Plant your Pants! Sounds like a great idea to get children to learning about soil. In England, each year, there is a Plant your Pants program where you are encouraged to find a pair of 100% cotton undies and bury them in about 6 inches of soil. After two months, you need to check your buried undies. If they have holes and look eaten away, that means your soil is healthy and different microorganisms are munching on them. If, your undies look pretty much like you last saw them, your soil needs better nutrients. Give it a try this growing season! Learn more at this link: Plant Your Pants!

Illustration from Country Trust

The BLOB is coming. Sounds like a sci-fi movie but a 5000 mile wide clump (or blooms)of sargassum seaweed(really 300 species of brown algae) is heading for Florida from the Gulf of Mexico! It is so big, that it can been seen from space and the gigantic blob of seaweed is GROWING. Estimated to include 13 million tons, the blob of seaweed is expected to reach the Florida coast by summer. It is a big concern as not only does the seaweed smell(think rotten eggs) and make a mess on the shore as the tides brings it in, the seaweed draws the oxygen out of the water which isn't healthy for marine life.

Photograph from Yahoonews

Three King Penguins at a zoo in the country of Singapore got some badly needed surgery. Their eyes were very cloudy, affecting their vision. A veterinary ophthalmologist gave the penguins custom-made lenses to help their sight! It is believed to be the first time cataract surgery was done on penguins.

Photograph from CBS

Paleontologist say they have found the remains of a species of plant-eating sauropod dinosaurs in China that had a world record size neck. It is estimated that the neck of the maenchisaurus sinocanadorum was 10 ft. longer that a school bus! Although found in the late 1980s, the fossils, of three vertebrae ,were just recently studied and the determination made.

Illustration from CNN

Pompeii was a city destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. Since the city's rediscovery, about 250 years ago, archaeologists have been uncovering the city, buried in ash and stone, and have made some amazing finds. Learn about Pompeii at this link:Kids:National Geographic Weeds and grasses growing in Pompeii can damage the very old buildings so an unusual crew has been called in to help keep the grass and weeds down...sheep. About 150 sheep have been given the task of chopping to their hearts content. The sheep also supply fertilizer to the grounds adding needed nutrient to the soil. Interestingly, before the invention of lawnmowers, a family of sheep herders were employed to use their sheep for this very purpose. In fact, the same family, is supplying the sheep, today!

Photograph from CNN

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About Gail:

I retired from teaching after 33 1/2 years in the classroom. Of that time, I taught Grade 6 Social Studies teacher for 31 1/2 years.I earned my BA in early secondary education with a concentration in social studies from SUNY Oneonta, New York, and my MST in social studies education from Binghamton University in New York. In 1988, I was awarded the Outstanding Elementary Social Studies Classroom Teacher of the Year Award from the New York State Council for the Social Studies. Additionally, in 1988, I was also awarded the Outstanding Elementary Social Studies Teacher of the Year Award by the National Council for the Social Studies. I am the author of 8 books for teachers and over 35 books for children(Purple Turtle Series by Aadarsh Publishing and Odd History Series by Red Chair Press).

My work has appeared in most children's publications including:
Appleseeds,Scholastic's Super Science,Scholastic's Science World,Highlights for Children,Jack and Jill,National Geographic World, Ranger Rick, Cobblestone, Faces, Muse Magazine,Contact Kids, US Kids,Action Magazine(Scholastic),Girls' Life,Boys' Life,American Girl, Instructor,Creative Classroom,Middle Years,Time for Kids,Scholastic News,Scholastic News Zone, Time for Kids , Ask Magazine, Dig,Calliope, Cobblestone, FACES, Studies Weekly, Glo Adventurer, and more.

* Special thanks to EducationWorld for letting me use this image of my "alter ego" as Mrs. "Waffenschmidt!

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