Science Poetry Pairings - Seasons

Every year from Kindergarten through second grade, my son came home with a picture he'd drawn of an apple tree seen through all four seasons. While I love the book that these were modeled on, I often found myself wishing that this activity was done at the end of the year as a culmination of months of studying the same schoolyard tree through the seasons. This isn't hard to do and teaches kids much about the skill of observation and keeping a nature journal. It's also a much better way to document the changing of the seasons. It may take longer to teach this way, but the benefits of long-term study are undeniable and vastly more interesting.

Today's book pairing offers an unusual, non-traditional and very clever look at our four seasons.

Poetry Book

Pumpkin Butterfly: Poems From the Other Side of Nature, written by Heidi Mordhorst and illustrated by Jenny Reynish, is a collection of 23 poems that begins with fall and cycles through the year's seasons, inviting readers to think about the signs of these seasons in new and extraordinary ways. Readers will be struck by the terribly clever metaphors as they find new ways to see and think about the world around them. Here's one of the poems that I particularly love.

Botanical Jazz

Quiet down, flower—
not so loud!

All this stretching your neck
and spreading your arms
bellowing your brassy yellow sass—

you’re breaking our eyedrums
trumpeting all that color and sun
blowing that blazing yellow jazz. . . .

Belt it out, flower—
we’ll join in!

As someone who uses poetry to teach science, I especially appreciate Mordhorst's gift for observation and her use of metaphor to help us see the everyday in new ways. Here's a terrific example of this.

Fireplace

It's only because of
the low December sun bearing
down along the street
that I notice
half a dozen fires without flame
smoldering among the roots of

a monumental oak where
leaves and fat acorns have pooled.
Their whispering columns of smoke
climb the trunk,
turning it into a risky thing:
a chimney made of wood.

I follow the white morning beams,
mingle my clouded breath with
the twisting wisps of smoke, and
warm my hands
over the burning of those
acorn coals, of that timber chimney.

Poems © Heidi Mordhorst. All rights reserved.

While these are ostensibly nature poems, they so keenly reflect the markers of each season that together they make this a perfect book for sharing during a study of the seasons.


Nonfiction Picture Book

Our Seasons, written by Grace Lin and Ranida McKneally and illustrated by Grace Lin, is a beautiful combination of science and poetry that explores questions children often have about these seasons. Beginning with fall, each season is explored in three double-page spreads that include a haiku, related question, and the answer to that question.

Before the exploration of seasons begins, the book opens with this haiku and question-answer selection.

When the earth is cold
We long for the butterflies,
Yet in warmth we want snow.

Why do we have seasons? 

Did you know that the earth is titled as it revolves around the sun? If you drew an imaginary line through the earth's poles, this line (the axis) would be tilted at an angle, not straight up and down. The tilt of the axis never changes, so part of the year you are facing the sun more directly and part of the year you are not. Which season you experience depends on where you live and on the time of year.

Questions explored through the seasons include:

• What makes the wind?
• Why do leaves change color?
• Why do I see my breath?
• What is snow?
• Why is there frost on the window?
• Why do my cheeks turn red in the cold?
• What makes a thunderstorm?
• Why do bees like flowers?
• Why do I sneeze?
• Why is the air sticky?
• Why do fireflies glow?
• Why do I tan?

Text © Grace Lin and Ranida McKneally. All rights reserved.

The answers to each of these questions are written in a clear, understandable, and engaging manner. The book wraps up with the answer to the question, "Does everyone have four seasons?" Back matter includes a glossary of terms.

Perfect Together

While not a typical look at the seasons, Mordhorst's poetry will encourage students to look for signs of the seasons and imagine them in different ways. Pair this with Lin and McKneally's book to provide answers to often asked questions about the seasons and common events that occur in each.

For additional resources, consider these sites.

• The BrainPop Educators site has a number of ideas for teaching about the seasons.
• EasyScience for Kids has a nice page of information on the seasons.
• ScienceNetLinks has a good lesson on the four seasons.
• Scholastic has a series of ideas and activities for teaching about the seasons in K-2.
• Scholastic Study Jams has a slide show on seasons.
• Discovery Kids has a page about the reason we have seasons. It also includes images of one tree through the seasons.

Finally, if you decide you want to try a year-long tree study, consider using this amazing book.

Sky Tree: Seeing Science Through Art, written by Thomas Locker and Candace Christiansen and illustrated by Thomas Locker, is a detailed look at one tree through a single year. The gorgeous oil paintings and lyrical text invite readers to look closely at the world around them. The author's note that opens the book reads:

I have spent most of my life learning to paint trees agains the ever changing sky. After all these years I still cannot look at a tree without being filled with a sense of wonder. 

Since I began collaborating with Candace Christiansen, who is a science teacher, I have become increasingly aware of the scientific approach to the natural world. I was amazed to discover that the more scientific facts I learned, the deeper my sense of wonder became. This realization led to the creation of Sky Tree. 

Sky Tree invites adults and children to experience the life of a tree and its relationship to the sky in several different ways. Through storytelling, art appreciation, and scientific exploration, Sky Tree attempts to reach both the heart and mind.

Back matter includes a section in which questions asked in the text are answered, linking science and art. 

Thematic Book List - Fall

We're well into fall already, though you wouldn't know it here. Until recently our temperatures were still in the 80's and our leaves were barely changing color. But yesterday we got some rain and cooler temperatures. Pumpkins are dotting the landscape, the squirrels in my yard continue their frenzied gathering of acorns, and the sound of geese in flight have me convinced that fall is finally here. There are many, many good books about the seasons, and fall in particular. I know I cannot name them all, so instead, here are some of my favorites.

• Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert - Made of leaf collages, leaf man must go where the wind takes him. Along the way he will meet ducks, rabbits, and many other animals composed of collections fall leaves.

• Autumnblings by Douglas Florian - One in a series of seasonal poetry, this book contains a variety of inventive poems about fall.

• Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber - Beautiful colored linoleum prints and rhyming text showcase the leaves and events of the fall season. Eight leaf types are identified for children who want to try some identification on their own.

• Autumn Equinox: Celebrating the Harvest by Ellen Jackson - The book introduces the history of the Autumn Equinox and describes how many ancient cultures celebrated the harvest.

• Why Do Leaves Change Color? by Betsy Maestro - This book in the Let's Read-and-Find-Out Science nicely explains what happens to leaves in the fall.
  

• How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara - This is a terrific book for examining pumpkins. Read my review, with lots of ideas for instruction, here.

• When Autumn Falls by Kelly Nidey - Illustrated with beautiful cut-paper collage, poetic text describes many fall events, like bobbing for apples, selecting pumpkins, and jumping in leaves.

• It's Fall by Jimmy Pickering - One in a series on the seasons, this one follows Sally and Sam (a dog) through an apple harvest festival, hayrides, Halloween and more.

• Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson - The change of seasons is coming, and Fletcher the fox doesn't understand why the leaves are falling. Text and illustrations come together beautifully in this moving tale.

• Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell - This text describes the joy of visiting a farm in fall to pick the reddest apples and the perfect pumpkin.

• Leaf by Leaf: Autumn Poems by Barbara Rogasky - This book contains 25 poems on fall accompanied by beautiful photographs. Here you will find poems by Yeats, Whitman, Poe, and more.
  

• In November by Cynthia Rylant - This is a lovely poetic text that captures the mood and feel of November. It's also a wonderful book for thinking about the seasons with your senses.

• Autumn: An Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur - This is one book in a seasonal series featuring acrostic poetry. In this installment, you will find one acrostic poem for each letter of the alphabet, from acorn to zero. How does zero fit with fall? You'll have to pick up the book to find out!

• I Know It's Autumn by Eileen Spinelli - In rhyming text, a young girl describes all the signs that tell her it is fall.

• Leaves by David Ezra Stein - A young bear becomes concerned when the leaves begin to fall from the trees. This is a beautiful, quiet story that captures the feeling of fall.

• Nancy Elizabeth Wallace has created two terrific books for fall. Both feature cut paper collage illustrations that hold hidden facts and riddles. There is much to be found in a close examination of the pictures.
• Pumpkin Day - Follow the rabbit family on a trip to Pumpkin Hollow Farm where they select pumpkins for cooking, decorating, and carving.
• Apple, Apples, Apples - Follow the rabbit family on a trip to Long Hill Orchard as they learn about how apples grow before picking their own.
  

Here are some poems touching on the theme of fall to round out your study. I have included the first few lines of each, along with a reference to the book where you can find the poems in their entirety.

• October by John Updike, in A Child's Calendar.
The month is amber,
   Gold, and brown.
Blue ghosts of smoke
   Float through the town,



• November by John Updike, in A Child's Calendar.
The stripped and shapely
   Maple grieves
The ghosts of her
   Departed leaves.



• Bullhead in Autumn by Marilyn Singer, in Turtle in July.
   in autumn
I settle
   belly down in the shallows
above me
   leaves
      red and yellow



• Why do leaves change colors? by Amy Goldman Koss in Where Fish Go in Winter And Answers to Other Great Mysteries
The oak tree always lets me know
   When autumn has begun.
But why do its dark green leaves
   Change colors one by one?



• Moon of Falling Leaves by Joseph Bruchac and Jonathan London in Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back.
So, each autumn, the leaves
of the sleeping trees fall.
They cover the floor
of our woodlands with colors
as bright as the flowers
that come with the spring.



• Fall by John Frank, in A Chill in the Air: Nature Poems for Fall and Winter.
Fall sets fire
To the tips of trees,
And fans the flames
With an icy breeze.

I have just scratched the surface here of some wonderful books that celebrate autumn. You will notice that I have not included books that cover the full change of seasons (year), or those that cover life cycles of plants. I know that The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree, From Seed to Pumpkin, and Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf are missing (among others). These titles, and the aforementioned topics, dear readers, are for the next lists. As always, if I have missed a terrific book about fall, please let me know.

Summer Solstice

Yesterday was officially the first day of summer and the Northern solstice (for any readers Down Under). Today we began the slow march towards winter as the days begin to shorten. Don't believe me? See for yourself.

Here's how Jean Craighead George describes this phenomenon in her terrific book, Dear Rebecca, Winter is Here.

December 21

Dear Rebecca,
I turned on the lights to eat breakfast this morning and put on my coat to go outside.
Winter is here.

It was brought by little hands of darkness. Each little hand is a few minutes long.

In summer they began bringing winter. They pulled the night over the edges of dawn and made the days shorter. One June 21, while you were cooling off under the hose, winter began.

Summer is my least favorite season of the year, so I confess that I've always been secretly thrilled by the passing of the summer solstice and the promise of shorter and cooler days to come.