Jurassic Forest in Alberta!

This one seemed to be a favourite as they had at least three

Combine lovely nature trails meandering through Alberta boreal forests with motion-sensored animatronic dinosaurs and you have a hug hit with children and adults! This is Jurassic Forest! Wow. This is a new Alberta adventure which I hope becomes a fixture; it's not over the top fancy or Disney-fied, but a great day trip for the family in a wonderful natural setting (something for everyone).

This one roared and nodded his head (I think)

From their website, "The days of the dinosaurs roar to life again in Jurassic Forest, a 40-acre prehistoric preserve, just minutes from Edmonton and millions of years from the present! Gigantic, life-sized and startlingly realistic dinosaurs live and breathe in Jurassic Forest, and they're waiting for you. See what's happening in our Special Events Section."

These two put on a fighting display

There are two walking loops, a north and a south loop, which people of all ages can enjoy. Interestingly the loops are one way traffic with designated entrances and exits; this really helps on busy days to prevent too much congestion and allows people to pace themselves with or away from clusters of other guests. Periodically the path widens for viewing sections and to accommodate benches to rest on. The boardwalk is wooden and wheelchair/stroller friendly and lined with informative signs everywhere. Of course you have your prehistoric info signs complete with size comparisons to humans, but there are also several signs explaining the local flora and fauna! Unfortunately, some of the larger signs were mounted too high and at a poor angle for young readers. Were they expecting only the adults to read them?

The forest was lush and full of life when we went. Raspberries tempted our taste buds and dragonflies flitted here and there. Staff were everywhere to help out and guides were touring small groups. We spotted two bat houses and a long horned beetle but no tiger salamanders.

This one is on the far side of a little pond

Many picnic tables are clustered in the shade of trees just off the sandy play park area which gets full sun. Perhaps this playground is most enticing to the younger children as there really isn't much in it except some great photo ops ;-)  There are over-sized cracked eggs and dinosaur bones/structures to climb. A mini slide down the tongue of some predator's head (can't recall which) is fun for the toddler crowd. Sadly, no larger slide exists there (yet?).  

What else? There is a gift shop (of course), washrooms, birthday/party room, and a concession stand with the usual hot dog and ice cream fare.

Now, if you check out the Jurassic Forest website, consider downloading their scavenger hunts. They have one for each of the two trail loops and a separate hunt for the K-2 crowd that spans both loops. These are pdfs you can print out.

Don't forget sunscreen, bug spray/protection, hats, and WATER! Unless you want to burn and dehydrate ;-P
That said, we didn't notice any mosquitoes... very strange. Maybe they are lurking and biding their time... I'm expecting an ambush any moment.

Any way, current hours and admission rates:

Hours of Operation
Daily (Sunday through Saturday): 9am to 7pm

Admission Prices

Adult: $14
Children (3–12 yrs): $8
Youth (13–17 yrs): $10
Family (2 Adults + 2 Children): $40
Senior (60 yrs+): $10


Adult Annual Membership: $45
Children Annual Membership (3–12 yrs): $35
Youth Annual Membership (13–17 yrs): $40
Senior Annual Membership (60+ yrs): $40
Family Annual (2 Adults + 2 Children): $130


(Prices include GST)







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Books: Diary of...

Diary of what?

Diary of a Worm (2003)
Diary of a Spider (2005)
Diary of a Fly (2007)

All by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Harry Bliss.

This is a fun trio of books that were an old favourite and which have made a recent come back in our home. Although not a challenging read, my son finds something in them that still appeals. perhaps it's the fun and quirky sense of humour.

And if you're trying to encourage or inspire journal writing, these certainly won't harm. However, they do take the traditional route of dairy = daily activities and thoughts. Click on the pics for a closer and clearer picture.

From Diary of a Worm

From Diary of a Spider

From Diary of a Fly

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BBC Nature Documentary: The Life of Birds

If you're patient enough and persevere to the end of the above clip (just under 3 minutes), you hear this amazing lyre bird imitating all kinds of birds... AND the sounds of cameras, car alarms, and chainsaws!

 David Attenborough's The Life of Birds is a wonderful series that we love to re-watch every now and again. With 9.3 stars out of 10 on Internet Movie Database, apparently we aren't the only ones enjoying this series.

Here's a link to the pbs website with more info, examples, and classroom resources.










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Books: A Seed Is Sleepy, plus... An Egg is Quiet!

I've really been enjoying picture books lately, especially beautifully illustrated ones. I think I read them to my son just so that I can read them, lol. I'm so selfish!

The fact is, my son won't read them on his own and I don't blame him; at eight years old, they are not usually captivating enough for personal reading when he'd rather read Lego or Star Wars encyclopedic volumes or chapter books. And while this is where I would normally sigh, I've found that he's happy to enjoy these beautiful books as long as we sit and read them together! Yay for me ;-)  At least for the time being. Then I'll just have to read them for me  ;-)

At this time of year we have a bit of a book tradition: we take several spring, egg, and seed related books off our shelves or out from the library. Not an earth shattering idea, I know. It blows in with the spring air and everyone has the same idea!

However, there are a few books that we specifically read every year. Two of them are the topics of this, um getting long winded, post.

First, A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston and beautifully illustrated by Sylvia Long. Subtly packed with information the elegant pictures delight readers of all ages. The narrative begins "A seed is sleepy" and progresses with imaginative adjectives to "a seed is awake." It's just a very creative introduction or re-introduction to seeds and plants with a wonderful array of examples. I love the endpapers! At the beginning of the book, they are a double page layout of various seeds; at the end of the book, they are a double page layout of the plants they grow into. This book is very lovely and everyone should read it at least once!

The second book is what led us to the first book. An Egg Is Quiet by Dianna Hutts Aston and, of course, also beautifully illustrated by Sylvia Long. This gorgeous book prompted me to find more by this author/illustrator duo. So far it's just these two books, but Dianna Aston's website promises a third book (hopefully illstrated by Sylvia Long): A Butterfly is Patient (spring 2012).

Ok, back to An Egg Is Quiet!

Progressing from a quiet to noisy egg, this book travels the life cycle of an egg. Did you know eggs were colourful, shapely, clever, differently sized, artistic, and textured? Well, probably you did. But that's not the point! This elegant book is such an amazing introduction to eggs of all varieties with a splash of information to round out the experience. This includes a visual time line of three egg's developments: a chicken's, a salmon's, and a grasshopper's. And there are wonderful end papers here too! The first set is a collection of wonderful eggs (to scale I think) and the last set is a collection of the corresponding birds! It's fun to flip back and forth matching up the two. 

We are lucky here in Edmonton. Our Royal Alberta Museum has a wonderful display of stuffed birds found in Alberta. In fact we made a special foray into this section to check out those birds AND to check out the wonderful egg collection! I love the way the museum has designed the layout so that we can check out the local-Alberta found eggs as well as see samples of eggs from all around the world. They even have a section where they compare sizes beginning with a hummingbird egg and work up to an ostrich egg.

But if you are not so lucky as to either live here or have something similar, I have a link to the RAM's online egg exhibit for you!

Eggs: A Virtual Exhibition
From their welcome page... "Welcome to Eggs - A Virtual Exhibition, the closest you may ever get to seeing wild bird eggs without disturbing birds at the nest. This virtual exhibit showcases eggs of the world with a special emphasis on the eggs of Alberta. The Royal Alberta Museum hosts one of the most extensive egg collections in North America. We have an on-line field guide with over 300 egg images as well as information on egg biology and a touch of egg trivia. So put on your virtual helmet and we'll visit some nests!"

A lot of information is provided and some of it in a rather bland presentation. I'd start with the "Bird Families Menu" and click on the bird of interest. But have fun and look around  ;-)

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Resource: Bird Identification Website

Quite a few years ago I was challenged to identify a sudden infestation of bird that descended unexpectedly on our neighbourhood. I didn't see it at first, I heard it! Flooding through open windows was a cacophony of unfamiliar bird song. And once we looked? Everywhere, upon every surface, were a medium sized bird happily "scree-ing" away.

Google to the rescue!

I quickly narrowed it down to a waxwing. But were these "ear-fulls" or "museums" of waxwings bohemians or cedars?

Well, at first I had a hard time distinguishing between the two, but found help at What Bird.com which has over 800 birds in its database.

This site gives a quick and easy Species Overview with photo, bird song audio, interesting facts, range of habitat, map, and related birds. Another tab Identification provides more specific help in identification. Two other tabs: Behaviour and Portrait round out the info on this website per bird.

And our mystery bird: Bohemian Waxwings, go check them out and hear their song-- just imagine that song multiplied by thousands!And you think I'm exaggerating?!

One of my favourite local song birds: Black-capped Chickadee
Another favourite local song bird: Robin


Oh, and those lucky enough to have an iPhone, apparently you can get the iBird app. I'm not sure if it's just an advertisement on whatbird.com or part of it. Just thought I'd mention it. And no, I'm not affiliated with iPhone  ;-)

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Monterey Bay Aquarium: Live Web Cams, Podcasts, and Videos

The Monterey Bay Aquarium offers live web cams on their website! But that's not all, they also have podcasts (most are less than 5 minutes with two new ones per month) and videos!

Check them out here: Podcast, Videos & Web Cams

Being live web cams, some are more entertaining than others, but they do give the feeding times which, I'd assume, are more livelier events. And they are only live during specific hours, like 7am-5pm PST (depends on the cam).

Web cams include: Kelp, Underwater Kelp, Sea Otter, Aviary, Wading Birds, Penguin, and the Monterey Bay cam (24 hour).

If you select one of the cams, just to the right of the webcam you'll see a link to spotting guides or more information.

Don't forget to check out the podcasts and videos though.
Oh, and one more thing...

Bloodybelly Comb Jelly

They have two "Online Only Exhibits" to check out:
Jellies: Living Art about jelly fish, of course.
and
Sharks: Myth and Mystery




 I lied. Sorry! There is one more thing: A Games and Interactives page. They have printables, games, posters, colouring pages, and music. All kinds of activities with age and grade ranges provided.

Although, I'm sure you can find even more things to do at the Monterey Bay Aquarium website if you feel like exploring it!

Have fun!

PS. Monterey Bay Aquarium is in California, USA. Too far away for us to visit without a ton of preplanning, lol  ;-)

Linked up with Science Sunday, for more science fun, click the link below!



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Bird Nests, Photographs by Sharon Beals

My husband sent me this link to an article over at Brain Pickings about a book with amazing photographs of nests. Follow the link to read the article and catch a glimpse of some of the photos.

The book is called Nests: Fifty Nests and the Birds that Built Them by Sharon Beals. Over at Amazon.com, you can see a few more photos that the book offers and even take a look at some of the inside pages. Looks very beautiful. Our library does not carry it, but I think I'll put in a request!

Sharon Beals' website.

Sharon Beals' new blog On This Earth: Photographs and Words by Sharon Beals

And here are the Flickr thumbnails of the nests!


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Bird Brain

It's spring time... sort of.
With all the snow on the ground here and the chill in the air, one does begin to wonder. Still signs abound: increasing day light hours, the cold temperatures are only just below zero, a wood louse spotted here and there, and the increased appearance of birds!

In fact, I've noticed several blogs discussing birds right now. Although my son is not reading these blogs, a recent spotting of an unknown bird at our new house (under construction) spurred him into action! Off from the shelves came one of his favourite books: Birds by Christiansen . It's a huge volume, like an encyclopedia. With 5 out of 5 stars (my son's rating) this was a wonderful find at the bookstore--- it was on the cheap shelves, discounted!

And that unknown bird? Well, it was spotted by my husband who only had his phone camera to use. A pretty lousy picture as the bird was so far up the utility pole. But he said it was rather a large bird with a red crest. I figure it was a woodpecker, but not a downy as they are small. Probably a Pileated Woodpecker.

Interior pages are colourful and informative

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Book Sharing Monday: Popcorn!

Who doesn't like popcorn?!

Popcorn! by Elaine Landau

I love popcorn and while looking for popcorn recipe books I found this fun picture book packed with the history and the science of popcorn. Colourfully illustrated, this book gets 4.5 stars out of 5 from my son!

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 and
Book Sharing Monday @ Canadian Home Learning
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Fun With Nasa Science!

Take a journey over to the NASA Science website and you'll find all kinds of fun for all ages! Beautiful photos and, of course, tons of information. Keep up to date with science news or explore black holes.

There are sections for citizen scientists, educators, students, and kids. Play fun games and watch interesting videos. I will not provide a full detailed analysis, rather encourage your own exploration and interests.

NASA's main website too has lots for all ages to explore. One could spend hours looking at just one of these sites!

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Great Figures in History, A Manga Series

Another successful whim! Spotted on the library bookshelves while browsing, Great Figures in History: Leonardo Da Vinci was a welcome addition to my son's reading. Consumed in one sitting, this "Full-Color Manga" inspired the request for the rest of the series!

Some other great figures to explore: Einstein, Ghandi, Curie, Mother Theresa, and Nelson Mandela! If the EPL doesn't bring these in, I better request they do! And which ever new ones are out there lurking about, just waiting to be discovered.

There's even supposed to be a Parent and Teacher's Guide is available for download from the Y.kids website. But quite frankly, I couldn't find it on their website, let me know if you do, lol!

Linked up to Book Sharing Monday, go check out other recommended books!


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National Geographic: Sea Monsters

The book above the movie is not from National Geographic. It's Prehistoric Life from BBC, another favourite resource around here!

We love National Geographic around here. They have all kinds of online resources, series, books, and DVDs.

Right now?
My son recommends Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure!

At the library, we've put on hold Sky Monsters for more adventures :)

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ScienceCasts: Super Moon

New Star Wars Books

My son is totally engrossed in all things Star Wars. From the movies to all the encyclopedic books and everything in between, my son is obsessed ;-)

The New Acquisitions

... passionate?!

He reads Star Wars, he watches Star Wars, he plays Star Wars, he draws Star Wars, and he probably dreams Star Wars. Oh, hey, and he counts his money to pay for Star Wars and does the calculations to ensure he has enough to pay for his purchases (that is, when we are not using the library as a free resource).

Returned, Read, To the Library

His newest additions to his repertoire include a fun little book on light sabers and the Star Wars "A Long Time Ago" Omnibus which is a collection of the first 23 Star Wars comics ever written-- complete with all their mistakes (like not knowing that Luke and Leah were siblings or that Darth Vader was the Father or where the rebel base was relocated). Sigh, and it is only volume one, lol! This was a great find though because my son was willing to pay 8$ or even $15 for the original individual comics. But he has no interest in collecting and saving, he just wants the pleasure of reading the original stories, thank goodness for these omnibus collections!

Not Very Many Out From the Library At the Moment

Home Collection

More Books, Plus All Kinds of Lego Sets

And Even Action Figures!