Friday, September 21, 2012

Honey

Some kids might think honey comes from bears if they like hearing Pooh stories. Some kids might think honey comes from the grocery store. Have a bee-utiful time this month learning about honey, flowers, and bees in science.

Bees make honey to feed their young and to have something to eat during the winter. Bees live in colonies. There are three types of bees in each colony. the queen bee, the worker bee and the drone.

Bees do give us honey, but they also are great pollinators. They buzz around looking for nectar and enable plants to produce the fruits and nuts we enjoy by carrying pollen from one plant or flower to the next. Sometimes farmers contact professional beekeepers to have them send honeybees to them in order to help their crops get pollinated.

Scientists have a hard time studying bees because they can travel up to two miles from their hive to look for nectar and if they get hurt or die, the scientist doesn’t know where to find them so he can find out why they died. Also, when scientists return to a hive they have been studying, about half the bees they studied on their first visit will be dead, replaced by new ones in the natural life cycle of bees.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Back to School Poetry

I thought it might be fun to share back to school poetry this month as an encouragement and maybe a laugh. After reading some, challenge your kids to write some back-to-homeshool poems.

A Dream of School Supplies
I had a dream of school supplies,
where paperclips could talk;
where poster paper hung around
with marking pens and chalk.

The stationery idled
while the pencils madly raced.
The clocks went 'round in circles,
and the glue sticks merely paced.

The binders were inseparable.
They bonded with the tape.
The workbooks exercised
and helped the stencils stay in shape.

Some calculators added
to the numbers in this land,
and music was provided by
a singing rubber band.

My dream was strange and truly cool,
but this was even cooler:
The dictionaries all looked up to me.
I was the ruler.
--Kenn Nesbitt


The Bells Are Ringing
by Roger J. Robicheau
The bells are ringing, to start school
Could you be thinking, it’s not cool
You want freedom, to live your way
To make each call, from day to day
The Summer passed, without those books
Why make a change, you liked the looks
Please stop and think, reach in your mind
The choice you make, could be a grind
You might end up, a lowly chump
Because you thought, you had the jump
Can you get by, on what you know?
Come on, be fair, probably no!
Look at yourself, and make the call
You better stay, your life could stall
Just work it out, make that twelfth grade
Embrace that Spring, greet your parade.


Back To School
When the summer smells like apples
and shadows feel cool
and falling leaves make dapples
of color on the pool
and wind is in the maples
and sweaters are the rule
and hazy days spell lazy ways,
it's hard to go to school.
But, I go!
~Aileen Fischer


WHY HANDS-ON?
I TRIED TO TEACH MY CHILD WITH BOOKS;
HE GAVE ME ONLY PUZZLED LOOKS.
I TRIED TO TEACH MY CHILD WITH WORDS;
THEY PASSED HIM BY OFTEN UNHEARD.
DESPAIRINGLY, I TURNED ASIDE;
"HOW SHALL I TEACH THIS CHILD," I CRIED?
INTO MY HAND HE PUT THE KEY,
"COME," HE SAID, "PLAY WITH ME."