Spring Surprises

Now it is Spring.
The weather is warm. 
There has been some rain.
Did you see the full moon?

Flowers are blooming.

begonia

spiderwort

There were some surprises in the garden this morning:

We planted the top of a pineapple after we ate the sweet fruit. Now a tiny new fruit is growing.

Our lemon tree has started to bloom. The flowers smell so good! Now the blooms are falling off, and tiny lemons are starting to grow.

With warm days and cool nights, baby tomatoes grow after yellow flowers are pollinated by bees.

It's not only plants that are glad it is Spring.  Red-winged Blackbirds are back, nesting in the catttails. Grackles are busy; the males are showing off their beautiful tails. And a Downy Woodpecker is pecking at the hole in the tree near the patio.

Here is part of a poem about sparrows that used to make Mama and Uncle Jeff laugh when they were kids:

 

I

On a little piece of wood, Mr. Spikky Sparrow stood; Mrs. Sparrow sate close by, A-making of an insect pie, For her little children five, In the nest and all alive, Singing with a cheerful smile To amuse them all the while,     Twikky wikky wikky wee,     Wikky bikky twikky tee,         Spikky bikky bee!

A Link for Some Fun and Games

Sometimes it's fun to find games for kids online.  Here is a link you might like to explore:

http://pbskids.org/

You can go back to this link whenever you want. There are 
many activities to try. Tell me
what you like!
  

Some Thoughts about Shadows

A shadow is the image cast on some surface by a person or thing blocking the light
                                - the dictionary








Whose shadow is this?






 



Whose shadows are these?








 With a bright light behind you, you can make a shadow show on a wall.

You can make a rabbit,

Or a swan,












Or a funny man.














Try it! Can you make a flying bird?
Or a snake?

Make up a story with your shadow characters.

Here is a poem about shadows by Robert Louis Stevenson:

                               My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.