Children's literature is a great seq way into many other cross curricular opportunities in teaching different things throughout the school year. I wanted to provide ideas that I thought were really good science connection books that children would enjoy reading and thinking about throughout the year.
1. What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
This Caldecot Honor book is a great non-fiction text that is extremely child friendly. Throughout the text animal anatomy is explored. Each page focuses on a different body part of different animals and describes the purpose of those body parts. The illustrations are absolutely amazing; they even have a very unique texture to them. I thought this story would be a great introduction into early biology understanding. This book is a must read!
2. Tree Life
The one thing that I really enjoy about informational texts is the real life pictures that children can associate with when reading. Tree Life is one of those types of books. The pictures that are incorporated in the text are absolutely amazing. The book really gives the reader an inside look at the inner workings of ecosystems relating to different types of trees.
Here is an example. On this page the text is describing the community spirit of wood work ants and their relationship to the tree that they live in. Look the the illustrations around the text on this page! Isn't that just amazing! I really think students would enjoy this.
I thought that this text could introduce the early understanding of ecosystems and the organisms that live within those organisms. The picture are the thing that really just puts the book over the top.
3. A Child's First Library of Learning: Sky and Earth
I really like the first library of learning series. Each book in the series has a topic (much like the one above) and asks questions about the topic on each page. The book then answers its own question using a multitude of access features in a unique page organization layout.
Sky and Earth would be a great mentor text in teaching about the science of geography in different regions throughout the country. The book really promotes self exploration and challenges students to first ask a question, then read on to find the answer to the earlier asked question. It's just an overall great science and social studies connection to literature.
4.
Computers In Everyday Life
I liked this books because it really relates to technology and how it is used throughout the world. The book is at a challenging level but it really could be used to introduce technology in the classroom as well as the variety of technology that is all around us throughout the world. The book itself is a little dated but the content that it displays is very relevant and meaningful. I would definitely suggest getting the book to introduce technology use into education!
5. Titanic
I thought this next piece of literature could be used as science that is currently relevant. We are now in the 100th anniversary of the titanic this year, the renovation of the new titanic movie is out in theatres currently, and there is a new TV show featuring the titanic on ABC. I thought that a science lesson on how things float and how boats work and operate would be very interesting. If you used the Titanic as the content theme then I believe students would really gravitate toward the lesson. Anyway, if you agree that teaching science through the titanic would be a really neat idea then this is the book you would want to read. It is complex but has a ton of really interesting information regarding the Titanic.
6. The Big Bug Book
What kid doesn't like bugs? In my experience most kids love to get down and dirty and talk about bugs. This book is a great story that explains what a big is and what kids of bugs are everywhere around us. I especially enjoyed the illustrations because they feature bugs interacting with man made things. This book would be a great bridge into an insect lesson. If you are looking for a piece of literature that is really interesting and meaningful then you definitely want this book!
7. Fish
Lets go back to the ocean, only this time instead of the titanic we are talking about fish! Wonderful world of the ocean is a topic that students will really find interesting. This book literally has almost everything you could ever know about different types of fish, fish characteristics, and general fun facts about fish. If an ocean life science lesson is your thing then this book is a must have!
8. Predator!
I recently conducted a predator prey game at Biglerville Elementary school and students absolutely loved it! Predator prey relationships are one of the most engaging and fun things to teach students within the science curriculum. This text has a lot of useful information that could be used within a predator prey unit study. Again, like many other non-fiction texts the pictures are of real life predators. The kids would just the pictures!
9. Ceratosaurus
When I was little I absolutely loved dinosaurs! There is just something about them that makes kids gravitate toward finding out information about them. I think that a dinosaur unit in science would be highly enjoyable and kids would be absolutely ecstatic when learning about them. This particular book come from "The New Dinosaur Collection" a collection that features a number of different dinosaurs in different historical periods. I chose the Ceratosaurus book to be featured because it looks like a dinosaur kids would love!
10. Understanding & Collecting Rocks & Fossils
I chose this last book because I believe that geology is something that is not studied commonly in science curriculum throughout the country. This book gives a general overview of all the basics of rock collecting and understanding. I think that incorporating this story into science curriculum could really generate some interest in geological studies (something that does not happen often).
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