April is National Frog Month!

Celebrate this frog-tastic month with these fun froggy activities:

• Observe frogs in a pond or wetland.
• Read books about frogs.
• Make a frog craft.
• Write a poem about frogs.
• Play frog hopscotch.
• Pick up garbage at your local pond to help keep frog habitat clean.

Froggy crafts
Frog Life Cycle Craft: http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mfroglifecycle.htm
Frog Puppet: http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mpfrog.html

Books about frogs
Arnosky, J. 2002. All About Frogs. Scholastic, Inc.
Beltz, E. 2009. Frogs: Inside Their Remarkable World. Firefly Books, Limited.
Heller, R. 1995. How to Hide a Meadow Frog and Other Amphibians. Groslett & Dunlap.
Marent, T., and T. Jackson. 2010. Frog: A Photographic Portrait. DK Publishing, Inc.
Naden, C.J. 1972. Let's Find Out About Frogs. Scholastic Library Publishing.
Stewart, M., and H. Bond. 2010. A Place for Frogs. Peachtree Publishers, Ltd.

Fun Frog Facts

• Instead of drinking water, frogs soak it into their body through their skin.
• Frogs breathe through their nostrils, but they absorb about half the air they need through their skin.
• Frogs use their sticky, muscular tongue to catch and swallow food.
• Frogs can see forwards, sideways and upwards all at the same timeFrogs actually use their eyes to help them swallow food.
  

Want to do more?
April 25th is Save the Frogs Day! Learn more at: http://www.savethefrogs.com/

Nature Poetry

April is National Poetry Month! Celebrate with a study of nature poetry!

Ask children if they know what poetry is? Have they heard poems? Are books poems? Discuss. Read poems about nature and wildlife (see book list below). Listen to nature songs and music - since songs are poems set to music! Try “Billy B” Brennan, Stan Slaughter, or The Banana Slug String Band.

As a class, create your own illustrated nature poetry book. Take kids on a nature walk, find a quiet place to sit, listen, and reflect. Record students’ observations and feelings. Allow children time to draw pictures of what they see or how they feel while in nature. When you return to the classroom, as a class, create/write poems from the children’s observations. Compile a book of the children’s drawings and poetry.

Book Lists

Educator Book List

Anderson, P. 1996. Henry David Thoreau: American Naturalist. Scholastic Library Publishing.

Bosselaar, L., and E. Hiestand. 2000. Urban Nature: Poems About Wildlife in the City. Milkweed Editions.

Ferra, L., and D. Boardman. 1994. A Crow Doesn’t Need a Shadow: A Guide to Writing Poetry from Nature. Smith, Gibbs Publisher.

Hass, R. and P. Michael. 2008. River of Words: Young Poets and Artists on the Nature of Things. Milkweed Editions.

Leopold, A. 1989. A Sand County Almanac. Oxford University Press.

Leslie, C. W., and C. E. Roth. 2003. Keeping a Nature Journal. Storey Books.

Leslie, C. W. 2003. Nature Journal: A Guided Journal for Illustrating and Recording Your Observations of the Natural World. Storey Books.

Muir, J. 1997. John Muir: Nature Writings. Penguin Group.

Shamir, I. 1999. Poet-Tree, the Wilderness I am. Better World Press, Inc.

Children’s Book List

Florian, D. 2002. Insectlopedia. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Florian, D. 2005. Lizards, Frogs, and Polliwogs. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Florian, D. 2004. Mammalabilia. Voyager Books.

Florian, D. 2000. On the Wing. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

George, K. O., and K. Kiesler. 2007. Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Glaser, L., E. Kleven. 2002. Our Big Home: An Earth Poem. Lerner Publishing Group.

Harrison, M., and C. Stuart-Clark. 1992. The Oxford Book of Animal Poems. Oxford University Press.

Heard, G., and J.O. Dewey. 1997. Creatures of the Earth, Sea, and Sky: Poems. Boyds Mills Press.

Paladino, C. 1993. Land, Sea, and Sky: Poems to Celebrate the Earth. Little, Brown & Company.

Paolilli, P. and D. Brewer. 2001. Silver Seeds: A Book of Nature Poems. Viking.

Peters, L. W., and C. Felstead. 2003. Earthshake: Poems from the Ground Up. HarperCollins Publishers.

Ryder, J., and D. Nolan. 1990. Under Your Feet. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.

Sidman, J., and B. Prange. 2005. Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Sidman, J., and R. Allen. 2014. Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

VanDerwater, A. L., and R. Gourley. 2013. Forest Has a Song: Poems. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Worth, V., and S. Jenkins. 2007. Animal Poems. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Yolen, J. and J. Stemple. Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People. Boyds Mills Press.

Helping our Native Pollinators

What is Pollination?

Pollination is the process where plants receive pollen from other plants of the same species so they can reproduce and form seeds. Many plants are pollinated by animals, and most of the animal pollinators are insects. The relationship between plants and their insect pollinators is beneficial to both the plant and the pollinator. The insect pollinator receives food, usually in the form of nectar, while it spreads pollen from plant to plant aiding the plants reproduction. Pollination is really just a “happy accident” that happens when an insect visits a flower to get food. The insects do not know they are pollinating plants as they are finding food for themselves.

Insects have been pollinating plants for approximately 140 million years, since the dawn of angiosperms (flowering plants). Flowering plants lure pollinators to them with scent, visual cues, and food. Learn more about the process of pollination: The Plant Pollination Process: http://www.buzzaboutbees.net/plant-pollination-process.html

Why We Need Pollinators

More than one-third of our food supply depends on pollinators. Without pollinators there would be no apples, onions, oranges, pumpkins, and many other fruit and vegetables. There would be no coffee, chocolate, nuts, or cotton for our clothes. Without pollinators our world would be a much different place than it is right now.

Produce Section With And Without Bees

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/15/supermarket-without-bees_n_3442938.html

List of crop plants pollinated by bees

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees

Why you should be more worried about pollination than a bee sting

http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/why-you-should-be-more-worried-about-pollination-than-a

Flower Dissection

Gather flowers from your yard or visit a local flower shop and get flowers to dissect. Cut the flowers in half. Identify the different parts and talk about what they are and how pollination works. Ask children if they have seen bees or butterflies on flowers? Why do they think they were on the flowers?

Pollination Crafts

Create tissue paper flowers. Have children draw pictures of pollinators to glue to their flowers.

Pollination Field Trip

Visit a local apple orchard, garden, or even walk around your schoolyard this spring and observe how many pollinators you can find. Make a chart to keep track of different kinds (bee, butterfly, moth, beetle, etc).

Gardening for Pollinators

Plan and plant a school garden for pollinators. Already have a school garden? Add plants for pollinators or devote a section to pollinators. Even growing a few pollinator-friendly plants in containers can be beneficial!

Blank Park Zoo: Plant. Grow. Fly.

http://www.blankparkzoo.com/en/conservation/plant_grow_fly/

Become part of a new conservation initiative to help protect native pollinators! Whether you have several acres, a small back yard, a schoolyard, or even a business courtyard – you can make a difference! Plant seeds, watch them grow, and help our native pollinators thrive!

Other things you can do to support pollinators:     

• Avoid or limit pesticide use at home and never use a neonicotinoid pesticide
• Buy organic produce
• Provide nesting sites, such as bee nesting blocks

Helpful Links

Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation – Looking out for Iowa: Native Pollinators

http://www.inhf.org/lookingoutforiowa-native-pollinators.cfm

Native Pollinators: The Amazing World of Native Pollinators

http://nativepollinator.com/

Native Bee Conservancy: Saving Our Wild Pollinators

http://www.nativebeeconservancy.org/

Bee Basics: An Introduction to Our Native Bees

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/documents/BeeBasics.pdf

Bug Guide: Native Bees of North America

http://bugguide.net/node/view/475348

Animal Pollination

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/animals/index.shtml

USDA Forest Service: Gardening for Pollinators

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/gardening.shtml

Planting a Pollinator Garden

http://www.kidsgardening.org/node/3029

The Xerces Society: Pollinator Gardens

http://www.xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/gardens/

Garden for Wildlife

http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Create-a-Habitat.aspx

White House Gets “First-Ever” Pollinator Garden, Milkweed Planted at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/monikamaeckle/2014/04/white-house-gets-first-ever-pollinator-garden-milkweed-planted-at-1600-pennsylvania-ave/

Book List

Educator Reference

Barth, F. G., and M. A. Biedermann-Thorson. 1991. Insects and Flowers: The Biology of a Partnership. Princeton University Press.

The Xerces Society . 2011. Attracting Native Pollinators: The Xerces Society Guide to Conserving North American Bees and Butterflies and Their Habitat. Storey Books.

Children’s Books

Galvin, L.G., and K. Kest. 2000. Bumblebee at Apple Tree Lane. Soundprints.

Heiligman, D., and B. Weissman. 1996. From Caterpillar to Butterfly. HarperCollins Publishers.

Hoff, M. K. 2004. Pollination. The Creative Company.

Lawrence, E. 2012. What Lily Gets from Bee: And Other Pollination Facts. Bearport Publishing Company, Inc.

Schaefer, L. M., and A. Richardson. 2001. Butterflies: Pollinators and Nectar-Sippers. Capstone Press.

Slade, S., and C. Schwartz. 2010. What If There Were No Bees? Capstone Press.

Lauber, P., and J. Wexler. 1986. From Flower to Flower: Animals and Pollination. Random House Children’s Books.