Math in the Garden uses a mathematical lens to explore the magical arena of gardens. Colorful watercolor illustrations depict children, youth and adults discovering patterns, measuring crops, tasting new fruits and vegetables, planting in circles, and graphing their observations of fruits, flowers and shadows.

The University of California Botanical Garden, in collaboration with the Lawrence Hall of Science, has developed engaging math activities that anyone can do. No mathematics expertise is needed to lead the activities, only a desire to discover the out of doors with children. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation in 1999, and supported in part by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. After-school youth leaders and educators from botanical gardens, garden clubs, 4-H programs, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, home-schooling groups, and classroom teachers have taught the investigations and contributed their insights.

Designed to promote inquiry, language arts and nutrition, the activities are grouped by the predominant mathematics strands and support the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principals and Standards of School Mathematics and the National Academy of Sciences National Standards for Science Education.

Each delightfully illustrated investigation has an easy-to-follow format and can be completed within an hour. The inexpensive equipment and materials necessary for the activities can be found in most homes and garden programs. See how easy it is to excite your kids about Math (and encourage good nutrition) using Math in the Garden at your home or school. Click here to view sample pages and activities from the book.

The National Gardening Association has published Math in the Garden, and is showcasing the book in their January 2006 catalogue. You will soon be able to purchase your copy at our Garden Shop ($29.95), which is the best way to support the Garden’s educational and horticultural efforts. If you like, you can order a copy at the National Gardening Association’s online store.

Unscramble the Clouds
Let’s Find Out More About Clouds!
Cloudspeak

More clouds at WeatherWizKids

… and more cloudy weather …

WWW
- For Kids Only: Earth Science Enterprise from NASA
- Education from National Severe Storms Laboratory
- DAN’S WILD WILD WEATHER

BOOKS
- Shapes in the Sky: A Book About Clouds (Amazing Science: Weather)
- The Cloud Book

Suggestions for Numeral Writing Practice and Lyrics for Making the numerals 0 through 9 from the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics‘s Illuminations (their weblinks list is impressive).

Montessori uses sandpaper numbers, but in real life it takes longer to get a 4-year old to trace them right. Here’s a more detailed description on tracing the sandpaper letters.

And these Kumon Numbers Cards are good for practice.

As are these dot and number cards in a little bit of math.

And I absolutely love these numbers everywhere

More about The Monarchs’ Arrival in Mexico and Mexican Traditions

And here’s how we can track the journey north this winter-spring:
When Does Journey North Take Place?
* Winter: February-March
We begin the program in February, when the Monarchs are at the over-wintering sites in Mexico where they have been since November. For the first 6 weeks our theme is survival. We explore monarch adaptations, habitat and the climate of the monarch’s winter home.
* Spring: March-June
The monarchs begin their spring migration in March. An announcement comes from Mexico when the monarchs are on their way. The migration continues into June, when the monarchs reach the northernmost part of their breeding range in Canada.

Even more monarch resources at Monarch Watch.

One is called the Salt Tower and it is possible that this expensive commodity was traditionally stored in this building. In medieval England salt was only afforded by the higher Nobility. The Lords sat on the dais at the ‘high table’ and the lower classes at lower trestle tables. The salt was placed in the centre of the high table and only those of the appropriate rank had access to it. Those less favoured on the lower tables were “beneath the salt”.

Here is a tour of the Tower of London for kids… hey, today is November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day!

Boys and girls get an old suit or maybe an old pair of dads pants and an old jacket, and stuff it with straw to make a straw figure that looks like Guy Fawkes. If they can get a hat they put that on too. This figure is called a Guy. It’s something like a scarecrow. The children then put the guy in a wooden cart and take him door to door asking people for “A penny for the Guy please.”

When they have collected enough pennies they go and buy fireworks … rockets, and sparklers and bangers. As soon as it gets dark everyone, children and adults, build a huge bonfire with wood and sticks, and they throw the straw Guy on it and set the bonfire alight. As the straw Guy burns up fireworks are set off and everyone chants a rhyme:

Please to remember
The 5th of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot
We know of no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Nursery Rhyme: Remember Remember the Fifth of November

one of the world’s most famous fossil-bearing sites

So I did a bit of (re)search and found some interesting sites:
- Page Museum: La Brea Tar Pits
- wikipedia’s La Brea Tar Pits
- asphalt jungle
- Localities of the Pleistocene: The La Brea Tar Pits from University of California Museum of Paleontology

While the new findings in Venezuela are impressive, the more accessible La Brea is for sure on the next travel destination list in So Cal!

Until then, here’s an Ice Age Adventure!

The word comes from the Greek deltion, diminutive of deltos, meaning writing tablet or letter.

Now if you do collect postcards and would like one from this Road Trip, email me your address and I could send it to you next time I’ll visit the museum.

And here is the story from everything2:

I first heard this story from storyteller Nancy Donoval, who was telling it as part of a performance of Mouth, the improvised storytelling performance she does with Gerald Fierst. Part of her inspiration for telling this story that night was seeing Olga Loya in the audience. I thought that was ballsy, telling someone else’s story when she was in the room. Nancy, like Olga, knew the story as a traditional Latin American folktale, from Puerto Rico. But there are presumably older versions of the same story, in Spain, and Portugal, where it is known as Tía Miseria, and in France, as the Enchanted Apple tree. (Many cultures have stories about cheating death, although they don’t always include a tree).

There once was an old woman who lived in a town for so long that people had forgotten her name. They only knew her as Aunt Misery, since she never had a kind word to say to anyone, never even spoke to her neighbors, except on those days when los malcreados– the ones who were not raised properly– would come and steal the pears from her tree.

Ah, her pear tree. Its fruit was the only joy left in her life. And when those boys came, and climbed up into the branches of the pear tree to eat her pears, she would shout at them, and curse them, but the malcreados, they were quick, and they would run, their laughter ringing in the ears of Aunt Misery.

There was one pear the boys had missed. It had been knocked to the ground earlier, and half of it had spoiled. But Aunt Misery picked it up and brought it inside anyway, to prepare for her dinner. As she cut away the bruised fruit, there was a knock on the door.

A stranger was there, asking for shelter for the night. Aunt Misery invited him in, prepared a bed. She gave him a plate with the only morsels of food she had: a piece of bread, and the ripe half of a pear she had been preparing. The stranger nodded in gratitude, and ate the food hungrily.

The next morning, as the stranger made to leave, his appearance transformed, and he revealed himself to be a visitor from heaven. “As a reward for the kindness you have shown, I will grant you a wish. Anything your heart desires.”

Aunt Misery needed no time for reflection. “I wish that whosoever reaches up into the branches of my pear tree, shall remain there until I give my word.”

“So be it.” And with that, the stranger disappeared.

It would be a year before Aunt Misery could test the stranger’s gift, a year before the tree blossomed and once again brought forth fruit. And with the fruit, came los malcreados.

The cries of the boys brought her to the door. “Bruja! Witch! Let us go!” But Aunt Misery laughed at them.

“Steal my pears, will you?” And she reached up with her cane and lashed the legs of the unfortunate boys.

When her arm grew tired, and the boys’ curses and the cries grew quieter, and turned to promises, to never take another pear, to never set foot in the yard again, to never steal nothing from nobody, she relented. “I want a new fence. Painted. And a roasted chicken every week.”

They promised. And with a word, they were released from the tree.

The fence was completed in three days. Two roasted chickens appeared each week, just to be sure. And Aunt Misery’s life grew quiet, and she alone enjoyed her pears.

Years passed, the tree grew old and gnarled. And then one day, another stranger appeared and knocked at her door, and she asked him what he wanted.

“I am Death, and I have come to take you with me.”

He looked so parched and weary that she offered him a glass of water. She gave him bread, and roast chicken. And Death was pleased. He rarely encountered such hospitality on his travels. When he finished his meal, he said, “It is time.”

“We must have nourishment for our journey,” said Aunty Misery. “And the pears in my tree are so delicious. But I am too old to reach the ripest pears in the top branches. Would you be so kind and to climb up in the tree and get some?”

And Death was glad to oblige. He climbed into the tree, and was stuck fast.

He cursed her. He yelled. He screamed. He tried flattery. He coaxed, he wheedled.

But she would have none of it. She left Death in the tree, and each day visited him and asked to hear stories of his many travels. But she would not let him go.

And years went by. And because Death was stuck fast to the tree, he could not make his rounds. And so no one died.

Soon Aunt Misery received new visitors, complaining. The doctors. The pharmacists. The undertakers. The priests. Business is terrible, they said. And the old who are tired of life, and those who have suffered injuries and are in constant pain, begged Aunt Misery to release Death.

So she made a bargain with Death: “I will release you, on the condition that you never bother me again.” And Death agreed.

She freed him from the tree, and Death returned to the world. And he has kept his word and never returned to that place. So that is why we will always have Misery in the world.

And here’s a nice touch Nancy added:

And so I can’t tell you the town, or the country, but Aunt Misery is still there in that house. And if you knock on her door, she will invite you in, and feed you. And she’ll ask you to pick some pears for her. Because she wants to hear your stories. For as we all know, Misery loves company.

Additional sources:
“El peral de la tía miseria.” Relatocorto.com (25 August 2005)
John Bierhorst. “Aunt Misery.” Latin American Folktales: Stories from Hispanic and Indian Traditions. Pantheon, 2001.
Olga Loya. “Tía Miseria.” From Sea to Shining Sea: A Treasury of American Folklore and Folk Songs. Amy Cohn, editor. Scholastic, 1993
Rose Owens. “The Enchanted Apple Tree .” Rose the Story Lady Web Site. (August 25, 2005)