There is a new climate change-focused website that is publishing prose and poetry. It is called XR Creative and can be found at https://www.xrcreative.org. I got a message from the Joplin Writers’ Guild about the new site so I submitted a story called Golden Child about a young boy during the climate crisis. If you want to submit prose or poetry, they are accepting entries. Check it out! Great stories and great opportunity to get published and share your ideas.
Also, I submitted 2 stories to Chicken Soup for the Soul. Remember these fantastic books in the 90s? I had several of them and I still have the Mother edition today. Love these books. I wrote a story about Christmas and one about dogs. The submission deadline for most of the Chicken Soup books is around March or May 2022. The website is super easy to use. Check it out at http://www.chickensoup.com/story-submissions/submit-your-story.
Test your knowledge about trees with this short trivia quiz based on information provided by the North Carolina State University Coop Extension website, ncsu.edu.
1. How many varieties of trees are there estimated to be in the world?
A. 23,000 B. 10,000 C. 16,000 D. 1,000
2. A tree can absorb how many pounds of carbon dioxide a year?
A. 20 B. 30 C. 14 D. 48
3. Tree parts are added to which of the following products?
A. ice cream B. chewing gum C. coffee D. all of the above
4. Each year, the average person uses how much tree wood and paper? Enough for a tree this tall _________.
A. 1,000 ft B. 100 ft C. 10 ft D. 10,000 ft
5. True or False. Trees are the largest living organism on the planet.
6. How old can a live oak live to be?
A. 84 years B. 50 years C. 100 years D. 500 years
7. True or False. A tree is a natural battery.
8. 95% of a tree is composed of these 6 elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and ___________.
A. iodine B. magnesium C. chromium D. sulfur
9. True or False. If a birdhouse is hung on a tree, it moves up the tree as the tree grows.
10. True or False. The age of the tree is determined by growth rings inside the tree.
11. True or False. The pattern of growth for a typical tree is root growth in Spring, foilage growth in Summer, and trunk growth in Fall/Winter.
12. True or False. Tree roots are deep in the soil.
Answers: 1-A, 2-D, 3-D, 4-B, 5-True. Coastal Redwoods can reach 360 ft tall. 6-D, 7-True. They are batteries because they trap sun energy and convert it. 8-D, 9-False. The birdhouse stays where it was placed. 10-True. Also, the spacing in between growth rings can tell the history of the tree, such as environmental conditions that affect it -fire, drought, cold, etc. 11-False. Foilage in the Spring, trunk in the Summer, roots in the Fall/Winter. 12- False. The roots are only in the top 12 inches of the soil.
Yesterday, I had planned to prepare some YouTube short videos for the kids to watch about the Taj Mahal in India. But, my son picked an especially interesting dream destination for a family vacation. He picked Mars.
So, here is the list of 8 short and fascinating YouTube videos we picked for our travel adventure.
Every school day, we sit down together and watch 3 short YouTube videos (4 minutes long tops). I give the kids a list of 8 pre-screened and entertaining videos and then they choose their 3 favorite. We started doing this because we missed out on our family vacation to Maine. I figured we may not be able to leave the house during social distancing but we can experience traveling the world via the computer with YouTube. So far, we have looked at Orlando, the Pyramids, Tokyo, and now…..Mars.
Here is the list you can use too for your family. I really like these videos. They are fascinating, especially the NASA 2020 video. So cool.
Creative Content 