Open Wide, Look Inside

I Fall Down, written by  Vicki Cobb and illustrated by Julia Gorton, is an interactive picture book that allows students to make important discoveries about the force of gravity. Throughout the book, students are asked to perform various tasks as they read, helping them to retain information both through literature and experimentation.

I Fall Down introduces the concept of gravity by encouraging students to observe what occurs when different objects fall. Where do they go? They always fall down! Whether it is a “spoonfool of molasses” dripping into a jar or a little boy who trips on the playground, all objects fall down. After explaining this phenomenon as being merely the ever-present force of gravity, the book then expands upon the concept of gravity by showing that gravity pulls objects at the same speed. If an apple and a paper clip are dropped at the same time, they both reach the ground at the same time. Scientific concepts that are often unrecognized though strongly affect our everyday lives are explored in this book. Students will more easily retain this information through the experimentation and real life connections that it provides.

Curriculum Connections
This would be a great book for first grade students learning about force and motion. Gravity can be introduced as an example of a naturally occuring force that is everpresent within our daily lives.

Additional Resources

• This powerpoint can serve as a useful introduction to the concepts of force and motion. It introduces basic and essential vocabulary that needs to be understood before expanding upon this topic by introducing heavier topics such as gravity.
• General Pre/Post-Assessment: This allows teachers to assess what students know about gravity before the lesson, as well as what take away from the lesson. The post-assessment asks students to dig deeper from what they have learned and hypothesize what they think the world would look like if gravity did not exist.
• Experiment: Students can work in small groups to complete this activity which asks them to hypothesize which item will hit the ground first if dropped at the same time as another item. Not only does this evoke class discussion about why the results turned out as they did, but it also allows students to practice their writing skills.
• Interactive Website: This is a fun, interactive online activity that creatively explains and illustrates the force of gravity. It is sure to catch and keep the attention of students.

Book: I Fall Down
Author: Vicki Cobb
Illustrator: Julia Gorton
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: 2004
Pages: 40
Grade Range: 1-3
ISBN: 068817843X

Have you ever wondered how objects move or change? Or even pondered how electricity or sound travel through the air? From the literal sense of how energy is part of our everyday to how to build a battery from scratch, The Science Book of Energy defines what energy is and how it is an important part of the environment.  Written by Neil Ardley, The Science Book of Energy brings the world of energy to life with colorful photography and eleven hands-on experiments. The illustrations help introduce and capture an excellent explanation of heat, movement, sound, and how energy is stored.

Energy is the reason that a house can remain lit when the sun has gone down.  It is also the reason that we are able to enjoy heat in our homes during the winter seasons.  Energy allows many of the actions and movements that we usually take for granted.  The Science Book of Energy is a way for children to learn about the type of energy and literally watch it come to life.  The book has step-by-step experiments to show how energy is changed from one form to another.  For example, “motion is a form of energy called kinetic energy”.  The book includes and an experiment on kinetic energy which defines the motion of objects.  Children are able to build their own windmill and watch the energy take place.  The handmade windmill is then related to modern windmills that convert kinetic energy into electrical energy.  The Science Book of Energy helps children to see and understand how energy works.

Curriculum Connections
The Science Book of Energy helps children to learn by experience in a way that they can relate to and understand.  The book covers types of energy from heat, light, and sound.  Throughout the book, children are able to complete hands-on experiments, vibrant colors, and action filled pages.  The Science Book of Energy may be used in a classroom setting to incorporate kinetic and potential energy into a lesson.  The Science Book of Energy is perfect for a classroom setting because it incorporates more than the average elementary readings.

The Science Book of Energy is closely related to SOL’s for grades two through four.  Students are able to investigate and understand different types of energy (3.11).   The book also discusses the movement of objects and how energy takes place (4.2).  The reading covers a general basis for a traditional physical science lesson.  It averages in the range of grades by allowing the teacher to either focus on energy in terms of simple movement, for example with paper and a wire, to an actual power source, for example a battery.

Additional Resources 

• What is Energy?– Learn what energy is and how it works.  This site includes information for teachers, such as, energy facts, fun and games, energy history, and related classroom activities.
• Small Engineers and Elementary Science Tools-This website contains an activity book for not only a child’s learning , but also for their enjoyment as well.  It allows children to learn about energy in an enjoyable fashion.
• Potential and Kinetic Energy-This provides information for other materials relating to measurement at an advanced level that may be used in a classroom setting.

Book: The Science Book Of Energy
Author: Neil Ardley
Illustrator: Dave King
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Javonovich Publishers
Publication Date: 1993-02
Pages: 29 pages
Grade Range: 2-4
ISBN: 0152006117

So where does light come from any way?  Teach your students about the properties of light and its source of heat in a fun and easy way.  Day Light, Night Light:  Where Light Comes From by Franklyn M. Branley & illustrated by Stacey Schuett  beautifully illustrates and simply teaches the reader how the sun, the stars, and light bulbs make light so we can see.

Turn off the light!  Suddenly it’s dark.  But soon you’ll be able to see the things in your room, like your desk or your teddy bear.  They might look fuzzy, but when your eyes get used to the dark, you can see them.  Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science series originator Franklyn M. Branley and Stacey Schuett have teamed up to shed some light on the question of how we can see even when it’s dark.  Read this book and you’ll learn how the sun’s light reaches us, and how your night light works.   Branley (1998) writes, “Almost everything we see-books, trees, houses, cars, people, bugs, and birds-reflects light to us.  Without light we could see nothing at all”(pg. 32).  For this Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science entry, originally published in 1975, Schuett brings an artistic spirit to Branley’s facts about the origins of light: A child perched in a treehouse discovers light from a luminous jar of fireflies; candles on a birthday cake illustrate the concept of light coming from sources that are hot.

Curriculum Connections
In the area of physical science, the  Virginia Science SOL’s for grades K-3  stresses the importance of  understanding the basic relationship between the sun and the earth, where shadows come from and the basics of energy and matter.  Day Light, Night Light:  Where Light Comes From is appropriate for multiple grade levels and could be used to directly address SOL’s K.7a, K.7 b, 1.6a,  and 1.6b specifically.

If you would like to shed more light on the properties that were discussed  in Day Light, Night Light:  Where Light Comes From, here are a few suggestions for grades K-3:

• Read the story aloud with the students and talk about what is going on in each picture.
• Ask questions throughout the story, such as:  “Does a nail make light?”  “Would there be any way that we could make the nail produce light?”
• Give the white dish experiment as a homework assignment to older students:   Take a white dish into a room and put it down.  Then turn out the light.  At first you won’t see the dish.  Your eyes have to adjust to the darkness.  That means your pupils open wider so they can let in more light.  Then your eyes can use other light sources, like the streetlight outside.  Pretty soon you may see the white dish.  Have the students make predictions about the experitment and then write down their observations.
• You may also try:  “Look around you.”  “How many things do you see that send out their own light?”  Discuss different things that you might see during the day and different things that you might see at night.

Additional Resources
Try these websites where you’ll find lesson plans, worksheets, activities and coloring pages to aid your physical science education quest.

• Fun with the Sun– physical science lesson plan on energy classification.  Includes a teacher’s activity guide.
• Light & Shadows –  Explore science through the categories of air, light, microbes, mixtures, and force. This site makes extensive use of Flash and Shockwave to create an entertaining and informative experience.  Includes an online activity that teachers can use in a computer lab or directly in the class room.
• Electric Gelatin – an activity that shows electric energy!
• Light Unit – for older kids a unit on light that inlcudes suggested activities and assessments.

Book:  Day Light, Night Light:  Where Light Comes From
Author:  Franklyn M. Branley
Illustrator:  Stacey Schuett
Publisher:  HarperCollins
Pulication Date:  1998
Pages:  32 pages
Grade Range:  K-3
ISBN-13:  978-0064451710

The periodic table??? Are you kidding me?  I never in a million years would have told someone I thought the periodic table could  be interesting, much less FUN!  The Periodic Table, Elements with Style! created by Basher and written by Adrian Dingle does the impossible, it makes you want to keep flipping through the pages to learn more about the different characters in the periodic table.
The book opens with a colorfully illustrated periodic table which is SO much more appealing than the standard, extremely drab periodic table, see for yourself!

Standard Periodic Table:

(Image courtesy of: http://www.bpc.edu)

Each element has its own personal style, personality, and first person explanation of their properties.  The colorful illustrations and unique approach make each element identifiable and memorable in a way that could never be accomplished in a traditional approach.

Curriculum Connections
According to the SOL’s students won’t really start focusing on the elements at this level until 5th grade and therefore this would be an excellent addition to the lessons surrounding SOL 5.4 which covers key concepts about atoms, elements, molecules, and compounds.  However, I believe this would be a great book to have available to younger students even as early as 2nd and 3rd grade.  The illustrations and the easy flow of the first-person narrative would be great for a student who has an advanced interest in science or is simply a little bit ahead of some of their classmates.

Additional Resources

• For really advanced students, they can try their hand at this Element Hangman.
• This lesson plan from Instructorweb.com gives instructions for created WANTED posters for a specific element.  This would work well in conjunction with The Periodic Table, Elements with Style! since each element already has a distinct attitude.
• The Hobby Shop provides a way for students to explore and experiment a little bit on their own.

Book: The Periodic Table, Elements with Style!
Author: Adrian Dingle
Illustrator: Created by Basher
Publisher: Kingfisher
Publication Date: May 23,2007
Pages: 128
Grade Range: 3 -College 🙂
ISBN: 978-0753460856

Forces Make Things Move, written by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley and illustrated by Paul Meisel, is from the “Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out” series (stage 2) which explores more challenging concepts for kids in the primary grades. The idea of invisible forces (such as friction and gravity) might be somewhat abstract to children, but since they experience them everyday, this book relates the concepts to them in an easier way to understand.  The story begins by explaining how pushing and pulling is a force, and how an object’s weight affects force.

“It’s why a breeze can’t blow your family’s car off the driveway. Other things, like leaves and papers and hats, don’t weigh very much. Even tiny forces can make them fly around. A little wind makes enough forces to make them move. But if your big brother is lying on the living room couch, you’re going to have to push pretty hard to force him off” (p. 8-9).

The second part of learning about forces and movement, is discovering what makes things stop.  Why won’t your toy car just keep going forever if it doesn’t hit anything to make it stop? This is the concept of FRICTION.  The book continues to explain about how different surfaces, including air and space, have more or less friction.

The final section of the book describes gravity. Kids don’t often wonder why they walk on the ground instead of the ceiling, but Forces Make Things Move explains how big of a force the earth exerts on objects. “Gravity is such a part of our everyday lives that you probably don’t even think about it. If you spill a glass of milk, you expect it to spill down, onto the floor, rather than up, onto the ceiling” (p. 27).

Like any good science book, the end of the story includes a science experiment for kids.  It is a very simple experiment about friction where the student uses a toy car and a ramp with different materials (sandpaper, towel, waxed paper, ect.) placed at the end. The student then decides which material has more friction and why.

Curriculum Connections
This book could be used as early as first grade to discuss force as pushes and pulls, using objects like toy cars (VA SOL 1.2).  By grade four, the children could read and understand this book on their own, and it will support the learning of how forces cause changes in motion, as well as the investigation of friction as an opposing force (VA SOL 4.2).

Additional Resources

• This list is a good compilation of the Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science series (stage 2) books, and is also located on a “book club” blog which could be used as a great resource for any teacher who is looking for books to use in the classroom.
• Here is a website that is filled with a plethora of energy and motion experiments for kids of all ages!
• Science Online has been organized as a list of grade-specific links on force and motion computer activities and lesson plans.

Book: Forces Make Things Move
Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Illustrator: Paul Meisel
Publisher: Collins
Publication Date: August, 2005
Pages: 35
Grade Range: 1-4
ISBN: 006445214X

If you’re searching for a traditional picture book (not too technical or difficult to read aloud) to incorporate into a science lesson, Arthur Dorros’s Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean is worth looking into.  This “Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out” book uses simple language and adorable illustrations to discuss how water makes its way to the ocean, and includes other science concepts along the way.

The book begins in a rainstorm and from there launches into an explanation of how and why water droplets form puddles, and eventually brooks, which flow into streams, which flow into rivers, and into the ocean.   Dorros does a wonderful job of making connections between the science concepts presented and everyday life.  For example, he writes, “Water always flows downhill.  It flows from high places to low places, just the way you and your skateboard move down a hill.”  The main idea behind the book is how (and where) water flows, but other concepts are included, as well, which gives teachers flexibility regarding how they incorporate it into their lessons. Plant and animal life, conservation and pollution issues, and even the Grand Canyon are mentioned, making this book a great choice for a variety of lesson topics.

Curriculum Connections
Follow the River from Brook to Ocean is appropriate for children in the primary grades, and might be expanded upon with additional discussion for older children.  It’s great for SOL K.5, which focuses on water flow and the properties of water, and could also be used with K.10, which addresses water conservation.  Because it does mention lots of different water-related concepts, the text is conducive to class discussion and might be a great way to introduce a variety of science lessons.

Additional Resources

• Arthur Dorros’s website is a handy resource to find more information about his book series, video interviews, as well as fun activities to try in the classroom.
• TypeAMom.net, used by homeschooling parents, offers a variety of hands-on activities involving water that would be easy to duplicate in a classroom.
• This in-class activity combines lots of different science concepts involving H2O including water flow, pollution, color mixing, and the effects of salt on ice.

Book: Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean
Author/Illustrator: Arthur Dorros
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: May 1993
Pages: 32
Grade Range: K-3
ISBN: 0064451151

What Is the World Made Of? (All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases) by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, and illustrated by Paul Meisel, is a great resource to use when exploring matter.  The book begins by explaining what matter is in terms children can readily understand.  “Walls and blocks, dolls and socks.  Milk and lemonade.  Rocks and trees.  All these things are made of matter” (page 6).  After reviewing the basic definition of matter, the book goes on to discuss the three different states of matter; solid, liquid and gas.  Zoehfeld does an excellent job making matter understandable to children.

“Liquids have no shape.  You pour a glass of milk for your little sister, and the milk takes on the shape of the glass.  If she knocks it over, the milk spreads out on the tabletop…Milk is not round or square-it has no shape” (page 12).

After thoroughly explaining each state of matter, the book discusses how matter can change states (ie: from liquid to gas, liquid to solid).  The book provides examples of changes in states of matter, making the subject understandable for the elementary school reader.

Curriculum Connections
What Is the World Made Of? is appropriate for use in the kindergarten and second grade curricula.  The entire book would be a great tool to use when discussing that water occurs in three states; solid, liquid and gas (SOL K.5 a).  What Is the World Made of? can also be used at a more advanced level, when students study matter in greater depth.  Pages 9-16 provide a clear and concise explaination of the basic properties of solids, liquids, and gases (SOL 2.3).  Additionally, pages 19-27 tie in perfectly when discussing processes involved with changes in matter from one state to another (SOL 2.3 b). 

Additional Resources

• This Oobleck experiment is a fun and interesting way for students to further investigate solids and liquids.
• This worksheet can be used to review the states of matter.
• This online game is an interactive way to see if children are grasping the concept of matter.

Book: What Is the World Made Of? (All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases)
Author: Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
Illustrator: Paul Meisel
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: 1998
Pages: 28
Grade Range: K-2
ISBN: 978-0-06-445163-5

Understanding the properties of gas can be difficult for young children. Franklyn M. Branley’s book, Air is All Around You, illustrated by Holly Keller, teaches kids about air as a gas in a fun and simple way.

This short book uses simple sentences geared towards early elementary readers to show how even though you can’t see it, air surrounds all of us. The reason why we can’t see it is because air is a gas: “That’s hard to believe because you can’t see the air, or smell it. You can’t feel it either, except when it’s moving. Or when you spin around.”

Branley even includes two short and fun experiments children can try on their own. They demonstrate how gases can exist even in water. For the first experiment, students fill a bowl with water and place a glass with a cloth in it upside down in the liquid. Air builds  up in the glass so that the cloth comes out dry. In the second experiment, children leave a glass of water sitting on a table for a few hours to see how air bubbles will eventually form.

The book then goes on to show kids how air is vital to life: fish need air to live in the water, astronauts need supplies of air to bring with them into space, and humans need to breathe in the air that constantly surrounds our planet. As the book simply repeats many times: “The air is all around us.”

Curriculum Connections
Branley’s book would be perfect to use in a kindergarten through second grade classroom when teaching students about the states of matter, specifically gases. Specific SOLs include K.5a, how water occurs in different states,  and 2.3b, the properties of solids, liquids and gases, specifically how matter changes from one state to another (evaporation).

Additional Resources
Looking for other books or activities when teaching about gases? Check out these sites:

• Solids, Liquids and Gases would be a good book to introduce to the class before reading Air is All Around You because it uses simple definitions and real life photographs to define a solid, liquid and gas.
• Looking for a fun and interactive way to teach about the states of matter? Sing this song with your students!
• This lesson plan focuses specifically on the characteristics of air as a type of matter.

Book: Air is All Around You
Author: Franklyn M. Branley
Illustrator: Holly Keller
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date:1986
Pages: 40
Grade Range: K-2
ISBN: 0060594152