We have been reading this beautifully written book…
Yes, we loved this book and have been really enjoying reading it. We have lots of great activities ready for 1st September, when our latest Quiet Paws Book Corner page will be ready to go. So, if you are not already a member, head over to the Quiet Paws Book Corner sign up page (in the above menu) to join the book corner.
Once there, fill in your email address above both the BLUE and the GREEN tabs and click on both. You will then get your password delivered to your inbox (or junk mail – don’t miss it!).
If you like this blog, we think you will love our book corner!
It is free and anyone, young or old is welcome. You just have to like children’s literature.
We have been thinking about the moon…
We knew the August full moon is called the Sturgeon Moon, and Busby liked the sound of that, but we didn’t know it was going to be a Blue Moon too. As you can see below, it wasn’t blue though. You can find out more about what it is and how it got its name here: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/what-blue-moon-how-often-does-it-occur
We are thinking about names…
Busby says, “Well, it’s hard not to, when you’re reading a story and the main character is a girl named Crow! Also, I do appear to be named after a hat. Would it be too late to change my name to something else…Wolf, maybe?”
How Busby actually got his name…
Being ‘named after a hat’ does not seem to have affected Busby too badly. Choosing a pet’s name is a serious matter, and we gave it a lot of thought.
Hussar picture by Victor Huen -Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=241966
What animal name would you choose for yourself?
Would you choose an animal you love? Or would you choose an animal that has qualities you admire – ones that would like to have yourself? Or would you think about your own character and find a animal that seems similar?
When you have chosen your animal name, you could search for a fun picture of the animal to colour in. You can search safely on this website: https://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/plants-and-animals/animals-coloring-pages/?page=2&count=24
Or how about making your own animal design, for a mug, a flag or for something else? You could use it on one of the following templates, if you wanted to:
Adults or older readers could search for a mandala. There are many beautiful, intricate ones on this website: https://www.bestcoloringpagesforkids.com/animal-mandala-coloring-pages.html
Remember the little phrase on the left?
Hopefully, it is proving helpful to all those perfectionists out there, struggling to start one of these tasks, or any task they care about. That includes me, Busby, less so.
However, when you need a little extra help, here is the answer to perfectionism emergencies:
“Imperfection Can Be More Perfect Than Perfection“
More on this next month. In the meantime, you can listen to the slant taken by Gretchen Rubin in her ‘Little Happier’ podcast, here:
Before we leave the subject of names, look out for an example of how your name influences your career, further down on this month’s blog. Older readers might enjoy this BBC article on aptronyms, names that match your profession. The jokes went right over Busby’s head though. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9664000/9664697.stm
Busby has been trying to answer a VERY difficult question:
How do animals without tails show that they are happy?
To be honest, he hadn’t really thought about this until recently. Then we overheard a young child asking an adult this very question as we walked past. It made me smile- and Busby wag his tail.
It also set him thinking about how special his tail is, and it made him wonder how other animals communicate. So we looked at this fabulous page: https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/animal-communication/272879
We found that, if you click on one of the photos, it takes you to a slide show where a lot of the slides are actually films too. It’s brilliant, and it totally answered Busby’s question.
We have been listening to some music linked to animals…
Some composers have a precise animal in mind when composing. Others have written music where, later, somebody else links it to an animal. In this clip, the Minnesota Zoo and the Minnesota Orchestra have teamed up to explore music written about a precise animals AND music that suggests animals or aspects of animal behaviour.
Here on Buzzy Paws, we LOVE bees!! Had you noticed?!
You can listen to the music suggested by a bee’s flight.
Minnesota Orchestra Musical Menagerie https:/mnorch.vhx.tv/young-people-s-content/videos/musical-menagerie
Go to 18:40 minutes in to hear about bees and ( at 21- 23 minutes in) to listen to Rimsky-Korsakov’s, The Flight of the Bumblebee.
What do you think? Is this a good musical portrait of a bee?
Did you know, by the way, that bees get a buzz out of caffeine? They will return to flowers whose nectar contains it, even when there are better options for them. We found this out from the aptly named Michael Pollan, talking about his book, ‘This is your Mind on Plants’ recently.
Gibbons and violins…
Here is some music written for two violins, by modern composer, Steve Reich. It has been used to illustrate animal communication (here, between gibbons).
Minnesota Orchestra Musical Menagerie https://mnorch.vhx.tv/young-people-s-content/videos/musical-menagerie
Go to 44 minutes in to the video to hear about gibbons. Then the piece of music is from 46:30 to around 51 minutes in.
What do you think? Are the musical and animal duets a good fit?
What has four legs, 300 million olfactory (scent) receptors and the ability to detect Covid-19 in one second?
Yes, dogs!! We promised we’d explore more about their incredible sense of smell. The above question starts a fascinating podcast* about training dogs to sniff out Covid-19. They can do this almost as accurately as a PCR test!
We read too that their sense of smell is somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 times better than ours.
What does that actually mean?
That means, if smell were taste, where we would be able to detect a spoonful of sugar in a cup of coffee, a dog could detect it in an amount of liquid the equivalent of two Olympic sized swimming pools. **
Wow, Buzz! No wonder you are often so strangely distracted by things nobody else can see!
These resources are not aimed at younger children, but older readers might find them interesting.
*The podcast is here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2021/may/25/could-sniffer-dogs-soon-be-used-to-detect-covid-19-an-update-podcast
**This analogy comes from this article: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/dogs-sense-of-smell/
We are trying a new approach to birds’ songs…
We needed a bit of a boost with our project to identify birds by their songs. So we’ve been taking a different approach to listening this month. Maybe you’d like to try it too?
Using the Minnesota Orchestra Birdsong Sheet, below, we have been trying to record the features of a bird’s song. It’s quite tricky, but, as there is no right or wrong way to do this, why not give it a whirl?!
Use the bottom sheet (copied from the Orchestra’s one) to record your ideas. Easy bird songs to start with are: woodpigeon, great tit and collared dove.
Birds’ songs can be found here: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-songs/what-bird-is-that/
If you are wondering about this picture, it is part of the Massachusetts Archives and is the most beautiful collection of bird paintings that Busby and I have ever seen. You can find out more about it on the Quiet Paws Book Club page in September, when the book, Beyond the Bright Sea, is featured. For the time being, this is Plate 89: House Wren, Winter Wren, Carolina Wren, Short-billed Marsh Wren, Long-billed Marsh Wren.
You can find the rest of the collection here: https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Paintings+from%3A+Birds+of+Massachusetts+and+other+New+England+states&f%5Binstitution_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Massachusetts+Archives&page=5
We have been able to solve a small mystery…
.
Thank you…
everyone who has signed up to follow this blog – every time I see a new name, I feel great and Busby feels (p)awesome.
You can subscribe right at the foot of the blogs below or on the home page. Make sure you click on confirm subscription in the email that’s sent to you!
We will be back next month with the name of our next book corner book.
Buzzy Paws 
