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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

More science trade books

Because I love trade books, I chose to find a few more. Trade books are critical in an Elementary classroom... although we rely on textbooks in later grades, younger grade levels won't necessarily have a textbook for each students. In addition to this, textbooks can become out-dated and restrict the curriculum. Trade books are typically cheap (and only 1 is needed for a read-aloud) and the teacher can change these up quite frequently at a low cost. So I went to the UW-Oshkosh library (EMC) and browsed the books- most of the books I chose are geared towards a younger age (K-3rd grade). Here are a few that I found and really enjoyed:

My Visit to the Aquarium by Aliki (1993).
This would be a great book to use as an "under the sea" unit. It highlights different sea creatures and everything in the book is labelled (prefect for ELLs). The illustraations are also very colorful!

Octopus Oyster Hermit Crab Snail: A Poem of the Sea by Sara Anderson. (2005).
The whole book is one long poem about underwater life. This science book can also be used to tie in language arts connections, such as: alliteration, rhyming, and poetry form. There is also great vocabukary throughout the book.

Yikes- Lice! by Donna Caffey (1998).
This book covers the basic information about lice- size, means of transmission, how to get rid of them- in a kid-friendly way. There is a nice description with illustrations as well as a cute poem that explains. This book helps to make lice less scary.

Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman (1996).
A science based book about a boy with a physical disability (great for children to see different characters and their successes). It focuses on the changing of the seasons and the hardships that seals face every year, It briefly touched on the life cycle as well. I liked this book because it incorporated a lot of different aspects and content areas.

Wash, Scrub, Brush! by Mick Manning and Brita Granstron (1999).
A great book that focused on germs, bacteria, ear wax, etc. It discusses the importance of personal hygiene, including: bathing, grooming, brushing teeth, etc. There is also a great glossary in the back that explains each new vocabulary word.

Fabulous Fishes by Susan Stockdale (2008).
This book won an award for "Best Science Books" in 2008. The book addresses several different fish and has wonderful illustrations to accompany the descriptions. It is written in a poetic format with a steady beat. The bibliography is written in a very kid-friendly way, where the author offers suggestions to help children improve their own writing.

All of these books are non-fiction. They provide a lot of information so they can be use/read more than once. Science encompasses so many different areas- animals, weather, planets, habitats, energy, the body, chemicals, and the list goes on and on. There are SOO many trade books out there that incorporate science- don't be afraid to use a trade book ince in a while- it is a nice change even if the students all have text books.

3 comments:

  1. Emily-
    Nice range of variety in your book finds this week. The one about Lice made me pause a moment, it's amazing the things we talk about in classrooms today, compared to when I was in elementary school.

    I'm a Language Arts minor and I am always looking to incorporate books into lessons and this is so helpful.

    Thanks again!

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  2. I am so glad you did this post! I think incorporating trade books into any content area is so important. You can do so much with books as opposed to sticking to a text book. Imagine doing a science lesson on aquariums and using the first book that you mentioned. Just by reading that book to your students you have introduced Literacy into your science lesson! You could also (with other students) create a graphic organizer so they can organize the information that they learned from the book. I thought you had some really wonderful book choices, so thank you so much!! I think teachers need to be aware of using books in the classroom more, because I know personally I would rather listen to a short story than listen to my teacher lecture about birds for example.

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  3. I agree with you Emily, and Jessica! I love trade books in the classroom! Especially after having my placement in a K-1 classroom! They are so important in the everyday classroom. They help to get students engaged and thinking about the topic about to be taught without them even knowing. By doing read alouds it allows the teacher to ask questions to the students throughout the reading of the book to assess their prior knowledge. It is great to have a list like this for reference when you are stuck and can't think of a good book! Thanks for the awesome post!

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