Understanding the properties of gas can be difficult for young children. Franklyn M. Branley’s book, Air is All Around You, illustrated by Holly Keller, teaches kids about air as a gas in a fun and simple way.
This short book uses simple sentences geared towards early elementary readers to show how even though you can’t see it, air surrounds all of us. The reason why we can’t see it is because air is a gas: “That’s hard to believe because you can’t see the air, or smell it. You can’t feel it either, except when it’s moving. Or when you spin around.”
Branley even includes two short and fun experiments children can try on their own. They demonstrate how gases can exist even in water. For the first experiment, students fill a bowl with water and place a glass with a cloth in it upside down in the liquid. Air builds up in the glass so that the cloth comes out dry. In the second experiment, children leave a glass of water sitting on a table for a few hours to see how air bubbles will eventually form.
The book then goes on to show kids how air is vital to life: fish need air to live in the water, astronauts need supplies of air to bring with them into space, and humans need to breathe in the air that constantly surrounds our planet. As the book simply repeats many times: “The air is all around us.”
Curriculum Connections
Branley’s book would be perfect to use in a kindergarten through second grade classroom when teaching students about the states of matter, specifically gases. Specific SOLs include K.5a, how water occurs in different states, and 2.3b, the properties of solids, liquids and gases, specifically how matter changes from one state to another (evaporation).
Additional Resources
Looking for other books or activities when teaching about gases? Check out these sites:
- Solids, Liquids and Gases would be a good book to introduce to the class before reading Air is All Around You because it uses simple definitions and real life photographs to define a solid, liquid and gas.
- Looking for a fun and interactive way to teach about the states of matter? Sing this song with your students!
- This lesson plan focuses specifically on the characteristics of air as a type of matter.
Book: Air is All Around You
Author: Franklyn M. Branley
Illustrator: Holly Keller
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date:1986
Pages: 40
Grade Range: K-2
ISBN: 0060594152