Guiding You to Pattison's Prairie Storms

These are winners. Some of the best!!!!!

I'm not only talking about the guides I made for Darcy. Oh, no, no, NO! I'm talking about the month-by-month lively, visual and textual descriptions of life on the prairie you can find in the book itself...and I ain't a-kidding you. Together, Darcy and illustrator Kathleen Reitz have created a treasure that will last the academic test of time, my friends. This book is incredible...for real. It is one that, if I were in a classroom today, kiddos would be working it. And I do mean work. Here's why...

The guides that I made for Prairie Storms are deliciously lavished with a study of mathematics, the passage of time, seasonal study, flora and fauna taxonomy, the food web, weather patterns, a weather map, biomes, and - like the cherry atop a blob of whipped cream - a science experiment specifically created in Simple Saturday-like structure to compliment the specific weather pattern depicted in each sensational month.

Yep. That's right. I'm talking twelve of those suckers. Twelve super fun, inexpensive, biome-specific scientific experiments. And...guess what...after you buy the book, Darcy's giving the guides away. Yep. Free for the taking!!!!!

Click HERE for more info about Darcy, the monthly guides, and all the other stuff my little buddy's involved with. And, when you do contact her, tell her Simple Saturday sent ya. She'll get a kick out of that!

Prep: Home on the Range

When you stop and really think about it, the prairie is a happening place.  There's whole heck-of-alot more to it than waving wheat fields and a sky spreading out as far as your peepers can see. Oh yeah, it's really a jungle out there, I'm telling you!

Tomorrow we're going to look at a series of guides I made for an awesome non-fiction picture book that takes a close, close look at the prairie's fab flora and fauna, as well as studying a year's worth of weather patterns. These guides were such fun to make because I learned so ding-danged much while doing so!

So, to put you in the mood for tomorrow's mellow prairie stroll, I asked my old buddy Marty Robbins to strum a little tune for us. You know this song. Come on...join in. And a-one and a-two...

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play....Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, and the sky is not cloudy all day. Home, home on the range...