Miss Rumphius

Miss Rumphius

As a child Great-aunt Alice Rumphius resolved that when she grew up she would go to faraway places, live by the sea in her old age, and do something to make the world more beautiful--and she does all those things, the last being the most difficult of all.

Author page

Barbara Cooney

Other books by Barbara Cooney

Illustrator Page

The author is also the illustrator.

Go-Alongs:

• Plants
• Oceans
• Birds
• Deserts

 

Online Units and Resources for Miss Rumphius

Story Lesson Plans - Miss Rumphius
This is a story told by a little girl about her great aunt and the things she accomplished in her life. (Y, M, O, T)

Miss Rumphius
From TeacherView. Grade 3 (Y)

Be a Good Citizen with Miss Rumphius
(Grades 2-3) (Y)

Making Picture Books:
The Pictures - By Barbara Cooney. A letter from the talented illustrator about her start in using art in the form of book covers (T)

Miss Rumphius Worksheet
(Y)

Philosophy for Kids - Miss Rumphius
(Y)

Emergency Lesson plans - Rumphius
Occasionally you may find yourself in a situation in which the lesson plans do not fill the entire allotted time. Be prepared with a lesson that is age appropriate. Both K - 6th and 7 - 12th Grades. (Y, M, O, T)

Traveling With Miss Rumphius
Students will cooperatively read Miss Rumphius predicting, discussing, analyzing, and connecting the literature to their own lives. Groups will research, collect, and document information about world regions. (Grades 2 - 4) (Y)

Miss Rumphius - Web English Teacher
(Y)

Miss Rumphius - lapbook
(Y)

Bio-Poem
Students may want to write a Bio-poem about Miss Rumphius or about themselves. (Y)

Heartwood Lesson - Miss Rumphius
Uses the Heartwood Method Lesson (Preview, Story, Discussion, and Activity). Teachers may choose from the ideas, create their own entries and assignments, and modify the lesson to fit their particular needs. (Grades 3-5) (Y)

In full bloom
This mini-unit uses the wonderful story of Miss Rumphius by Barbara Clooney. Miss Rumphius travels to faraway places and makes the world more beautiful by planting her favorite seeds. The book sets the stage for activities relating to core curriculum objectives to be implemented into the learning environment, using technology tools and applications to create student products. (Grade 3) (Y)

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Go-alongs about Plants

Backyard Wildlife Habitat - Summer is the perfect time to turn your backyard into a haven for wildlife. "A Backyard Wildlife Habitat site provides for wildlife the five basic elements needed for survival; food, water, cover and places to raise young along with sustainable gardening. (Y, M, O, T)

Biology of Plants - Plants are alive, just like people and animals. How do we know this? Living things all do certain things: They grow and die. They need energy, nutrients, air, and water. They produce young. They are made up of cells. They react to what's around them. (Y, M, O, T)

Botony and Paleobotony Dictionary (Y,M) - by EnchantedLearning.com (Y,M)

First Gov for Kids - Plants and Animals - What is more amazing than a talking dog? A spelling bee! Now that you got a good laugh find out more about interesting plants and animals! (Y)

Georgeson Botanical Garden - A nationally recognized botanical garden and a member of a national network of educational and research institutions dedicated to plant culture and conservation. (Y, M, O, T)

Plant lesson plans from Discovery School - Plant lesson plans for grades K-5, 6-8 and 9-12. (Y, M, O, T)

The Big Wide World Webquest - "Some people think elementary school students should be coloring inside the lines, circling words in a search, or copying sentences from the board. Maybe that's okay, but we'd rather you figure out what life's all about. You know, what about this earth we live on and share with all the plants and animals. Also, what about people who live far away? What are their lives like? These aren't easy questions so you'll be working as a group to combine your ideas. Be sure to read the evaluation rubric for this WebQuest before going on to The Big Question and Your Task. (Y)

 

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Go-alongs about Oceans

A Jason-1 Oceanic Adventure - Voyage on the High Seas - Designed for children ages 9-13, this game offers a fun, learning opportunity for the entire family. In addition to being a game, it is an eye-catching poster showing continents, oceans and all of the major ocean currents. On the reverse, there are black and white educational activities designed to be reproduced directly from the poster for use in the classroom. (T,A)

Alaska Sea Life Center - Offers an unrivaled, up-close and personal experience with Gulf of Alaska marine wildlife. Witness a 2000+ pound Steller sea lion gliding past underwater viewing windows, puffins diving in a carefully crafted naturalistic habitat, and harbor seals resting on rocky beaches. Alaskan king crab, sea stars, and the Giant Pacific octopus also await you, as well as a whole variety of intertidal creatures and deep sea fishes. (Y, M, O, T)

Bridge - Sea Grant Ocean Sciences Education Center. The best marine education materials available on the Web. (Y, M, O, T)

Continents and Oceans Online Quiz - Test your geography knowledge of continents and oceans (Y, M, O, T)

Darling Marine Center - The marine laboratory of the University of Maine and the site of world renowned marine research. (Y, M, O, T)

EPA Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds Kids' Page - These are sites with information about water. (Y)

Exploring Nature Educational Resource - An award-winning website with natural science content and materials for educators, students, and parents. Free non-member entrance and a Member entrance. Students can use the animal databases to research animal reports, complete homework assignments, and find pictures of their favorite animals. Librarians, classroom teachers, and homeschoolers can use Exploring Nature to develop lesson plans for units on animals (mammals, birds, insects, spiders, sharks, fish, amphibians, reptiles, etc.), plants (wildflowers, trees, cacti, etc.), biomes (forests, deserts, oceans, polar regions, rain forests, wetlands, the tundra, etc.), adaptations (structure and function), farm animals, life cycles, food webs, ecology, the human body, genetics, space and the environment. (Y, M, O, T)

International Year of the Ocean - Kids and Teacher Corner (Y, M)

Marine Biology: The Living Oceans - Ology - American Museum of Natural History. Science-rich Website for Kids (Y, M, O, T)

Marine Biology: The Living Oceans - From Ology - American Museum of Natural History. (Y, M, O, T)

Marine Photobank - Marine Photobank is a free resource of ocean imagery that highlights pressing ocean issues and includes accompanying downloadable Photo Stories. Some subjects covered are Marine Pollution and Trash, Fishing Methods, and Reefs in Peril/Coral Bleaching. (Y, M, O, T)

MGBnet - What is it like where you live? - The MBGnet project is a series of videos about terrestrial biomes and aquatic habitats called What's It Like Where You Live?. The MBGnet website was based on these videos and gives additional information about the ecosystems. (Y, M)

National Marine Mammal Laboratory - (NMML) conducts research on marine mammals important to the mission of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with particular attention to issues related to marine mammals off the coasts of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California. (Y, M, O, T)

National Park Service - Explore Nature - Water Resources - Comprehensive resource off all NPS properties dealing with water. Includes Water Resources Webcams, USGS Water Quality Partnership, Implementing the National Park Service Ocean Park Stewardship Action Plan and more! (Y, M, O, T)

Ocean Fun! - The “Thank You Ocean” campaign was designed to instill in Californians a sense of personal connection and responsibility to our ocean and coast. ThankYouOcean.Org provides access to everything ocean in California including how to learn about and where to experience the ocean, the impacts of daily decisions on ocean life, ocean conservation issues, and what to do to help the ocean. (Y)

Partnership for the Delaware Estuary - Hi, kids! Do you know what an Estuary is? It's where the river meets the sea! Take it from me, it's an exciting and beautiful place to live. That's why we should all work together to protect places like the Delaware Estuary. To learn more, check out this website. These activities are lots of fun and they are sure to quench your thirst for knowledge! (Each of the activities on this Web page is a PDF file.) (Y, M)

Savage Seas - Use a wave simulator and explore tsunamis, freak wanes, and trade winds (Y,M)

Scripps Institution of Oceanography - One of the oldest, largest, and most important centers for marine science research, graduate training, and public service in the world. Research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography encompasses physical, chemical, biological, geological, and geophysical studies of the oceans. (Y, M, O, T)

Sea Life Poetry - Using Internet resources listed with the lesson plan, students explore oceans and sea life and learn to transform thoughts into different forms of poetry. Good way to integrate language arts into an ocean unit study. (Y,M)

Shedd Educational Adventures (SEA) - Contains a treasure trove of aquatic science resources for K-12 teachers and students. SEA brings the Philippines to life for your students with fact sheets and multimedia interactives based on the Wild Reef exhibit at Shedd Aquarium. (Y, M, O, T)

Steller sea lions research - Laboratory for Applied Biotelemetry & Biotechnology at the Department of Marine Biology at Texas A&M University Galveston (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

The Grave of the Titanic - Trace the Titanic's route, plot wreckage coordinates on a map, use percentages to calculate lifeboat capacity and more. (Y,M)

The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor - Activities and web resources developed as part of the Schools of California Online Resources for Educators (SCORE) Project, funded by the California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP). Students will learn to read and write informational material. They will learn to list facts, and write a simple informational paragraph. This will be done within the fun and exciting trip through the ocean visiting the animals and plants along the way. Grade 3 (Y)

Tour of Park Geology - Shoreline Geology - The National Park Service has 97 coastal park units including National Seashores, Lakeshores, Recreational Areas, Memorials and Monuments. These coastal parks contain more than 7,300 miles of shoreline, and a wide diversity of geological, biological, and cultural resources. (Y, M, O, T)

Treasures @ Sea - Exploring the ocean through literature (Y)

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution - WHOI is the world's largest private, nonprofit ocean research, engineering and education organization. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

 

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Go-alongs about Birds

All About Birds - From Enchanted Learning: Zoom Birds. Everything you wanted to know about birds including jokes! (Y)

Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park - The crown jewel of Rio Grande Valley parks, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park well deserves its status as headquarters of the World Birding Center. Birders across the nation know “Bentsen” as a treasure trove of “Valley specialties” – those birds found nowhere else in the United States but deepest South Texas – and “Mexican vagrants” – rare visitors from across the Rio Grande. The 760-acre Bentsen-RGV State Park, together with over 1,700 acres of adjoining federal refuge land, promises year-round nature adventures in the richest birding area north of the Mexican border. (Y, M, O, T)

Bird Unit Study - From EasyFunSchool.com (Y, M, O, T)

Birdathon - From the Audubon Society, this project not only teaches birding techniques, it raises money for environmental conservation, education, and advocacy. (Y, M, O, T)

Birding / Wild Birds - Backyard birding; Identification From About.com (Y, M, O, T)

Birding / Wild Birds Clipart - From About.com (Y, M, O, T)

Birds of prey - lesson integrating the Internet into a study of predators. Grades 6-8 (Y,M)

BirdSource - From Cornell University, this site is centered on "birding with a purpose". (Y, M, O, T)

Cardinal Coloring Page - From Kidzone - Free fun facts for kids. Free printable activity worksheets. (Y)

Cornell Lab of Ornithology - If you like birds, you will love this site. Cornell has been a leader in the study of birds ever since Arthur A. Allen was appointed one of the nation's first professors of ornithology at the University in 1917. The Lab of Ornithology is a nonacademic unit of Cornell and has an excellent collection of resources used for outreach to the community. (Y, M, O, T)

Dinner, It's for the Birds! - From the National Bird-Feeding Society, activities on making bird feeders. (Y,M)

Duck Glossary - (Y)

Endangered and Threatened Species of Alaska Curriculum - Center for Alaska Coastal Studies. Materials focus on selected Alaskan species that are threatened, endangered, or at risk. Learn about wildlife population dynamics, the factors that may place species at risk, and efforts by people to help wildlife species recover. The teaching packet is designed to help you introduce the concepts of "biodiversity" and "endangered" to your students in a hands-on interactive way. (Y, M, O, T)

Estero Llano Grande State Park - At the geographic center of the World Birding Center network, Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco attracts a spectacular array of South Texas wildlife with its varied landscape of shallow lake, woodlands and thorn forest. Even beginning birders and nature lovers will enjoy exploring this 176-acre refuge, which is convenient to all the Rio Grande Valley has to offer. (Y, M, O, T)

NestWatch - "NestWatch is a nest-monitoring project developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in collaboration with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, and funded by the National Science Foundation... We invite people of all ages who are interested in the natural world to help monitor the success of nesting birds and better understand the threats they face. Your valuable nest observations will be permanently stored as legacy data along with hundreds of thousands of other nesting records. When combined, these data will provide a wealth of information about breeding birds and the factors that influence their success across different landscapes." (Y, M, O, T)

Operation Ruby-Throat - The Hummingbird Project from the Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History; comprehensive hummingbird site with lots of info for educators (Y, M, O, T)

Peterson Online - Excellent resource with basics of birdwatching, identification, and calendar (Y, M, O, T)

Project Feeder Watch - Homeschool students across North America can learn about science and have fun while they count birds and record information that scientists need to understand the movements and abundance of feeder birds. Project FeederWatch, a citizen-science project from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada, is a perfect fit for the homeschool curriculum. The Homeschooler's Guide to Project FeederWatch is now available online. (Y, M, O, T)

Raising chicks - Everything you need to know to raise those chicks that you so careful tended as eggs! (Y M O)

Resaca de la Palma State Park - Brownsville’s Resaca de la Palma State Park boasts the largest tract of native habitat in the World Birding Center network. Etched by ancient curves of the Rio Grande, its 1700 semi- tropical acres provide a quiet retreat from the hustle and bustle of an international urban center only a few miles away. Through the cooperation of local, state and federal land management agencies, a wilderness preserved from days gone by is open to nature adventurers for the first time. (Y, M, O, T)

Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory - (SABO) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of the birds of southeastern Arizona, their habitats and the diversity of species that share those habitats through research, monitoring and public education. (Y, M, O, T)

State facts - State birds, Animals and Flowers (Y)

To Feed or Not To Feed - From About.com - Should you feed wild birds (Y, M, O, T)

Tucson Audubon Society - Tucson Audubon sponsors environmental education programs for all ages that promote understanding of environmental concepts, appreciation of the natural world, and commitment to sustainable resource use. We foster grassroots efforts to improve the environmental quality of our neighborhoods and communities through education, advocacy, and activism. (Y, M, O, T)

What Bird? - This is a great website for summer fun. I have two birdfeeders just outside my living room window and I love to watch the birds use them. This site lets you identify birds of North America with a few clicks of your mouse. You can even build you own bird feeder. (Y)

Wildlife Myths: How Well Do You Know Your Neighbors? - From The Humane Society of the United States. Includes articles on "A Closer Look at Wildlife", "Issues Facing Wildlife", "Feeding Birds in Winter", "Found an Injured or Orphaned Animal?", "Help Migratory Birds in Your Own Backyard", "Owls in Our Midst ", and Solving Problems with Your Wild Neighbors", and "The Mysteries of Migration". (Y, M, O, T)

Wisconsin bird watching - (Y)

Zoom Birds - Educational site geared towards kids with printouts, birdwatching, and bird activities. Contains evolution. (Y, M)

 

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Go-alongs about Deserts

Desert: Diorama - A giant Cactus Flower Forest - Make this diorama based on the real Sonoran Desert diorama at the American Museum of Natural History! (Y)

Habitats and Biomes:Desert - From ABCteach.com (Y)

 

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