Seasons South and North

What to Look for in January in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres

 Whether in the city or the country, in the northern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere, there is always something to see in nature. Teaching children what to look for helps them to learn to observe. To give an example, here are some of the changes and activities in nature to look for in a place in each hemisphere: southern England in the north and southern Brazil in the south.

In the south of England, in the northern hemisphere, it is deepest winter just now. This year has an unusual amount of snow and cold there, as all across Europe. In spite of the cold, here is what could be seen and heard outdoors:

• The White Wagtail should appear
• The Green Woodpecker will "laugh"
• Robins and Wrens are more easily seen
• The Winter Moth might still be seen in the evening
• The Dung Beetle appears
• Honeysuckle begins to leaf
• Butcher's Broom may flower
• Slugs appear

In the south of Brazil, in the southern hemisphere, it is summer, hot and humid, especially in the Atlantic Rainforest. Plants are in flowers, birds and insects are everywhere. Here are just a few of what to look for:

• The Blue Dacnis (above) can be seen, especially at feeders
• The Mourning Rose butterfly (top) appears
• The Orange-barred Sulphur butterfly is still about
• The Mandana Metalmark butterfly appears
• Yellow Cestrum (below) is in flower
• Fuchsias are blooming
• Toucans can still be heard at dusk

 

 The South-North Seasons Table

On the two sides of the seasons table, try to put drawings and/or examples of the above on either side.

Compare not only the seasons but the similarities and differences between what happens in each season in the two hemispheres. For example, summer in both places is a time of great flowering, but there are not as many different kinds of flowers in England as there are in Brazil. Winter is cold in both places but not as cold in southern Brazil as it is in England. There are birds in both places, but their colours are different. 

Let loose and have a session of everyone "laughing" like a Green Woodpecker. You can hear his crazed laughter on the RSPB site here

(The drawings above come from the January page of The Big Field : a Child's Year Under the Southern Cross)

©2010 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

 

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Competition Winners

The Prince's Rainforests Project for Schools has completed its Teacher Survey Competition. It won an overwhelming approval with 99% of the respondents saying they found the resources that are offered free on the site to be not only useful but inspirational. If you have not looked at the resources pages, be sure to do so, for more is being added every day.

I am very proud that my book was considered the appropriate prize to offer and  to be a "great complement" to the rainforests teaching resources.  Twenty-five of the teachers who responded to the survey will soon receive their prize copy of The Big Field : a Child's Year Under the Southern Cross and be able to start using it in the classroom to teach children about nature and the seasons as they occur in the Atlantic Rainforest.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

The drawing to the left is from the month of February in "The Big Field".

Scissor Birds

The picture above is from the September page of my book, The Big Field : a Child's Year Under the Southern Cross and shows a Fork-tailed flycatcher (tyrannus savanna). It is also called the scissor-tailed flycatcher and in Portuguese, its name translates as the "scissor bird". It spends the months of the South American winter (June-August) in the Amazon region, then flies south in September for the summer months. (As indicated by the green arrow in the small map of Brazil.) 

All summer long, in the early evening, scissor birds can be seen swooping and diving  - their tails like kite streamers -- over puddles or lakes or swimming pools, catching mosquitos, gnats, and small flies.  It is a delightful creature to use in studies of seasonal migrations, while also learning about the rainforest regions.

To hear the call of the bird and know more about it, go to Whatbird.com and type the English name in the search box.

Migrating Scissor Birds Dance

You will need only black or grey ribbon or streamers.

• Tie a long band around each child's waist, leaving two long streamers. 
• Designate one part of the classroom or playground as the Amazon rainforest and the opposite part as the southern Atlantic rainforest 
• Lead the children in a "flight" from one to the other, describing the change from jungle, across lakes, rivers, and cities, to another rainforest, further south, where the insects are suddenly plentiful. Stay all summer and, as the weather cools, fly back north to the hot Amazon region again. 

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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The Prince's Rainforests Project for Schools

                                        

We are very, very pleased and honoured to be working with The Prince's Rainforests Project for Schools in educating children about rainforests and how to preserve and restore them. The PRP has a wonderful site, full of ideas for activities and lessons, as well as, of course, competitions. There are excellent images of rainforest animals and audio clips of the sounds that they make. In a very positive way, every aspect of the site encourages conservation ideals. The PRP has also linked with eco-schools, an internationally admired programme to encourage green goals in schools. 

"The Big Field : a Child's Year Under the Southern Cross"

takes place in the Atlantic Rainforest, where August is cold and grey, and where January is hot, where spring comes in September and autumn in April. It is a charming story that, month by month, shows the native trees, flowers, birds, butterflies and insects as a child discovers them. The grandmother of the story -- with delicacy and understanding and through simple play and activities -- teaches a love of nature and a way to preserve it.

The book can serve "as a supporting resource for any of The Prince's Rainforests Project lesson ideas". 

Please do visit the The Prince's Rainforests Project for Schools  and sign up your school. Also, you may wish to visit the main site of the project and sign up as an individual. 

To purchase a copy of "The Big Field", please read the various options on the panel on the left of this page. Thank you.

What Teachers and Librarians Say about "The Big Field"

"The artwork looks fantastic...It's a lovely book."

                      A.W., school librarian, Yorkshire

"A wonderful resource."

    www.parentsintouch.co.uk.

"...charming. I can see it will work really well in my library classes with the Prep School children as they can enjoy the story and do research projects on all the interesting things in the book!"

    L.M., school librarian, Suffolk

"Great concept for a book...many useful applications for the classroom."

    Deb Troehler, special education teacher

"beautifully illustrated...a wonderful way of introducing....geography, multicultural studies, science and nature."  

                    www.homeschooling-ideas.com

"...our reception teachers...were really keen on your book and plan to use it in a variety of ways."   

                    M.P.,   school librarian, Taunton

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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The Kuryt in Wintertime

In June, in the southern states of Brazil - Paraná, Santa Caterina, Rio Grande do Sul - it is the beginning of winter. The coastal Atlantic Rainforest is beginning to be foggy almost every day, and temperatures can drop to freezing at night. One of the most common signs of winter's advance is the arrival in markets of seeds of the Paraná pine.

This beautiful, tall, straight tree towers high in the Atlantic Rainforest. As it grows toward the upper canopy, the lower branches drop off until the adult tree ends with an umbrella shape. The Paraná pine (Araucaria angustifolia)  is not a pine at all but a much more delicate  relative of the monkey puzzle tree.  The monkey puzzle tree, a native of Chile, can survive in Europe, but not the Paraná pine. It cannot cope with the dry summers, nor with the below freezing temperatures of winters.

The Tupi-Guarani name for the tree is Kuryt, the "nut tree". The species has been around for 250 million years, but may not last much longer, for two reasons. It has been logged mercilessly for its wood.  It was once so plentiful that it was identified with the region and the Paraná pine is the symbol of the state of Paraná. It is having trouble regenerating because people, monkeys, and birds love its seeds. It is life threatening to be directly under one of these trees when the seed balls drop. Each ball can weigh up to ten kilos and hold as many as 150 seeds.

Have a Paraná Pine Party

If you are living in southern South America, then normally, it is a great pleasure to boil the seeds with salt and eat them. Why not change this annual event into something that will help the tree survive? Why not plant the seeds instead of eating them this year? Select a good place where some tall trees can grow. At the market, but the greenest ball of seeds you can find, and plant them.  It is also possible to obtain small trees of Paraná Pines from city and state nurseries to plant. 

What Are Your State or County Trees?

This activity can be done anywhere in the world. Most counties and states around the world have a tree a one of their symbols. Work with the children to find out what yours is. Explore to learn more about it. Find where you can take the children to see one. Make a scrap book of drawings and information about your tree symbol.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Frogs!

Frogs are on most continents of the world. They are important, they are endangered, and with the release of the Prince of Wales's new film about saving the rainforests -- with a frog as a mascot -- they are topical. 

By now, all over the northern hemisphere, where it is late spring, newly adult frogs are croaking the nights away. In the southern hemisphere, where it is autumn,  frogs are breeding, anticipating the rains which will provide swamps and puddles in which the emerging tadpoles will thrive. Next month, the amazing Purple Frog of India (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) which spends almost all year underground, will come out to mate during the monsoons.

Surely, one of the most fascinating metamorphoses in nature is that of the development of tadpoles into frogs. It is like watching the evolution of the species played out with each individual. Teaching it to children is much more fun than many other subjects, because it is so amazing, like science fiction, and because frogs can be so funny. They look like certain people. (Think of Toad in   The Wind In The Willows ! )

The three stages of the frog's development are: tadpole, (when they are vegetarians) froglet, adult frog (when they are carnivores).  Below are just a few of the many sites explaining the lives of frogs, with many pictures.

Frog Metamorphosis Dance

Combining the need for play with learning about frogs, we include here the age-old game of leap-frog. Astoundingly, many children today do not know how to play this game. Please read here if you need instructions:  How To Play Leap-frog .

This dance needs to be done outdoors. 

1) Ask the children to stand in lines at arms' distance. 

2) The tadpole stage - with arms held tightly against the sides, weave the upper body, making sucking noises (tadpoles at first hold on to something by sucking. Then, they eat algae.

3) The froglet stage - begin to move the arms, stop sucking, crouch down.

4) The adult frog stage - still crouched, line up, with a good distance between each child.

5) Play leap-frog!

Develop Imaginative Writing Skills

Without question, one of the greatest of all imaginative picture books is David Wiesner's  Tuesday   .

It is a wordless book. As a story writing lesson, ask the children to write their interpretation of  the pictures.

Frog-related websites:

The Prince's Rainforests Project

American Museum of Natural History on Frogs

Frogmatters - about the threatened extinction of all frogs

Australian Frogs

Save the Frogs, which also has a very good educational poster about frogs.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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A Tale of a Prince and a Rainforest

Once upon a time there was an Emperor who lived in a beautiful city by the sea. On the hills behind the city was a great forest full of monkeys and butterflies and birds. Through the forest passed rivers of clean water for the people in the city to drink. The air of the city was clean and cool; the summers were warm and pleasant.

When people needed wood for their houses and furniture or to pulp for their books and papers, they cut a few trees from the forest. When they wanted land for the farmers to grow coffee, they cut away some more trees of the forest. As the city grew bigger, the forest grew smaller.

Time went on and life changed. It rained more often and longer. The rainwater flooded down the hills where the forest used to be, washing mud into the river. The summers were hotter and hotter and lasted longer. The Emperor in his palace felt that his city was not so comfortable anymore.

The Emperor called together all of the wisest people from all across his vast realm. He gathered them in one room of the palace and ordered them to tell him why it rained so much more, why it was so much hotter, why the water was too muddy to drink, why his beautiful city was no longer a very pleasant place to be.

"I give you one day to study and discuss and find the answer," the Emperor told them.  He left the room and walked down the corridor. He was surprised to see their messenger coming after him. "What is this?" asked the Emperor, scowling a little.  "Do you think you will need more time to solve this difficult problem?"

"No, Your Highness. We have the solution and beg you please to return." The Emperor did so and stood before the wise people.

"Well? "

"You have cut down all of the forest," they said.

"So what?" said the Emperor. "My people needed wood for their many things, and land for coffee. That is not what made the clouds rain more and the sun shine hotter and the river muddy."

"We will explain," said the wise people. "Where there is a forest, the trees and plants take up the rain water and hold it in their roots and leaves, so the evaporation is slower and rain clouds are formed more slowly. This makes the rain come less often. Where there is a forest, the roots of all the trees hold the earth in place so it does not wash into the river to make it muddy. Where there is a forest, the trees give shade and filter the air, and that makes a cooler and cleaner air for the wind to blow over the city. Now that the forest is gone, there is nothing to hold the water and the earth and nothing to clean the air."

The Emperor sat down on his throne with a thump.

"Build things!" shouted his advisor, who was not a wise person. "Build big nets to filter the air! Build giant fans to cool the air! Build walls along the river to keep the mud out! Build giant umbrellas all over the city to keep the rain and sun off!"

Fortunately, the Emperor was wiser than that.

"No, I will bring back the forest." He gave orders for the coffee plants to be pulled up and all the hills around the city to be replanted with trees. Thousand and thousands of trees, the same kind as were there before, were planted.  It took some time, but the forest came back, and so did the monkeys and the birds and the butterflies. The city breathed better, the rains came less, the air was cooler, the river water was no longer muddy.

The Emperor wanted the forest protected and made it a park where people could stroll, but no plant or animal could be killed. That was a long time ago; the forest is still there and the people of the city are still grateful to the Emperor.

                 

The forest is called Tijuca Forest. It is the largest urban forest in the world. The Emperor's name was Dom Pedro II. The city is Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

If You Were an Emperor or Empress, What Would You Plant?

Ask the children to think of what trees or plants they know and like. Perhaps they have been to a forest and know what one is; perhaps they need to imagine so many trees together that they cannot see much of the sky. What kind of forest would they make? Could they draw a picture of the tree or forest they like?

Add a Geography Aspect

Find Brazil and  Rio de Janeiro on a map. Tijuca is part of the Atlantic Rainforest, not the Amazon rainforest. On the map, see how far the Amazon region is from Rio. Find pictures of the two kinds of forests and compare.

If you live in Great Britain, your own Prince Charles is taking a leaf from the book of Dom Pedro II for he has started an important project to help rainforests : http://www.princesrainforestsproject.org  .

Here is an interesting article about Tijuca:

Learning From Rio's Green Spaces

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Logging In the Rainforests

Logging of old growth trees in all forests has gone on for centuries. People have always seemed to feel that whatever they encountered was there for their exploitation.  Whole forests have gone. Few remain in Europe. The cutting continues apace. The massive Sequoias of North America are occasionally still being cut.  The tropical rainforests are being cut for wood as well as burned for farmland. 

Children learn this as they learn about rainforests. Unfortunately, the knowledge of what some adults are doing that their teachers tell them is wrong can often make them feel helpless. How can children stop the logging and burning? They cannot, obviously. Yet in our teaching, we make them feel how urgent the issue is. What can they do to make a difference? How can we show them the way?

A Wood Conservation Exercise

• Wood and paper come from trees when they are dead. Oxygen and stable soil come from trees when they are alive.  
• We need air and we need the soil not to wash away in the rain. 
• We like wooden furniture, decking and panels and we like luxurious papers.
• We can reduce our use of wood.  
• We cannot reduce our use of air.
• We need to keep alive trees and to plant more. 
• We need to use wood less.  

Ask the children to name at least 5 things made of wood. 

Discuss if they really need those things and, if they do, could they be made of other materials.

Ask them to look around their homes and think of what wooden things are really not necessary.

With older children, ask them to find out what type of wood the objects they have selected are made of: oak, teak, pine, etc. Then ask them to find a picture of that type of tree alive and fully grown. Have them compare and discuss the wooden object and the tree.

An example:

It is now becoming popular to have garden furniture and decking made of the Brazilian wood called ipê (Tabebuia chrysotricha). There are no ipê plantations. The trees are being cut by the hundreds in the rainforest. Here is some furniture made from ipê:

Here is what the ipê tree looks like :

What a heartbreaking and senseless reduction, eh? Do we really need that garden chair? Do we need it more than we need air? Ask the children if the furniture might be made of iron, perhaps. Or perhaps they do not need a chair in the garden at all. Perhaps they could lie on their tummies in the grass and see and smell nature better than in any chair.

Ask them to try. Ask them to think about making do with less paper and less wood. Let us show them the way by making do with less ourselves.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Rainforest Fog

Both tropical and temperate rainforests have a lot of fog. In temperate rainforests it can be particularly thick as it comes in off the sea and settles in among the leaves and branches, dripping incessantly and obscuring all. In tropical rainforests, the fog comes from the changes in temperature between night and day.

In both cases, it important for retaining the moisture. All kinds of small animals and insects at all heights drink from the water held in leaves and pockets of plants. During seasons of no rain, the fog of the temperate rainforests provides the only moisture for plants. Plants such as bromeliads in the tropical rainforest and the mosses in the temperate rainforest, which have no roots in the ground, gain much needed moisture from the fog.

Fog is created when a cooling produces condensation. In the warm tropical rainforests, the most common, but not the only, type of fog is radiation fog: as the sun sets, the ground cools and produces condensation - fog - in the warmer air above it.

In the temperate rainforests, the fog comes from the ocean, where cold air has passed over warmer water, causing the condensation.

An Activity About Fog

Make Your Own Fog

There are a few ways to make fog, some of them involving dry ice, which is quite dangerous. This is the safest method to use around young children, but still requires CAUTION, as hot water is used. This is an experiment that the children will NOT perform, but will observe an adult doing.

This fog, or condensation will be produced in the same way that ocean fog is, with colder air affecting hot water.

You will need: 

a 4 liter glass jar or bottle

a kitchen glove or mitt if the bottle has no handle

a kettle full of water

500 grams of ice cubes

a sieve that can rest across the top of the bottle or jar

To make the fog :

Boil the water

Pour it into the bottle or jar and let it sit for a full minute

Using the mitt to protect your hands, carefully pour out all but about 3 centimeters of the hot water

Place the sieve over the top of the bottle

Fill the sieve with the ice cubes.

Fog will be created as the vapour of the hot water at the bottom of the bottle rises and contacts the cold air around the ice cubes and begins condensation.

N.B.  As with even an experiment as simple as this one, it is always advisable to perform the entire experiment one time on your own, without the class. 

Just for Fun

Have the children try to draw fog.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Two Kinds of Rainforests

We hear so much about the rainforests these days, especially the Amazon rainforest. It is the largest that remains and the best known but there are more rainforests than the Amazon's. They exist in both hemispheres and on all continents except Antarctica.  Some have been more damaged or reduced than others - though all are at risk. It can be confusing for a child (and for an adult!) to be told that gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus), or golden-lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia) are all from the rainforest but none from the Amazon rainforest.  (They are from rainforests in Africa, Borneo and South America, respectively.)  Perhaps it will help to begin now an occasional series on rainforests in the hope of bringing some clarification.

There are two kinds of rainforests on our planet: tropical and temperate. Both are vital and beautiful and what remains of both is threatened with total extinction.

Tropical rainforests are those we hear most about in the press. They occur near the Equator, in the tropical regions, roughly between the Latitudes 23°N and 23°S. These rainforests are in Central and South America, southern Mexico, the Pacific Islands, western Africa, Madagascar, and southeast Asia. They receive between 1250 and 6600 mm of rain each year. They are dense with life, having thousands of different species, many not yet described. (By way of comparison, there are about 700 species of birds in North America, while there are more than 1000 in just the Bolivian region of the Amazon rainforest.) Tropical rainforests produce about 40% of the earth's oxygen, and some 25% of medicines used in the developed world come from rainforest plants. Tropical rainforests are warm, with average temperatures between 20° and 34°C.  Below is a tropical rainforest.

Temperate rainforests usually occur near oceans, and are in the temperate zones, roughly between the Latitudes 26° and 66° north and south of the Equator. These rainforests  are found in the northwestern region of North America, the southern tip of South America, western Europe - where just a few small patches remain - Asia and Australia. They receive an average of 1400 mm of rain per year.  The giant redwood trees are from temperate rainforests. Some of these have an age estimated to be greater than 2000 years. The temperate rainforests are colder, with an average temperature from 4° to 12°C. Below is a temperate rainforest.

Both types of rainforests have mists and fogs, and sometimes they are very thick. Both types of rainforests, as with all forests, have been and are still heavily logged. They are also burnt and cleared to gain grazing and farming land.

Here is a chart to make it clearer:

An Activity to Learn the Two Kinds of Rainforest

Colour a Map of the Two Rainforests

Download this map. 

Download Tropical and Temperate Rainforests 

The striped areas are rainforests. Explain the Equator and the tropical regions to the children. Give each child two different colours, one for tropical rainforests and one for temperate rainforests. Ask the children to try to colour the striped regions accordingly.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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