Science all around - Booktalk - book recommendations and activity ideas for science education

Spice up your science curriculum with children's books that take a look at the natural world and the people who have helped us learn more about it.

IN MY WORLD

By Lois Ehlert. Harcourt, 2002; 40 pages; $15 (PreK-2).

"My world is made of things I like," begins this innovative picture book. Remarkable die-cut pictures on heavy-duty pages intersect and overlap in a riot of shapes and colors. Turn each page to reveal a visual feast of cutout images: leaping frogs, growing fruit, a shining sun, and glittering stars. As you read each adjective aloud, children can look at the cutout page and identify the animal or object revealed there. Next, try sharing the book backward--show students the objects, and see if they can recall the accompanying adjectives.

ACTIVITY: Ask your children to list the various things they like, alongside an adjective that describes each one. Invite students to draw an outline of one of the objects on a piece of colored oak tag. They can then cut it out for others to attempt to identify.

TO FLY: THE STORY OF THE WRIGHT BROTHERS

By Wendie Old; illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker. Clarion, 2002; 48 pages; $16 (Gr. 4-8).

Old's stellar, science-based biography of the Wright brothers--who never graduated from high school, and worked as shopkeepers before getting back to their first love, flight--is both a thrilling adventure and a lesson in determination, as they succeed only through much trial and error. The large format with watercolors lets the reader fly vicariously.

ACTIVITY: Learn more about flying and the Wright Brothers via the links on NASA's Spacelink site:http://spacelink.nasa.gov/Instructional.Materials/Curriculum.Sup port/Physical.Science/Aeronautics.and.Aerospace/The.Wright.Brorhers/

WHERE FISH GO IN WINTER

By Amy Goldman Koss; illustrated by Laura]. Bryant. Dial, 2002; 32 pages; $13.99 (K-3).

Fourteen bouncy poems answer common science questions: Why does popcorn pop? How do birds fly? Do islands float? This easy reader provides scientific information in an appealing package. The answers, creative and accurate, will stimulate curiosity about the natural world.

ACTIVITY: Ask your young scientists to make lists of the questions they have about the world around them. For a paired or buddy reading activity that links science, research, and writing, have older students research answers to the younger children's questions, attempting explanations in rhyme.

A COOL DRINK OF WATER

By Barbara Kerley. National Geographic, 2002; 32 pages; $16.95 (PreK-2).

"Somewhere, right now, someone is drinking water..." Full-page color photos give a global glimpse of people drinking water--from rivers, wells, fountains, and pumps--as well as collecting it in buckets, brass pots, tin cups, and burlap bags. Captioned thumbnail photos at the back of the book identify the countries where each photo was taken and provide additional facts.

ACTIVITY: Ask students to draw different sources of water. Display their drawings, along with captions.

A WORLD OF WONDERS

By J. Patrick Lewis; illustrated by Alison Jay. Dial, 2002; 40 pages; $16.99 (Gr. 2-5).

Look at the world from a geographic standpoint in this 25-poem collection about explorers, the Aurora Borealis, the San Andreas Fault, and the five oceans. The wordplay is informative: "Longitudinal lines rise like porcupines." Lewis recommends "traveling by poem," and readers will certainly get wanderlust from this collection of rhyming city riddles and paintings.

ACTIVITY: On a large world map, chart the places visited in each poem. In his poem "Did You Know," Lewis lists several superlatives, including the world's longest place name, Write out this 85-letter name for your students to sound out.

WHAT'S UP, WHAT'S DOWN?

By Lola M. Schaefer; illustrated by Barbara Bash. Greenwillow, 2002; 32 pages; $15.99 (PreK-2).

This distinctively formatted picture book (with sideway pictures and text that reads bottom to top) encourages students to think about the world from different perspectives. What's up if you're a mole? Roots and soil are up; grass, flowers, and trees are up; the moon is up. What's down if you're the moon? Each page takes readers on a journey from top to bottom, plunging through clouds, trees, and even down into the depths of the ocean.

ACTIVITY: Small groups can work together to make perspective drawings on very tall paper--from the floor to the height of your average student--of the different vantage points presented in the story. Ask them to observe an aspect of nature from another point of view and to describe what they see.

FROM HEAD TO TOE: THE AMAZING HUMAN BODY AN[I HOW IT WORKS

By Barbara Seuling; illustrated by Edward Miller. Holiday House, 2003; 32 pages; $16.95 (Gr. 2-5).

Filled with easy-to-perform experiments, this spirited examination of all the systems and parts of the human body--from bones, joints, and muscles to the brain and nervous system, organs, and skin--is crammed with fabulous facts that will give listeners newfound respect for what's in their skin. "The human body is a well-run machine," declares Seuling; indeed, as you read each chapter aloud, children will be twisting and flexing, thinking and breathing in response. Nine hands-on classroom experiments will keep students involved and enraptured.