Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Posted on September 22, 2009 by openwidearchive

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If food dropped like rain from the sky, wouldn’t it be marvelous!  Or would it?  It could, after all, be messy.  And you’s have no choice.  What if you didn’t like what fell?  Or what if too much came?  have you ever thought of what is might be like to be squashed flat by a pancake?

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs   written by Judi Barrett and drawn by Ron Barrett is a book about the tiny town of Chewandswallow. 

 It was very much like any other tiny town except for its weather which came three times a day, at breakfast lunch and dinner.  It never rained rain, snowed snow, or blew just wind.  It rained things like soup and juice.  It snowed things like mashed potatoes.  And sometimes the wind blew in storms of hamburgers.

Life for the townspeople was delicious until the weather took a turn for the worse.  The food got larger and larger and so did the portions.  Chewandswallow was plagued by damaging floods and storms of huge food.  The town was a mess and the people feared for their lives.

Something had to be done, and in a hurry.

 Excepts

“Across the ocean, over lots of huge bumpy mountains, across three hot deserts, and one smaller ocean……there lay the tiny town of Chewandswallow”. (pg 6-7)

Whatever the weather served, that was what they ate. (pg 9)

For lunch onde day, franfurters, already in their rolls, blew in from the northwest at abou five miles an hour. (pg. 14)

Curriculum Connections

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs could be used in a lesson when students are invesitgating and understanding the basic types, changes, and patterns of weather (SOL 2.6).

Additional Resources

1. This movie trailer is of the 2009 movie Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.

2. This lesson includes three different activities reflecting on the book Cloudy With a Change of Meatballs.

3. This is an activity where students can Make it Rain.

Book:  Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Author:  Judi Barrett
Illustrator:  Ron Barrett
Publisher:  Atheneum
Publication Date:  August 1, 1978
Pages:  32
Grade Range:  PreK-3
ISBN:  978-0689306471

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Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

Posted on September 22, 2009 by openwidearchive

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Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf , written and illustrated by Lois Ehlert, is a simple story that describes the growth of a maple tree from seed to sapling.

This book is written as if a child were telling their friend about a special leaf he/she has been saving to show them.  The child tells the friend how it came to be – from a seed that sprouted, grew into a sapling, then was planted in their yard.  It takes the reader through the cycle of seasons, as well as the growth stages of a tree.  The illustrations are bright and colorful.

Curriculum Connections:  Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf is a good book for teaching the concept of seasonal changes as they relate to the life cycle of a tree.  SOL 1.7

Additional Resources

  • This Scholastic website offers several ideas for reinforcing the lesson on seasonal changes, fall leaves, and harvest time, utilizing the areas of poetry, language arts, and math.
  • In an effort to further understand the seasons, this website outlines a lesson plan on the four seasons, as well as an activity to create a “seasons book” that can be used as a tool to measure their knowledge and understanding of this concept.
  • This website offers a printable cut & paste activity for students to paste the appropriate activity under the proper season.

  • General Information:
    Book    : Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf
    Author: Lois Ehlert
    Illustrator: Lois Ehlert
    Publisher: Harcourt Brace & Company
    Pages:  40
    Grade Range: K-1
    ISBN: 0-15-266197-2

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Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: An Island Grows

Posted on September 21, 2009 by openwidearchive

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An Island Grows, written by Lola M. Schaefer and illustrated by Cathie Felstead, is a wonderful introduction to the topic of Earth Science for young children. The book explores how an island is formed, providing a step by step guide as to the cycle of the birth of an island to the presence of human life on an island. The book begins by discussing magma at the bottom of the ocean, then addresses the presence of lava and volcanic activity, and eventually talks about how life comes to the island (plants, animals, and humans).”Magma glowsVolcano blowsLava flows, and flows, and flowsAn island grows”The book concludes by coming full circle and discussing how the cycle starts from the beginning, where “Another island grows.”The language and vocabulary used in the story are at a very basic level so young kids will comprehend and more fully understand the concepts. The short rhyming pattern of the story makes the story flow with ease, presenting an almost “sing-song” pattern. The illustrations are also simple and basic, without too much going on. This helps students to understand visually, as well, the concepts of the story.

Curriculum Connections: 
This book is a very helpful resource for very young students. The book clearly describes formation of life, in a cyclic rhyming pattern. Students will understand how the earth changes and evolves over time, exploring the natural world over time (K.9 (a) (b)). Clear stages and steps of the formation of an island is explored while introducing important terms such as volcano, magma, and lava.

Additional Resources:
1. This lesson plan provides an activity/experiment where young students will begin to explore what volcanoes are and will visually demonstrate a volcanic eruption.
2. This blog shows how an actual class performed experiments showing the formation and explosion of a mini-volcano. Real pictures and explanations are provided as well.
3. This website provides young students with links to an Art Gallery, where kids share there drawings and descriptions about volcanoes. Virtual field trips are also provided.

General Information:
Book: An Island Grows
Author: Lola M. Schaefer
Illustrator: Cathie Felstead
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: August 2006
Pages: 40
Grade Range: PreSchool- Kindergarten
ISBN:0-06-623930-3

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Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: Weather

Posted on September 21, 2009 by openwidearchive

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 Introduction
Weather written by Jim Pipe is an excellent science resource for younger elementary students. Jim Pipe uses language that is easy for the student to understand and photographs that are beautifully arranged. This book describes everything from describing atmosphere as “the mixture of gases that surrounds any planet”(p. 30) to a thunderstorm “that produces thunder and lightning”(p. 31). This book even has a few examples on how students can experiment with weather themselves.

Curriculum Connections
 Jim Pipe uses not only vivid pictures but excellent information to describe each and every type of weather. Weather is appropriate when teaching elementary school students the different types of weather (SOL 4.6b). This book could be used as an excellent introduction or as an excellent resource to any topic related to weather.

Additional Resources
Hurricanes is a wonderful website that has questions and answers designated to learning all about hurricanes.

Forecast is a great website where children can create their own forecast.

Weather station  is a very useful site that is designated to demonstrating to kids on how to actually create their very own weather station.

General Info:
Book: Weather
Author: Jim Pipe
Illustrator: Brian Smart
Publisher: Aladdin Books Ltd
Pages: 32
Grade Range: 3-5
ISBN: 1-932799-47-8

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Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: What Makes Day and Night

Posted on September 21, 2009 by openwidearchive

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What Makes Day and Night, written by Franklyn M. Branley and illustrated by Arthur Dorros, is a book answering children’s questions as to what causes ‘day to be day,’ ‘night to be night,’ and how the sun appears and disappears during these times.

This book follows a group of inquisitive children on their journey into finding out exactly what causes these events to happen, starting off with the basics of how our planet, Earth, is constantly spinning and rotating on its axis and the daily evoluations it makes around the sun.  The illustrations provide children with a clear sense of the Earth’s full rotation around the sun and shows the different stages of sunrise, day, sunset, and night, as well as providing insight into the moon’s lunar phases.  In addition to providing solid, factual information on these concepts, the children in the book conduct their own experiements at home with a flashlight in order to have a hands on understanding of how days and nights are created and the effects of light and darkness on Earth.

This book can surely serve as an anticipatory resource prior to a unit on Earth’s movement and motions within the solar system, and can be read aloud to the class or read independently by students because of the simplicity and student-friendliness of the text.  The author and illustrator do an excellent job of allowing students to grasp and process these abstract concepts through facts, home experiments, and detailed illustrations, leaving them with a sense of pride and curiousity to learn more about our plant and solar system.

Curriculum Connections

What Makes Day and Night serves as an excellent and useful resource to help teach, reinforce, and emphasize the third grade learning objectives in accordance with the Virgiia Standards of Learning (SOL’s).  Investigating and understanding the basic patterns and cycles of the Earth in relation to the sun and moon (SOL 3.8) is supported throughout the entire book through its discussion and illustrations of the stages and time of Earth’s rotation, its effects of the sun on the planet, and the phases of the moon (SOL 3.8a).

Additional Resources

  • Eye On The Sky offers an excellent lesson plan, demonstration, and printables for teaching students the Earth’s rotation and how it causes day and night – plus, this lesson can be adapted for grades 1 – 3.

  • Jefferson County Schools‘, located in Tennessee, website dedicates a page full of classroom lesson plans, activities, and numerous resources aimed at teaching students all about the Earth’s rotation and its effects on people, plus interactive websites for students to work with at school or at home!  Additionally, this site provides a range of lesson plans and activities on other units covering Earth Science.

  • SkyTellers provides a multitude of resources for activity ideas, books, and websites links for students and teachers solely devoted to how Earth rotates and it’s implications on day and night, seasons, lunar phases, and the sun.  Also, this website offers insights on other Earth Science concepts, such as the origin of starts, constellations, meteors, and the solar system.  This is definately a website to have on hand for many Earth Science lessons, no matter the grade level!

Book: What Makes Day and Night
Author: Franklyn M. Branley
Illustrator: Arthur Dorros
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: March 1986
Pages: 32pp
Grade Range: 3rd Grade
ISBN-13: 9780064450508

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Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: The Three R’s: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle

Posted on September 21, 2009 by openwidearchive

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Introduction and Summary:
The Three R’s: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, written by Nuria Roca and illustrated by Rosa M. Curto, is a great resource to use when teaching students about conservation.  The book discusses the ways in which the main character, Paul, can reduce, reuse and recycle items found in his everyday life.  For example, Paul tries to reduce his water and electricity consumption at home, and wears tee shirts his brother has outgrown (reuse).  The book also discusses how Paul recycles at his home and school.  “In the kitchen at Paul’s home there is a container for things made of plastic, metal or glass, and another for all other garbage,” (page 25).  The author does an excellent job putting the three R’s in concise terms that are understandable and relatable to students.  The book also explains landfills, and how trash and pollution ultimately impact plants, animals and people.  “Plastic bags are very handy, but sometimes they end up in the sea where they can be dangerous for animals.  Turtles may take them for jellyfish and eat them, or they may get tangled up in the plastic rings used to hold cans together,” (page 17).  The end of the books contains fun activities students can do to recycle items found in their homes.

Curriculum Connections:
The Three R’s: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle is appropriate for use in the kindergarten curriculum to show how everyday materials can be reused, recycled and conserved.  The Three R’s does a great job showing how materials can be used over and over again, such as bags at the grocery store (SOL K.10 A).  Pages 18-27 do a great job describing what everyday materials can be recycled, as well as the process used to recycle materials (SOL K.10 B).  Page 13 is particularly useful in illustrating how water and energy conservation, at home and in school, helps preserve resources for the future (SOL K.10 C).   

Additional Resources:
-This word search is a great way to reinforce vocabulary. 
-This activity is a great means to see how your school handles recycling and garbage.  Note: This is a worksheet from the UK and uses the word “rubbish” instead of trash.  Modify.
-This link contains many crafts that can be made by recycling items that students would normally discard.

General Information:
Book: The Three R’s: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle
Author: Nuria Roca
Illustrator: Rosa M. Curto
Publisher: Barron’s Educational Services, Inc.
Publication Date: February 2007
Pages: 36
Grade: K-1
ISBN-10: 0-7641-3581-3

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Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: The Reasons for Seasons

Posted on September 21, 2009 by openwidearchive

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The Reasons For Seasons is written and illustrated by Gail Gibbons. The book opens by explaining how the tilt of the Earth causes the seasons. It depicts the tilted Earth rotating around the sun. The book then talks about each season and its characteristics with five pages of illustrations and explanations. At the end, the book talks about how areas near the equator have little temperature change during the year. It also explains how the North and South Poles are always cold and how it is always dark at the pole during parts of the winter and always light in the summer.

Curriculum Connections: The book can be used for teaching the patterns of natural events (seasonal changes) and the causes of the seasons. SOL 3.8(a), 4.7(b). It would be great as an anticipatory set because it is very colorful and interesting. It will prepare students for diving in deeper during the following lesson plan.

Additional Resources:

General Info:
Book: The Reasons for Seasons
Author: Gail Gibbons
Illustrator: Gail Gibbons
Publisher: Holiday House
Pages: 32
Grade Range: 3-5
ISBN: 9780823412389

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Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: Our Solar System

Posted on September 20, 2009 by openwidearchive

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Introduction:
What are the order of the planets? How big is the Earth and how many moons does each planet have? All of these are important questions that students must be able to answer by the time they enter the 6th grade. Seymour Simon takes students through the different planets in Our Solar System. Each page has a detailed instruction of the nine planets that make up our solar system.

Summary:
The books opens with a chart of all the planets in order from the sun with basic information that students must know for the SOL’s. Each planet is give a spread with information about its origins and important aspects of the planet. For instance, Mercury is the “second smallest planet in our solar system after pluto”. In addition, the beginning of the book describes the core of our solar system, the sun. The end of the book describes the different particles that orbit within our solor system. The pictures throughout the book are replicated of what we would see if we looked through a telescope.

Curriculum Connections: This book could be used as a reinforcement in class or as a guide for sixth graders when they are trying to to remember the organization of the solar system especially 6.8a) the sun, moon, Earth, other planets and their moons, meteors, asteroids, and comets , b) the relative size and distance between planets and f) the unique properties of Earth as a planet

Additional Resources:
For detailed information on the solor system try Science Monster.

Another great website that has ideas on different lesson plans to be instituted in the classroom on the solar system: The Solar System

Solar System Live– This site shows the solar system as it is on a specific date.

General Information:
Book: Our Solar System
Author: Simon Seymour
Illustrator: N/A
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date:September 1992
Pages: 64
Grade Range: 6th grade
ISBN: 978-0688099923

 

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Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: Seasons

Posted on September 20, 2009 by openwidearchive

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The book Seasons comes from a great series called eye-like, which I purchased at BJ’s Wholesale Club. The book goes through each season, describes what is happening to plants, what animals are changing(frog, butterfly), and what animals and plants are present in each season. The book is complete with vibrate real photographs and each page is written in a short poem to remember what is going on. In the corner of each page there is a symbol (one denoting each season) so that even the kids can look at the book later and know what is going on.

Curriculum Connections:

Seasons can be used as a great introduction to learning seasons and how things change in the world through out time. It can also be used to show children how plants and animals change throughout the year. It gives kids a great visual representation to the different seasons and it will help them to remember what happens in each. This can be used to cover VA SOL 1.7 and 2.7.

Additional Resources:

  • TLS Books has a cute maze children can do that also asks questions about hibernation.
  • Time for Kids has a worksheet where children look at the seasons cycle and place pictures in the appropriate space to represent each season.
  • Boggles World has worksheets students can complete on each season where they can practice writing and sharing information they know about each.

Title: Seasons
Author:  N/A
Publisher: Play Bac Publishing
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 64
Grade Range: K-2nd
ISBN:9781602140837

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Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: What Makes a Shadow?

Posted on September 20, 2009 by openwidearchive

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What Makes a Shadow, written by Clyde Robert Bulla and illustrated by June Otani, is a part of the Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science book series that explains the simple and easily observable scientific concept of shadows for young children. The book begins by identifying and defining shadows and broadens by explaining what makes shadows, why some shadows are different than others, and where we see shadows everyday without even realizing it.

“The sun…shines on you. But the sun does not shine through you. There is a dark place behind you where the sun does not shine. The darkness is your shadow.”

“Sometimes the sky is dark with clouds…The shadows make the day dark. We say, “This is a cloudy day.”

“Watch the sun go down. Watch the night come. Night is a shadow.”

Curriculum Connections
What Makes a Shadow? is a great book for introducing the concept of shadows for the kindergarten curriculum (Virginia SOL K.7a). The book broadens from the simple observation of a child’s shadow following behind him or her on a sunny day to more abstract observations such as the darkness of the sky on a cloudy day and the darkness of night. Not only are readers presented with a definition of shadows, but they also are given the opportunity to observe how shadows change based upon the distance of the object from the light as well as the amount of light that shines through the object.

Additional Resources

  • This is a fun, live performance of a hand puppet artist creating different images on a large screen accompanied by the music of Louis Armstrong.
  • This is a simple, interactive poem about shadows. Students can either read it themselves or listen as the computer reads it to them.
  • This is an interactive java applet with shadows. Move the images and/or the light bulb and see how the shadow changes.
  • This interactive day and night webquest teaches students how day and night are created as the Earth turns. Students can read the text or have it read to them as they follow the directions of the text.

Book: What Makes a Shadow?
Author: Clyde Robert Bulla
Illustrator: June Otani
Publisher: Collins, Rev Sub edition
Publication Date: 1994
Pages: 32
Grade Range: K-3
ISBN: 0060229160

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