When I was a kid fifty years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt had a bad rap. We learned that way back in the 1900s, he banned Christmas trees from the White House. What a lousy father, I thought. Down through the years, the story went something like this: Across America in the early 1900s, huge forests were in danger of destruction from a lumbering practice called “clear-cutting.” Lots of newspapers and public leaders asked Americans to stop going to the woods to cut Christmas trees. Now when the Roosevelts and their six kids lived in the White House, they didn’t have a tree. Stockings and presents, but not a tree. So folks assumed that Roosevelt had outlawed Christmas trees, because he was a huge outdoorsman and conservationist. But, according to people who’ve done their history homework, that’s not the whole truth. It’s possible that First Lady Edith Roosevelt had six kids to think of and didn’t want the extra fuss of a Christmas tree. Christmas trees had become very popular ever since the old German tradition was picked up in the United States, but not everyone chose to have one. As it turned out, the Roosevelts did have at least one tree, courtesy of their eight-year-old son Archie. On Christmas morning 1902, Archie surprised his family. The president wrote about it in a letter that told of Christmas morning:
A magazine ran the story of Archie’s tree the next year. From then on, it picked up all sorts of embellishments, sort of like playing telephone at a birthday party. Today, the best explanation of the old story appears on a blog run by the Forest History Society. Visit their website. And for more cool facts about Christmas trees, check out the website of the folks who know, the College of Agriculture at the University of Illinois.  Roosevelt Family in 1903 with Quentin on the left, TR, Ted, Archie, Alice, Kermit, Edith, and Ethel. Credit: Library of Congress  Young Archie Roosevelt on his horse Algonquin. Credit: Library of Congress  The discovery of the tree in the seamstress's closet was a popular Christmas illustration for a story that ran in Ladies Home Journal. The story underscored the simplicity of the Roosevelt family’s Christmas decorations and the president’s conservation ethic.  Theodore Roosevelt for Kids brings to life this fascinating man, an American giant whose flaws were there for all the world to see. Twenty-one hands-on activities offer a useful glimpse at Roosevelt’s work and times. Readers will create a Native American toy, explore the effects of erosion, go on a modern big game hunt with a camera, and make felted teddy bears. The text includes a time line, online resources, and reading list for further study. And through it all, readers will appreciate how one man lived a “Bully!” life and made the word his very own. Kerrie Hollihan is a member of iNK's Authors on Call and is available for classroom programs through FieldTripZoom, a terrific technology that requires only a computer, wifi, and a webcam. Click here to find out more. MLA 8 Citation Hollihan, Kerrie Logan. "Did Theodore Roosevelt Ban Christmas Trees?" Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 22 Dec. 2017, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/ Did-Theodore-Roosevelt-Ban-Christmas-Trees. Accessed 22 Dec. 2017. 
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Long before we celebrated Halloween, Celtic people in the British Isles honored the dead during Samhain (which we pronounce “SOW-ren”). Some scholars think that Samhain was a Celtic version of New Year’s Eve. It was a holiday filled with ritual. Folks believed that in late fall, the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was at its very thinnest. To light their way at this dark time of year, they carved out vegetables, and popped glowing coals inside. A popular choice was the humble turnip, which they grew, cooked, and ate, of course. Why turnips, you may ask? Think! Pumpkins didn’t grow in Europe—they are a New World vegetable. In fact, an old drawing shows how Indians in Virginia grew pumpkins in their villages in the late 1500s. Why not give turnip carving a try? Order big ones at your farm market. When you first bring them home, they might be hard as rocks. Let them sit out in the open for several days until they soften up a bit. To carve yourself some examples of the original “jack-o-lantern,” grab the turnips, some tea lights, a small knife, and a pointy spoon. Hold the turnip root tip up. Use a marker to draw the circle for the lid. Then trace or draw eyes, nose, mouth—whatever you’d like. Now be sure there’s an adult to help you! Use the knife to carve around the circle. Remove the top of the turnip and set it aside. That’s your lid. Use the spoon to scoop out the turnip just like a pumpkin. Be sure to leave a nice thick wall. Then pierce the turnip with your knife and gently carve out the features. Pop the tea light inside. Find a dark spot. Have the grownup help you light the wick and… LET IT GLOW! Today, folks grow pumpkins in the Old World, so kids all over Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales carve jack-o-lanterns just like you do. Turnips are out….unless you want to feed the cows.
 Kerrie Hollihan's biography of Isaac Newton sheds light on a lot of ideas people thought were mysterious. If you liked the turnip activity, there are lots more in this book. Kerrie Hollihan is a member of iNK's Authors on Call and is available for classroom programs through FieldTripZoom, a terrific technology that requires only a computer, wifi, and a webcam. Click here to find out more.
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. _______________________________ MLA 8 Citation Hollihan, Kerrie Logan. "Knot Gardens." Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 17 May 2018, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/Knot-Gardens.  
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington D.C.’s Arlington National Cemetery is one of America’s sacred places. This marble monument is indeed a grave of a World War I soldier. It’s also a powerful symbol for Americans who fought or died in war. America chose its first unknown soldier after its victory over Germany in the Great War. It wasn’t called “World War I” until a second world war started twenty years later. The honor of making that choice went to an Army sergeant from Chicago named Edward Younger, who was stationed in France. The bodies of four unidentified soldiers were removed from their graves in four American military cemeteries near battlefields in France. Officials made sure they were American soldiers by inspecting their uniforms and checking their bodies for combat wounds. During a solemn ceremony, Sergeant Younger entered a private room where the four caskets sat side by side. He carried a bouquet of white roses. He walked around the caskets quietly and then placed the roses on one of them. The remains of that soldier were transferred to a new casket. It was sealed and draped with the American flag, so that the field of stars lay over the soldier’s head and heart. With great ceremony, the casket was honored in France and then escorted by the U.S. Navy across the Atlantic to Washington, D. C. The spray of white roses went along, as well. The Unknown Soldier lay in state in the Rotunda of the Capitol Building until November 11, 1921. That was the third anniversary of Armistice Day. “Armistice” means to lay down weapons and stop fighting. This is exactly what happened at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in November, 1918. Today, we call our national holiday “Veteran’s Day.” Crowds gathered to watch as the Unknown Soldier’s casket was placed on a gun carriage and drawn by horses to nearby Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac in Virginia. After a solemn burial service, many dignitaries paid their respects at the casket, including the U.S. president and the American Indian Chief Plenty Coups of the Crow Nation. The chief laid his war bonnet alongside the memorial wreaths. The casket was lowered into the tomb onto two inches of soil from France. Sergeant Younger’s spray of roses was buried with it. Later, a massive marble sarcophagus was placed on top. The words carved into the sarcophagus state simply: Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.  The Unknown Soldier was laid to rest on November 21, 1921.  The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as it appears today. The flat-faced white marble sarcophagus is relieved at the corners and along the sides by neo-classic pilasters, or columns, set into the surface. Sculpted into the east panel which faces Washington, D.C., are three Greek figures representing Peace, Victory, and Valor. The six wreaths, three sculpted on each side, represent the six major campaigns of World War I..  Throughout history, the wars of men have been off-limits to women; to break through these barriers, women had to fight with newspaper gatekeepers and the leaders of warring nations alike just to get the story. Kerrie Logan Hollihan's newest book, Reporting Under Fire, tells how women won the war for equality in the journalism world. To find out more about the book on Kerrie's website, click here. Kerrie Hollihan is a member of iNK's Authors on Call and is available for classroom programs through FieldTripZoom, a terrific technology that requires only a computer, wifi, and a webcam. Click here to find out more. MLA 8 Citation Hollihan, Kerrie Logan. "America’s Unknown Soldier." Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 1 June 2018, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/ Americas-Unknown-Soldier. 
In spring 1665 a college student named Isaac Newton studied natural philosophy, what we call “science.” Back then, a good student could learn everything to know about the natural world. But plague, the Black Death, came to England. Cambridge University closed. Isaac went home to Woolsthorpe. For two years Isaac thought about his studies during four years at university. He’d always been thoughtful—not the best at games, making friends, or minding sheep. But everybody knew Isaac Newton liked to think. Folks told time by the sundial he’d drawn on a wall. Home at Woolsthorpe, Isaac’s learning about science and math bubbled up in his head like yeast rising in a loaf of bread. So... Newton unplugged. His mind roamed like that of an artist or composer. He was driven by the need to create—not paintings or symphonies, but questions. “Why do things always fall down?” “Why does the earth move around the sun? “Why doesn’t the moon fall onto the earth?” “Does everything ‘up there” work like things work ‘down here?’” Isaac Newton answered his questions with three science rules, Newton’s Laws of Motion. At Woolsthorpe, Newton grappled with the concept of moving objects. He worked out the math to find the area under curves. He called this math fluxions. Today we call this calculus, useful for launching rockets or tracking TV signals. Once back at Cambridge, Newton said nothing until he read someone else’s paper on fluxions. Newton published a better paper. Soon he was Cambridge’s top math professor. Isaac Newton wondered another twenty years. He played with prisms in a dark room and theorized that white light comprises the visible spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. He practiced alchemy and chemistry, looking for the legendary philosopher’s stone to turn base metals to gold. In 1687, Newton published our most important science book, the Principia. In the Principia, Newton showed how laws of gravity and motion work the same at great distances—far off in space, or in your classroom. We accept these ideas, but in 1687 many still had medieval beliefs that sun, moon, planets, and stars all traveled in their own crystal spheres. Yes, Newton wondered about A LOT:
 Sir Isaac Newton was an English mathematician, astronomer, theologian, author and physicist who is widely recognized as one of the most influential scientists of all time and a key figure in the scientific revolution. Based on a portrait by Godfrey Kneller, 1702, via Wikimedia Commons  Sir Isaac Newton's own first edition copy of his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica with his handwritten corrections for the twentieth edition. Photograph Andrew Dunn via Wikimedia Commons  Trinity College, the part of the University of Cambridge where Newton worked and lived. Library of Congress  This statue of the young Isaac Newton stands at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Look carefully around his feet for a hint on what he is wondering about. If you can’t figure it out, then read about Newton and gravity. Wikimedia Commons  Featuring 21 hands-on projects that explore the scientific concepts Isaac Newton developed, Kerrie Logan Hollihan's Isaac Newton and Physics for Kids paints a rich portrait of the brilliant and complex man and provides readers with a hands-on understanding of astronomy, physics, and mathematics. A time line, excerpts from Newton's own writings, online resources, and a reading list enhance this unique activity book. MLA 8 Citation Hollihan, Kerrie Logan. "Isaac Newton's Wonder Years." Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 21 Feb. 2018, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/ isaac-newtons-wonder years.  |
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