Rocks! Rocks! Rocks!

Once again Nancy Elizabeth Wallace, the author of Rocks! Rocks! Rocks! has proved my theory. That is, if you really, I mean, really, want to understand something, read a children's book. Nancy who I have never met but whose bio says she is a Connecticut resident in a town next to  me, has taken the wonderful world of rocks we often climb on, dig up, move, and collect in Connecticut and explains to young children, probably about 8 years old, the facts.
However, even younger children can enjoy and grasp some information about rocks.  Focusing on one rock stop at a time or sharing an activity at the end of the book, or looking a the pictures of the rocks with detailed surfaces and searching for them on a rock walk will interest the younger crowd. After all, if you have ever taken a walk with a child, you know  by the time you reach home, YOUR pockets are filled with rocks, because your young friend is carrying the sticks.

  She takes the reader on a rock walk with Buddy and his mother who visit a nature center and follow the Blue Diamond Rock Trail.  Along the way, they meet Roxie, a Rock Ridge Ranger, who shares lots of interesting facts about rocks. He tells Buddy how, "rock, clay, mud and clay...are pressed and hardened" until this sediment becomes, "over time,"  (and Buddy finishes for  Ranger Roxie"s) "rock!" Buddy is also surprised to hear the ranger use words like, "change, melt, and float" to describe some rocks.

After Rock Stop 5, Buddy and MaMa head home. But before Wallace leaves the reader, she shares a simple rock gift children can make, ways to display rocks, and a way to catalogue, or sort, the different and similar rocks.

 To lighten up the facts, (sorry, I could not help myself) Buddy tells some simple jokes. Buddy asks, "What kind of rock did the pebble like to eat for dessert?" Wallace does not shy away from the three or four syllable rock jargon, but Buddy repeats each work as Wallace writes it phonetically. I learned that a person who likes to learn about rocks is a "pet-trol-o-gist."

Taking a phrase from Wallace, you might say, Rocks, Rocks, Rocks, rocks!

Go on a Rock Hunt. Use Rocks! Rocks! Rocks! to help you identify them.

A Wetlands Story

The Shape of Betts Meadow by Meghan Nuttall Sayres with pictures by Joanne Friar is as much a gem as the story it tells. It is a children's picture book, but the story is ageless.  In this true story Dr. Gunnar Holmquist and his mother, Lavinia, buy a  dry, lifeless valley in eastern Washington state. Dr. Gunnar discovers that his land  was once a rich wetland habitat for plants and animals. But through the years the land's purpose changed. Streams and rivers were diverted to create crazing land for livestock.

  The Shape of Betts Meadow shows how one person can make a difference.  Sayres' poem, along  with Friar's beautifully illustrated landscapes-each one with more details as  plants and animals return to the meadow-takes the reader from barren to fruitful, not only in mind and spirit, but in physical changes that we and, especially, children, can understand through concrete examples.

 Since many of her readers might not be familiar with the "sedges, cheat grass, microbes, or kingfishers." the author also provides a mini key with explanations and pictures of these wetland features.

Finally, Sayres answers,"What is a wetland?" and lists places to gather more information, including an internet source, additional reading, and references.
So much from one picture book!

Skunk Cabbage & Wetlands & Global Warming

Just when you think you've exhausted your search of a particular subject, you come across a term like this, "environmental treasure." This is the description a writer from the Kalamazoo Gazzette gave to skunk cabbage. Now, if you have smelled skunk cabbage, you might have trouble agreeing with this description. But think about it. First, it harbors all the uniques characteristics I have talked about in former blogs. But also, it signals a vital part of earth's well-being,the wetland. Any experienced hiker knows that getting you feet wet when you see skunk cabbage can quickly lead to a pant leg covered in mud. That is because the skunk cabbage constantly draws water from its roots to survive. The connection between global warming and healthy skumk cabbage is an obvious one that we might overlook just because it is right "under our noses" so to speak. Possibly it is this relationship to a healthy earth that gives the skunk cabbage the right to accept the honor as  an "environmental treasure."

Dandelion & Global Warming

With this post I would like to add another line of thinking to the curiosities of nature. How does Global Warming affect  a plant or animal or insect species.  Talking about the role global warming with something as ubiquitous as the dandelion underscores  the pervasiveness of this phenomenon  in our lives.

So, how does more CO2 affect the dandelion? For those who classify the dandelion as a weed, I guess this will only increase their efforts to eliminate this flower.  It grows taller. In fact this has been happening since the 1950's.

Dandelion Fritters

Here's what you need to make... Isn't that how most 'how to' articles start? One word of caution. This is a perfectly free project but what you need is invaluable.
Your Task: To make dandelion fritters.
1. A bright sunny day (optional)
1. A friend-hopefully a young one, to help gather the dandelion tops.
2. 4 cups of dandelion flowers plucked from the stems
3. one egg
4. one cup of milk
5. one cup of flour
Stir the egg into the milk, and the combine the milk and flour.
Hold the dandelion top by the base, dip and swirl in the batter.
Carefully drop each dandelion  (flower side down) into some gently warmed oil.
When the first flowers are brown, remove them and let them drain on some paper towels.
Confectionionary sugar, or maple syrup drippings turn these fritter into a sweet treat.

Dandelion Picture Books

When you start to look for books to share with children and, at the same time, discover the magic of dandelions, you will discover that the book-nature-child triangle  for dandelions  is an easy way to bring fun, nature facts, and children together.
On a trip to the library you will find many books. Or if you are building your own library, Amazon offers an array of choices.
Some non-fiction for ages 4 to 8 might include:
From Seed To Dandelion by Ellen Weiss. A 2007 publication by Scholastic.
A Dandelion Seed by Joseph Anthony. The illustrations by Cris Arbo show how sad the dandelion is when autumn arrives. It is easy to talk about the cycle of life with this terrific picture book.
Dandelions Stars In The Grass by Mia Posada. The two Amazon readers who reviewed this book said it well. Seeing the beauty in a cast-away  tells  children- dandelions or rose- each has a place in our world.
And, of course, in addition to this nonfiction reading,  there is Don Freeman's wonderful, vintage picture book Dandelion which may spark a discussion of the flower's name. If you draw around the outline of a leaf you and your friend might see a resemblance to the teeth lining a lion's jaw. Actually, in French dent-de-lion means lion teeth.
Eve Bunting's 2002 picture  book, Dandelions. shows how the beauty of a humble flower can transform the lives of an entire family. With dandelions blooming on their sod roof, their new home in the prairie seems a little easier to get used to.

Dandelion Poetry

There are many simple rhymes about the dandelion for children to enjoy. Eveleen Stein's "Dandelion Curls" reminds us of William Stack's description. However, we must wonder how poets like Walt Whitman and James Russell Lowell were moved to create poetry for the dandelion.  In Leaves of Grass, Whitman talks about the dandelion's... "freshness, innocence, and trusting face." Hardly the words you will find on the back of a 'Weed-Be-Gone-Sprayer.'