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Knot Gardens

6/18/2020

Kerrie Logan Hollihan
Teaching the Power of Wonder

So what’s a knot garden?

     Knot gardens first caught my eye when I was a kid and visited Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. When I later visited England, I saw how our first president had carried on a long-standing tradition. Knot gardens, edged with tight growing shrubs like boxwood, wound across the property of kings and queens and lords and ladies.

Sometimes herbs or flowers were planted inside the rows of shrubs, which twist and turn to form shapes that look like fancy knots. England’s Queen Elizabeth I enjoyed strolling through such gardens with her ladies-in-waiting. Certainly the queen’s knot gardens were among the finest in her day.

In Washington DC, we Americans have a knot garden inside our National Arboretum, an outdoor museum of plants and trees. Small evergreens form the knot. Visitors stop to sniff the fragrant herbs planted both inside and outside the knot of evergreens.

It can take years to establish a knot garden, but you can create an updated version that will grow in just one summer. All it takes is a little space, a variety of marigold plants, a digging tool, a bit of water-soluble fertilizer, and regular care.

Plan your garden to be three feet by three feet. Look at knot gardens online for clues and make a simple design. Marigolds come in many colors, sizes, and shapes. Think about how tall and wide they’ll grow. Do you want tall flowers in the corners?

     Now plant your plants. Carefully pop the flowers from their packs and transplant them into roomy holes so they’ll grow well. Plant the inside garden first. Then move to the outside. At first your garden might look skimpy, but in a few weeks it will fill in.

Mix fertilizer with water in your watering can and give the little plants a good drink. Marigolds are heavy feeders needing regular watering and fertilizer. Every few days, stick your fingers in the dirt to check for moisture. When the soil’s getting dry, it’s time to water— early in the morning or late in the day.

Check this blog for more details!

A knot garden at Mount Vernon. Library of Congress

National Herb Garden at the US National Arboretum

Kerrie Logan Hollihan's lively biography of one of England’s greatest monarchs includes a time line, online resources, and 21 activities to offer readers hands-on experiences with life in the Elizabethan Era. Kids can create costumes for the queen’s court, including a knight’s helmet, a neck ruff, and a cloak, play and sing a madrigal, create a 3-D map of an Elizabethan town, stitch a blackwork flower, design a family coat of arms, play a game of Nine Men’s Morris, grow a knot garden, and much more.

Kerrie is a member of iNK's Authors on Call and is available for classroom programs through Field Trip Zoom, a terrific technology that requires only a computer, wifi, and a webcam. Click here to find out more.
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MLA 8 Citation
Hollihan, Kerrie Logan. "Knot Gardens." Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 17
May 2018, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/Knot-Gardens.

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The Proudest Ship

6/3/2020

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Bo Zaunders
Wandering Journalist

Sweden had become the most powerful country in the north. In war after war it expanded its territory, but the King was not satisfied.

“Build me a great warship,” he said, “reflecting the glory of our great nation.”

Soon a ship was underway. It was going to be the most magnificent vessel of the century. After it was half done, the King came to inspect it.

“Aha,” he ordered, “make it so high it towers over all other ships. And it should bristle with guns,” whereupon he left.

When he came back the ship was almost finished. “Great!” exclaimed the King. “Looks good. How many cannons?”

“Thirty-eight, 24-pound cannons, Your Majesty, and ten smaller ones.”

“Pretty good. Why not add another ten big ones? And how many sculptures?”

“About five hundred, Your Majesty, with fifty-two gilded lions.”

“Very good. They call me the Lion of the North. So it’s befitting we have lots of them. Make it an even sixty.”

After which he rushed off to another war.

As more and more cannons were added and bigger lions were carved into the stern, some of the builders began to have misgivings.

“This is madness,” muttered an experienced seaman. “The ship is getting top-heavy.”

“Quiet,” said his superior. “His Majesty would not like this kind of talk.”

So work continued. Then came the maiden voyage.

It was a beautiful day in the nation’s capital, and all the citizens were out watching.
What a splendid sight! Just look at those cannons, and ferocious lions! As the mighty ship headed for the open sea the crowd cheered. It was a glorious moment of patriotism and pride. Then came a small gust of wind. It caught the ship, making it lean heavily. Cannons broke loose, water gushed through the open gun ports. As the crowd watched, the ship keeled over and sank.

Since the King was beyond reproach, no one was blamed for this colossal fiasco.
But, of course, everyone knew.

This is a true story. It happened in Stockholm in 1628. But this is not the end of it.
In 1956, an amateur Swedish archaeologist set out to raise Vasa, the name of the ship. Step-by-step it was brought up and immaculately restored. The vessel is now on display in the Vasa Museum in central Stockholm, and admired by millions of visitors.

A magnificent ship, with only one flaw.

She couldn’t sail.

The Swedish king, Gustav II Adolf 1594-1632 "The Lion of the North"

Vasa sinking

The Vasa ship.

The Vasa Museum Stockholm, Sweden

Feathers, Flaps & Flops, Fabulous Early Fliers
Highlights the people who attempted to defy gravity by using imagination, dedication, and daring, from "Wrong Way Corrigan" who was supposed to fly to California but ended up in Ireland and Beryl Markham, who was the first woman in Africa to receive a commercial pilot's license to Bessie Coleman, a notorious African-American stunt pilot. Get a downloadable copy from the iNK Books & Media Store.
Grades 3-5

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Taking the Fear out of Revision

6/2/2020

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Sneed B. Collard III

Connecting Science and Kids

Have you ever been asked to revise something that you wrote, but had trouble doing it? Maybe you didn’t know where to start? Maybe you thought you might actually make it worse than before? Maybe you thought it would be too hard?

Believe me, I get it. When I sit down to revise, I am often filled with fears about doing it. Over the years, though, I’ve come up with three simple steps that help take the fear out of revision. Let’s see how to use them when revising the most important chunk of writing—the paragraph.

When I revise a paragraph, my first step is to ask myself is “What’s this paragraph about?” Usually, I’ve already written a sentence that tells me. It’s called a thesis sentence. A thesis sentence can be something kind of loose such as “Skateboards rock,” or it can be specific such as “Yesterday, I had my best skateboard ride ever.” The point is that this sentence tells me what the rest of my paragraph needs to be about. When revising, I find it helpful to underline my thesis sentence.

               Step Two is to make sure that my paragraph makes sense. Here, I check that every sentence helps prove or explain why my thesis sentence is true. I also make sure that none of my sentences are confusing. If they are, I revise them so they are easier to understand. I especially look for sentences that don’t really say anything, such as “Skateboards are, like, the best.” I’d either delete this sentence, or improve it to something like, “Skateboards provide great exercise.”

               After my paragraph makes sense, I move on to Step Three: making my paragraph more fun. I replace boring verbs with more exciting ones. Instead of saying “My skateboard was fast,” I might write, “My skateboard hurtled down the ramp.” I put in better descriptions. I also might crack a joke, or throw in a simile such as “My skateboard carried me like a four-wheeled chariot”—or a metaphor, “My board launched me into the stratosphere.”

               When tackling revision, I recommend having someone else read your writing aloud. That helps you spot problems. Even so, I don’t always nail a revision the first—or even the tenth—time. I revised this nonfiction minute more than a dozen times! The important thing is to not let your fears overwhelm you. Remember that revision is simply the process of you saying what you want to say.

What happens when a bestselling nonfiction children's book author pairs up with a nationally known writing teacher to discuss revision strategies? Magic.

Sneed B. Collard III and Vicki Spandel blow the roof off everything you thought you knew about teaching nonfiction writing and the purposes for revision. Dozens of strategy lessons pulled from Sneed's professional writing experience followed by Vicki's classroom-savvy tips and exercises give you the nuts and bolts of teaching revision to make nonfiction writing more meaningful, useful, and enjoyable for the reader.

Using a "big-to-small" process of revision, from Big Picture ideas down to individual words, Sneed and Vicki demystify revision and help students become clear, persuasive, compelling-even entertaining-writers. "With your encouragement and guidance," they write, "students will discover the joy of turning their first rough ideas into something readers cannot put down."

MLA 8 Citation
Collard, Sneed B., III. "Taking the Fear Out of Revision." Nonfiction Minute,
iNK Think Tank, 30 May 2018, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/
Taking-the-Fear-Out-of-Revision.

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Knot Gardens

The Proudest Ship

Taking the Fear out of Revision

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