Seasons South and North

World Oceans Day

The 8th of June is the day designated by the United Nations as World Ocean Day, a day of activities and action to promote awareness of the need to preserve the cleanliness of the world's oceans. As stated on the website, our oceans:

• Generate most of the oxygen we breathe
• Help to feed us 
• Regulate our climate 

 The theme this year is  "Oceans of Life", but there is a special theme of unique interest to children. As this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Dr. Seuss's One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish, there will be joint celebrations honouring the oceans and children.

 

 The website has a number of nice activities and downloads, including songs, to use with children.

World Oceans Day

Much of the material is also available in Spanish.

This is an excellent resource and a good cause too!

©2010 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Equinox

 

I am reposting last year's post about the March equinox, as so many readers have asked for the sunrise chart again. 

With the March equinox, the seasons officially change to autumn in the south and spring in the north. "Officially" is the operative word here, for timing of the changes of the seasons is much less precise than we often think. There are not precisely 365 days to a year, so the equinoxes do not fall on the same day every year, or at the same time. 

Myths about the equinoxes abound. 

• It is said that the equinox is a day when the amount of time of light and dark is precisely equal. It usually occurs a day or two before or after. (Hence the name, which translates as "equal night")
• It is also said that the equinox brings a time of storms, but actually, record keepers checking back over 75 years have found that not only are there no extra storms, it is often a calmer period around the equinox. 
• Some people seem to think that on the vernal equinox, it is possible to balance an egg on its point. The success or failure of this peculiar activity has nothing to do with what day of the year it is. 

In spite of misunderstandings and silliness, the basic idea of equilibrium is true.  

• The equinoxes are the only days of the year when the tilt of the earth's axis and its orbit bring it to a point where it is straight in relation to the sun. (An excellent graphic for this can be found here:  http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-for-kids/0020-solstices-and-equinoxes.php)  

• Thus the equinoxes are also the only days of the year when the sunrise is due east and the sunset due west.  
• For those who live on the equator,  the equinoxes are the only days when the sun passes directly overhead.  (See http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090319-vernal-equinox-2009-spring.html)

It is this sense of momentous equilibrium that has effected cultures so that most mark the equinoxes as important days,  from the new year in the Persian (vernal equinox), to being the mid-way point of the season for the Chinese, to being the day from which other holy days (Passover and Easter in the northern spring, and the autumn Harvest Festival in Britain ) are calculated.

The days are important, but how to share an understanding with little ones without it getting too complicated? 

Very young children are not really interested in how the earth goes round the sun or at what angle it tilts. They have only been through four or fine years and so the concept of an entire year may not be entirely firm in their minds.  Day and night, however, are completely familiar to them, as are sunrises and sunsets. 

Play a Sunrise Game

You will need enough yellow or orange paper for each child and a globe. Ask each child to cut out a large circle from their paper and colour or paint it to be the sun. Divide the children into three groups, standing. The group in the middle lives on the equator, which you indicate on the globe. They hold their suns over their heads. The group to the right lives in the northern hemisphere, so they hold their suns to their side, toward the equator, as does the group to the other side, the southern hemisphere. Have them all turn to the "east" to make a sunrise. Those in the north and south keep their suns inclined and those on the equator keep their suns direct as they raise them up high and then turn and have them set in the "west". Emphasize that this equinox is the spring equinox in the north and the autumn equinox in the south. Hang the suns up all over the room for good cheer.

Encourage Solar Observation

Download SUNRISE CHART 

Do NOT encourage the children to look directly at the sun. Do encourage them to notice, every day in the morning, where the sunrise is in relation to their world. If they live where they cannot actually see the sun in the morning, they can note where they first see its rays or where the light is brightest when they have breakfast. Download the Sunrise Chart above, number the squares for the month,  and make enough copies for each child to have one. When they arrive in the morning, before they forget, have them draw in that day's square the object, room, building, or tree, etc. where they first saw the sun's rays that day. This will help them to see that the sunrise shifts as the year goes by, and will help make the lessons about the earth's orbiting that much easier to understand.

©2010 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Don't Drop the Problem Into Our Children's Laps

Forgive me, but I think there is something quite sinister afoot among the people wanting oh, so much, to make the global warming go away. I want that too, without a doubt, but I know that it is my generation's responsibility to clean up the mess. I do not think it is right to teach our children that they are the future, they have to consume less, they have to be more green, they have to find alternative energy, etc.

Are we really planning to make our own children clean up after us? Do we really wish to communicate that they have to be stronger and wiser than we are? Must they watch us continue to pollute and overpopulate while we tell them that they will have to save energy, restrain themselves, be clean and green?

Well, firstly, what child in this world would buy that? And why should anyone accept such a double standard? No, if we want our children to help to save the planet, we have to show them the way. We have to learn how ourselves and then guide them and lead them, train them and explain to them.

There are many, many science museums and institutions that explain the problems of pollution and global warming, overpopulation and the destruction of rainforests. Begin by learning with children, sharing the experience of discovering what is wrong with our habits and lifestyles and of thinking of ways to change.

 Some of the best museums and websites explaining global warming at the moment are:

Climate Change Education

The Koshland Science Museum

The Science Museum  - This has a number of excellent, interactive screens and clear explanations.

The American Museum of Natural History 

Klimahaus - In German and English; a very nice site, very simple, of photos of different regions around the world. It could make a nice geography lesson as well.

The Encyclopedia of Earth -- very dense text here, but all of it interesting and useful. Better for preparation that for an activity right off the bat. The Climate Literacy Handbook is superb for older children.

But do not stop there. Just explaining the problem to children is frightening. Work with them to discuss what family habits can be changed. Get them involved in helping parents to change. As a group at school or as a family at home, change together. We all know what to do :

Walk instead of drive

Cook instead of going to restaurants or buying packaged food

Growing our own organic fruits and vegetables and working in the garden ourselves

Play physical games instead of electronic games

Go walking or sailing or swimming on holiday instead of flying far away

Don't buy a Kindle; borrow a book from a library and read it

Have home theatricals and rock concerts instead of going to the cinema so often

Try to live without plastics!

Think of ways to recycle things by reusing them in new ways

.

It is up to us to change for our children. Let us make them proud of us.

.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Book Review - Dragons Explain It All

The Trouble With Dragons

Debi Gliori is one of the illustrators and authors I most admire, for she seems to write her stories from the heart and to give great whimsy to her drawings. This bright book is true to her style, with its story one of concern to us all and its illustrations full of charm.

Many books warn of the problems of global warming, pollution, and overpopulation, and I have written often about how to help children to cope with this frightening knowledge. Ms. Gliori has chosen to tell the story not with ungrateful people who mindlessly destroy the environment that sustains them. She tells the story with dragons.

In rhyming couplets, she tells of dragons that overproduce, hatching from spotted eggs. It is orange and purple and pink dragons that cover the earth with roads and houses and leave trash in the rivers. She skips round the complicated explanation of the warming of the atmosphere by having it be caused by too many dragons breathing too much fire....and Santa is left in a pink pool where the North Pole once was.

Gradually, all of the colours are sucked out of the illustrations as all of the life is sucked out of the planet, and the dragons are a lonely species. Realizing their fate as the last animals leave, they call out for help. "OK, start by not chopping down trees," they are told, and so start the recommendations -- so simple, really -- that lead to the return of life, colour and health for all.

As a gentle and not frightening way for young children to learn about the subject, this book is among the best, and Bloomsbury is to be commended for publishing it. It will bring discussion, including the most difficult question of all : if we know what we are to do to end the terrible effects of pollution, and we are teaching our children to do it, why are their elders not doing as they recommend?

Indeed, why are we not?

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Harvest Moon

This year, the Harvest Moon, (that fall moon which occurs closest to the September equinox, for the northern hemisphere) will be tonight, the 4th of October. It may not be orange, but it will be as beautiful as ever and will carry with it the symbolism of autumn celebrations and harvest festivals.

Harvest festivals have a charm all their own. The origin of the North American Thanksgivings, they are ancient in their observance and simple in their meaning: gratitude for the harvest's yields. Traditionally, the festivals have involved an offering of food and drink to the gods, or decorating a church with food, sheaves and flowers, and feasting. 

A Planting/Harvesting Seasons Table

In the same vein as the South/North Seasons Table, decorate a seasons table with two sides: one with tokens of spring (which is the current season in the southern hemisphere) being sure to include many seeds for fruits, grains and vegetables, and perhaps some that you have sprouted in advance. On the other side, place tokens of autumn, such as leaves whose colours have turned, and apples, gourds, sheaves, etc. Put in plenty that relate to one another, enabling you to discuss with the children how the seasons relate to the growth cycles of the plants that give us food.

See the Light of the Harvest Moon

Plan a class night outdoors in the school yard or garden late enough to be in darkness with the full moon above. Note the silvery glow of the light as compared with sunlight. Lead the children to look at familiar trees, tones, shrubs, etc. Point out how different the colours seem in moonlight. 

(Do NOT allow this to become a time for scary stories. This is a lesson in observation. It is NOT a time to create fear.)

The next day, take the children to look at the same objects and plants in sunlight and see how the colours have changed.

To illustrate the difference even more: Close the curtains and blinds, blocking out all light. Shine a torch or flashlight onto some colourful objects in the room. Then, take a mirror and use it to shine the torch's reflected light upon the same object. Explain to the children that the moon's light is really the sun's reflected light and, as such, much weaker, making the colours seem different.

Finally, point out that, without light we would not have colour and that without plants that we eat, we would not see at all.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Book Review - Population Explosion

The Rabbit Problem 

This is a clever book, delightfully illustrated by a Greenaway medal winner. It is a very busy, cluttery book, with pop-up pages, inserted booklets, and its own inner graffiti, across 12 double page spreads of the months of the year.  In the hands of a small child, it will be destroyed in thirty minutes. 

It depicts, humourously, a scenario written by the medieval mathematician, Fibonacci, to illustrate a particular sequence of numbers. If you want a detailed explanation, I suggest the Wikipedia article, Fibonacci Number. In the scenario, Fibonacci began with a pair of rabbits and, with certain rules (a pair of rabbits an produce two more pairs, one per month, and then dies the following month) used the sequence to determine how many pairs would be alive months later.   It seems to us a most bizarre subject for a children's book, one that would truly appeal only to students of pure mathematics who are also parents. 

Why would I review a book that, though charming to look at, is extremely difficult to understand or even make sense of, as well as being too fragile for most children to handle without damaging?  Even more, why would I recommend it, which I most heartily do? Because it gives a very simple and easy to understand imagery of the population explosion.  

Normally, it is difficult for adults to explain this to children in a way that is not disturbing and even frightening. For some children, the explanations have been so dour as to make them feel guilty for having been born. This is neither psychologically healthy nor at all useful. "The Rabbit Problem" enables an adult to walk the child through the concept of exponential population growth in a simple and non-threatening way. Just look at the pictures and discuss the increasing problem without bothering with the mathematics. There is no story written, so you are free to interpret it as you wish. Depending upon the child's maturity, discussion of human population issues can come afterward.

Buy it:

The Rabbit Problem

© 2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Eco Schools

Now is a good time to start preparing for next term's nature activities and lessons. There is quite a lot in existence to be of help to teachers and librarians. One of the most useful is the Eco-Schools programme. 

Eco-Schools is an international programme --  in countries throughout Europe, South and North America, Asia and Africa --  to help children become involved in helping their schools to address environmental issues. This is particularly valuable as it gives children the sense that something can be done, thus alleviating their sense of helplessness. The work done is truly important, for it aims to make each school operate in a more ecological manner.

The website explains their activities :

"The Eco-Schools programme involves seven steps that any school can adopt. Based on the elements of an environmental management programme, the process involves a wide range of stakeholders, but it is the pupils who play the most important role.

"The seven steps include the establishment of an Eco-Schools Committee to organize and direct the activities of the school. Once a Committee is established an Environmental Review is done and an Action Plan established to set achievable targets and deadlines for improving the school’s environmental performance. To ensure that progress is made and that achievements are celebrated, Monitoring and Evaluation are done. This also ensures that environmental care and education is an ongoing process. Certain themes are studied in the classroom through Curriculum Work, and the whole school should be involved in practical initiatives. The step of Informing and Involving brings the local community and Local Agenda 21 into the process. Schools are encouraged to make outside contacts and ties to enhance their learning experience and to inform the wider public about their activities. And each school develops its own Eco-code, outlining the school’s values and objectives and what the students are striving toward.

After a period of participation, an evaluation of the success of these initiatives and the methodology is undertaken, and the whole Eco-Schools programme for each school is assessed. Successful schools are awarded with the Eco-Schools Green Flag."

I have looked at a number of the different sites in different countries. Some, such as those in France and the UK, offer quite a lot of free materials to download, newsletters, and case studies. Others are still in the developmental stage. Go through a few and use what they have to get your school registered as a part of the scheme or at least to use the materials to start being greener.

Eco-Schools Websites

www.eco-schools.org

The main website for the international organisation. Here, under Countries, you can find links to the individual, nation's eco-schools sites, some of which follow.

www.ecoschoolsscotland.org

Having joined with others, they have produced a number of good materials that can be downloaded.

www.eco-schools.org.uk

The newsletter here is excellent, so do sign up.

www.eco-ecole.org

This is the French eco-schools site. It has a number of very good downloads, if you can read French. There are activities and lessons that are quite creative.

www.lotc.org.uk

This is NOT an eco-schools site, but that of Learning Outside the Classroom. It has many pages of very good ideas for activities outside of the classroom, not all of them pertaining to nature.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Giving Children a Sense of Security in the Face of Global Warming

Fairly regularly now, someone writes in the press of their concern for how much children are being frightened by all the dire talk about global warming. It is frightening. Many adults are frightened as well, though they tend to respond with anger more than with tears and bad dreams. (Perhaps.) The most recent article I have seen along these lines is Bjorn Lomborg's "Scared Silly Over Climate Change". He gives examples of frightened and confused children and insists that the press report in a less terrifying manner. 

That will never happen. Terror and horror are what sell newspapers. It is up to us as teachers, librarians, and parents, to find the solid ground for our children in this sea of fear and confusion.

It is not my intention to defend or dispute the claims about global warming in this blog, but I do intend to look at the facts so that we can help our children. What is indisputable is that:

1. there is a serious crisis of overpopulation of our species, and
2. there is a serious crisis of pollution of every part of the planet

Our children will have to live with these things and try to amend the situation. We must give them the clarity, strength, courage, and example to do so. 

When children are frightened, they take their security from certainties. There can be no greater certainties than the cycles of the seasons, the months, and days. These are brought about by the sun, the earth's orbit around it, the earth's tilt on its axis, the moon's orbit around the earth, and the earth's spinning on its axis. Yes, science tells us that the sun will one day burn out, but computer models estimate that will happen in 4 or more billion years, rather a long time from now.

Let's begin with a definition of "forever" as being at least a million years. Thus, we can safely tell children  that all of the following are forever:

• The sun will be in the sky, so we will always have light
• The earth will always orbit the sun and earth's axis will be tilted, so we will always have seasons
• The moon will circle the earth, so we will always have waves in the seas
• The earth will turn on its axis, so we will always have days and nights

As you teach geography, point out this aspect of permanence. When children ask questions about global warming, the future of the planet, pollution, etc., remind them of what is permanent. With this solidity, you can more comfortably discuss how we must address the issues of concern, remembering to keep the discussion appropriate to their level of understanding. For example:

• The night sky will always have stars, but we may not be able to see them because of air pollution. They are still there. What could we all do to reduce air pollution so that we can see the stars again? This could lead to activities aimed at discovering causes of air and light pollution, perhaps a night class with a telescope, perhaps charts showing how turning off lights not only saves electricity but reduces light pollution.
  •  Here is the very useful education page of the International Dark Sky Association which has some good downloads
  • For this and the following topics, the EcoSchools programme is an excellent resource

  

• The seasons - summer, autumn, winter, spring - will always occur and always in that order,  though they may be hotter and rainier than in the past because of too much carbon in the atmosphere. How can we reduce the carbon and increase the oxygen? This particular discussion could be expanded to include tree-planting, via one of the many, many programmes now in existence.
  •  The Plant a Billion Trees  site teaches about trees of the Atlantic Rainforest and accepts donations. 
  •  The Prince's Rainforests Project for Schools has numerous lessons and activities to download

  

•   The moon will always be in the sky and will always circle the earth, pulling the oceans with its gravity and making waves. The waves will always be there, but they might be full of rubbish or empty of fish because of pollution or the waters warming. How can we clean up the rivers and oceans and stop polluting them? This discussion could lead to involvement in some of the many programmes for cleaning up beaches, rescuing sea birds and animals, etc.
  
  • The UK Rivers Network has some good resources dealing with pollution
  •  As mentioned in a previous post, The Ocean Project is full of information and ideas on how to save the oceans

  
By consistently teaching what is permanent we can approach our problems with greater confidence, and help our children to see their future not with fear but with hope.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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A version of this post, combined with the following two, appears as a featured post on C&NN Connect, the ning of the Children and Nature Network

Seasons On the Oceans - Tropical Cyclones

In honour of today being World Oceans Day, the post is about seasons on the oceans.

June is one of the months of peak storm activity over many of the world's oceans. Tropical storms have all ready occurred this year in both the northeast and the northwest Pacific Ocean and in the north Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. The season is just beginning in the north Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Worldwide, the number of tropical cyclones this year should peak in August or September. Many, many of the readers of this blog, and the children they are educating, live where tropical storms regularly come to shore.  For most others, the big storms are enough a part of the news that even little children hear about them.

When a tropical storm becomes large and the winds reach a speed of about 120 km per hour, it is called a tropical cyclone, a hurricane or a typhoon. A number of factors are necessary for a tropical cyclone to form but one of the key ones is that the surface temperature of the water - for 50 meters down -- must be at least 26.5 degrees centigrade. That's warm. One of the main effects of tropical cyclones is to create great waves, which stir up the water, bringing up cooler waters and reducing the temperature. When they hit land, they bring enormous amounts of rain to land that is often parched. As with everything in nature, they are a part of a cycle. Yet, as everyone knows, these storms are violent and dangerous for most creatures on land. The high winds, great waves and flooding destroy buildings, leaving many people homeless.

It is important that children learn about these great storms without fear, but with curiosity when examining them as phenomena and with practicality when learning how to prepare for and survive them. If you are living in an area of such storms, the best websites for practical knowledge for children are given below. If you live far from where such storms occur, perhaps now is the time not only to teach children about them, but to encourage children to be involved in helping others who have suffered from them. Save the Children has excellent and trustworthy programmes of disaster relief to which a class might donate.

Tropical Cyclone Dance

This works best with a large group of children.

You will need enough pieces of A4 size paper for each child to have one, in three colours: black, white, grey.

Have three or four children, holding white paper, stand in a tight circle and shake their papers quietly. They are the eye of the hurricane.

Have a larger group of children, holding black paper, stand in one or two large circles around the eye, and shake their papers as noisily as possible. They are the thunderstorms that surround the eye.

Have the last group of children, holding grey paper, stand in a circle around the thunderstorm group, shaking their papers with a medium amount of noise. They are the rain bands.

Now, have the children in the thunderstorms and rain bands move, waving and shaking their papers, around the eye, which does not turn.

This has been done by a class in India with coloured scarves, making a very lovely presentation.

Recommended Children's Books About Tropical Cyclones

David Wiesner's Hurricane

Jonathan London's  Hurricane!

Alexandra Wallner's  Sergio and the Hurricane

Dierdre McLaughlin Mercier's  Yesterday We Had a Hurricane

For older children:   Ocean Storm Alert!

Fo older children or for reading  aloud to children :

Theodore Taylor's beautiful story: The Cay

Marguerite Henry's true story about wild horses caught in a hurricane :   Stormy, Misty's Foal

Websites for children about hurricanes and tropical cyclones

The US government site, with games and how to prepare:  Hurricanes

The Weather wiz kids pages on Hurricanes

©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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What Kind of People We Are....and Want to Be

Too often, I have met people who consider concern for nature to be something for children, old people and wimps. Serious contenders, they say, know that money makes the world go around and the market must be fed. The ability to make money from something, they say, overrules any and all other considerations for it. 

We too often exemplify that attitude to our children, even when we do not want to do so. We talk about healthy foods, but buy them sweets and sodas "for a treat", thus teaching them that our talk about health has no meaning, if we make a "treat" of what is bad for them. We risk communicating to them at the least that we are weak, at the most that, because we give them what we know to be bad for them, we do not care for them. In the same way, we talk about the need to reduce global warming, stop pollution and the destruction of forests yet, has anyone given up their car? Has anyone accepted that we will have to do with less? We will not be able to replace all of our polluting products with green alternatives. We will have to do without. We will have to change. A large part of the world's population is descended from people who emigrated to new and unknown lands. They were capable of enormous change, so we know it is possible for us to change when necessary. There is an expression that says if you want to know the truth about a person, you must "look at what a person does, not at what he or she says."  Our children copy our actions, not our words.

As they observe us cutting trees, burning forests, logging woods, brutalizing and killing animals, spraying fields, dumping our filth into the water we and all species need to drink, ripping up land with mining, all for the sake of the market, they learn that money is the only thing we care about. We teach greed and selfishness and a certain disgusting kind of slothfulness. Do we really want our children to inherit such characteristics? The resulting generation will be a greater thing to fear than a planet that has lost its last shred of green to concrete.

 I have often heard the argument against the protection of nature as that God gave Adam "the dominion over....every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." I believe that right would have been lost on the expulsion from Eden, but I will not discuss theology here.  I will discuss dominion, or ruling, however.  What kind of ruler slaughters all of his or her subjects? Nero, Stalin, Hitler, etc. Are they the definitive representatives of our god-given behaviour? Of our species?

A respect and a consideration for other species should come from more than our desire for survival, more than our desire to have beautiful places to visit and animals to observe. It should come from our desire to be better human beings. For some people, the market and its cruelties takes priority over all other needs, but most people feel that there is a limit, a barrier they will not cross. For most people, there are things that we will not do, no matter how much money we might get if we did. Those people have a sense of right and wrong, a sense of decency, and courage, and those are senses that we want to instill in our children. They will be better people for it and there will be a better future for us all.

William Blake put it most clearly:

A Robin Redbreast in a Cage

A robin redbreast in a cage

Puts all heaven in a rage;

A dog starved at his master's gate

Predicts a ruin of the State;

A game-cock clipped and armed for fight

Doth the rising sun affright;

A horse misused upon the road

Calls to heaven for human blood;

Each outcry of the hunted hare

A fiber from the brain doth tear;

A skylark wounded on the wing

Doth make a cherub cease to sing;

He who shall hurt the little wren

Shall never be belovèd by men;

The beggar's dog and widow's cat,

Feed them and thou shalt grow fat.

Discuss the meaning of this poem with children.

Go over it with them and explain that the poet is saying that a person who can inflict cruelty on an animal has cruelty as a part of his or her character. A person who is indifferent to suffering is selfish. Selfish and cruel people are not the society we want, for their selfishness and cruelty will extend to all aspects of their lives. And we don't want that.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Learning How To Observe

When we take children outdoors to gather things and then back inside to paint them; when we go outdoors to find things and bring them inside to build something with them, we are not teaching observation - the first and most essential skill of science and poetry. We are teaching technology or art. The former is applied science, the latter is the imitation of nature. None of these, neither science nor poetry, nor technology nor art will be a successful endeavor without a developed capacity for observation.

In understanding the human world and  its machines and machinations, we teach children to ask and find the answers to :

• Who?
• What? 
• Where? 
• When? 
• Why? 
• How?  

To understand nature and the physical world around us, we use our five senses:

•  Sight
• Hearing 
• Touch 
• Smell 
• Taste 

 In spite of all of our capacity to gather, store, and exchange information, it is an augmentation of knowledge, and no replacement for the knowledge we acquire first hand through our senses. If anything is disastrous about our children's modern existence of television, cinema, electronic games, the internet and all the rest of it, it is the failure to develop the use of their senses. Spatial concepts and the ability to calculate faster may be more developed, but the ability to recognize a variety of sounds, colours, flavours, odours, and textures -- the ability to participate in life -- is being lost.

Not only must we teach children to observe; we must teach them to observe honestly. Before a fact can be interpreted, it has to be observed with clarity. On seeing a tree in bloom with pink flowers, we must first see it for what it is, tall or short, healthy or sick, light pink or dark, with leaves or without, etc. before we can write a poem about it or paint it, or calculate its value as timber. If we do not observe, and clearly and honestly, our knowledge will be hollow and our decisions will be mistakes.

Our children have a right and a responsibility to know the world first hand. As more and more of them live lives indoors, they will not have days of free play outdoors in tall grasses or on a beach or in a wood. Increasing numbers of children will never have long hours outdoors of gazing, watching, seeing, idly staring, doing nothing at all but just looking at things such as clouds, bugs, birds, frogs, streams. They will not have the opportunity to learn naturally how to observe. We will have to teach them.

Learning To Observe Nature

This exercise will use four senses only. There will be no tasting!

You will need:

• a sheet of clear plastic, about 30cm  x 40cm, such as are often found in inexpensive picture frames
• an empty picture frame or a substitute cut from sturdy card

Taking these, go outdoors with the children. Find a quiet place to sit near some greenery. Lead the children as a group in the close observation of just one thing, such as a tree, shrub, bird, log, flower. Let them look at, touch, smell, listen to it. Ask questions based on the senses, e.g.:

• What do we see?
  
  •  What colour is it? 
  • Is it big or small? 
  • Is it fat or thin? 
  • What shape is it? 
  • How many branches or leaves or petals has it?  

•   What do we smell?
  
  •  Is it a sweet smell? 
  • A rancid smell? 
  • Is the smell strong or faint? 
  • Does it make your eyes water?  

• What do we hear? 
  
  •  A birdsong?  
  • Movement? 
  • Is it loud or soft? 
  • A tinkling? A rustling? A scratching? 

• What can we feel? 
  
  •  Is it rough or smooth? 
  • Soft or hard? 
  • Squishy? Gritty? 
  • Hot or cold? 
  • Wet or dry? 

As you go through this exercise, you will at the same time be greatly enlarging the children's vocabulary. Do this two or three times as a group, observing different things. Then, let each child try giving a full observation on his or her own. Encourage as much description and detail of true perceptions as possible. Encourage the use of the correct words for each perception. Lead the children away from comparison to other things they know. (e.g. "It smells like my dog" or "It looks like my toy.") Comparison and analogy come later. First, one must be able to observe.

To take the exercise further, hold up the plastic in front of something that has all ready been observed. This will have the effect of flattening the view of it as if it were a photograph. Ask the children how this separation from the object changes how they see, hear, smell, and feel it. Then, hold up the empty frame instead of the plastic. This has the effect of narrowing the focus and for some people helps them to observe better. Ask them again how the frame changes how they perceive the object.

Ideally, this should be done at least once a week. As the year progresses, the children's powers of observation will greatly improve, along with their vocabulary and their ability to concentrate. Besides that, it's fun.

N.B. For an example of wonderful powers of clear and honest observation, read a few passages of Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle. Though it is not about teaching, it is such a lesson in observation that I have put it in the list of books for teachers in the panel to the right.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Bring Back Curiosity

The uninhibited curiosity of small children is a delight. They are wonderfully curious and do not seem to see themselves as outside of the natural world but in it. As they grow, they go from being curious about their toes to a time of catching lizards and toads, spiders and flies and butterflies, to see closer. From there, they should normally move to a time of wanting to know more.

Yet, for some years now, experts as reported in the press, have worried that this curiosity is being stifled in children. Whether the cause be a fear on the part of teachers of regulations and safety codes, or the loss of their own curiosity through overwork, or the excessive, petty-minded and monotonous testing of the children, all seem to agree that something important - curiosity - is being lost.

Here are a sampling of the articles:

http://www.newstatesman.com/200504180028

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1060054/Science-tests-killing-childrens-curiosity-report-warns.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/23/teaching.schools

Furthermore, when we teach children to kill or eradicate every creature that comes near, we are also killing their curiosity. When, on the one hand, we fill our libraries with books about discovering nature, while on the other hand, we determinedly spray and poison the real creatures, what are we teaching? Would they not think that the books we give them about the rainforests and endangered species also contradict our true intention to destroy those very same things? In the adult world we live with the same contradiction daily, bombarded with advertisements using photos of wild animals to sell products, while the use of many of those products - and living the lifestyle that goes with them - is leading to the death of those animals. We are confused and we are teaching confusion to our children.

 It is not very hard to turn this around for young children, but we do have to end our own confusion. Without becoming polemical here, suffice to say that we must at least allow ourselves to be as curious as the children are, and we must allow the creatures that inspire the curiosity to live. (To get a start, read Rachel Carson's classic, The Sense of Wonder, in the side panel list: Books for Teaching the Seasons and Nature.) Like it or not, insects and other creatures do still enter our lives, homes, and schools regularly. Why not turn that to an advantage for allowing and encouraging curiosity?

In one of the school libraries where I once worked, we decided to add a miniature natural history collection in the corner of the library. In concept, it was an extension of the nature table, but focussed on a more scientific approach. With the approval of the school head, now, when creatures were discovered, we indulged our curiosity. Instead of killing or spraying, we trapped them, tried to identify them, then photographed them for our museum display and gave them their freedom.

Very quickly, we appreciated Linnaeus's classification system. We were in an English language school in Brazil. Most of the teachers were British and even the science teachers could not always identify what we had found. Whenever we caught or photographed something, we tried to find it in one of our insect or animal identification books, on one of the websites we used for identification (see the side panel for a list of good ones). If we could not, we asked neighbours, kitchen staff, gardeners, anyone who might know what it was. We were told the name in Portuguese, of course. To find the name in English, we went first to a book in Portuguese, found the Latin, with which we could then go to a comparable book in English and find the name in our language, which we then wrote on the identification card. (I write her about animals, but we also had plants and rocks.)

We had a growing display of ant farms, insect shells, cocoons waiting for butterflies to emerge, a wounded bird we nursed back to health and released and, our biggest find, a opossum that the smaller children had cornered in the playground early one morning. We built him a box and added branches and food for him. he lived in the library for a few days until it was clear beyond hope that he would never like our company. The older children and a science teacher had a day out taking him to a less occupied part of town and releasing him.

Everything in the display was clearly labeled in Latin, English and Portuguese. The teachers were all very enthusiastic and tailored some of their lessons to fit with what was in the collection. We made an effort to ascertain the basic facts about each creature that came to us:

• Species name
• Habitat 
• Food 
• Habits and behaviour 
• Whether endangered or not and why 

The children were excited, were always on the lookout for more to add to our collection. They truly tried to find out more about each creature and were proud when they could answer a puzzling question about one.  It was such a puzzle that took us from curiosity to amazement one day.

We had found an enormous caterpillar, longer and larger than my thumb, on the school's front drive. We promptly put it in a box with twigs, leaves, earth, and a tad of water, hoping it would form a cocoon. We asked everyone and checked all of our books, but could not identify it. Soon, our caterpillar burrowed under the earth in the box, so we knew it was a moth species. We waited, hoping that when it emerged, we would then be able to learn its name. When it emerged, it was massive, wider than my palm and a myriad of lovely browns. Yet we still could not find it in our books. We photographed it as its wings were drying and watched it fly away. 

With a group of seven-year-olds, we took our photos to the Entomology Department of the University of São Paulo, determined to find an answer. As we waited in the large entry for a biologist-librarian to bring us some books, the children stared and pointed upward, mouths open in astonishment. Displayed on the wall was the massive preserved carcass of a spider. The body was more than a meter in length and the legs would have spread to more than two meters across. Beneath it was a sign in Portuguese that said: "Don't ask! Yes, it is real. Found in the Amazon region in the 1930s."

None of us will ever forget it. I have kept in touch with my colleagues at that school and have learned that more than one natural scientist was born that day.

Encourage Curiosity About Nature

Make your own collection 

• It is surprisingly easy to find glass or plastic cases, low tables, bug boxes, etc.  
• Use the nature identification websites on the panel to the left, as well as books 
• Put the relevant books on display, with a marker to the pages showing your exhibits; children love being able to relate pictures in books to reality
•  Place a number of inexpensive, plastic magnifying glasses on strings connected to the display tables, encouraging study
•   When things get too excited, give an alternative activity to those who have to wait their turn
• Never harm the creatures 
• Always return them to the wild after examining and photographing them 
• Involved the children in every aspect, from discovery to capture, to photographing, to identifying, to release 
• Work closely with other teachers to help make it a school-wide project 
• Take the children to visit a natural history collection near you, or visit one online ; discuss those exhibits to discover how to improve your own.

  

©2009 Anne Morddel 

Seasons South and North

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What Is A Weed? What Is A Flower?

In our gardens and yards, we teach our children that weeds are bad and flowers are good. By doing so we do them and nature a terrible disservice. There is a specific definition for flower : "that part of a plant comprising a group of reproductive organs and its envelopes".  There is no such scientific clarity for a weed: "a herbaceous plant not valued for use or beauty". A flower may or may not be pretty but it has a clear function for the plant. To call something a weed is basically to say that one does not like that plant. 

Most people tend to say that what grows naturally on their patch of ground are "weeds" and what they have planted themselves are "flowers". (How that encapsulates the essence of  humanity's battle against nature!) We nurture what they want and kill or pull up what they do not want.  Too often, what we tend to plant is something from another part of the world, something we have admired and want to have, even if our climate and soil are nothing like that plant's natural environment. Too often, the weeds we poison and pull up are food for the insects, birds, and creatures around us. Sometimes they can eat what we plant, but not often, and people do not like it when they do. Sometimes, they can move on to where native plants still exist, but we then have less of nature around us and fewer animals can survive on the reduced food source. Sometimes they are poisoned by what we import and they eat.  

In the northern hemisphere, if gardeners finally succeed in getting rid of every last stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), they will also get rid of the beautiful peacock butterfly (Inochis io), whose caterpillars eat nettles. 

   images of peacock butterfly and nettles from Wikipedia   

In South America, if every clump of  boring green with tiny, insignificant flowers is removed......

.........then the creature that needs it in order to survive will also be removed. Permanently.

Our habit of despising the home-grown and desiring the exotic in our gardens does ill to the environment in other ways as well. Native plants need little care, soil changes, or extra water, while exotic or foreign plants usually need extra water and fertilizers. This is when we live in a time of increasing water shortage and soil pollution and need to conserve water and keep the soil healthy.

We often read about the numerous plants in the rainforest that are being destroyed before they can have been fully identified and their properties discovered. Thus, despising what is local and native in favour of what is exotic, foreign, and maybe profitable, has meant that plants of potential medical value have been lost. The little blue flower (Stachytarpheta elatior) shown above is a perfect example. It is native to Brazil. Farmers consider it a serious nuisance because it grows easily and very densely and they kill it whenever they can. It is a food source for the Mourning Rose butterfly (Papilio anchisiades) shown above. It is also considered to be of medicinal value; its leaves are used to make a tea to treat hepatitis.

We teach children to cherish or at least appreciate nature while at the same time we destroy it. What is more, by destroying what is native, that which is their own environment, we devalue their world to them and teach them that only the exotic and cultivated is valuable. How can we then ask them to preserve nature? How to clarify this and give them a clearer message and understanding?

Start a Native/Non-Native or South/North Garden

Gardening and discovering how plants grow is all ready a part of the Early Years curriculum, but the activity can be greatly enhanced by using it to teach about the importance of native species. 

Preparation - You will be creating a garden that will have two distinct halves. Plan to plant some seeds of local native plants. Then, look for seeds or seedlings of exotic plants from the hemisphere opposite to yours.  To find seeds and seedlings, try mail-order seed companies as well as garden shops and markets. CAUTION - be sure to select only those plants of which no part is poisonous or an allergen. (See "101 Kid-Friendly Plants : Fun Plants and Family Garden Projects" in the list of gardening books in the panel to the right.)

Location - Are you fortunate enough to have space outdoors for a real garden? Wonderful! One way to make it much easier and more enjoyable for small children is to garden is to do so on raised beds of hay. With hay, it is possible to put earth on top and plant into that. The hay serves as a mulch to protect the seedlings from other plants swamping them. As it decomposes, it enriches the soil organically. No digging or tilling is required and raised beds are just the right height for little gardeners. Best of all, when the hay is delivered, it is great fun to jump on it and stamp it into place. WARNING - Some children may be allergic to hay and may have to miss out on the jumping part. 

If you do not have a plot for your class, two window boxes will do. Even two pots will do. Label one native and the other non-native. For the natives to thrive, they should be as close to the real environment as possible, so do not put them in a dark corner or on top of the heater or air conditioner!

Gardening - Plant your seeds. Care for them. Learn about your plants. Get someone from one of the local garden clubs who specializes in native species of plants to come and give a talk to the class. Observe your plants. What insects or birds or other animals use them for food or housing?  How much care do the native plants need? How much care do the non-natives need? How much water do they need? Which ones thrive? Do the local insects like any of the non-natives? They may well do. (Remember, one of Europe's most popular shrubs, the "butterfly bush", or buddleia, is native to Asia.) 

Discuss - If a plant becomes covered with mites or a fungus, find out more about it. The fungus lives off of the plant and leads to its death and decomposition. Is that its function in nature? Is there a parasite of the fungus? Or of the mites? Try to help the children see that nature is interconnectedness. Like that old song about the bones ("the knee bone's connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone's connected to the hip bone," and so on) the earth, the water, the sun, the plant, the things that feed off the plant and are in turn food for others, all are interconnected. 

By learning that interconnectedness, they will begin to learn to appreciate each part of nature in its own place. With that appreciation, they will be better equipped to live within and preserve nature.

© 2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Unless otherwise noted, all pictures courtesy of www. photobucket.com

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The Importance of Nomenclature

The post about jays brings up the importance of using scientific nomenclature, the Latin names. Each of the three birds in that post is known as a jay. Readers from each region would have imagined their own jay and lost the point of the post had there not been pictures, and I would not have found the correct pictures without the Latin names. 

Binomial nomenclature is a 250-year-old system that has its imperfections but that still remains the surest way for people to communicate with certainty about a species. For every species of plant and animal, there is a two part name in Latin. The first part of the name is the genus; the second part of the name is a unique identifier. There are many cases of disagreement and disputes, but for most of the thousands of species, the system is clear and works well.

The great use of scientific nomenclature for us today is on internet searches. To google "jay" will bring up 150 million articles and 31 million images. That makes it a little bit difficult to put together a lesson in an evening! Even a google on "Azure Jay" will bring over a million articles and 75,000 images. If, however, the google is on the Latin name, Cyanocorax caeruleus, it brings up 6,500 articles, all of them on precisely that species, and the same precision is achieved with images. To use some of the websites suggested to the left, the Latin name is much, much easier.

Thus, I will try my best to ensure that, wherever plants or animals are discussed, the Latin names be included, so that it will be easier for readers to follow up on something if they want to do so. It might seem tedious, but it is better than having misunderstandings.

To Learn More About the Linnaean Taxonomy:

Wikipedia Article

Electronic Naturalist Article (simpler)

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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