Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: When Will It Be Spring?

Posted on February 7, 2010 by openwidearchive

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When Will It Be Spring?, written and illustrated by Catherine Walters is a story of a young cub, Alfie, that is in hibernation with Mother Bear.  He is so excited for spring that he does not sleep, instead he keeps asking his mother how he will know when it is spring.  She describes to the young cub what to expect from the season, for example, “when the butterflies float by looking for new flowers, then it will be spring”, and orders him to go back to sleep.  Alfie continues to misinterpret the winter patterns until Spring finally arrives.

Curriculum Connections
This book can assist teachers with the introduction of understanding basic patterns and cycles that occur in nature and how those patterns such as seasonal changes affect animal’s behavior and life cycles (SOL 2.7a, 3.8a,b).  Another way this book can assist teachers is by starting discussions about how adaptations allow animals to respond to their environment, specifically hibernation (SOL 3.4a,b).  Lastly, this book is a great example of how natural events are sequenced chronologically (SOL 3.1d).

Additional Resources

  • Worksheet that states what animals do during the different seasons.  The student must match which animal belongs with which characteristic.
  • “A Black Bear’s Year” activity is an interactive activity for the computer where there are eight sentences that describe the life of a black bear in every season.  The student must drag the correct word to make the sentence correct.
  • An interactive webpage that allows the student to move the cursor over the pictures of all four seasons.  In each picture, descriptions pop up that give examples of how different animals are affected by that season.

 Book: When Will It Be Spring?
Author: Catherine Walters
Illustrator: Catherine Walters
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Publication Date: 1998
Pages: 32
Grade Range: K-3
ISBN:0525458816

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Teaching Earth Science with Childrens Literature: Vacation Under the Volcano

Posted on February 7, 2010 by openwidearchive

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“Jack looked up at the erupting mountain.  A red -hot cloud billowed over it.  Fires burned on its slopes.”  Vacation Under the Volcano by Mary Pope Osbourne is one of the Magic Tree House series books.  It is the story of Jack and Annie and their trip to the ancient volcano (Mt. Vesuvius) in Pompeii.  Contained within the entertaining plot are accurate descriptions of the volcano and its eruptions.

Curriculum Connections
This book could be used to instill interest in/reinforce the subject of volcanoes. It would help teach the students that the earth’s surface is constantly changing (5.7)  The book would be most appropriate for grade levels 3-5.  A great across subject book, it would serve easily as a reading group book.

Additional Resources

  • This Discovery Kids website contains interactive activities about volcanoes including a virtual “build your own volcano.”
  • A fun activity, this page is a volcano word search with key vocabulary terms related to volcanoes.
  • This site contains lesson plans and activities for teachers on the subject of volcanoes.

Book:  Vacation Under the Volcano
Author: Mary Pope Osborne
Illustrator: Sal Murdocca
Publisher: Scholastic Inc
Publication Date: 1998
Pages: 74 pages
Grade Range: 3-5
ISBN: 0-590-70639-X

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Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: So That’s How the Moon Changes Shape!

Posted on February 7, 2010 by openwidearchive

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So That’s How the Moon Changes Shape!, by Allan Fowler, gives simple explanations to young readers about the different phases of the moon.  It explains that children may think that the moon changes it’s shape, but helps them to understand that it is sunlight reflecting off of the moon.  There is a moon calender that shows how the moon may look on any given day of the month and a great graphic that shows the moon orbiting around the earth.  Although very simple and basic, this book would be excellent to share with a young class that is learning about the different phases of the moon.  Now children can understand how the moon changes it’s shape!Curriculum Connections
So That’s How the Moon Changes Shape! is a great teaching tool for introducing the phases of the moon.  It also has great pictures from space that further show the different phases of the moon.  Perfect for a third grade class that is beginning instruction on moon phases (VA SOL 3.8 a)  This book gives simple explanations and could really help students that are having troubling grasping the topic.

Additional Resources

  • Phases of the Moon Handout –  Great fill in the blank worksheet for students to identify and correct name the phases of the moon.
  • Moon Phases Interactive Graphic – Moving graphic that shows the moon orbiting the earth and what the moon looks like during the different phases.
  • Moon Phases Simulation – Allows teacher to control the movement of the moon around the earth.  Each day of the month is available to show the way the moon will look.  Great interactive tool for teacher and students.

Book:  So That’s How the Moon Changes Shape!
Author:  Allan Fowler
Page Design:  Sara Shelton
Publisher:  Children’s Press Chicago
Publication Date:  1991
Pages:  31
Grade Range:  1-3
ISBN:  978-0516449173

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    Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: The Planets in our Solar System

    Posted on February 7, 2010 by openwidearchive

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    In The Planets In Our Solar System, by Franklyn Branley, the author reviews the nine planets; including Pluto in the discussion.  The author explains that several of the planets look like bright stars; but for others (Uranus and Neptune) you would need a telescope to see them.  This text explains that asteroids, comets, and meteoroids are part of the solar system and describes each.  This book explains to students that the planets move around the sun in orbits.  The author informs that the coldest planets are those farthest away from the sun (Neptune).  Mercury and Venus are the hottest planets as they are the closest.

    Curriculum Connections
    This text would be a great resource for a fourth grade classroom to learn the planets in the solar system, their order, and their sizes.  This book includes excellent visual aids for students to gain a clearer understanding of these concepts.  It provides several different pictorial representations of these concepts, as well as a chart that explains how long it would take for each planet to go around the sun  (VA SOL 4.7 a, b, c).    This text further provides two projects that students can complete.  One involves creating a mobile of the solar system to show the different sizes of the planets.  Another project involves using a wall to make a model to demonstrate the nine planets and their distances from the sun.

    Additional Resources

    • KWL: This site provides a booklet for students to record what they know, what they want to know, and what they have learned about the solar system.
    • Solar System Shuffle: Game in which students match the planet with the correct description.
    • Where, or Where Does that Little Object Go:  Game in which students match which planet goes into which orbit on the map.

    Book:  The Planets in our Solar System
    Author: Franklyn Branley
    Ilustrator: Don Madden
    Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
    Publication Date: 1981
    Pages: 32
    Grade: K-4
    ISBN: 0-690-04579-4

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    Teaching Economics with Children’s Literature: Sweet Potato Pie

    Posted on February 6, 2010 by openwidearchive

    Introduction and Summary

    Sadie’s family is in trouble.  The family farm has suffered from drought and Papa has received a letter from the bank threatening to take the farm unless a debt is repaid.  The only thing left is the sweet potato crop.  Mama has a brilliant idea that saves the day:  sweet potato pie!  The family will work together to make sweet potato pies and sell them at the upcoming Harvest Festival.  So begins a charming tale of how plain and simple economics can make a difference in people’s lives:  Sweet Potato Pie written by Kathleen Lindsey and illustrated by Charlotte Riley-Webb.  Everyone has a job to do, and the family’s collective efforts pay off.  At the Harvest Festival, Mama’s pies win a blue ribbon and the family begins a business enterprise selling their award-wining sweet potato pies.

    Curriculum Connections

    This intimate look at how economics can affect one family’s life provides a wonderful introduction to key economic terms:  goods (the pies), services (baking), producers (the family), consumers (the people who buy the pies), human resources (the family doing the baking), capitol resources (the sweet potatoes, the ingredients, the baking tools), income (the money the family made), and enterpreneurs (the family who developed a new product and started a new business for profit) (SOL 1.7, 1.9).  Most young readers know how to bake with their families, and everyone loves pie!  This allows children to understand how making something yummy can turn into an economic benefit. This book would be most appropriate for first graders.

    Additional Resources

    • Make your own sweet potato pie holder or sachet – the author’s website offers a fun suggestion for an art project for students.  If you have access to an oven at school, it could also be fun to make your own sweet potato pie, using the author’s recipe.  Students can act as producers providing a service (sewing or baking).

    • Kids Econ Posters offers great tips on how to integrate concepts introduced in this book into a lesson plan.

    • EconEdLink provides another good source for producers/consumers lesson planning and activity ideas.

    • Sadie’s family worked together to make money to save the farm. In today’s economic climate, many families are working hard to save their earnings and spend wisely.  This story and a subsequent economics lesson could parlay into a great discussion on how students can help save money at home.  Brainstorming ideas helps empower students to take an active role in family finances, and Scholastic’s website has a few suggestions in Fun Family Finances.

     General Information

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    Teaching Ancient Civilizations with Children’s Literature: The Trojan Horse

    Posted on February 6, 2010 by openwidearchive

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    Warwick Hutton masterfully retells and illustrates the famous legend of  The Trojan Horse. The familiar story is told in child friendly language that provides context to the simple and beautiful  watercolor and pen illustrations.  For those who may be unfamiliar with the 3000 plus year old legend (or need a refresher as I did), Helen of Sparta and Paris, the son of the King of Troy, fall in love and flee to Troy.  The issue at stake is that Helen is already married to the King Menelaus of Sparta.  When the Greeks gather an army and travel to Troy to retrieve Helen and wreak revenge, a ten year war begins between the Greeks and the Trojans.  “Many battles were fought – and there were many brave heroes – but the armies were equally matched.  For weeks, for months, for years, both sides fought, watched, waited, then fought again.”  Imagine the Trojans surprise when the Greeks sail away one morning leaving behind an enormous wooden horse.  Children will delight in learning how the Greeks won the war by tricking the Trojans with the wonderful horse.  In the end, Hutton writes, “[e]veryone had forgotten Paris and Helen, who had started it all.  But there in the city square stood the wooden horse, and over the smoking ruins of Troy its bright painted eyes still gazed.”

    Curriculum Connections

    The ancient Greeks are responsible for a wide variety of contributions to the modern world including: architectural styles, art, legends and myths, many aspects of our democratic government, trial by jury, and the Olympics (3.1)!  Pretty impressive!  The Trojan Horse is an engaging and perhaps familiar story for a read aloud to introduce a unit on the Ancient Greeks.  Teachers can call attention to the geographical features of the Aegean Sea and how water impacted the culture of the Greeks with respect to travel, trade, and war (3.4).  The Mycenae-ans were great seamen, warriors, and traders with a respect for beauty as well as function.  The architecture of the Trojan wall in Hutton’s drawings demonstrates the use of sculpture to enhance a functional object with beauty.  Even the legend itself presents an opportunity to talk about the Greek alphabet and mythology and the ways that this story has been passed down to us today. If used in conjunction with other sources such as the Usborne Book of World History or Every Day Life in the Ancient World, the book can be used to grab the attention and interest of young readers, who may not have as much background knowledge to pull from, in order to share the many contributions of this ancient civilization.

    Additional Resources

    • Greeks at War – Use this file to develop a lesson plan related to the culture and lifestyle of the Greek warriors.  Includes great activities to capture the imagination of transitional readers.
    • Ancient Timeline – This timeline designed for kids can be used to help highlight the “ancient” in Ancient Greece!
    • Greek Quiz – This could be a great pre-activity to determine what background knowledge (if any) students might have.

    General Information

    • Book: The Trojan Horse
    • Author: Warwick Hutton
    • Illustrator: Warwick Hutton
    • Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
    • Publication Date: 1992
    • Pages: 32
    • Grade Range: K-5
    • ISBN: 0689505426
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    Teaching Ancient Civilizations with Children’s Literature: Ancient History: Questions and Answer

    Posted on February 6, 2010 by openwidearchive

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    Ancient History: Questions and Answers by Capella provides a great answer and question format for information about many aspects of ancient civilizations. The book covers Ancient Egypt, India, China, Greece, Rome, Americas, Mesopotamia, Medieval Europs, China, Japan, and the Incas and Aztecs. It has a section for each area and then provides pictures, maps, drawings, and information in a question and answer format. One question for ancient Egypt is “Why is the Nile River known as the lifeline of Egypt?” Then it goes on to explain and gives nice pictures to go along with it. The book focuses the questions for each country on the way of life, food, politics, rulers, cultures, communities, and hobbies. For Ancient Greece the book talks a lot about the Olympics and the playwrighting that people did for fun. For a little history on Ancient China they talk about how the Chinese knew all about tea and that they used it for religious ceremonies but they also ate the tea leaves like vegetables! It is a very interesting books presented in a way that is easy for children to read.

    Curriculum Connections
    This book would be a great addition to the classroom. It certainly does not have all the information a teacher would want about these countries, as it only focuses on a few aspects of each. It would also be a good introduction to unique things ancient civilizations participated in to grab the students attention. There is information about Greece (VA SOL 3.1,3.4 a,b,c). The book shows pictures and maps of Rome as well as some of the architecture (VA SOL 3.1,3.4 a,b,c ). It also provides a great deal of information about China, where it is located, and the history of China (VA SOL 3.4 a,b,c). This book would be great for a read-pair-share or KWL.

    Additional Resources
    1. Egyptian Coloring Pages– This site has some coloring pages that really detail what Egyptians wore and how and where they lived.
    2. Children’s Literature Resources– This site provides a whole unit on China. It gives many examples for additional children’s literature to use within a lesson plan. This plan is rather long-winded, but it has some good ideas to learn about the Chinese culture.
    3. Ancient Rome and Greece lesson ideas– This site provides great ideas for the VA SOL 3.1. It gives great examples for teaching about Greece and Rome and their contributions to society.
    4.Rome and Greece– This site provides GREAT pictures and simple words and maps for students.

    General Information
    Book: Ancient History: Questions and Answers
    Author: Capella
    Illustrator: Q2A India and Jane Hawkins
    Publisher: Arcturus Publishing Limited
    Publication Date: 2008
    Pages: 30
    Grade Range: 2-3
    ISBN: 978-1-84837-156-9

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    Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: Tornadoes!

    Posted on February 6, 2010 by openwidearchive

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    Introduction and Summary
    The book Tornadoes was written by Gail Gibbons and provides information to students about their formation, how they are classified from one another, historical and safety information if one were to occur where they live.

    “The word Tornado comes from the Spanish word tronada meaning ‘thunderstorm’.  It is raining hard, the winds are strong.  The sky is dark.  Suddenly a twisting column of moist air reaches down from a cloud and touches the ground.  It makes a loud, roaring sound.  It is a tornado!”

    Curriculum Connections
    This book can assist teachers and students on identification of cumulonimbus clouds and learning about severe weather situations.  It goes on to explain how tornadoes are formed and then goes into the classification of these storms utilizing Fujita Tornado Scale system.  It shows what the projected aftermath would be based on each storm time and provides an estimated range of wind speeds per classification.  This book also provides a lot of vocabulary terms relevant to fourth grade science.  Terms like temperature, condensation, updrafts and downdrafts are defined to name a few.  The book also provides safety tips to follow if a person was ever in a situation where a tornado was taking place.  (VA SOL 4.6 a, b, and c.)

    Additional Resources

    Book: Tornadoes
    Author: Gail Gibbons
    Publisher: Holiday House Books
    Publication Date: 2009
    Pages: 32
    Grade Range: 2nd through 5th
    ISBN: 978-0-8234-2216-6

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    Teaching Earth Science With Children’s Literature: I am a Rock

    Posted on February 6, 2010 by openwidearchive

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    I am a Rock, written by Jean Marzollo and illustrated by Judith Moffatt, is a good book for introducing earth science o young students (K-1) because it explains different kinds of rocks through a “Rock Hall of Fame” theme and what many of their functions are in real life.  The descriptions of what the rocks’ uses are are given in a riddle format, where the students are given clues as to what the rock can do and then they are asked to guess what rock it is.  For example, the book introduces slate by saying ” I [slate] am flat enough to walk on. I am flat enough to write on. Who am I?” Here the students can answer or guess what rock they think is being described.  A total of twelve different rocks are described in this fashion throughout the book.Curriculum Connections
    This book is useful in introducing students to the concept of earth science in the early grades.  The students learn that rocks are important parts of the earth and actually all have different uses depending on what they’re made of and what they look like.

    Additional Resources

    • This is a 3-day long activity for first grade students to do with their teacher, where each student gets their own special “rock” made from dough that the teacher prepares.  The students will describe what their rocks look like to their fellow classmates, write down observations, and do Internet activities where they pretend to be archaeologists.
    • Here is a lesson along the same lines, but the students get to use real rocks and go outside for 20 to 30 minutes to do their observations of different rocks.  They would also get to work in groups.
    •  I found this interesting because it came up in my search as a site where teachers can buy rock kits for their classrooms.  Some are pricey, but it would probably be very helpful to buy a kit in order to really show the students a variety of different types of rocks.

    Book: I am a Rock
    Author: Jean Marzollo
    Illustrators: Judith Moffatt
    Publisher: Scholastic
    Publication Date: 1998
    Pages:  29
    Grade Range: K-1
    ISBN: 0-590-37222-X

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    Teaching Ancient Civilizations with Children’s Literature: D is for Dancing Dragon: A China Alphabet

    Posted on February 5, 2010 by openwidearchive

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     “A is for Chinese Acrobats performing with beauty and grace.  We clap and admire their physical strength, as they land in a very small place.”
    “B is for Beijing…”

     D is for Dancing Dragon:A China Alphabet, written by Carol Crane and illustrated by Zong-Zhou Wang is a wonderfully illustrated children’s book that celebrates the wonders of ancient Chinese culture.  The author takes the reader through an alphabetic history of China from A to Z.  Suitable for many ages, the author brilliantly writes in rhyming facts about China for the younger readers while providing enriching information that more advanced, older readers will surely enjoy as well all on the same page.  As we read on, “F is for the “Four Treasures of Study” (explaining the Chinese written language), G is for the Great Wall…, I is for Chinese Inventions…, Z is for Chinese Zodiac” and so on, the book demonstrates through playful rhyme and colorful illustrations how ancient China has influenced the present world in terms of architecture, inventions, the calendar and written language.

    Curriculum Connections
    D is for Dancing Dragon: A China Alphabet could be a great resource to use when introducing ancient civilizations and their contributions to the modern world.  The book even has a map at the front so students can determine China’s physical place in the world and make a connection to it’s physical relationship to the United States.  This book correlates well with the Virginia Standards of Learning (2.1).

    Additional Resources

    • Try this teacher friendly site to get  activity ideas to accompany the reading of D is for Dragon: A China Alphabet.
    • For more lesson plan ideas and fun activities for grades 2 & 3.
    • National Geographic Kids has great interactive activities on line to reinforce teachings of ancient China.

    Book:  D is for Dancing Dragon:A China Alphabet
    Author:      Carol Crane
    Illustrator:      Zong-Zhou Wang
    Publisher:      Sleeping Bear Press
    Publication Date:      2006
    Pages:      48
    Grade Range:      K-3
    ISBN:     139781585364732

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