Seymour Simon's Blog, page 13

I spotted a beautiful animal when I was eating my lunch today. This butterfly (or is it a moth?) was fluttering against the window. I grabbed my phone and used the camera to take this picture. Then I sat down to fill out my SeeMore Explorers Observation Logto help me figure out what it is.This is really quite unusual. Everything about it (no furry antennae, no knobs at the end of its antennae, awake during the day) says that it should be a butterfly, but it looks like a moth. I take a good look at the photograph, and then type into Google: black moth white brown spots I click on "Images" and a lot of different pictures come up, but none of them look like my photograph. I decide to try again. I look hard at my photograph, and decide to be more specific in my search. Back to Google, and this time I type: black moth white brown spots pointy butt BINGO! Sure enough, there are many photographs that look just like my animal. It is an Anania funebris, or a White-spotted sable moth. I know for sure that I am right when I read that its caterpillars feed on goldenrod. We have fields full of goldenrod in the late summer around where I live. So that’s what I found today. A very delicate, very beautiful, day-flying moth. Nice.If you want to try to identify animals or plants that you see outside this summer, you can fill out your own SeeMore Explorer Observation Log.Click here to download. Print it out, grab a pencil or pen, and write the most specific notes you can about what you see. Then, go to the library or onto the Internet, and use your clues to find out what it is!

It’s so important to keep kids reading all summer, and to support this goal,I’m giving out FREE access to all the great eBooks in my digital publishing company,StarWalk Kids Media. That’s right. For the entire month of July any child (or teacher or parent, for that matter), can read all of our eBooks, as much as they like. Like a frog popping its head our of the pond, or a mushroom popping through the ground into the light, it’s a Pop-Up Library! You never know when it might appear. Here is the linkwhere kids can go to read. Justclickand get started. And be sure to let me know what you think of our eBooks. I’m very proud of them.

One Week Only! Get Seymour Simon’s popular eBook MORE FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS for 75% off! Just $1.99 for Kindle Fire or Nook Color.Click herefor details.

We offer a multitude of resources (most of them free) to help stave off summer reading loss.Click hereto download the list and to start accessing these great activity ideas for kids! (Note that you must be a member of SeymourSimon.com to access these free educator resources. Membership is also free: simply click "sign up" at the top right on the website).My digital publishing company,StarWalk Kids Media, is also offering a summer reading special. Schools and libraries that subscribe by June 30th get a fifteen-month subscription for the price of 12, which covers a summer reading program!Here’s the linkto sign up for a subscription to this exceptional digital collection, which is affordable and simple to use, works on all devices with Internet connections, can be used by multiple children simultaneously, and has "Teaching Links" that support Common Core activities with every eBook. Don’t delay - you must sign up by June 30th to take advantage of this special offer!I participated in a terrific Twitter chat last night, lead by Cornelius Minor (@MisterMinor), who is a Staff Developer at Columbia Teachers College Reading & Writing Project. Educators were sharing ideas for encouraging summer reading and learning, and there was a lot of great information exchanged. If you are interested in learning about what people were suggesting, read the Twitter thread#tcrwpcoaching. People were asking last night what I do in the summer. It’s a mix of things.I relax during the summer by doing many of the same things that I do all year long - read books, write books, get out and photograph nature.We alsofish, walk in the woods, try to learn bird calls, watch bats at night, read poetry. How about you? I’d love to hear about your summer plans, for your students and for yourself.Whatever your plans, happy summer to all!

The dedication of this young, preservice teacher reminds us all of why we do what we do. Here is a letter I received recently from Hannah Blair.I am a preservice teacher. I’m currently working as a teacher’s aid in a first grade classroom. Becoming a teacher is hard, especially right now. When I tell people I’m going to teach, most of the time I just get a "good luck with that" look. I know that as I teach there will be times when I want to give up, but there will be moments that take my breath away and remind me why I do what I do. I recently had one of those moments and it involved one of your books.One of my kiddos has the hardest time focusing in school. He’s out of his seat and off the walls most of the time. Except for silent reading time. Silent reading time means he gets to read what ever he wants. And for him, that is outer space. He tries to find books about space every time he goes to the library, but most books at his level are only drawings of outer space and never completely satisfy his craving for a good space book. That is until I brought him my well-loved copy of your bookOur Solar System.When I pulled that book out of my backpack and he saw all those photographs and read what you had written my heart melted. To see his curiosity expand and his excitement grow I knew this was why I had gone into teaching. To watch him fly around the room showing off his book to classmates and teachers, to watch him tell that book goodbye every afternoon, and to watch him read and reread it daily reminds me why I want to teach. So I can inspire this love of learning in others. Thank you, Hannah, for this wonderful letter. You are a credit to a noble profession, teaching! I am so proud of having some small part in helping to assist you in being the great teacher that you are.

Today’s Cool Photo of the Week is of the smallest monkey in the world - the Pygmy Marmoset. This tiny animals lives high in the canopy of South American rainforests. If you saw one, you might mistake it for a squirrel, with its brown fur, long tail, and its habit of dodging between tree branches - scrambling, and then freezing in place. A pygmy marmoset is less than 6 inches (15 centimeters) long, and weighs about as much as a stick of butter. This tiny monkey is always on the move because it has many predators, including cats, eagles, hawks and snakes. It uses its long tail to keep its balance as it skitters through the treetops. It is most comfortable living there, where there are many hiding places among the leaves and branches.

Though we picked our winners at random, we want to recognize some of the other very strong research and writing by the students at Skano Elementary School as part of Seymour Simon’sCORAL REEFS contest. We do not have enough space to feature all the excellent writing, so this is just a sample. We think that our readers will enjoy reading what you found out. Elizabeth, 4th Grade, 9 years old, in Mr. Farquharson’s class wrote: Porcupinefish, also known as blowfish can blow themselves up to protect themselves from predators. Giant Moray Eels are about 6 feet long and they blend in with the coral reef to protect themselves from predators. Finally, Goby fish are less than 10cm (2 inches) long and they hide in coral reefs when they see a predator. The coral reef is home to a lot of sea creatures and serves as a hiding place to many of them. Photo: Giant Moray EelMy name is Dylan M. and I am in Kindergarten in Mrs. Benkoski’s class at Skano Elementary. I want to enter this contest because I love learning about what is under the sea and all the fish and beautiful creatures living in the ocean. My three choices are: The Long-Spined Sea Urchin, which can be found in the Bahamas or the Atlantic Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea.My mom has seen them before in the Mediterranean Sea when she visited Italy. They are black and have long, spiky looking needles sticking out of them and are shaped liked a circle and are pretty cool looking.They live in shallow water which means you could easily step on them accidentally and my mom says it hurts REALLY bad because she did once. And they eat algae. Photo: Long-Spined Sea UrchinMy second choice is the Spotted Moray Eel. I would love to be able to see an Eel, they look so creepy with their beady eyes. They have dark brown or purple spots all over their bodies and grow about 3-4 feet in length. They eat Crustaceans and fish and are dangerous so don’t get bitten by their sharp teeth! My third choice is a crab. The Ghost crab in particular blends with their environment because they match the color of the sand. They can travel fast at 10 miles per hour, which is super fast. They eat crabs, clams, insects, and vegetations. I thought it was cool that they eat other crabs. I entered this contest because I enjoy learning about other eco systems. Alyssa, in Mrs.O’Brien’s 2nd grade class, came up with many more than three interesting reef animals: Coral reefs are full of amazing beauty! Some of the creatures living on the coral reef are banded coral shrimp, giant moray eel, longnose hawkfish, parrot fishes & a variety of clownfish including percula clownfish, tomato clownfish, maroon clownfish & pink skunk clownfish! I am a big fan of the ocean & all its living species!Photo: Lightning Maroon ClownfishBradley also did a lot of research: Some animals that live in coral reefs are blowfish, angel sharks, bivalves and lemon sharks. Blowfish are also called Putterfish, Globefish and Fugu. They are poisonous and it can swallow water to double its size. Bivalves have soft bodies that are protected by two hard shells. The shells are hinged together around the bivalve. Animals like clams and oysters are bivalves. Angel sharks are bottom-dwelling animals with a blunt snout. Although they are sharks, they are relatively harmless. Lemon sharks are large yellowish sharks that live in an intermediate depth in the ocean.Photo: Blowfish (or Porcupinefish) Mrs. Russo’s afternoon Kindergarten class were the only ones to include one of my favorite reef creatures, the seahorse. They wrote: Lots of animals live in the coral reef, including jellyfish, octopuses, and seahorses. Jellyfish have poisonous, stinging tentacles. The California octopus is only 1 cm (1/3-inch) long. Seahorses have armored plates on their bodies. Photo: Seahorse and coral Christopher, in Mr. Johnson’s 2nd grade class, wrote: Lobsters live in a coral reef. The lobster’s claws are actually its front legs. Coral lives in a coral reef. Coral is an animal that can look like a plant or a rock. Clownfish (Nemo) live in a coral reef. The anemone (a kind of coral) keeps the clownfish safe. Clownfish drop food that the anemone eats. They act like a team. Sea turtles live in coral reefs. Sea turtles are not that fast on land, but in the water they are fast. Female sea turtles lay their eggs on the beach about a hundred feet from the water. Photo: Sea turtle swims above coral reef Steven, from Mrs Zacher’s Class, chose three very unique reef animals. Flamboyant Cuttlefish. I think the flamboyant cuttlefish is a very fascinating animal because it can change its skin texture to look like something else and confuse its prey. It can change its skin color with chromatophores, fast or slow depending on what it needs. Sometimes it will camouflage to hide or use bright color patterns to scare predators or hypnotizes its prey. Changing its colors is called metachrosis. It can catch its prey lightning fast with its two front tentacles. Bigfin Reef Squid. The bigfin reef squid looks like a cuttlefish because their rippled fin covers the whole length of its body. Other squid fins cover about one quarter of their bodies. Many people eat bigfin reef squid. Their camouflage is a light pale color. Scientists like to study the large nerve fibers of bigfin reef squid. I like the bigfin reef squid because of the way it swims with its big cuttlefish like fin and its arms that stay together because it looks like a dart. I first learned about bigfin reef squid from my Wii game, Go Vacation. Warty Frogfish. The warty frogfish is a type of anglerfish that lives in the coral reef. It disguises itself by changing its color, using chromataphores to look like coral. Its bumpy skin gives the texture of coral. The warty frog fish is an anglerfish because it uses a lure that is attached to its head to attract prey. The prey thinks that the lure is a worm or food. he warty frog fish eats small fish and crustaceans. The warty frogfish can swallow prey almost as big as itself. The warty frogfish and the flamboyant cuttlefish are similar because it looks like they walk on legs. The flamboyant cuttlefish uses two of its arms and the frogfish uses fins to help it walk. Both of these ocean creatures also can change the color of their skin. Editor’s Note: We shortened some of these entries and have checked all the facts and made a few edits to correct inaccuracies, so that everything you are reading here is true, as well as fascinating!

Thank you to everyone from Skano Elementary School who entered theCORAL REEFScontest. We asked students to do some research and tell us about three animals that live in coral reefs. I enjoyed seeing the choices you made and reading your writing about these animals. This contest was very unusual because of the large number of kindergarteners, both individuals and classes, who entered. This was very exciting work from the kindergarten kids, and you’ll see some of it here in our winning entries. As promised, we have selected two winners of this contest, and both will receive an autographed copy of Seymour Simon’s newest book, CORAL REEFS.We chose the winners at random, using a very cool random number generator website calledRandom.org. Are you ready? Here are the winners of Seymour Simon’s CORAL REEFS contest! Individual Winner: Benny, 6 years old, from Mrs. Russo’s kindergarten class. Benny wrote: 1. coral looks like a plant but is an animal 2. sharks have sharp teeth 3. lobster eyes are on stalks Classroom Winner: Mrs. Benkoski’s Kindergarten Class. They wrote: Sharks are cool and some live in coral reefs. Sand tiger sharks can be found there, but they sometimes hide in the sand. Squids have 10 arms and also live in coral reefs. Lots of sea urchins live on coral reefs. They have many poisonous spines. They can puff these out at things that swim by. It was really fun learning about coral reefs and we love your new book! Congratulations to everyone who entered. Be on the lookout for another blog post, because we enjoyed the work you did for this contest so much, we are going to publish some of your writing for everyone to read.

Thanks to all the kids at Skano Elementary, their teachers and their librarian, Mrs.Kirby-LeMon, for a very good day together. It was a little hot (90 degrees Fahrenheit and no air conditioning), but I think we all managed to have a good time together! I wanted to share two lovely notes I received this afternoon. First this one, from a fourth grader named Madelyn, who was entering the CORAL REEFS contest. Madelyn wrote:There are three amazing animals that live in coral reefs. One of the three animals is the black tip reef shark. These animals have a black tip on their top fin. Coral reefs help them in one way. That one way is that they pounce on their prey to dine on them. Another animal is scorpion fish. These fish also hide in the coral reefs. These fish blend in with coral reefs so they can eat their prey. Sea snakes is the third animal. These animals hide from their predators in coral reefs. Well coral reefs are truly amazing creatures of the ocean. Even though Seymour Simon wrote 300 books this is my favorite.Thank you so much, Madelyn, for saying this nice thing about my new book. I am so glad that you are inspired by it!And then, I received this note from one of the teachers:I’m the fan that spoke to you after your book session at Skano Elementary today. I just wanted to say again how much I love your books and your Meet the Author session. As I told you I have read, taught from, and shared your books with children from grades 1-5. I love the photos, the writing, and the scientific information in your books. My first Seymour Simon book was Whales, and I’ve been a fan ever since! Thank you so much for writing and sharing your wonderful books with teachers, students, and your other readers. Respectfully, Pat O’BrienClifton Park, NYYou guys made my day! Thanks so much for making my last school visit of the year very special.Seymour Simon

It is time for a new contest! Seymour Simon is visiting Skano Elementary School in Clifton Park, NY at the end of this month, and this contest is for all the Skano Elementary kids to enter. Two lucky winners are going to receive personally autographed copies of Seymour Simon’s new book,CORAL REEFS. Here is how you enter. First, read this excerpt from Seymour’s newest book. Coral reefs look like a bunch of rock formations. But a coral reef is actually a gigantic community of living things. For a long time, corals were a mystery to people. They were called rock-plants or plant-animals. Now we know that each coral polyp, basically a mouth, is a soft sea animal that is something like a jellyfish. The polyp makes a hard, protective limestone skeleton. Once you have read this, here is what you do to enter:1. Do some research and tell us about three animals that live on coral reefs. They might be fish, they might be crustaceans like crab and lobster, or they might be plant-like corals. 2. You can find your information by clicking on the"Coral Reefs" labelon this blog, in Seymour’s book CORAL REEFS, or by using other resources, like the library and the Internet. 3. Click on the yellow "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog entry to enter the contest by telling us about the three animals you have studied. Make sure that you put the information you have found into your own words (don’t just copy and paste information you find). 4. When you write your information, be sure to also tell us your name (first name only), your grade, your age and your teacher’s name, so that we can find you if you are chosen as the winner. Allow 24 hours for your comment to show up online, because all comments by people under 13 years old are reviewed by a moderator and approved before they appear on the website. Be patient if you don’t see it right away! 5. Be sure to post your entry by midnight, Friday, May 31. The contest ends then. 6. Two winners will be chosen randomly from all the correct entries. Older students may enter individually, and we will pick one winner. Students in grades K-2 may enter as a class and work with their teacher to enter the contest; there will be one classroom winner. 7. Students who do not attendSkano Elementary may also enter this contest. The rules are the same as above, but for #4, please include your first name, your grade, your teacher’s name, the name of your school, and the city where your school is located. If we have at least 20 entries from other schools, we will randomly choose a third prize winner from the non-Skano Elementary entries. Winners will receive copies ofCORAL REEFS, personally autographed by Seymour Simon. So, get to work and send us your entries today!