Teaching Magnets with Children’s Literature: Science with Magnets

Posted on September 7, 2009 by openwidearchive

  science-with-magnets.jpg

 Science with Magnets, written by Helen Edom and illustrated by Simone Abel is an interactive book where students learn the functionality of magnets.

This colorful book is packed with exciting activities to assistance children in exploring the wonderful world of magnetism. All the experiments and activities are designed to be safe and easy for children to do in their own home. The book also provides real life examples of how magnetism is used in everyday life. “Magnets help to make many electronic machines work. Here you can find out about some of them: electric generator and tape recorders ” (20). In addition the book even teaches children how to create their own magnets.

Curriculum Connections
Science with Magnets could be used as a reference tool for students. It would be a great addition to a science work station where students can select which experiement(s) they would like to attempt on their own. This book can be used for SOL's:

  • 2.2 Students will understand and investigate magnets

Additional Resources

  • Brain Pops Jr: Magnets: Is an excellent site dedicated to magnets. It is a kid friendly site that gives background information on magnets and houses an interactive video students can reference. The site also provides teachers with two simple activities they can try with their own students.
  • About.com Magnet Worksheets: Provides 9 PDF worksheets on magnets. There are word searches, vocabulary worksheets, crossword puzzles, writing activity sheets, etc.
  • Home School Tools: Magnets: This is a coloring activity that gives students the opportunity to do a scavenager hunt around the classroom. The objective is for the students to find items that are magnetic.

Book: Science with Magnets
Author: Helen Edom
Illustrator: Simone Abel
Publisher: E.D.C. Publishing
Publication Date: September 1992
Pages: 24 pages
Grade Range: 1-3
ISBN: 978-0746012598

Posted in book review, physical science, process skills | Comments Off on Teaching Magnets with Children’s Literature: Science with Magnets

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: What is the World Made Of? (All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases)

Posted on September 7, 2009 by openwidearchive

9780064451635.jpg

The book “What is the World Made Of” written by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld and illustrated by Paul Meisel, explores all about solids, liquids, and gases. The illustrations and everyday examples provided give young students a deeper understanding of the distinct phases of matter.

The story opens by describing impossible scenarios, such as “Did you even drink a glass of blocks? Have you ever played with a lemonade doll, or put on milk for socks?” to introduce the importance of matter. A foundation is thus set, showing that all things are made of matter. As the story progresses, more and more examples are given for the three phases of matter; solids, liquids, and gases. Everyday connections are given to show the properties of matter. Solids are explained using clay to show that they hold shape. Milk is used to explain how liquids take the shape of their container and have a definite volume. Finally, air is used to portray the qualities of the gas state of matter. Connections to everyday life are also provided to help kids understand phase changes of water, such as the idea of making ice cubes and the melting of ice cubes in warmer temperatures. The book ends with an easy and informative summation of the lesson, offering hypothetical, funny questions that show the importance of the distinct phases and properties of matter in the day to day lives of children:

“Can you imagine a world where your toys melt when it gets too hot? Where the walls of your house turn into hazy gas, and animals just walk in and out as they please? A place where, on cold days, you have to swim through the air, and where everything you’d like to drink is hard as a block? What a crazy world it would be!”

To find out more about matter, on the inside cover, the book also offers questions and further experiments to illustrate specific concepts about the three states of matter.

Curriculum Connections
This book provides a very thorough introduction to the topic of matter and its different phases. The book could be used for grades 1-3, providing easily understood, everyday examples of matter in different forms and the different phase changes of water (SOL K.5 (a)). The different properties of solids, liquids, and gases, including mass and volume, are also taught throughout the story (SOL 2.3 (a)(b)). The book provides hands-on activities and experiments for kids to more fully understand the topic, as well.

Additional Resources

  • This website provides an online quiz exploring the different states of matter. The quiz consists of 10 questions with correct answers and detailed explanations offered for each question.
  • This lesson consists of an experiment “The Power Of Ice,” focusing on water and its properties in different phases. The lesson provides space for student hypothesis, materials and procedures, as well as experimental conclusions.
  • This lesson plan will have students observe different phases of matter, changes in patterns, perform experiments, and explore differences between physical and chemical changes.

Book: What is the World Made Of? (All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases)
Author: Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
Illustrator: Paul Meisel
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Publication Date: 1998
Pages: 32
Grade Range: 1-3
ISBN: 0-06-445163-1

Posted in book review, physical science | Comments Off on Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: What is the World Made Of? (All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases)

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Busy Wheels

Posted on September 7, 2009 by openwidearchive

busywheels2.jpg

Introduction/Summary
Busy Wheels by Peter Lippman  and illustrated by Aurelius Battaglia explores a variety of different machines found in the environment. This books gives many good examples of how wheels can be used. All of these items with wheels do very important jobs. “Some children ride in school buses. Some Ride on bicycles. Others travel by car.” This book provides many everyday examples that students may see in everyday life.

Curriculum Connections
This book would be a great way to show students examples of machines with wheels. It could be used for students to read at a center or could be used as a teaching tool for the whole class. This applies to SOL 3.2 (c and d) providing examples of everyday machines in school, home and in the community.

Additional Resources

  • This website provides definitions of both simple and compound machines. This site could be a very good beginning point for the students.
  • This video gives the students an opportunity to watch how a compound machine, the pulley works. This would expand on the students knowledge.
  • Here is a simple activity for students to complete about machines. This site provides lesson plans for the teacher on different types of machines.

General Information
Book: Busy Wheels
Author: Peter Lippman
Illustrator:Aurelius Battaglia
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: 1973
Pages:38
Grade Range: 2-4
ISBN:0-394-82706-6

Posted in book review, science | Comments Off on Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Busy Wheels

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Who Sank the Boat?

Posted on September 7, 2009 by openwidearchive

097.jpg

Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen is a short, repetitive, and slightly rhyming story that helps children learn about sinking and floating, as well as making assumptions and hypotheses.  Who Sank the Boat? begins with several barnyard animals who decide that they would like to go for a short row in a boat, and follows them as they try to fit all the animals in the boat without it tipping over.

“Was it the cow who almost fell in, when she tilted the boat and made such a din?  No, it wasn’t the cow who almost fell in.  Do you know who sank the boat?

The story continues as the smaller animals begin to enter the boat, and the it gets lower in the water.

“Was it the pig as fat as butter, who stepped in at the side and caused a great flutter?  No, it wasn’t the pig as fat as butter.  Do you know who sank the boat?

The end has a surprise twist, that very few readers are likely to predict.

“Was it the little mouse, the last to get in, who was the lightest of all?  Could it be him? You DO know who sank the boat.”

This book teaches that something’s ability to float or sink can depend on the removal or addition of even a very small item, such as a mouse, as well as where items are placed inside a boat to keep the weight evenly distributed to help balance the boat.

Curriculum Connections:

This book can help children become familiar with water and its properties, and is able to support some materials, ie: allowing them to float, and its inability to support others, ie: sinking.  Through follow up lessons and assignments this book also assists students in understanding that water and its properties can be observed, tested, and recorded, as is reflected in VA Science SOL K.5c.

Additional Resources:

The Science NetLinks site has a good lesson plan involving an online sinking and floating activity as well as using aluminum foil to make miniature boats to practice making them float and sink.

The Athens State University website reccommends using this book to connect to measuring scales and units such as a pound, and figuring out which things are likely to weigh more and less than a pound.

The SEDL website has a good lesson plan for helping students make predictions about which objects will float or sink, as well as help them record data in graphic organizers.

General Resources:
Book: Who Sank the Boat?
Author/Illustrator: Pamela Allen
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Publication Date: April 16, 1996
Pages: 32 pages
Grade Range: Kindergarten–1st
ISBN: 978-0698113732

Posted in book review, physical science, poetry | Comments Off on Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Who Sank the Boat?

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Energy Makes Things Happen

Posted on September 6, 2009 by openwidearchive

2nd-blog.jpg

Introduction:
How do certain things in life work? Where to objects recieve the help they need to move and operate? How does the sun work? These are all questions that students must be able to comprehend and answer at the elementary level. Energy Makes Things Happens written by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley and Illustrated by Paul Meisel is a great book to get kids thinking about the different aspects of energy and some things in our daily lives that involve the use of energy. At the end of the book, the author provides different activities that teachers could do with their students.

Summary:
The book starts off with a 2page layout of different items in our everyday lives that use some sort of energy. Throughout the story there are different examples of energy use such as, ” the sun shines in the sky and two children run with a kite”. After giving the examples of energy the authors end by saying ” all these things have different kinds of energy”. Further along the book, it is explained that energy can be transferred and the ways that this tranfer can take place. Each thing that is mentioned has a specific reason as to why it is considered energy; what makse it have the characteristics that defines energy.

Curriculm Connections:
This book could be used to introduce the overall unit of energy. It can be used to describe the different aspects that will be covered throughout the lesson and provide an opportunity for students to start thinking about the world around them and what characteristics of energy they see in their everyday lives. After reading the book, the teacher can ask the students to name some things they think constitute energy that they see in their everyday lives. This book will help the student understand that 1.2) moving objects exhibit different kinds of motion and that d) this motion can be seen in playground activities and the toys that children use in their everyday lives.

Additional Resources:
For great background information on energy and how it changes try Energy Changes.

Energy Quest: Great hands on website to help the students better understand the aspect of energy.

Education World: Lesson plan on how energy is created from water

General Information:
Book: Energy Makes Things Happen
Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Illustrator: Paul Meisel
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: January 2003
Pages: 5-31
Grade Range: k-1
ISBN:  9780064452137

Posted in book review, physical science | Comments Off on Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Energy Makes Things Happen

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip

Posted on September 6, 2009 by openwidearchive

magic-school-bus-and-the-electric-field-trip.jpg

Another great book in the Magic School Bus series, The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip, takes Ms. Frizzle’s students through the concepts of electricity in an exciting field trip. The field trip begins when the power goes out at school and Ms. Frizzle takes the student on a journey to find out the problem. Power lines are down in the streets and the students begin their exploration at a power plant. The students travel through steam and a turbine and enter into power lines. From there they travel to the library, explore inside a light bulb, continue on to a restaurant and Phoebe’s house, and then return back to the school. Throughout the storm many topics on energy are covered such as: how to make an electromagnet, different sources of energy, how a motor works, how a TV works, how a switch works, how steam works, and how to make a mini-power plant. It also discusses electrons and atoms.

Curriculum Connections:

The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip can be used to cover a wide range of science topics in regards to energy in grades 3-5.  The book covers  information on different sources of energy, magnetism, electrons and atoms, and explains the science behind how many things work. In Virginia, this would correlate with SOLS 4.2 and 4.3 under Force, Motion, and Energy. VA SOL 6.2 could also be covered with the examples of non-renewable energy sources good for the environment.

Additional Resources:

  • The Florida Project Learning Tree has a great resource for teachers to use with The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip on electricity. The packet includes discussion questions, vocabulary words,  vocabulary practice worksheets, comprehension questions, sequencing practice worksheets, and writing exercises.
  • Scholastic has some good activities on electricity, one is an experiment where students learn how the history of electricity and they learn how an electric light works.
  • Hotchalk has a good three week unit for students to learn about electricity. Topics include: renewable energy, wind turbines, testing electric currents, and energy resource.

Title: The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip
Author:  Joanna Cole
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: 1997
Pages: 48
Grade Range: 3rd-5th
ISBN:9780590446822

Posted in book review, physical science, science | Comments Off on Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature..What Is the World Made Of? All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases

Posted on September 6, 2009 by openwidearchive

                                                                                              images1.jpg

The book, What Is the World Made Of?, presents appropriate hands-on examples from everyday life to teach the concept of solid, liquid, and gas.  Did you every walk through a wall? Drink a glass of blocks? Play with a lemonade doll? Put milk on for socks? These are the fun and humorous questions that are answered in Zoehfeld’s simple text.  The book offers simple activities to do to find out more about the three states of matter. Water is used as an example of how matter can change from solid to liquid to gas, but most things in the world stay in one state or another.  The author offers funny examples of what our world be like if it were a crazy world.  For example, “Can imagine a world where your toys melt when it gets to hot or where the walls of your house turn into hazy gas and animals just walk in and out as they please.”

Curriculum Connections
This book can be used to introduce the states of matter.  The simple activities can be done in the classroom.  In Virginia, What Is the World Made OF? can be used in connection with SOL K.5a (water occurs in different states) and SOL 2.3b (changes in matter such as condensation, melting, and freezing).

Additional Resources
1.Change It! is another book to use to support the teaching the three states of matter.
2.Properties and Changes in Matter is a great website to use to set up centers involving all three states of matter.  These are fun hands-on activities that students will enjoy.  Worksheets are also available.
3.Solid, Liquid, or Gas is a song that teaches the three states of matter.

Book: What Is the World Made Of?
Author: Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
Illustrator: Paul Meisel
Publisher: Collins
Publication Date: August 1998
Page: 32 pages
Grade: k-2
ISBN: 0064451631

Posted in book review, physical science | Comments Off on Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature..What Is the World Made Of? All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: What’s Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew?

Posted on September 6, 2009 by openwidearchive

pygmy-shrew.gif

What’s Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew? written and illustrated by Robert E. Wells begins by exploring the characteristics and relative sizes of familiar animals and objects like the pygmy shrew, elephant, ladybug, and toadstools. Wells writes, “If [the pygmy shrew] happened to meet an elephant, [he would] probably think [he’s] the smallest thing in the universe!…But pygmy shrew you’re not so small. Not compared to a ladybug.” Following this, Wells describes smaller and smaller organisms like protozoa, paramecia, and bacteria and continues to compare their sizes with the use of his illustrations. He further goes on to examine the molecules that make up the organisms, the atoms that make up the molecule, the protons, neutrons, and electrons that make up the atom along with the quarks that make up the protons and neutrons. Wells ties the book together by explaining how everything in nature, the world, the universe, and even the pygmy shrew that opens the story is made up of atoms.

This book does a phenomenal job of exposing students to new organisms and terms in a fun and visually stimulating way and reinforces these terms in a glossary found at the end of the book.

Curriculum Connections

This book could be used in fifth or sixth grade classrooms to help students review that objects can be described in terms of relative size (VA SOL K.4d) and in terms of their physical properties which may be too small to be seen without magnification (VA SOL 3.3b). It further describes how all matter is made of materials such as molecules, atoms, protons, electons, neutrons, and quarks as well as their relative size which directly relates to Virginia SOLs 6.4a.

Additional Resources

  • Teachers may use this activity to help students understand the structure of atoms as well as the principles and procedures for measuring their components.
  • This lesson plan uses hands-on activities to teach students about the structure of molecules and how they interact. It also gives students the opportunity to create models of two different type molecules.
  • This website, using diagrams and easy-to-read instructions, explains how to use a microscope.
  • This website allows students to use a virtual electron microscope and then match the magnified specimen to its description.

Book: What’s Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew?
Author: Robert E. Wells
Illustrator: Robert E. Wells
Publisher: Albert Whitman
Publication Date: March 1995
Pages: 32 pages
Grade Range: 5-6
ISBN: 9780807588376

Posted in book review, physical science, science | Comments Off on Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: What’s Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew?

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning

Posted on September 6, 2009 by openwidearchive

 15_howbenfranklinstolethelightning.jpg

Summary
How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning by Rosalyn Schanzer is a creative and colorful biography of the life of Benjamin Franklin.
As the story begins, Schanzer runs through all of the different inventions and innovations that Franklin created in his life starting with his childhood.  The inventions pile up and the reader begins to realize how much Ben Franklin did for society from inventing bifocals to the Franklin Stove and the musical armonica.
The book then focuses on how Franklin played with electricity and introduces the reader into the famous experiment involving the kite and the key.  Schanzer captures the moment by saying

“Just as Ben and WIlliam were about to give up, the hair on that wet kite sting began to rise up and stand at attention.  Ben put his knuckle near the key and YIKES!!!!  Out jumped a bright sprk of genuine electricity!  Real Lightning had traveled all the way down the kite string!  Ben had stolen electric fire out of the heavens and proven that he was right.”

As the book finishes up it goes on to say how the results of Franklin’s experiment effected everyday society and prevented homes and ships from frequent fires.

Curriculum Connections
The students will work towards an understanding of electricity, electrical currents, light, and conductors. (SOL 4.3)  Since this is a biography, this can also be tied into a history lesson plan.

Additional Resources
1.  This is an introductory activity where students will learn the use of electricty and learn about its dangers.
2.  This activity about electricity will help the students play with different materials and learn which ones conduct electrical charges.
3.  This is an activity based on light pollution.  It will help kids underatand how to reduce pollution in relation to electricity.

General Information
Book: How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning
Author/Illustrator: Rosalyn Schanzer
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: December 2002
Pages: 40
Grade Range: 2-4
ISBN: 0688169937

Posted in biography, book review, physical science | Comments Off on Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning

Teaching Physical Science With Children’s Literature: My Light

Posted on September 6, 2009 by openwidearchive

9780439489614.jpg

Caldecott Honorary artist, Molly Bang, wrote and illustrated My Light to show the paths of energy on our earth.

With her illustrations and use of the sun as the source of energy, she makes this subject quite accessible to elementary students.  Her story demonstrates how the sun drives the natural processes (rain, wind, and plants) that are eventually converted into electricity to run our towns and cities.  The book includes a more in depth look at the types of energy on the last few pages.

“The wires hum!
Electricity flows, pulsing, pulsing, pulsing my energy out to your towns and cities.”

“Swish! Swoosh!
The  wind pushes blades of turbines round and round, spinning my energy to generators, which make electricity.
Electricity pours into copper wires and flows out to your towns and cities.”

Curriculum Connections
Use this book to facilitate lessons on how energy is passed from one source to another.  It is a great opener for discussions on electricity and circuitry.  Themes in this book correlate with Virginia SOLs 3.9, 4.3, 6.1 and 6.2.

Additional Resources

Book: My Light
Author/ Illustrator: Molly Bang
Publisher: The Blue Sky Press
Publication Date: 2004
Pages: 33 pages
Grade Range: 1-5
ISBN:  043948961X

Posted in book review, earth science, life science, physical science | Comments Off on Teaching Physical Science With Children’s Literature: My Light