Here are some more books you have got to have!
Sea Squares by Joy N. Hulme illustrated by Carol Schwartz
Who doesn’t love counting books! Throw in anything about nature and I am hooked! This book is a great counting book that uses nature, but if you use it right, it can be used for some much more!
I love books with realistic illustrations and this one delivers! Two two-eyed gulls, with two wide wings, shrieking and swooping and pecking up things! 2 white gulls, with 2 eyes each, have 4 bright eyes to watch the beach! Hmmm, see a little addition as well!!
Don’t you just love the rhyme and rhythm of this book! Numbers are used by scientists to describe objects (to tell how much or how many of something). Yes, my friends, math is a language a scientist must be able to speak. Number words tell us a lot. As you read the passage above, even without the book, couldn’t you just see the picture forming in your mind?
There is also another neat feature of this book-see if you can see what I mean.
Make some observations of this picture. Do you see something cleaver in the lower right hand side of the picture? There are 4 little rocks. So while the children are focused on the four seals they see between the two pages, there are also 4 little rocks. Each page has hidden objects that also represent the number on the page! How cool. So you can ask your little reader-do you see 4 other objects on this page? Where and what are they?
Be sure to add this counting book to your library!
Water Dance by Thomas Locker
For all my friends who teach in the upper grades, this book is for you! Thomas Locker has several books that I love; but this is one of my favorites! In Virginia, students have to understand the water cycle by third grade. Cycles are important processes in the natural world. Cycles often exist within systems. They are just events that repeat themselves while helping to maintain balance. The water cycle circulates water as it changes phase due to changes in temperature. I always tell teachers, the water cycle is not just about singing the cute little song (yes there is a song that goes with it). Children need to understand the water cycle is a natural example of matter changing phase. Water can exist in three states-solid, liquid, and gas. To change, it needs either heat or the absence of heat (cold). Heat from the sun evaporates water and changes it from a liquid to a gas. As the gas travels higher up in the atmosphere, the cooler temperatures help to change it back to its liquid state. Thomas Locker describes the next step in the water cycle so much better than I can, so check it out-
” Some people say that I am one thing. Others say I am many. Ever since the world began, I have been moving in an endless circle. Sometimes I fall from the sky. I am rain.”
Beautiful! Add in his incredible paintings and you have the recipe for a classic!
“Sometimes I cascade. I tumble down, down, over the moss-covered rocks, through the forest shadows. I am the mountain stream.”
So what phase/state of matter is water taking now in the water cycle? Yep, you guessed it! Liquid state! When you understand how content connects with the bigger ideas in science, it is easy for students to learn!
Get this book to make the water cycle come to life
I hope you are inspired to use reading to spark a love of science (and math as well)! Now go read!
