and another…and another. Finally one company agreed to make his water gun. Spurred on by this success, Lonnie found investors to help him build other original inventions: “a water-propelled toy airplane, two kinds of engines, and his cooling system” that had led to the water gun. He even quit his day job to devote his time to inventing.

But things don’t always work out. Each project fell through—even the water gun. It was a scary time as he and his family had to move out of their house and into an apartment. But Lonnie believed in himself. He took his water gun to another toy company. In 1989 he found a toy company willing to take a look. Lonnie made the trip to Philadelphia and wowed the executives with his invention.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-whoosh!-lonnie-johnson's-super-soaking-stream-of-inventions-water-powered-nozzle

Image copyright Don Tate, courtesy of charlesbridge.com

Now kids everywhere enjoy the fun of the Super Soaker. Today, Lonnie can be found in his workshop doing what he loves: “facing challenges, solving problems and building things” because “his ideas just keep on flowing.”

Chris Barton’s biography of Lonnie Johnson is a fascinating look at a man who succeeds in turning “No” into “Yes” by the power of his intelligence, ideas, and determination. Kids will love hearing about how one of their favorite toys came to be and will be inspired to chase their own dreams despite challenges and setbacks. Barton’s detailed narration provides a full picture of Lonnie Johnson and his times, specifics that attract and inform like-minded kids. Including the results of Lonnie’s exam should encourage kids who think differently. The story is enhanced by the conversational tone that makes it accessible to kids of all ages.

Don Tate illuminates Lonnie Johnson’s life story with his bold, full-bleed paintings that follow Lonnie from his being a child with big ideas to becoming a man who has seen these ideas through to success. With an eyebrow raised in concentration, young Lonnie demonstrates confidence and skill as he works on an invention, and kids will love seeing the tools of his trade laid out on the kitchen table. With his eyes narrowed in frustration and disappointment, Lonnie reads the results of his childhood exam. As Lonnie grows older and designs systems for NASA, the illustrations depict the schematics of the Galileo power package and Lonnie’s surprise at the strength of the water stream in his prototype cooling design. As all kids know, the spurt of a Super Soaker is awesome, and this fact is demonstrated in a “Wowing” fold-out page.

WHOOSH! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions is a welcome biography of the man who designs systems for the greater world but has never lost his youthful enthusiasm to invent.

Ages 5 – 10

Charlesbridge, 2016 | ISBN 978-1580892971

Check out more fiction and nonfiction books by Chris Barton on his website!

Discover more books written and illustrated by Don Tate as well as a portfolio of his work and book-related activity guides on his website!

National Relaxation Day Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-kids-in-pool-coloring-page

Dive In! Coloring Page

 

The Super Soaker is a great way to cool off! Another relaxing water activity is swimming in a pool! So dive in to this printable cool pool Dive In! Coloring Page!

August 2 – It’s Water Quality Month

Posted by

2

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-water-can-be-cover

About the Holiday

Water Quality is a crucial world-wide issue. In fact, 2015 closed out a decade-long United Nations initiative “Water for Life” to promote awareness of the importance of water quality as it relates to sanitation, geography, human rights, urbanization, and sustainability. The Audobon Society emphasizes the interconnectedness of all water systems and urges people to be mindful of the dangers that can lurk in runoff from construction, forestry, factories, agriculture, and personal yards as it combines in rivers, lakes, or the ocean. To observe this month be conscious of what is in your water. Limit the use of anti-bacterial soaps that contain a certain pesticide harmful to marine life, don’t flush unused medications, choose nontoxic household cleaners, avoid using fertilizers and pesticides, and clean up leaks from cars and other machinery. Protecting our water sources protects us.

Water Can Be…

Written by Laura Purdie Salas | Illustrated by Violeta Dabija

 

“Water is water— / it’s puddle, pond, sea. / When springtime comes splashing, / the water flows free.” So begins an inventive journey through the ways that water enriches our lives. With four-word rhyming couplets Laura Purdie Salas illuminates specific moments or circumstances to reveal water’s important role from season to season. From filling ponds, lakes, oceans, and even puddles to roaring down hillsides to floating in misty fogs and forming snowflakes, water sustains us and makes the world a more beautiful place.

During spring and summer when ponds nurture new life and rain puddles reflect, “Water can be…a tadpole hatcher / Picture catcher.” In hot weather water refreshes as a “Thirst quencher / Kid drencher.” And the seas, at times calm and at others roiling, can be both “Home maker / Ship breaker.”

As the air cools in autumn, water can be found in alternate forms. It squirts from fountains for the “school drink-er” and hardens to ice for a “Bruise shrinker.” A river’s winding trail becomes a “Salmon highway / Eagle flyway.” Winter brings water in a more solid form. Whipped by wind snow swirls as a “Storm creator” or gently sticks to surfaces as a “Decorator.” Outside, both animals and people enjoy the frozen precipitation. Snow serves as a “Woodchuck warmer / Snowman former.”

On the final pages as ice sculptors carve castles and dragons, moon beams and rabbits, Laura Purdie Salas encourages readers: “Water is water— / it’s ice, snow, and sea. / Now go and discover / what else it can be.”

Fascinating facts concerning the subject of each rhyme, a glossary, and a bibliography for further reading follow the text. Laura Purdie Salas donates a portion of the royalties from Water Can Be… to WaterAid, an international non-profit organization that transforms lives by improving and providing access to safe water, hygiene, and sanitation.

Laura Purdie Salas always surprises with her selection of examples and clever rhymes leading readers to more fully appreciate the world around them. Water doesn’t just flow, it feeds, speeds, cloaks and soaks, it decorates and bejewels, fluffs and snuffs. After reading Sala’s poetic tribute, readers will never experience water the same way and will be on the lookout for how they can interpret water’s gifts.

Violeta Dabija has created gorgeous, ethereal interpretations of each two-word rhyme. The nourishing blues and aquas of the sea, gauzy whites of fog and clouds, and brilliant whites of snow and ice are subtly crosshatched giving each illustration depth and movement. While the words on each page are short, kids will want to spend a long time taking in the beauty of Dabija’s paintings.

Ages 3 – 8

Millbrook Press, Lerner Books, 2014 | ISBN 978-1467705912

Check out the book trailer for Water Can Be…. It really makes a splash!

There’s so much to see and do on Laura Purdie Salas’s website!

View more beautiful art by Violeta Dabija on her website!

Water Quality Month Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-angel-fish-coloring-page

Angel Fish Coloring Page

 

Clean water is important for all fish to survive! You can make the ocean sparkling clear by adding a bit of glitter to your printable Angel Fish Coloring Page!

July 10 – Don’t Step on a Bee Day

Posted by

0

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-bee-dance-cover

About the Holiday

With the bee population declining, today is a reminder to protect bees and preserve their habitats. Without bees and the pollination they provide, the world’s food supply is threatened. Pollution, pesticides, and colony collapse all endanger the health of bee colonies around the globe.

Bee Dance

By Rick Chrustowski

 

In the warm sunlight a honey bee leaves the hive in search of nectar. A sweet scent in the pleasant air entices the bee toward a prairie in bloom, where tasty wildflowers await. With its “bendy-straw tongue” the bee sips the delicious food. The bee races back to the hive and as the other bees welcome it home with a buzz of excitement, the Scout climbs the honey comb to deliver its news.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-bee-dance-interior-art-wildflowers

Image copyright Rick Chrustowski, courtesy of us.macmillian.com

The bee communicates its story through a “waggle dance.” It forms a figure 8, twirling one way, running up the middle, and then twirling around the other side. To indicate direction and distance, the Scout bee waggles faster and for a longer period of time. When the dance is completed, the other bees know exactly where to go. They swarm out of the hive and easily find the wildflower prairie.

Forager bees collect nectar from the tall flowers and fill pouches on their legs with pollen. They zip from flower to flower until daylight fades. In the growing twilight the bees head for  home once more. Back in the hive they unload their cargo in the combs and rest for the night. With dawn the cycle and the dance will begin again.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-bee-dance-interior-art-coming home

Image copyright Rick Chrustowski, courtesy of us.macmillian.com

Rick Chrustowski’s Bee Dance is a lyrical introduction to the fascinating and mysterious world of bees. Focusing on the communicating dance Scout bees perform to relay information is a familiar and excellent choice for young children used to following and inventing meaningful motions. The boldly colored illustrations give children an up-close view of the flying, sipping, and pollen gathering behavior of bees. The Scout bee’s dance is depicted clearly, and kids may love to replicate it. Further details of the life and work of honeybees at the end of the book add compelling information that kids will want to explore further.

Ages 4 – 8

Henry Holt and Co., 2015 | ISBN 978-0805099195

Visit Rick Crustowski’s webste to discover more about his books and how to make a Bee Kite!

Don’t Step on a Bee Day Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-bee-coloring-page

Honeybee Coloring Page

 

Honeybees and wildflowers go hand-in-hand or is it wing-in-petal? Either way they go together and make a beautiful, natural sight! Decorate this printable Honeybee Coloring Page with pencils, crayons, or markers—or make a collage using cut or torn tissue or craft paper!

May 31 – Web Designer Day

Posted by

0

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-coding-games-in-scratch

About the Holiday

Today we laud all the brilliant web designers who bring us our favorite sites and make it so easy for us to shop, do business, watch videos, and play games. We can’t even imagine life without them anymore. If you know a web designer, thank them for their hard work!

Coding Games in Scratch: A Step-by-Step Visual Guide to Building Your Own Computer Games

By Jon Woodcock

 

Video games are so fun to play! You know you’re good at them; don’t you sometimes wish you could make one of your own? With Coding Games in Scratch, you can! In just 11 chapters you’ll discover all the basics of creating different kinds of games plus how to add special effects, cool characters, exciting backgrounds, music and sounds, and more.

Chapter 1 reveals what makes a game fun to play. Things like characters, objects, obstacles, the mechanics of the game, story, sound, speed, atmosphere, rules, goals, and difficulty levels all contribute to the playability and enjoyment of the games you create. Discussions of the various types of games and a bit about coding round out Chapter 1.

Chapter 2 introduces the programming language Scratch developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT. Here you’ll learn about objects, scripts, and running a program. It shows you where to get Scratch and provides a tour.

Chapter 3 welcomes you to building your first game—Star Hunter, which is a fast-paced underwater treasure hunt. Some of the things you’ll learn include setting the scene, building the script, adding sound, how to introduce an enemy, collisions, and collecting stars. Plus you’ll learn some hacks and tweaks for making your game the best it can be.

Love maze games? Chapter 4 shows you how to build Cheese Chase and help Mimi the mouse find her cheese while avoiding beetles and ghosts. Here you also learn about keyboard control, using the paint editor, making things spooky, creating intricate mazes, and how to move characters along the passages.

Chapter 5 covers Circle Wars—a quick-paced search and chase game full of clones and bouncing friendly and unfriendly circles. In Chapter 6 you’ll discover the gravity of the situation. Literally. Jumpy Monkey may love to leap, but he has to come to earth sometime!

Building Doom on the Broom from Chapter 7 introduces scene, casting spells, enemy attacks, explosions, adding harder enemies, and how to give players extra lives. Phew! Platform games are the subject of Chapter 8. You’ll find the ins, outs, ups, and downs, of jumping from platform to platform, falling, portals, progressing through levels, and more.

Racing games are covered in Chapter 9 with Glacier Race, where cars compete with the clock to avoid obstacles and gather the most gems. You’ll discover how to use game loops to keep the action happening just right, how to make a scrolling road, all about collisions and spins, and adding a penguin race official to start things off and end the race.

Music more your thing? Enjoy a brain teaser? Welcome to Chapter 10 and Tropical Tunes where you listen to drums play and then repeat the sounds you hear in an ever-growing song.

Now that you’ve learned to create video games, what’s next? Chapter 11 tells you about remixing and how to create your very own games. If you really love making games, there’s a section on the kinds of jobs there are in video gaming.

In Coding in Scratch Jon Woodcock clearly explains with text and illustrations how kids can create fun games with a good bit of complexity. Screen shots and digital imagery show kids exactly what they will encounter as they progress through the different kinds of games. Colorful pages and Woodcock’s easy-to-understand directions makes this a go-to guide for budding programmers.

So grab the book, your computer, and your creativity and start Coding Games in Scratch!

Ages 8 – 13

DK, Penguin Random House, 2015 | ISBN 978-1465439352

Web Designer Day Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-computer-kids-puzzle

Computer Kids Find the Differences Puzzle

 

Whenever a designer builds a website there are bugs to work out. Can you discover the “bugs” in these pictures? Take a close look at this printable Computer Kids Puzzle and find the differences!