Читать книгу Round the Year with Enid Blyton—Spring Book - Enid blyton - Страница 3

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For a whole year you and I are going to look at Nature together. We are going to study the weather, the plants and trees, the animals and insects, and the birds, and we are going to do things as well as learn things. You will have to look for things, make things, watch for birds and flowers, and use your eyes and ears as keenly as a hare does. And if, at the end of the year, you can say, “Well, I do love going for walks, there’s so much to see and hear!” or “What a lot of things there are to know and enjoy!” I shall know you have done your part.

There is something that is always with us, day in and day out—and that is the weather. No matter where our home or school is, in the heart of a town or in the depths of the country, we all have the weather. Everything in Nature depends on the weather—a warm spring means early flowers and early tadpoles. A bitter winter means frozen birds and starving rabbits. The weather decides what we see around us in Nature, and for that reason we must notice it every day, and make a record of it.

Many of you will have kept weather charts before, probably weekly ones. We will keep a monthly one, because some of the other records and calendars we shall make will be monthly too. Think of all the different kinds of weather we have and make a list of them. How many can you think of? Sunny weather, rainy weather, wind, snow, hail, lightning, rainbows, and so on will appear on your lists—and sooner or later all of them will have to be entered on our charts.

Now we will make the first monthly chart. You will want a large sheet of stiff drawing or painting paper. At the top in big clear letters your best letterer must put “Weather Chart for ...” followed by the month and the year. Then you will want four headings, or five, if the month runs, as it generally does, into a fifth week—1st week, 2nd week, 3rd week, 4th week, 5th week. Down the left-hand side put the names of the seven days of the week.

It is dull to write “Hot and sunny” or “Cold and frosty” on our charts, and besides we could not see from our seats what the weather had been like for the week or month, if the record was kept in writing. So we will choose signs or symbols to record our weather for us. At the bottom of the chart we will draw and colour these symbols to remind us what they mean, and use them each day when we fill in the weather.

A WEATHER CHART

Here is part of a weather chart being kept by a class. Yours will look rather like this. Make it as large as you can, so that everyone can see it easily.

What will you choose for rainy weather? Slanting lines of rain in blue chalk, open umbrellas, Wellington boots? It does not matter a bit—choose what seems the most interesting to you. What will you have for sunshine? A bright red sun with yellow rays? A yellow sun without rays for a sunny, but rather cloudy day? Or would you like sunshades for very hot days?

Hail could be little round balls in slanting lines. When you have chosen all you wish, draw your symbols neatly at the bottom of the chart. Look at the chart illustrated, and you will see what I mean. If you can draw or paint well, you might decorate the chart at the top or sides.

Now all you have to do is to enter the weather each day. You must make a new chart every month, of course, and at the end of the year you can string them together and use them next year to compare with future weather.

Shepherds and farmers are often very good at fore-telling the weather. They are so used to studying the sky and the wind that they know when to expect rain and when to expect sun. Some of their knowledge you will find in weather proverbs and sayings, such as “A red sky at night is the shepherd’s delight; but red sky in morning is the shepherd’s warning.”

AIR-PILOTS BEING TOLD WHAT WEATHER THEY MAY EXPECT ON THEIR COMING FLIGHT

The weather is so important to farmers, seamen and airmen that a great deal of attention is now paid to correct forecasting. You have probably heard the weather forecast over the wireless, or heard your father read it out of his morning paper, and have wondered how people know what the weather is going to be. You would be surprised at the great number of specially trained observers in all parts of the country, and on ocean-going ships, whose business it is to make notes of such things as rainfall, force and direction of the wind, the dampness, pressure and warmth of the air, and so on. They send their results by wireless or telegram to their headquarters, the Meteorological Office, and all the information is then carefully studied and the weather forecast made.

Airmen always study weather forecasts carefully. They want to know such things as strength and direction of winds, and these are found out for them by means of special kites and balloons sent up at various heights in different parts of the country.

And now I think you will understand how very important the study of the weather is, and will fill in your weather chart regularly.

There is another chart we ought to make, too—a record of the happenings in Nature week by week. This must be quite a big chart because there may be many things to put on it. We can have either four columns or three—four if you include a column for weather for the week, which I should certainly do. Head your chart “Nature Calendar for ......” Then make four section-headings, Weather, Animals, Birds, Plants. Then, each week, enter into the space beneath each heading what you have noticed for that week.

Look at the section of a Nature chart on the next page, and you will see the sort of thing you should do. You can either draw straight on the chart itself or you can draw and colour the things separately, and the best can be cut out and pasted on. You will find that this chart soon begins to look very exciting, and will be visited by many children from other classes! Be sure to keep it, when finished, to compare with next year’s chart.

A NATURE CALENDAR

THINGS TO DO

1.

Write down what you remember of yesterday’s weather.

2.

Make a list of all the different kinds of weather you can think of.

3.

Begin a collection of Weather Proverbs and Sayings.