Seasons South and North

Free Download - Observing Nature in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres

 

This blog, Seasons South and North, celebrates its second birthday this month. By way of thanks to my readers, I have gathered together into one document all of the past year's monthly nature comparisons between two places in the southern and northern hemispheres. Please feel free to download it:

Download Observing Nature in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres

 

Enjoy the outdoors!

 

©2011 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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

 

I am continuing here my month-by-month comparison of nature observations in Britain in the northern hemisphere and the Atlantic Rainforest in the southern hemisphere. It is well past mid-summer in Britain and some migrants all ready are beginning to depart. In the Atlantic Rainforest no one likes August for it is always cold and dreary, but so windy that many children fly kites.

In August, in Britain, children can observe in nature:

• That the Nightingales, Tree Pipits, Turtle Doves and Swifts leave
• Many insects have their second broods: Asparagus Beetles, Blood Vein Moths, Holly Blue Moths, Pine Saw-flies and Diamond-back Moths
• There are still many wildflowers, but they indicate the season to come: Autumnal Hawkbit, Autumnal Lady's-tresses, Field Gentian, Pennyroyal, Peppermint and Wormwood
• Lizards catching the warmth
• Slow-worms are born

 

In the cold, wet fog of the Atlantic Rainforest winter:

• The screeches of the Southern Lapwing echo as it protects its nest
• Millipedes are seen

 

• Stick insects are seen
• Blue Swallowtail butterflies arrive
• Hummingbirds come daily to feeders, for they suffer greatly from the cold (On very cold days, they can be found unconscious on the ground. Children are taught to pick them up gently and to hold them in their cupped hands. The warmth will usually revive the bird.)

Do not forget to use the free download Nature Observation Chart, which children can colour, if they wish. 

The drawings above come from the pages for the month of August in

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

 ©2010 Anne Morddel

Winds That Herald Storms Coming and Storms Going

Across the world from one another, two October winds are traditionally known as heralds of tropical storm activity. 

In Mexico, El Cordonazo, which means the lash or whip, giving a pretty good idea of how fierce it can be, can hit the west coast just around the 4th of October. It may continue for a couple of weeks longer. When it blows in off the Pacific Ocean, lashing at the trees and buildings, it is a herald of tropical storms and people know to protect their homes and themselves.

Far away from the Americas,  in India, another great wind makes an announcement, this time that the storms are finished for the season. The Gharapuri is a strong wind from the south the arrival of which means that the southwest rainy monsoon season is ended.

Discussion

Wind is something that we cannot see, but we can see its effects. Discuss with children how they cannot see the wind but they can see the trees bending, the clouds moving, flags flapping, laundry on the line billowing. Ask them what else they cannot see but the effects of which they can see (and try to lead the discussion more toward electricity or gravity and away from ghosts). 

The interest in these two winds is that they are heralds of a change in the weather. From repeated observation of these winds coming at the same time or just before the changes, people were able to recognize what was coming and even to plan and prepare. Ask the children what weather events or natural phenomena they know of the indicate something to happen in the future. Their lives are short and they have not seen many repetitions, so perhaps their knowledge will be limited to the sun going down meaning that soon it will be dark. No matter. The point is to encourage them to look at the world around them and to pay attention to it, to observe its changes and learn its patterns.

Geography

Discover more about Mexico and India and the oceans full of storms that surround them.

Mexico For Kids is a delightful site for learning more about this country.

India by the Woodlands Junior School is a great site for children to learn more about India.

Dance

With the children and some scarves or other very light fabric, create wind dances. Have some of the children be the lashing wind that heralds storms, while others can be the soft zephyr that heralds the end of the stormy season.

For more wind activities, see the post on Autumn winds of the 5th of May, 2009. See also the many books about winds in the panel to the right.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Autumn Winds

If you live in the southern hemisphere, it is now autumn for you, and the winds are picking up. Wind is created when warm air rises and colder air moves in to fill the void. At the end of summer, the wind, in a moment, will suddenly change and smell of cold and the winter to come. It is crisper, colder, and a little bit stronger than the winds of summer were. 

On a visceral level, there is something about wind that is important to people. People react to winds, become familiar with them, even name them. The only other weather phenomenon that is regularly named is the hurricane, and that is a recent practice. Winds have been named for centuries. Certain seasonal winds are hated, some are dreaded, some are welcomed, all by name. 

Some autumn winds are 

• the Bora, that blows from  Hungary into the Adriatic region, 
• the Contrastes, in the Mediterranean region, 
• the Papagayo in Central America - "papagayo" means parrot. The wind makes a shrieking sound, like a screeching parrot. 

Why do we feel this greater intimacy with winds than with other phenomena? We do not name rainbows or rainstorms or types of sunsets. Perhaps it is the energy in wind; perhaps because it is, for the most part, invisible and naming gives us sense of its identity.

Autumn Wind Activities
 

Name Your Wind - Of course, your local wind may have a name or two, in which case find out what it is and teach that to the children. If not, have the class together select a name for the autumn wind near you. Be sure to define its characteristics and seasonal appearance.

Cast Seeds to the Winds - As plants release their seeds at the end of summer and in autumn, the winds scatter them to be sown where they land. Add some to this migration. Collect or purchase seeds of species of plants and trees native to your area. The smaller and lighter varieties will be better for this activity. You will also need some cotton balls. Have the children each wrap a few seeds individually in a few strands pulled from a cotton ball (just a bit! It must be light enough for the wind to carry it.) Then, on a good, windy day, go outdoors and, one seed at a time, hold the cotton encased seed up high and let the wind blow it aloft and away!

Paint The Wind - Have the children do a wet paper painting of the wind. Before they begin, they must immerse a piece of art paper in water and hold it up to drain. (Depending on their ages, you may want to do this for them in advance.) While it is still wet but not dripping, have them begin to paint with watercolours, which will spread and flow across the paper delightfully, much as wind moves sometimes.

To Learn More About Winds (for teachers; these sites are too advanced for small children)

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/earth/earths-atmosphere/wind.html

http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/oceancolor/scifocus/oceanColor/papagayo.shtml

http://www.lib.noaa.gov/researchtools/subjectguides/wind/education.html

Children's Books About Wind - See the new list in the side panel to the right!

©2009 Anne Morddel

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