Photo Emily Wilcox among the bluebonnets in Cedar Park, Tex., last week. Fields are abundant, but so are the sightseers. Go to related article » Credit Drew Anthony Smith for The New York Times
6 Q’s About the News
Read the article to answer basic news questions.
In “ Breaking Laws and Fighting Fire Ants in a Rush to the Texas Bluebonnet Fields,” Kate Murphy writes about the seasonal rush to the blooming bluebonnet fields in Texas.
WHAT are bluebonnets?
WHAT percentage of land in Texas is privately owned?
WHAT is your favorite spring flower?
WHERE are bluebonnets indigenous?
WHEN were bluebonnets adopted as the state flower?
WHEN is peak blooming season?
WHY do Texans frequently trespass on bluebonnet fields?
HOW do some professional photographers seek to capitalize on bluebonnet season?
WHO would you want in your bluebonnet portrait?
Related: Our resource “10 Ways to Teach the Joys of Spring” and our Poetry Pairing “‘For you: anthophilous, lover of flowers’”
Hugh Reed A spot in Corson’s Brook Woods in Staten Island, photographed on March 20, 2012 as spring officially began. Go to related blog post »
Poetry Pairing matches Li-Young Lee’s “Secret Life” with a March 20 City Room blog post, “Spring Comes to a City Woodland.”
Regular readers might remember that we
paired a poem with a related City Room piece, about the coming of autumn, last October.
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times Scenes more like spring, including a Japanese flowering apricot tree, arrived early at the New York Botanical Garden. Go to related article »
Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.
Overview | In this lesson, students read about the unusually warm winter most of the country has experienced and how it affects natural cycles like plant bloom times and pollination. They explore the factors that contribute to global climate patterns, analyze winter weather data from the past two years and generate annotated maps of climate attributes like the jet stream and ocean currents. Read more…