Topiary is the art of sculpting greenery into fun and creative shapes. Evergreens, such as boxwood, ivy, or privet, are popular shrubs for topiary because they have small leaves and grow compactly. On my trip to Europe, I saw topiaries in some of the chateau’s formal gardens.
Both The Curious Garden and The Garden of Abdul Gasazi include topiary illustrations, but they are not the focus of the story.
Teach your child how to create a topiary. Go here to view full screen,
When I was in the classroom, I intentionally shared unique careers with my students, Caring for topiaries, a topiarist or topiary engineer, is a career in ornamental horticulture, and certainly an ideal career for those who want to combine science with art! Go here to view full screen.
Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmouth, Rhode Island has over 80 sculpted trees. For full-screen viewing, go here.
After breakfast one morning in Amboise, France, we heard the balloons before they came into view. We were excited to watch them because we had plans for a hot air balloon ride the following day.
Eight of us met our pilot and his assistant while it was still dark and boarded the van to drive 30 minutes to an open field in the Loire Valley. Their experience was evident as they skillfully pulled the basket off the trailer, unrolled the balloon, and inflated it with air using a large fan. Then they turned on the burners to heat the air because hot air rises. They prompted us for assistance as needed. So peaceful and no better way to watch the sunrise over the French countryside.
No photos of us in the balloon because as soon as the eight of us crawled inside, we lifted off and after we landed, we were asked to immediately disembark.
We helped pack it all back onto the trailer.
This is an elementary video, but it accurately depicts our experience. Go here to view full screen.
A hot air balloon pilot is also called an aeronaut. Go here to view full screen.
For older students: “This is the true story of one child, Peter Wetzel, and his family, as they risk their lives for the hope of freedom in a daring escape from East Germany via a handmade hot air balloon in 1979.” (Amazon)
Thanks to Starrmatica for the following two book suggestions:
“John Jeffries, an Englishman, and his pilot, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, a Frenchman, want to be the first. On January 7, 1785, they set out to cross the English Channel to France in a balloon.” (Amazon)
“More than a century before the Wright Brothers invented their plane, Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier sent a flying machine into the skies—a hot-air balloon with three animals in the basket.” (Amazon)
It is on my bucket list to visit the Alburquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Go here to view full screen.
Joro spiders, an invasive species from Eastern Asia, made their appearance in Georgia in 2014. Adult females lay egg sacs containing hundreds of eggs between September and November and then die with the onset of freezing temperatures. Although the spiderlings hatch in the spring, they reach their mature size (three to four inches) by fall.
Their multi-dimensional webs weave the branches of the woodlands together.
One or more male Joro spiders may join the larger, more colorful female in her web.
Watch this humorous book full screen here. It’s a great mentor text to introduce journal writing.
I made these cards for my K and PreK scientists to sequence the Itsy-Bitsy Spider song. Such a soft introduction to the water cycle.
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain,
And the the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again
Cattails bring forth childhood memories from my time in New York. I remember this perennial grass growing around ponds with red winged blackbirds perched upon them. When they went to seed, my friends and I would pull off the tuft and raise our arms in joy as it enveloped us and floated away. Magical.
Cattails grow up to ten feet tall in wetlands and reproduce rapidly. They are used in flower arrangements and the long flat leaves are woven into mats and baskets. Parts of cattails are edible. Watch the video below for more information.
Simple to draw, encourage your young artists, to include cattails in a piece of artwork.
Play the game, I Spy. Read a children’s picture book about pond animals (ducks, turtles, or frogs) and check to see if the illustrator incorporated cattails in the story.
Feathers are science treasures that catch my eye as I hike near the woodlands or stroll through my backyard. However, did you know that it is illegal (with a few exceptions) to collect feathers? Therefore, I capture their beauty in photos and leave them where I find them. Go here to read the law.
We think and communicate in words, so learning vocabulary is a critical component of any lesson when you teach young scientists. Use this opportunity to call attention to labels on a diagram. Note the downy feathers which keep the bird warm near the bottom of this contour feather. I purchased feathers for classroom use from Nasco.
For a previous post about how ducks waterproof their feathers, go here.
For a simple cutting activity that introduces symmetry, ask children to fold a piece of paper and draw half a feather from the top of the crease to the bottom. For my youngest scientists, I placed dots to indicate where to start and stop on the fold. After opening their feathers, students cut snips (barbs) along the feather edges.
Hot temperatures and afternoon storms have brought amazing sunsets and watercolor skies. The colors and patterns change so quickly. No filters were necessary to enjoy God’s masterpiece!
Do you know why the colors appear in a sunrise and sunset? Go here for a previous post with the answer, videos, and a science experiment.
Is the deer crossing the path or is the path crossing the forest?
Roadways fragment or isolate animal populations. They create barriers for animals to access food or mates, migrate, or reach nesting areas. The flow of energy through the ecosystem is altered. Many animals are also killed crossing roads every year. “Surveys conducted by the Humane Society and the Animal Protection Institute estimate that one million animals per day die on the road in the United States.” Read more here.
As a result of these concerns, engineers and scientists have collaborated to design and build innovative bridges and underpasses to help wildlife move safely across highways. Scientists ask questions and construct explanations based on evidence, while engineers define problems and design solutions.
Add these informative books to your study of animal bridges.
Designing and building bridges is a common classroom STEM activity. The most meaningful engineering challenges are those that solve a real-world problem. Ask your students to research the wildlife that are threatened by crossing roads in the area in which you live, and then challenge them to design a bridge that would help that specific animal cross the highway safely.
Add these books to your library to extend your children’s knowledge about the history of bridges and various bridge designs. Here to There and Me to You is an engaging book for you to introduce bridges to your students or children. Examples of architectural designs and real-life bridges are included. Use Google maps to locate these bridges. The overarching message is that bridges bring people together. Discuss real problems that the construction of a bridge has resolved.
Would the Brooklyn Bridge be completed when the chief engineer was bedridden? His wife, Emily Roebling, supervised the completion of the bridge during a time in history when women were not engineers.
In 1883, people wondered just how much weight the new mile-long Brooklyn Bridge could hold. Would the elephants in the P. T. Barnum Circus cross the bridge safely? Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing is another beautifully illustrated book that integrates social studies concepts (history and geography) with engineering, science, and math concepts.
Building the Golden Gate Bridge, “the impossible bridge”, was a dangerous undertaking and at its completion was considered an architectural wonder. Pop’s Bridge is told from the point of view of one of the high climbing ironworker’s sons and his friend.
Use this informational book to introduce the variety of bridge designs. Which types of bridges are in your city or community?
Go here for an impressive activity that tests the strength of solid shapes.
When I was in the classroom, I created units that were cross-curricular or multi-disciplinary, so that learning was connected and had greater meaning. The study of bridges is an ideal topic to incorporate multiple subject areas.
Brown is a common color found in nature. Brainstorm a list of all the natural items that are brown with your children or students. Why do you think so many animals are brown?
Butterflies are often thought to be colorful, but recently I’ve come across some brown butterflies. What clues let me know that it’s not a moth?
During my watercolor lessons, I learned how to mix brown using complementary colors, colors that are across from each other on the color wheel. Examples are purple and yellow, orange and blue, as well as red and green. Your browns will vary depending upon whether you are using warm or cool varieties of the complementary colors. What a fun color mixing activity that may be a new challenge for your children or students.
We can’t discuss the color brown without including chocolate! What do you know about chocolate? Go here to view full screen.
I’ve written other posts about patterns in nature, such as concentric circles, spirals and hearts. In this post, let’s focus on stripes. I’ve previously shared that I enjoy setting an intention for my walks, and finding stripes was an especially challenging task that has taken time. Both prey and predators use stripes for camouflage. Some of the stripes on shells and plants are growth rings or body segments while the stripes or layers on rocks result from heat and pressure.
Zebras, skunks, tigers, and raccoons are known for their stripes, but there are many other animals that have stripes too.
A Bad Case of Stripes is a fun fiction story to include in your study of stripes. Go here to view full screen. The setting is the beginning of a new school year.
There are numerous simple paper or yarn weaving activities that will reinforce your study of stripes. Integrate measurement skills.