Non-Fiction

You Are Stardust

Posted by on Jul 3, 2014 in Art, Early Learning, Key Ideas and Details, Nature Smart, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Range of Reading, Science, Self Smart, Vocabulary | 0 comments

You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey and Soyeon Kim

Happy July! This is the month for fireworks and stargazing and wonder, which makes it the perfect month for You Are Stardust written by Elin Kelsey with artwork by Soyeon Kim. It begins like this:

“You are stardust./
Every tiny atom in your body came from a star that exploded long before you were born.”

This informational science book reads like poetry, and the facts within will astound your students:

We breathe in more than a million pollen grains with each breath.

The water we drink today is the same water that filled puddles when dinosaurs walked the Earth.

The electricity in your brain is stronger than lightning.

On owlkidsbooks.com, you’ll find a free teacher’s guide, a link to the app, a video showing second graders discussing the book’s themes, and a video that I found fascinating on how the book was made. Soyeon Kim’s dioramas are awesome and will inspire your kids to get out the art supplies. Choose an incredible fact from the book or one from the world that amazes you and bring it to life with a 3-D diorama. You might even ask a friendly librarian at your local library to put your diorama on display. (I know I’d say yes!) I hope that you and your students can be awed like Elin Kelsey and Soyeon Kim were and find beauty in our connections to the natural world.

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Dig in to fun summer books!

Posted by on Jun 6, 2014 in Early Learning, Integrating Knowledge and Ideas, Michigan Author, Nature Smart, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Range of Reading, Rhyming, Science | 3 comments

Digger Dozer Dumper by Hope Vestergaard and David SlonimBuilder Goose: It's Construction Rhyme Time! by Boni Ashburn and Sergio de GiorgiThese books are so much fun I couldn’t choose just one! Now that summer is here, I’m looking for books that encourage outdoor play. Here are two books that will have kids scurrying to the sandbox: Digger, Dozer, Dumper written by Hope Vestergaard and illustrated by David Slonim and Builder Goose: It’s Construction Rhyme Time! by Boni Ashburn and illustrated by Sergio de Giorgi.

Both of these books have poems about construction vehicles, so by sharing them together you’ll not only hit Range of Reading, you’ll have great compare/contrast discussions which hit Integration of Knowledge & Ideas. (Also, both are written by Michigan authors, so shout out to the proud Mitten State!) I love that these books both give real information about how these machines work within fun, catchy poems. Dig these favorites:

Backhoe (from Digger, Dozer, Dumper)
The backhoe’s two machines in one:
a useful little truck.
His front end pushes dirt and rocks:
his back end digs out muck.

Heave Ho! Let’s Go! (from Builder Goose)
This old crane,
it swings wide!
It takes pallets for a ride.
With a heave ho, let’s go,
swing it back for more.
Hoist it high and watch it soar!

Once you and your crew have enjoyed the construction poems, everyone will want to go dig in the sandbox and build, dig, measure, and pour. Extend the learning and develop fine motor skills with these fun activities I found on preschoolexpress.com, Jean Warren’s genius website: hammer golf tees into firm Styrofoam pieces, screw screws into bars of soap, and build edible structures with graham crackers and frosting, peanut butter, or cream cheese. Happy reading!

 

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“Rah, Rah, Radishes” and Go, STEM!

Posted by on May 13, 2014 in Art, Body Smart, Color Knowledge, Early Learning, Fluency, Math, Math Tie-In, Nature Smart, Non-Fiction, Onomatopoeia, Range of Reading, Science, Vocabulary | 0 comments

rahrahradishes Happy May, everyone! I had the pleasure of speaking at an early education conference where our theme was literacy and science. I brought stacks of books that tie into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) or STEAM (add Art) to share. Rather than just lecture all day, I led a session of “speed-dating” books: we’d spend a few minutes skimming a book and brainstorming ways to use it with students, share our ideas with the group, and pass the book along. This way, we had time to get our hands on over a dozen books and walk away with practical classroom applications. I was so inspired by the fantastic ideas the teachers generated! Here are a few ideas we came up with after reading Rah,Rah, Radishes! A Vegetable Chant by April Pulley Sayre:

Bring in vegetables found in the book. Sort the vegetables by color and by size.

Classify and sort vegetables by the parts we eat: root vegetables, leaves, etc. Read Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens as a tie-in text and talk about which vegetables would be “tops” or “bottoms” according to Hare.

Predict which vegetables will sink or float. Test predictions in a tub of water. Wash the vegetables and talk about textures.

Use the vegetables to make prints.

Compare and contrast with fruits.

Weigh and measure the vegetables. Use a vegetable as a measuring tool.

Take photos of vegetables and label them. Reread the book and have students hold up the corresponding photos.

Make a chart or a Venn diagram with the terms “raw” and “cooked”. Try some vegetables both ways and chart our preferences.

See what other vegetables besides potatoes can be delicious mashed (great for little ones to do the mashing!)

Bring in potatoes with “eyes” sprouting and bring in vegetable seeds. Compare seeds and sprouts, then plant!

Make an edible collage with vegetables.

Practice patterning skills like ABAB, etc. with bite-size veggies and eat when done.

Plan a field trip to a farmer’s market or invite a farmer to come to the classroom for more vegetable experiences.

If you’re interested in the list of science books I shared, please email me at kristenremenar AT gmail DOT com. If you like Rah, Rah, Radishes! A Vegetable Chant, be sure to check out Go, Go, Grapes! A Fruit Chant and Let’s Go Nuts! Seeds We Eat also by April Pulley Sayre. Hooray for early science!

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A Warm Winter Tail

Posted by on Jan 17, 2014 in Craft and Structure, Early Learning, Key Ideas and Details, Michigan Author, Nature Smart, Non-Fiction, Range of Reading, Science, Self Smart, Vocabulary | 0 comments

A Warm Winter Tail by Carrie A. Pearson and illustrated by Christina WaldHere’s what you need this chilly January: A Warm Winter Tail by Carrie A. Pearson and illustrated by Christina Wald!

This nonfiction picture book about animal adaptations in winter is perfect for a Range of Reading lesson (Core Standard #1 – check!). Carrie Pearson, a Michigander who knows all about staying warm in winter, uses a conversational tone to share a great deal of information. On each double-spread, kids learn what an animal does to stay warm in the winter when a baby animal wonders if humans do what they do to stay warm. For example, a baby box turtle asks its parent if humans dig deep into the mud and bury themselves like it does. A white-tailed deer asks, “Do they grow hollow hair/ so the coats that they wear/ trap the heat from their bodies for warmth?” A wide variety of animals is presented, and there’s plenty of extra information at the back of the book.

On their website, the publisher, Sylvan Dell, has an avalanche of free activities to go with the book (don’t you love not needing to recreate the wheel?) In the back of A Warm Winter Tail there’s a “Winter Animal Matching Activity” where students match the description with the correct animal, and if you go to sylvandellpublishing.com you can print off the animal sorting cards to make a fun independent/pairs/center activity. (Key Ideas & Details – Core Standard #2!) I can’t wait until February when a companion book, A Cool Summer Tail, comes out. Integrating Knowledge & Ideas – Standard #3!

For more information about the author, please visit: carriepearsonbooks.com.

For more information about the illustrator, please visit: christinawald.blogspot.com.

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