How to use this Page

• All About Frogs by Jim Arnosky
• Tuesday by David Wiesner
• Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel
• A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson
• From Tadpole to Frog by Wendy Pfeffer
• Toad by the Road: A Year in the Life of These Amazing Amphibians by Joanne Ryder (Okay, I know they're not frogs, but they are amphibians, and the poems are great!)
  

The Summer Morning Snail
by N.M. Bodecker in Water Pennies

The summer morning snail
she leaves a shiny trail.
At sunrise in the chill, wet grass I
    find her;
so I shall always know
wherever she may go,
she leaves that guiding sliver thread
    behind her.

For long before it's day
she's up and on her way,
the moon still in the pale dawn sky
    above her;
if I could be a snail,
I'd hurry on her trail,
to tell her just how very much I
    love her.

Get Your Sunscreen on and Head Outside
Let's begin with picking some ripe, delicious blueberries. This post is by one of my favorite bloggers, cloudscome, who writes awesome haiku poems accompanied by some amazing nature photos at her blog, a wrung sponge.

When outdoors, always keep your eyes open, as you never know what you might see. Oh, look over there! It's that darn snake! Over at Po Moyemu, Sylvia not only writes about the snake that can't seem to stay away from the hen house, but also shares this Odd Egg Update.

Would you like to explore colors in your garden? Barb at The Heart of Harmony shares this nature activity from kidsgardening.org. Another great idea from Barb is on how to make a nature journal. This one has great pictures that show the process step-by-step.

I love my nature notebook, as it often helps me remember where I've been and what I've seen. Over at Backyard Birding, Dana shares some thoughts on notebooks and birds.

Speaking of birds, I'm crazy about them. I recently discovered the blog of a Bird Study Ecology Group. Okay, I know these folks are in Singapore, but the pictures are terrific and I'm learning quite a lot about bird behavior. Check it out and see what you think.

With fall fast approaching, now is a good time to think about making your yard a bit more nature-friendly. Tiffany at Natural Family Living shares a slide show that highlights their backyard wildlife habitat.

Well, I thought mountain climbing in Tibet was adventurous, but it seems that Stephanie over at Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood has me beat! Read all about the Infamous Alaskan Backpacking Trip. (If you want to read about that mountain in Tibet, follow this link.)

For a trip closer to home, the folks at Free Range Academy share their pictures of a recent trip to the Lynde Shores Conservation Area.

Over at the Yellow House Homeschool, nature walks are a way of life. Check out the prairie walk, the tree study, and plant things. If you want to learn to take better nature photos, be sure to read the entry entitled Scale Matters.

Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight often shares shares pictures and writes about the flora and fauna that surround her family. I love this entry entitled Little Nature Stories: Birds, Bugs and Berries.

I'm always on the lookout for a new blog (at least new to me) that celebrates nature. Join me in visiting one of my new faves, Beyond the Fields We Know. The photos of this little corner of Ontario are amazing. While you're visiting, be sure to reflect on the passing of July with the entry entitled The Blessing Moon of July.

Let's Head Back in to Find Some Good Books
Becky at Becky's Book Reviews shares Shape Me a Rhyme, a poetry book written by Jane Yolen and illustrated with photographs by her son, Jason Stemple.

Would you like to learn about worms? Julie at Pines Above Snow shares some great reads for those with more than a passing fancy. If you want to follow up these books with a great online resource, I'm partial to the UIUC site The Adventures of Herman the Worm.

Over at True Colors, Dawnelle introduces us to the book Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock. Using this same title, Lindafay at Higher Up and Further In writes about using this book to guide their study of butterflies.

Funding and a Bit O' Politics
Sometimes finding money for outdoor education can be a problem. Terrell from Alone on a Limb and the inventor of this here blog carnival shares a fantastic proposal for a nature study project.

Given all the federal mandates mucking up public education these days, I'm not one for adding even more requirements, but this one has me nodding my head in agreement. If you haven't read about the proposed addendum to NCLB entitled No Child Left Inside, please do.

Just for Fun
On July 7th, the New 7 Wonders Foundation announced the winners of a global vote on the New 7 Wonders of the World. You can read about it here. The Foundation has now set off on a campaign to nominate the sites for the New 7 Wonders of Nature. Where in this big beautiful world have you been that is a worthy nominee? Think about it and then head on over and nominate your favorite spot.

That's it for this edition. Thanks so much for visiting. I leave you with and excerpt from Ordinary Things: Poems From a Walk in Early Spring by Ralph Fletcher, for it's also time for me to leave my desk behind. Enjoy!

Walking
Time to leave my desk
and leave my house,
pulling the door behind.

I walk the way I write
starting out all creaky,
sort of stumbling along,
looking for a rhythm.

Each footstep is like a word
as it meets the blank page
followed by a pause
before the next one:
step, step, word . . .

1. Environmental education is essential for--


• (A) enhancing student learning and problem solving skills, especially in science;
• (B) creating responsible and engaged citizens; and
• (C) producing graduates who are prepared to address the challenges, adjustments, and opportunities that will be present in the life and the workforce of the 21st century due to threats to human health, economical development, biological diversity, and national security arising from environmental stresses.


2. Studies documenting the increasing indicators of nature-deficit disorder show that time spent out of the classroom for learning during the school day is critical to the intellectual, emotional, and physical health of children and that providing students with quality opportunities to directly experience the natural world can improve students' overall academic performance, self-esteem, personal responsibility, community involvement, personal health (including child obesity issues), and understanding of nature.


3. Fewer and fewer students are becoming involved in important environmental education courses, classwork, and field investigations as an unintended consequence of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.).
   

• Provide incentives for state educational agencies to create a State Environmental Literacy Plan for integrating environmental education into their K-12 curriculum to ensure that graduates are environmentally literate.
• Provide funding to help states, schools systems, and environmental education partners to implement the State Environmental Literacy Plan.

Current educational practice and policy focus overwhelmingly on academic achievement. This achievement, however, is but one element of student learning and development and only a part of any complete system of educational accountability.

Together, these elements support the development of a child who is healthy, knowledgeable, motivated, and engaged.

To develop the whole child requires that

Communities provide

• Family support and involvement.
• Government, civic, and business support and resources.
• Volunteers and advocates.
• Support for their districts’ coordinated school health councils or other collaborative structures.

Schools provide

• Challenging and engaging curriculum.
• Adequate professional development with collaborative planning time embedded within the school day.
• A safe, healthy, orderly, and trusting environment.
• High‐quality teachers and administrators.
• A climate that supports strong relationships between adults and students.
• Support for coordinated school health councils or other collaborative structures that are active in the school.

Teachers provide

• Evidence‐based assessment and instructional practices.
• Rich content and an engaging learning climate.
• Student and family connectedness.
• Effective classroom management.
• Modeling of healthy behaviors.

• I have two well-worn copies of the original books published by Joseph Cornell, Sharing Nature with Children and Sharing the Joy of Nature. You can find the 20th anniversary edition of Sharing Nature with Children, and Sharing Nature with Children II at Dawn Publications. These are filled with a variety of games and activities that will help young and old get more in touch with the world around them.

• Nature with Children of All Ages by Edith Sisson - This publication from the Massachusetts Audubon Society is chock full of ideas for exploring the natural world. I particularly like the thematic organization, where topics such as tree, plants, seeds, invertebrates, birds, etc. can be found.

• Hands-on Nature: Information and Activities for Exploring the Environment with Children edited by Jenepher Lingelbach - I have the "old" version of this publication, but it still serves me well. Produced by the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, this guide is divided into chapters on adaptations, habitats, cycles and designs of nature.

• The National Gardening Association Guide to Kids' Gardening by Lynn Ocone with Eve Pranis - Gardening is a terrific way to get kids outside and looking closely at the life cycle of plants. This guide was my gardening "bible" for a long time.
  

• The Kids' Nature Book: 365 Indoor/Outdoor Activities and Experiences by Susan Milord - Structured in calendar format, this book provides an activity for every day of the year.

• The National Wildlife Federation has published a series called Ranger Rick's NatureScope. Covering a range of subjects, such as weather, geology, trees, endangered species, etc., these guides provide extensive background information and activities.

• Nature Detective: How to Solve Outdoor Mysteries by Eileen Docekal - Set up in a mystery format, this book includes information on animal tracks, animal houses, pond creatures, bird songs, animal scents, seeds, fungi, weather, and nocturnal creatures. Each chapter presents a "case" for children to solve.
  

• Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You by Clare Walker Leslie - This wonderful book offers simple techniques to motivate readers of all ages to go outside, observe the natural world, and sketch and write about what they see.
  

• Field Trips: Bug Hunting, Animal Tracking, Bird Watching, Shore Walking by Jim Arnosky - This book, written in field-journal format, provides helpful hints for taking successful outdoor field trips with kids.

• My First Green Book by Angela Wilkes - This practical, oversized volume provides hands-on activities that demonstrate the importance of pitching in to protect our planet. Similar in format to the Eyewitness series, the book is filled with large-scale, color photos that effectively illustrate such experiments as those that show how clean the air is, how acid rain affects plants, how various objects biodegrade at different rates (if at all) and why rain forests are so crucial to the Earth. Other projects include creating a wildlife garden in a flower box, planting a tree and organizing a "green campaign" with one's friends.
  

• My First Nature Book by Angela Wilkes - Also an oversized volume in the format of the Eyewitness series, this book provides an introduction to nature through a variety of simple indoor and outdoor activities including collecting seeds, feeding birds, watching a butterfly grow and more.

• Woods Walk: Peepers, Porcupines & Exploding Puffballs! What You'll See, Hear & Smell When Exploring the Woods by Henry Warren Art and Michael W. Robbins - Organized by season and filled with fun and interesting facts, this book explores what you will find in the forests of North America.

• Nature in the Neighborhood by Gordon Morrison - Each double-page spread in this book reveals the diversity and abundance of life that can be found in your own backyard.
  

• Make a rubbing of the bark (to serve as the cover of the book)
• Select one leaf for pressing
• Make a detailed sketch of the tree
• Look for and record signs of life in the tree, such as nests, holes, etc.
• Use a large string to find the circumference of the tree
  
• Estimate the height of the tree
• Measure the child's shadow and the tree's shadow at the same time of day. Calculate the tree's height by using the following ratio: child's height/child's shadow = tree's height/tree's shadow. (You can learn more about tree measurements at the Ecology Explorers site.)

• Sky Tree: Seeing Science Through Art by Thomas Locker - In this book, Locker depicts the same tree throughout the seasons. This is a terrific book for helping children to notice even the smallest changes that occur through time.

• One Small Place in a Tree by Barbara Brenner - When a bear uses a tree as a scratching post, it sets off a chain of events that leads to a large hole that becomes home to a variety of forest animals. This is a great book for looking at many of the species of animal that can call a tree home.

• For many good books about using your senses for observation, read this entry entitled Books That Fill the Senses.

• Field Trips: Bug Hunting, Animal Tracking, Bird Watching, Shore Walking by Jim Arnosky - This book, written in field-journal format, provides helpful hints for taking successful outdoor field trips with kids. A visit to the coloring pages at Jim Arnosky's web site provides reproducibles for 100 animals every child should know. There are many "bugs" on this list, and these pages can be incorporated into field trip journals.