Steven Schnur has a series of acrostic poems for each of the seasons. I use a couple of poems from Winter: An Alphabet Acrostic
Flakes
Light they drift
Upward
Rise like smoke before coming to
Rest in the
Yard.
Just as the
Evening lights come on,
White flakes begin falling
Earthward, glittering
Like diamonds.
© 2002 Steven Schnur
photo credit: It's Snowtime! by flickr member Iguana Jo
What a surprise and treat it was to receive an original poem from J. Patrick Lewis today! His book, Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape
Road Block
I saw a bookworm in a book.
The bookworm said to me,
“Long have I lived these many years
On page 6, paragraph 3.”
I said, “Why don't you move along?
There’s so much more ahead.”
“The author mistook it's for its—
That’s where I stopped,” she said.
photo credit: Book worm scrolling to the next page
by flickr member nobofoto
Last month,I traveled more than 3 hours from Chicago to attend the Necedah Whooping Crane and Wildlife Fest. For the last few years, my class has been tracking the migration of whooping crane chicks following ultralight airplanes. It's an amazing project and as the children became hooked on whoopers, so did I. In Necedah, I met members of the Operation Migration Team, tried "Whooper Brew" (a yummy beer made by local brewery), toured the refuge where the chicks are trained, sat in an ultralight, and saw an adult whooping crane in the wild. It was such a wonderful experience and it made me even more excited about teaching my new class about whooping cranes.
On Wednesday, I received an email from Operation Migration telling me that my name was chosen in the Change4Cranes drawing and that I would receive a classroom visit from the O.M. team. So incredible! Now, my students will be able to experience the same excitement that I did in Necedah. They'll be able to ask questions and learn first hand about the whooping cranes from the people so integrally involved in their conservation. Here's the announcement from Journey North.
During our annual fieldtrip to the Radke Apple Orchard, a few kids found woolly bear caterpillars. This fuzzy larva turns into the Isabella tiger moth, but only after spinning a cocoon in the spring. As its name indicates, it hibernates all winter like a bear.
Woolly bears are famous meteorologists! Folklore says that their colored bands can predict upcoming winter weather. A wider black band means a severe winter, while more of the cinnamon-brown band means a mild winter. Looks like a severe Chicago winter may be on the way - just great.
Here's a picture of an Isabella tiger moth:
This is a mock registration for parents by Bruce Handy from the New York Times. Some of it sounds quite familiar.
