Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Magnets

Posted on March 20, 2010 by openwidearchive

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“Bring a magnet close to a steel spoon.  The magnet pulls the spoon.  This pull is called magnetic force.”

Magnets, written by Peter Riley and illustrated by Franklin Watts, is a practical, hands-on book that can teach students the basics about magnets.  The images depict young students experimenting with magnets and the text explains exactly what is pictured.  A first or second grade student might read this book on his own.  All lower elementary students would benefit from the way this book explains magnets.  Terms are explained plainly within the text and a glossary is also located in the back.

The book is written with questions for students to ponder throughout the text.  The answers are listed in the back of the book.  There is a teacher suggestion page in the front and resources listed in the back for continued learning about magnets.  Concepts covered include magnetic force, magnetic and non-magnetic materials, and the magnetic poles.

Curriculum Connections

This book introduces students to experiments with magnets.  Students can see that magnets have a pull on some objects and not on others (K.3).  It briefly mentions some practical uses of magnets.  I would use this book as an introduction to magnets and then give the students an opportunity to experiment with magnets.

Additional Resources

Teachers can utilize an entire unit of lesson plans on teaching about magnets in kindergarten.

For an animated movie on magnets, check out the BrainPOP website.

For songs about magnets, go to Songs for Teaching.

General Information

Book:  Magnets
Author:  Peter Riley
Illustrator:  Franklin Watts
Publisher:  Gareth Stevens Publishing
Publication Date:  2002
Pages:  31
Grade Range:  K-2nd
ISBN:  0-8368-3250-7

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Teaching Geography with Children’s Literature: Geography from A-Z: A Picture Glossary

Posted on March 20, 2010 by openwidearchive

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Introduction and Summary

Geography from A-Z: A Picture Glossary, by Jack Knowlton, is a great resource for elementary students that are trying to learn the difference between a plateau and a plain or a knoll and an atoll.  This wonderfully illustrated book defines sixty-three key geographic terms and includes a picture example to go along with each child-friendly definition.  It introduces recognizable terms such as marsh, rain forest and coastline and then explains terms hardly known by adults such as oxbow lake, escarpment and promontory.  This book is perfect to help children understand geography vocabulary terms in your classroom!

Curriculum Connections

This book would be a great resource for geography lessons where children must identify key geographic terms (Virginia SOL US 1.2 D).  A fun activity would be to give each student several geographic terms and then have them illustrate the terms and present them to the class.   They could also be made into foldables to place in an interactive notebook.  Younger grades could learn the more basic terminology and older grades could have fun learning new terms such as isthmus, strait and butte.

Additional Resources

  • Geography Terms Lesson – A great lesson that teaches meaning and spelling of key grade geographic terms.  Incorporates language arts with geography as students mini passages that have the key terms in them.
  • Atlas Vocabulary Game – Fun online game that allows students to match a geography term to its definition.

 General Information

Book:  Geography From A-Z:  A Picture Glossary
Author:  Jack Knowlton
Illustrator:  Harriet Barton
Publisher:  Harper Collins Publishers
Publication Date:  1988
Pages:  48
Grade Range:  3-5
ISBN:  0-690-04616-2

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Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: Digging Up Dinosaurs

Posted on March 19, 2010 by openwidearchive

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Did you ever wonder how we know that dinosaurs existed?  How do we know what they were like, how big they were, what they ate?  Digging Up Dinosaurs, written and illustrated by Aliki, is a very interesting and fun story that allows students to discover how science helps us answer these and many more questions about dinosaurs.

Have you ever seen dinosaur skeletons in a museum?
I have.
I visit them all the time.

This is how the story begins as a little girl takes us through the dinosaur exhibit in a museum.  The beginning pages show more dinosaurs in the museum, and the crowds of people viewing them.  We get to experience what one may think and say while visiting dinosaurs in a  museum like this through the clever use of dialogue in balloons.  Then, the little girl goes on to very clearly explain how these dinosaur skeletons, that people did not even know existed until about 200 years ago, got into museums.  After explaining how and where dinosaur fossils were first found, she goes on to tell us about the team of experts that work together: paleontologist, geologist, draftsman, workers, photographer, and specialist.  She explains how they find the fossils, dig them out, safely transport, and study the fossils.

They compare the bones to other bones.
They compare them to the bones of other animals.
They try to figure out what size and shape the dinosaur was.
They try to figure out how the dinosaur stood and walked, and what it ate.

Then they put the skeletons together again inside museums, to look just like the dinosaurs of millions of years ago, "And many people can spend hours looking at them, the way I do.".

The illustrations are colorful and fun.  The dialogue in balloons make the story very funny and relatable, and the texts of extra information (that give the appearance of being written notes) are filled with interesting facts.  This is a great book to inspire future young scientists or even satisfy the curiosity of the inquisitive child who needs to understand how and where these "bones" came from.

Curriculum Connections

Digging Up Dinosaurs can be used to introduce and/or enhance many of the Standards of Learning for elementary students.  There are many process skill SOLs covered within this book.  The student can apply what is in the book to help understand scientific reasoning, logic and nature of science by planning and conducting investigations in which: observations are made from multiple positions to achieve different perspectives, as they first view, uncover, photograph, and display the fossils (VA SOL K.1b, 1.1b); simple tools are used to enhance observations as they excavate, preserve, and study the fossils (VA SOL 1.1d, 4.1c); a question, or in this case many questions, are developed from one or more observations of the fossils (VA SOL 1.1g, 2.1a), examining the dinosaur teeth is an example of inferences being made and conclusions drawn about what the dinosaur ate (VA SOL 3.1j, 4.1a, 5.1i).  It is simply a great illustration of the varied process skills used to explore something that was not ever even heard of until 200 years ago.

Additional Resources

  • National Geographic Xpeditions offers a great lesson plan called The Science of Digging Up Bones.  The lesson plan is geared towards Grades 6-8, but can be changed to accommodate younger grades.  This lesson has students trace the steps of a paleontologist from determining where to look for dinosaur fossils to studying the completed dinosaur skeleton for clues about the dinosaur’s behavior, diet, and anatomy.
  • Digging Up Bones A WebQuest of a Dinosaur Excavation is another fun lesson plan idea related directly to the book.  It is a hands on activity allowing the students to work as teams as the paleontologist, a worker, a draftsman, and a photographer in order to identify fossil models made by the teacher based on dinosaur teeth information at this Enchanted Learning website.  This site gives a little more detail to the same lesson plan.
  • To add a fun hook to a lesson plan that will have the kids laughing (and probably keep everyone singing the tune all day), have the students watch the I Am a Paleontologist video from the Here Comes Science album by They Might Be Giants.
  • TVO Kids has a fun online game called Dino Dig.  The student can be the paleontologist and use tools to uncover fossils.

General Information

Book: Digging Up Dinosaurs
Author: Aliki
Illustrator: Aliki
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: 1988
Pages: 32
Grade Range: K-3
ISBN-10: 0064450783
ISBN-13: 978-0064450782

 

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Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

Posted on March 19, 2010 by openwidearchive

 

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Introduction and Summary

With vivid color and black and white illustrations by Helen Oxenbury, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, is the perfect read-aloud story for young students. Follow this adventurous family on their journey through the wilderness in search of a bear. On each page, the family encounters different obstacles in nature and must find their way through to continue their hunt. The family meets and describes each location using sensory descriptions such as; long, wavy grass, a deep, cold river, thick, oozy mud, a big, dark forest, a swirling, whirling snowstorm, and a narrow, gloomy cave. In each instance the children decide;

“Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Oh, no! We’ve got to go through it.”

Students will love interacting with the story as they repeat the noise the family makes as they stumble through each setting. When the family reaches it’s final destination, a narrow, gloomy cave, the family sees;

“One shiny wet nose! Two big furry ears! Two big googgly eyes! Oh, No! IT’S A ____”

Can students guess what the family might have found? Students will then love repeating back each of the sounds and adventures as the hunters run away from their prey and back into their house, up the stairs, down the stairs to close the door, back up the stairs, into the bed, and under the covers.

“We’re not going on a bear hunt again,” the family exclaims from underneath the covers as the hungry bear wanders back into the woods.

Curriculum Connections

Filled with opportunities for observations and inferences, this adventurous story is perfect for introducing process skills to a pre-K, Kindergarten, or 1st grade class. Students will be able to make and confirm observations about characteristics of each obstacle the family faces. Students will be able to make predictions about what the family will do based on their observations and the patterns from the story. This book is great for younger students because verses of the story are repeated, observations and vocabulary are age and developmentally appropriate, and there is a strong text to picture relationship. (VA SOL’s K.1 g, k, K.2 b, 1.1 a, f, h)

Additional Resources

The Bear Hunt is an extended version of the story put to music. This link provides the music for the song as well as the lyrics. Students will love singing and following along on the adventure as well as providing their own descriptions of the obstacles and experiences along the way.

A to Z teacher stuff provides a printout activity for students depicting each of the obstacles that the family faces and a table so that students can match words to print, make their own observations about each obstacle, or tell the story again through pictures using their own words.

This Bear Hunt lesson plan from Early Childhood Building Blocks turns this story into a interactive activity. Prompt questions mentioned in the lesson are perfect for teaching process skills, such as; “What sound do you think the mud makes? How high do you think they had to lift their knees in the snowstorm? Do you think they move fast or slow?”

The author, Michael Rosen, reads the book aloud in this fun and entertaining youtube video.

General Information

Book: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

Author: Michael Rosen

Illustrator: Helen Oxenbury

Publisher: Alladdin Paperbacks

Publication Date: 1989

Grade Range: pre- K – 1st

ISBN: 0-689-85349-1

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Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Move!

Posted on March 19, 2010 by openwidearchive

Move!

 Summary:

 Have you ever wondered how certain animals move? Move! , which was written by Steve Jenkins and illustrated by Robin Page, gives young children an introduction to vocabulary, animals and physical science by describing the many different ways that animals can move. This book doesn’t talk about common animals like dogs and cats, it focuses attention on less familiar animals like the road runner, the blue whale, the arctic hare and the jumping spider just to name a few. What makes this book even more interesting is that, when I read it, I had no idea how some of these animals moved! I didn’t know jumping spiders “dance to impress” or that “a roadrunner flies, but not too far.” If I can find these facts interesting, then there’s no way a child would not find these facts fun as well.

 Curriculum Connections:

 With this book, children can learn a great deal about physical science. For example, looking at the different types of animals out in the world and observing, accurately, how they move from place to place. While also observing animals, questions can be formed as well (if spiders jump, do other animals jump? Do all animals in the ocean swim? Can all birds fly?, etc.). While also observing the many different types of animals out in the world, questions can be asked, predictions can be made and conclusions can be drawn based on the observations the book provides. This may be a children’s book but it’s also a book full of science tips ! (VA SOLs: K.1, 1.1 2.1 and 3.1).

 

Additional Resources: 

Animals on the Go!:  This short video is an excellent clip for teachers and students that shows many different animals and the ways that they move from place to place.

Moving and Growing:  With this fun website, children can learn the science of what moving is all about and how both humans and animals move from place to place. A great science website for kids and teachers to use!

Moving Animals:  On this website, children have to match the animal body part with the animal that helps it to move. A great website for young children to learn about how things move.

General Information:

Book: Move!

Author: Steve Jenkins

Author: Robin Page

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company

Publication Date: 2006

Pages: 32

Grade Range: Pre-K thru K

ISBN: 0-618-64637

 

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Teaching Processing Skills with Children’s Literature: Cook-A-Doodle-Doo!

Posted on March 19, 2010 by openwidearchive

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Cook-A-Doodle-Doo!, written by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel and illustrated by Janet Stevens, is a charming picture book about a hen who decides to make a strawberry shortcake.  She finds the recipe and some of her animal friends try to help.   The only problem is…her friends know nothing about cooking.  They try to bring her a flower instead of baking flour.  Iguana tries to measure the flour with a ruler and Turtle tries to beat the eggs with a bat.  Hen explains everything the animals need to know and the shortcake turns out beautifully.  Hen teaches about measuring properly with the right tools and following directions.

 The side notes on several pages show measuring equivalents such as 1 stick butter=1 cup=8 tablespoons.  It explains the use of dry measuring cups versus liquid measuring cups and other cooking terms. The recipe is written on the last page for readers to try at home.

 Curriculum Connections

This book can be used to introduce students to proper measuring techniques and tools.  It also shows the importance of following directions or working in sequence.  This book is funny and can be enjoyed by any elementary student.  Teachers can use the book before going over the rules or directions for a science experiment.  Students can practice measuring the ingredients like the animals did or even try the whole recipe.  This book would also be useful in math while teaching fractions and measurement conversions.  Teachers can use this book as an introduction to any of the elementary scientific investigation, reasoning, and logic skills.

Additional Resources

 For more ideas on teaching processing skills, read the first edition of Science in School.

For ways to encourage the teaching of  science processing skills at home, try this handbook written for parents.

Use recipes for a valuable math lesson.

See the Susan Stevens Crummel website for more ways to use this book in the classroom.

General Information

Book:  Cook-Doodle-Do!
Author:  Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel
Illustrator:  Janet Stevens
Publisher:  Harcourt Brace & Company
Publication Date:  1999
Pages:  46
Grade Range:  K-5
ISBN:  0-15-201924-3

 

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Teaching Process Skills With Children’s Literature: The Science Book of Color

Posted on March 19, 2010 by openwidearchive

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Introduction and Summary

 “Imagine a world without color.  It would be like living in an old movie.

Color makes our world a pleasure to look at.”

The Science Book of Color by Neil Ardley  with photography by Pete Gardner is a great children’s book for introducing the concept of color and science experiments.  This is a short book written in terms easy for kids to understand.  The photographs are intriguing and very relevant to each experiment.  You might not think that there can be too many things to experiment with color but there are for sure and this book proves it.  With experiments about making vegetable dye to simulating a sunset, this book is a great beginner scientist resource.   It contains many science experiments that are very reasonable for a classroom or home project and many of the experiments require minimal adult assistance.   Although most appropriate for upper elementary grades, this book can be used for lower grades as well with more adult assistance.  Another great thing about this book is that in the beginning, the author lists ways to, “be a safe scientist”, which includes rules and expectations for a good and safe experiment.

Curriculum Connections

This book would be a great resource to use for many grades and to have in a class library to inspire interest in experiments.  The Science Book of Color would be especially useful for use with instruction on helping kids to  understand the nature of science and scientific reasoning and logic. The book has page after page of interesting, simple and fun science experiments all having to do with color.  This book would be great to use when teaching how to follow through with an experiment and follow all the steps to get an end result.  It would also be good to use for having kids determine a set of questions they want the answers to and developing an experiment to find those answers. (VA SOLs, 6.1i, 4.1l, 1.1d and 1.1j)

Additional Resources

Here are some great web resources that might be helpful when teaching about process skills.

This one has links to many science experiments similar to the book.  These are great to do at home and are simple enough for younger children.

This site has a list of frequently asked questions about color and their answers. This site would be much better used with older students.  Again this site can be used at home or at school.

Here’s another great one for kids with cool science projects and interesting information about things like, “why is a school bus yellow?” etc. and other questions that young children ask about color.

General Information

Book:  The Science Book of Color

Author: Neil Ardley

Illustrator: (photographer), Pete Gardner

Publisher:  Gulliver Books, Harcourt Brace & Company

Publication Date: 1991

Grade Range: 2-5

ISBN: 0152005765

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Teaching Geography with Children’s Literature: Nine O’Clock Lullaby

Posted on March 18, 2010 by openwidearchive

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Summary and Introduction Nine O’Clock Lullaby was written by Marilyn Singer and illustrated by Frane Lessac.  With the use of its wonderful pictures, this book takes the reader all over the world one hour at a time.  It displays with pictures and words information about each city’s culture and activities that might be unique to their area of the world.

“7:30 A.M. in India All over the village well ropes squeak, buckets splash, bracelets jingle, long braids swish.  All over the village morning music.  7:30 A.M. in India is …”

Curriculum Connections
One suggestion to do while reading this book would be to have a globe handy so that after each page or city is read, you could show the students where that is on the globe.  This book has a lot of cross curriculum connections.  While the book certainly does a great job taking its readers all over the world and definitely captures the essence of Geography, it also has a scientific focus on the time of day as each page begins with a specific time.  In addition, it covers the idea of day and night, where it may be daytime and the sun is shining in one area of the world, but it is nighttime, dark and the moon is out in another area.  There is also an ecological element regarding the animal habitats in the various regions that book displays.  Based on its short passages and reoccurring reading patterns, this book is geared for a student in K-2nd grades. (VA SOL Geography K.4)

Additional Resources

  • First Grade Map Activity:  This flash card game ties in traits from different types of communities along with the types of things that might be present in those communities.
  • Continents, Poles and Equator: This is a song to teach the children sung to the tune “Are you sleeping?”  The child will use body parts to describe where in the world the continents, poles and equator are.
  • Continent Word Search: This is a continent word search worksheet for use with first or second graders.

Book: Nine O’ Clock Lullaby
Author/Illustrator : Marilyn Singer / Frane Lessac
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Publication Date:
Pages: 30
Grade Range: K – 2nd
ISBN:0-329-13502-3

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Teaching Geography with Children’s Literature: My Granny Went to Market

Posted on March 17, 2010 by openwidearchive

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Rather than rely on the “traditional” map book to teach geographical concepts, why not utilize a book where characters venture to different destinations around the world, thus bringing the lesson to life by allowing readers to follow the adventures on a globe or map in the classroom?  In My Granny Went to Market, written by Stella Blackstone and illustrated by Christopher Corr, young readers are granted this opportunity to join Granny as she journeys around the world to collect treasures native to each land.  Not only are children exposed to foreign areas and the signature goods each has to offer, they are also presented with a sense of directionality that is required to get from one land to the next.  For example, readers “spiraled south to Kenya” with Granny where she bought six booming drums.  This is a good introduction to the four common directions used on compasses and maps that children will need to understand as more advanced geographical concepts are presented in higher grades.  With a one-page legend documenting all of Granny’s purchases and an ending map that highlights all of her routes across the world, children are again introduced to additional geographical concepts that they need to know.
Curriculum Connections:
As an instructional tool, this book presents the idea of travel and geography realistically, yet at the same time, very simplistically for  children to understand.  The vividly colored illustrations give off the feeling of Mexican folk art.  It is a wonderful introduction to geographical concepts such as legends, directions, and maps (SOL 1.5).  For the very youngest children, the book serves the purpose of relating foreign places to where they are in the world by use of positional terminology (SOL K.3) and also describing these lands that are often referenced in stories and real life situations (SOL K.4 b).  For older children, the end-map could be a guide for them to create their own map of Granny’s journeys (SOL 2.6).

Additional Resources:

With this interactive site, children can navigate through a neighborhood using directionality, thus further teaching and enforcing the purpose of a compass rose.

Children can travel around the world to various locations that were discussed in the book to learn more about the people, the culture, the climate, the location, and so much more!

This site, great for both teachers and/ or parents to use, guides children as they can concoct their own map using their own personal landmarks, terms, and routes.

Book: My Granny Went to Market: A Round-the-World Counting Rhyme
Author: Stella Blackstone
Illustrator: Christoper Corr
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Publication Date: March 2006
Pages: 12
Grade Range: Recommended K-2
ISBN: 9781841487922

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Teaching Geography with Children’s Literature: Giant Steps

Posted on March 17, 2010 by openwidearchive

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Giant Steps, written by Elizabeth Loredo and illustrated by Barry Root, uses cardinal directions to tell the story of five giants playing hide and go seek.   While the unlucky fifth giant counts, the other four giants take giant steps that lead to the four corners of the globe.  They run north, nouth, east and west until the fifth giant call FREEZE!  When he sees another giant running, he grabs the sun and throws it at the giant.  Unfortunately that fifth giant is unlucky, misses and is it again.  “And that’s a lucky thing for those giants to the north, south, east and west.  On account of he’s the only giant that can COUNT.”

Curriculum Connections:

This book would be a fun resource to use in geography to introduce map skills and cardinal directions (VA SOL 1.4 b).  A map of the United States could be displayed.  The teacher could point out Virginia and explain where it is in relation to others states (VA SOL 1.4 c).  This would be a good time to introduce the compass rose to the class.   Using the map, the students could try to determine where the giants may have ended up by running north, south, east and west.

Additional Resources:

  •  Treasure Hunt is a fun activity for students.  They would be asked to hide an object and then create a treasure map that leads to the object and includes a compass rose and a map key.
  • Mystery State is a worksheet that shows the state of Virginia.  Students are asked to use a map of the USA to determine which state is shown then complete information at the bottom of the sheet pertaining to that state.

General Information:

Book: Giant Steps
Author: Elizabeth Loredo
Illustrator: Barry Root
Publisher: G. P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication Date: 2004
Pages: 32
Grade Range: K – 3
ISBN: 9780399234910

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