Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: Galileo

Posted on March 17, 2010 by openwidearchive

 galileo

The book Galileo by Leonard Everett Fisher chronicles the life of the famous Renaissance scientist.  Background information is presented at the beginning about the theories of Aristotle and Copernicus about the center of the universe.  The author does a great job not only summarizing the events of Galileo’s life but also some of his most famous experiments.  Galileo challenged Aristotle’s theory that two objects of different weights fall at different speeds.  “He dropped two balls of different weights at the same time from the same height at the top of a building, possibly the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  A crowd of students and professors watched the balls land together.  Those who were loyal followers of Aristotle refused to believe what they saw.”  The author describes Galileo’s use of a “spyglass” to view the stars and planets in detail as well as the reactions of the Church.  The illustrations throughout the book – all black and white – are amazing!

Curriculum Connections

This book can be used in instruction to teach students about planning and conducting investigations (2.1, 3.1, 4.1) and other general science process skills.

Additional Resources

General Information

Book: Galileo
Author: Leonard Everett Fisher
Illustrator: Leonard Everett Fisher
Publisher: Atheneum
Publication date: 1992
Pages: 32
Grade Range: 1-5
ISBN: 978-0027352351

Posted in biography, book review, nonfiction, process skills, science | Comments Off on Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: Galileo

Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: The Magic School Bus Gets All Dries Up

Posted on March 16, 2010 by openwidearchive

the-magic-school-bus.jpg

 The Magic School Bus Gets All Dried Upwritten by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen is a fun and adventurous children’s book about survival in the desert.  The book starts off in Ms. Frizzle’s class, where things are not normal for long.  The students are making a diorama and observe that they are missing something important, animals that live in the desert! Carlos does not think that the cute little stuffed animals that they have put in the diorama will survive the hot, dry desert; and Phoebe is determined to prove him wrong.  She decided they are going to for a committee called S.A.D.S. (Students Against Desert Scarcity).  “Scarcity because food and water is hard to find in the desert.”  Surprising Arnold decides they should take a field trip and the next think you know, the students are boarding the Magic School Bus which turns into an airplane.  While the class is at the desert they learn what it would be like to be a Gila Monster, lizard with spikes, a rabbit, and a tortoise while comparing and contrasting the ways of survival. It does rain over night and in the morning there are beautiful flowers everywhere in the desert. Ms. Frizzle ends the field trip by saying “All things that live here have special features-adaptations-for survival.”

Curriculum Connections

This would be a great book to read aloud to the younger elementary school grades. A kindergarten teacher or first grade teacher can use this book to help teach and relate the book to scientific investigation, reasoning and logic (SOL: K.1 or 1.1) by observing the different attributes of surroundings, physical properties such as the mountains vs. the desert, predictions and conclusions.  If the children in the classroom have difficulty reading, they can looked at the detailed pictures and still understand a majority of the authors content.  This is a good book for teachers to stop and ask questions to the students about what they think will happen next, while they are using their processing skills.

Additional Resources

Scholastic has a web-site just for The Magic School Bus adventures. Teachers, parents and students can all find something to do! Teachers can find free engaging activities for their students.

All Kinds of Weather is a worksheet that can help students process what activity can go along with each season. Students can process the following as an example: the boys and the kite go along with the wind blowing. 

Preschool coloring pages of the desert can help to tie in the climate and what things can be found in the desert after reading the book, such as, cacti.

A to Z Teacher Stuff is a great resource for teachers.  It has free lesson plans, coloring activities, games, etc. for the classroom. There is a whole section on the desert and each grade is broken down into sections for easier findings.

Book: The Magic School Bus Gets All Dried Up
Author: Joanna Cole
Illustrator: Bruce Degen
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Publication Date: 1996
Pages: 30
Grade Range: K-1
ISBN: 0-590-50831-8

Posted in activities/experiments, book review, nonfiction, process skills | Comments Off on Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: The Magic School Bus Gets All Dries Up

Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: Saguaro Moon

Posted on March 16, 2010 by openwidearchive

9781584690368.jpg

        “Planet Scouts is a club for kids who like to study nature.
We always keep a nature journal. I started this new
journal to record all the desert life I discover.
I bring it with me whenever I go exploring!”

Explore Arizona’s Sonoran Desert through Megan’s journal in Saguaro Moon: A Desert Journal, written and illustrated by Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini. While being quite kid-friendly, Saguaro Moon also offers a ton of great facts about many desert animals and plants. This book is full of lots of scientific names, measurements, and beautiful watercolor paintings.

Curriculum Connections
This book would be a valuable tool in introducing students to scientific journals. In Megan’s journal, she classifies the organisms she comes across in the desert initially by common name, scientific name, and size/length using two different units of measurement (5.1 b,c) Sometimes Megan makes Fact Cards in her journal about a plant or animals’ habitat, diet, range, measurements, and tips on how to interact with them (5.1d, 6.1c)  She will point out the slight differences between closely-related species (6.1a), and she even clears up some common misconceptions. What a great way to introduce students to scientific observation and classification!

Additional Resources

  • Planet Scouts! You can become a Planet Scout too! Learn how to keep your own journal and read about the adventures of other Planet Scouts. The Mission of the Planet Scouts is to bring literature, art and environmental science together in a way that encourages direct, meaningful interaction between people and their natural surroundings.
  • Saguaro Cactus Seek and Find! Discover cool facts while comparing the plants, animals, and people of the Sonoran Desert with those of the Central Australian Deserts.
  • Explore the Desert ThinkQuest! Learn about the geography of deserts, animal adaptations, characteristics of desert plants, and the future of the deserts! You can even take a quiz to test your knowledge.

General Information

Posted in environment, life science, process skills, science | Comments Off on Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: Saguaro Moon

Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds

Posted on March 16, 2010 by openwidearchive

images.jpg

The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds written by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen tells the story of Ms. Frizzle’s class planting their own garden. All the students are working together to make their garden as beautiful as they can, because photographers are coming to take pictures of their garden and they believe they are going to become famous. Phoebe was one student who was not as excited as the rest. She is new to this school and she had left her beautiful plant at her old school. Ms. Frizzle was not worried because she knew that Phoebe’s plant was only a quick field trip away. So, away the students went on their field trip to get Phoebe’s flower. The students all piled onto the bus, and before they knew it they were on their way, except they were flying. The bus had turned into a  little ladybug flying down onto one of Phoebe’s plants. As the story goes on the students get to explore the plant, and even go inside! They learn where their beautiful plants come from, and how they grow. By the end of the story, Phobe and her class made it back to school just in time for the photographers to take pictures of their garden, and Phoebe’s old teacher was waiting for her with a pot of her beautiful flowers to add her garden at her new school!

Curriculum Connections

This is a great book to read aloud to your class. I would reccommend reading this book to a lower elementary grade when introducing plants and seeds. The students in this book use their process skills to learn where our beautiful plants come from and how plants grow. This book will teach students how to use their senses to observe differences in physical properties, such as the plants and seeds. (1.1) I think this would be a great book to have in your classroom for read alouds or for students to observe the pictures. The students in the book talk about what they are learning as the story goes on, and this will show my students how they are using their process skills to learn about plants.

Additional Resources

Science in School Here is a website for teachers to go and learn about the basic process skills to teach to students. There are age specific activities, and appropriate lessons.

Plant Life Cycle This is an interactive website for children to go on and learn about plant life cycle. The children can put their processing skills to the test at this website. There are video clips and parts of plants you can click on to learn more about it. Overall, this is a great website teachers can use in their classroom when children are learning about plant life cycle and incorporate processing skills along the way.

Scientific Process Skills This is a detailed explanation on what scientific process skills consists of and how to teach it. It is focused on the kindergarden level and explains what should be taught and how to go about doing so. You can find great information at this website that you can bring into your own classroom.

Book: The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds
Author: Joanna Cole
Illustrator: Bruce Degen
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Publication Date: 1995
Pages: 28
Grade Range: K-5
ISBN: 0-590-22296-1

Posted in book review, environment, process skills, science | Comments Off on Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds

Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: Hidden Worlds

Posted on March 15, 2010 by openwidearchive

Hidden Worlds

Introduction and Summary
Hidden Worlds: Looking Through a Scientist’s Microscope ,written by Stephen Kramer with photographs by Dennis Kunkel, is not only a book about the wonders of the microscopic world, but about the life of a scientist as well.  The book has stunning photographs of microscopic views of all sorts of things, and with them are accounts of how Dennis uses microscopes to get a closer look at the world around him.  It also tells a story of how he became a scientist, and gives information on how students can follow in his path

Curriculum Connections

This book is a perfect way to teach kids about living systems, matter, and cell structures.  The photography gives views of things that would be hard to come by in the classroom.  There is quite a lot of text, so I would suggest the book for selected out-loud readings or for individual students to read on their own.

Additional Resources

  • The Virtual Cell Tour is a quick and interesting tool for more advanced study of cell structure.
  • Students can use The Virtual Electron Microscope to look at more microscopic images, and quiz themselves for fun on what they are looking at
  • There is also a flash quiz game called Microscope Mania for students to test their knowledge of the microscope.

Book: Hidden Worlds: Looking Through a Scientist’s Microscope
Author: Stephen Kramer
Photographer: Dennis Kunkel
Publisher: Sandpiper
Publication Date: 2003
Pages: 57
Grade Range- 3-6
ISBN: 978-0618354054

Posted in book review, process skills, science | Comments Off on Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: Hidden Worlds

Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: The Simple Truth About Scientists

Posted on March 15, 2010 by openwidearchive

science.jpg

Introduction and Summary
In the book, The Simple Truth About Scientists, written and illustrated by Donna Farland it discusses the many myth’s about scientists. The book explains five different myth’s that are associated with scientists. The myths are scientists only work in laboratories, wear lab coats, cause explosions, are geeky, and lastly scientists are geniuses. The book then gives examples to counter the five myths. One myth from the book said scientists are geeky, the book then states the truth by saying many normal people of all races enjoy being scientists. This book is great for kindergartners and first graders to help them know the real truth about scientists.

Curriculum Connections
This book helps students understand the five myths of scientists. It could be taught to simplify areas in science. (K.1b) In the book it discusses that scientists spend most of their time observing  and collecting their data for tests. (K2.b) Scientists need to use thier brain to describe the objects around them. (K.1f) Scientists when mixing chemicals together do a lot of observating and then predicting the outcomes.

Additional Resources

  • Color Mixing– allows the students to work hands-on. Students need to get used to handling science tools. This lesson allows the students to understand the idea of scientific experimentation. The students will mix different colors together seeing  the different outcomes of the colors
  • Caterpillars to Butterflies– This lesson plan lets student observe the development of caterpillar into butterflies. This teaches students how to observe which is one major part of being a scientists
  • Water Magic– This lesson allows students to use everyday experiments to help them understand the scientific method. Students are able to observe and experiment the three physical forms of water.

Book: The Simple Truth About Scientists
Author: Donna Farland
Illustrator: Donna Farland & Jessica Prescott
Publisher: Authentic Perceptions Press
Publication Date: 2002
Pages: 1- 11
Grade Range- K-1
ISBN: 0-9724170-2-8

Posted in book review, process skills, science | Comments Off on Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: The Simple Truth About Scientists

Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: The Kid Who Named Pluto

Posted on March 13, 2010 by openwidearchive

Planning that science fair project can seem so daunting for a student.  Many students may assume that you have to be much older to solve a scientific mystery or make your mark in the scientific world.  There's one book that proves them wrong.  The Kid Who Named Pluto,written by Marc McCutcheon and illustrated by Jon Cannell, tells several stories of young children who dared to push the envelope and question the world around them in new and exciting ways.  The book is quick to quote famed inventor Thomas Edison in its introduction:  "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."  The moral – develop a plan, give it your best shot, and keep working on it – is the very first step in developing process skills that will take students beyond mere rote learning of the scientific method.  The kids in these real-life stories will doubtless inspire any budding scientific minds and remind all students that science begins with natural intellectual curiosity.

This engaging book tells the story of young innovators like Louis Braille and physicist Robert Goddard, as well as Philo Farnsworth, the teen inventor of television, and Mary Anning, a famed  paleontologist who began finding incredible fossils as a young girl looking for ways to help her family out financially.  They all had several traits in common:  they started with simple ideas, had lots of energy, imagination, and enthusiasm, they found ways to test their ideas using basic scientific methods, and they were persistent in their efforts. 

Curriculum Connections

While this would not be suitable for a read-aloud book for the class, this would be a great book to make available to science students – especially as they prepare for their science fair projects.  It is geared toward older elementary students and requires strong reading skills for independent readers (third through sixth grades). It would be a great addition to a classroom reading center where students could spend time with the book, or it could go home with students if teachers have a book borrowing system in the classroom.  Discouraged young science students might find the inspiration they are looking for in this book as it could encourage them in their experimental endeavors.  There are so many examples of these young role models utilizing the scientific method in their hypotheses, predictions, and experimental tests (3.1, 4.1, 5.1, 6.1).  Having these real-life examples helps students understand the importance of developing reasoning and logic skills, as well as a strong work ethic and life-long love of learning.   

Additional Resources

General Information

Posted in process skills | Comments Off on Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: The Kid Who Named Pluto

Teaching Life Science with Children’s Literature: Forest Bright, Forest Night

Posted on March 13, 2010 by openwidearchive

foest.jpg

Jennifer Wards book, Forest Bright, Forest Night is an excellent resource to use when teaching life science to elementary age children.  The book uses a fun format with rhythmic text and gorgeous detailed illustrations by Jamichael Henterly. The illustrations will certainly capture the attention of children and adults alike!  Additionally,  Henterly cleverly “hid” animals throughout the pages which will also keep children entertained as they try to find these animals  while they read this book.

Forest Bright, Forest Night covers all the activity that occurs in the forest from daybreak to nightfall which is wonderful for children who are learning about nocturnal and diurnal animals and also habitats and ecosystems in general. The book is like two books in one because Forest Bright focuses only on the animals that are awake during the day and each page covers different animals and how they spend their time. The stories of each animal are written with fun silly rhymes and are accompanied by the vivid colorful illustrations. Upon flipping the book over to Forest Night, the pages take on a darker appearance as they describe the many animals who are only active at night. This book does a nice job of showing that even when we are tucked away in our beds sleeping soundly, the forest never sleeps because certain animals only come out at night as opposed to those who are only out and about during the day.

Curriculum Connections: 

This book would be ideal for the lower elementary grades and would be a great reading resource for children who are learning about ecosystems and animals who share habitats. The book covers the forest habitat and the animals who call the forest home both during the day and at night, which is great for children who are learning about the differences between nocturnal and diurnal animals. This book satisfies several Virginia SOLs including VA SOL 2. 5 (a) & (b) and 2.8 (c). These  standards cover information ranging from how organisms are interrelated to how habitats change over time to the fact that plants provide homes and food for many different types of animals.

Additional Resources:

1) Excellent lesson plans to accompany Forest Bright, Forest Night.

2)  Numerous printable coloring pages including many forest animals.

3) USDA website with numerous forest related activities for children.

4) Check out the U.S. National Park Service website for information about forest parks you can visit on field trips!

General Information:

Book: Forest Bright, Forest Night

Author: Jennifer Ward

Illustrator: Jamichael Henterly

Publisher: Dawn Publications

Publication Date: 2005

Pages: 32 pages

Grade Range: K-2nd

ISBN: 1584690895

Posted in book review, life science, science | Comments Off on Teaching Life Science with Children’s Literature: Forest Bright, Forest Night

Teaching about Money in Kindergarten

Posted on March 12, 2010 by openwidearchive

This post focuses on teaching money to Kindergartners. The resources below will be useful for teaching young children to name and identify the value of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters and to count collections of coins up to 25 cents (in Virginia this relates to Kindergarten Math SOL K.7).  

Recommended Books for Teaching Money to Kindergartners

0440410169.jpg

Benny’s Pennies by Pat Brisson, illustrated by Bob Barner – The book Benny's Pennies by Pat Brisson tells the story of Benny McBride who has five new pennies that he decides to spend buying things for his family and pets. As he walks through his neighborhood, Benny spends one of his pennies on each of his family members and then he arrives home with five simple but splendid gifts – a rose for his mother, a cookie for his brother, a paper hat for his sister, a bone for his dog, and a floppy fish for his cat. This book is perfect for Kindergarten and is a great way to introduce a lesson about the penny.

36-jellybeansforsale.jpg

Jelly Beans for Sale written and illustrated by Bruce McMillan – The book Jelly Beans for Sale by Bruce McMillan uses colorful jellybeans to illustrate the value of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters and how to count coins up to 25 cents. This book starts with the poem "One for a penny. Ten for a dime. Count them and buy them. You'll have a good time!" and then shows pictures of children using different combinations of coins to buy 1, 5, 10, or 25 jellybeans. Each page also includes a number sentence at the bottom of the page to explain how to count each set of coins. For example, one of the pages has a picture of 5 pennies, 1 nickel, and 10 jellybeans and then at the bottom of the page it says "1¢ + 1¢ + 1¢ + 1¢ + 1¢ + 5¢ = 10¢”. This book would be a fun way to introduce young children to the basic concepts of counting money.

51n8gcyvpbl_sl110_.jpg51rcxem5xpl_sl110_.jpg

51zmbs1bv9l_sl110_.jpg51f371qpywl_sl110_.jpg

Welcome Books: Money Matters series written and illustrated by Mary Hill – The nonfiction Welcome Books: Money Matters series by Mary Hill includes the books Pennies, Nickels, Dimes, and Quarters, which would all be great for introducing children to each coin. Some of the information in these books includes what coins are made of, which president is on each coin, the meaning of the symbols on the coins, the value of each coin, and how many of each coin it takes to make a dollar. This series is geared toward Kindergarten and 1st graders and would be useful as part of lessons about each individual coin.

518d0h732zl_sl500_aa240_.jpg

Once Upon a Dime written by Nancy Allen and illustrated by Adam Doyle – In the book Once Upon a Dime by Nancy Allen, Farmer Worth notices a little tree growing on his farm where nothing had ever grown before and discovers that this special tree produces a new variety of crop – money. The tree produces different kinds of money, depending on what animal manure he uses to fertilize it. Students will enjoy listening to this story about farmer Truman Worth, his special tree, and a young boy's journey to learn the value of money.

0689711999.jpg

Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst, illustrated by Ray Cruz – In Judith Viorst's book, Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday, Alexander's grandparents give him a dollar and he thinks he is rich. Little by little, however, the money disappears, as Alexander spends it on lots of small things, such as 15 cents for bubble gum, 15 cents for losing bets with his brother and his mom, and 12 cents to rent his friend's pet snake. By the end of the book, Alexander has spent all of his money and has only a few useless objects and some bus tokens. This would be a great story to read aloud and then have students practice counting pennies by using pennies to show how much money Alexander spent or lost in each part of the story.

Websites for Kindergarten Kids

  • Money to Build a Robot – This game from the Kindergarten section of the Harcourt Math website focuses on identifying coins. In this game, kids will be asked to count the number of pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters in a set of coins and type their answer in the box. For each correct answer, one part of a robot appears and after answering 4 questions, the kids will get to see the completed robot fly around the screen.
  • Kindergarten Money Game – In this game, kids use coins to buy 9 different food items. They are given a simple direction at the bottom of the screen and then as students drag coins onto the correct food, the game counts the value of the coins for them. This game does not require much prior knowledge about coins and all students will need to be able to do in order to play is find the coins that match the pictures at the bottom of the screen. Playing this game will help kids learn both the names and value of the coins, as well as how to count pennies.
  • Spending Spree Game – In this game, kids choose from two sets of coins to select the correct amount to buy each toy. Some of the questions might be a little hard for kindergartners, but many of the amounts are less than 20 cents or use a single coin. Once kids have learned the value of each coin, this game will be a great way to practice counting small sets of coins.
  • Coin Sort Game – In this game, kids sort pennies, nickels, and dimes into the correct piggy banks. As each coin is placed on the piggy bank, the total value of the coins in that bank is shown below the bank. Playing this game will provide practice with identifying and distinguishing between these 3 coins and will also show kids how pennies are counted by 1s, nickels by 5s, and dimes by 10s.
  • Penny and Dime Sort – In this activity, kids sort pennies and dimes into piggy banks labeled “1¢” and “10¢”. This will help kids distinguish between pennies and dimes, as well as identify the value of each of those coins.

Additional Resources (For Teachers)

  • Money Song from TeacherTube – This is a great 1 1/2 minute song video for helping students to recognize each coin and it’s value.
  • Money Printables from MakingLearningFun.com – This site includes lots of printables and math and literacy activities to go with the story Benny’s Pennies, as well as several other money related activities.
  • Once Upon a Dime Readers’ Theater – This would be a great cross-curricular activity for students to do after reading the book Once Upon a Dime as a class. If used in Kindergarten, the teacher might want to read the narrator parts herself.
  • Little Giraffes Math Centers about Money – This website includes several center activities related to money that would be good for kindergarten, as well as money songs and poems to teach students.
  • “My Own Store” Money Activity – This is a fun activity where students each make their own store using magazine pictures and then use coins and/or coin stamps to show the money they would use to make purchases from each others’ stores.
Posted in math, teaching | Comments Off on Teaching about Money in Kindergarten

Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: What’s What?: A Guessing Game

Posted on March 12, 2010 by openwidearchive

book.jpg

Introduction and Summary
The book What’s What? A Guessing Game by Mary Serfozo is an interactive book that keeps children guessing.  They need to use their previous knowledge and skills to guess what will come next in the book.  The book starts off with one page asking “What’s hard?” The children then guess what it might be, and the next page says “A sidewalk is hard as a rock or a wall. So look out where you fall!”  There is a picture of a child who was roller-blading and fell down on a sidewalk hurting himself.  This book shows children who have experimented with different things such as things that are hard, soft, warm, cold, dry, wet, long, short, light and dark.  On the wet page, it shows a child going out to play in the rain with a raincoat and galoshes on as he steps in the puddles getting all wet.  What I like about this book is that on each page it depicts children actually doing or participating in activities or experiments as they get a hands on look at some of the topics. At the end of the book, it shows a cute puppy and that the puppy can be all of the things listed above.

Curriculum Connections
This book provides a direct representation of some experiments, physical characteristics and attributes, as well as the 5 senses (VA SOL K.1.a and K.2.a,b).  The simple pictures in the book which match to the simple words and sentences make it an appropriate book for younger children (VA SOL K.1.k). The format of the book is in questions and answer format. The book asks a question “What’s warm?” and then before you turn the page, the children have a chance to make predictions about what is warm (VA SOL K.1.g).  This book is very simple and keeps things easy and interesting for the children.

Additional Resources
1. Guessing Game Lesson Plan– This is a very short lesson plan idea. It is a great idea for an activity for the first week of school.  It helps to get the children excited about what they will be learning in school. Also, after you read the book, you could use this activity as an introduction to the lesson plan for the day.
2. 5 Senses Lesson Plan-This page offers a lesson plan idea for learning about the 5 senses. The book touches on all of the five senses and this would be a lesson to bounce off of the senses discussed in the book.
3. 5 Senses Activity Book-This website offers pages for children to trace and then color.  Each page has one of the 5 senses on it along with an example ( like hearing a a bee buzz by). It would be a good idea to have the children complete all of them and then staple them together to make booklet.

General Information
Book: What’s What?: A Guessing Game
Author: Mary Serfozo
Illustrator: Keiko Narahashi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: 1996
Pages:28
Grade Range: K or 1
ISBN: 0689833229

Posted in process skills, science | Comments Off on Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: What’s What?: A Guessing Game