Exploring Science and Nature
Through Nonfiction Picture Books
Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
March 23, 2014
Featured Titles
Written and
Illustrated by Jeannie Brett
Published by
Charlesbridge in 2014
ISBN
9781580894180
Comparing Bears. Wild About Bears highlights the similarities and variation of eight bear species. Guide your students to construct a graphic organizer, a comparison chart to compare the characteristics and habitats of each species (category examples include: sizes, diet, habitat). Read additional information about bears online, using the web resources listed below, and in other survey texts about bears, such as Bob Barner’s Bears! Bears! Bears! and other species- specific survey texts listed below. Add any new information students identify to the chart that you have constructed. This chart could then serve as a scaffold for student composed writing about the different bear species.
Habitat Murals. Brett’s detailed illustrations can provide
inspiration for student created murals of different bear habitats. To prepare
to create accurate murals, students should research the habitat, seeking
photographic images to support their drawings. Guide students to identify other
animals that live in the habitat they will depict. Recruit the support of your
school’s art teacher to create large scale images of bears in their natural
environment.
Endangered Bears. In Wild
About Bears, Brett cautions her readers: “Bears around the world face many
challenges.” She continues, listing the environmental and human behavioral
concerns for bears. Invite your students to select a threatened bear species to
research, preparing a presentation to share their findings. Students should
research: threats to the species, identified and suspected causes, and
remediation efforts. The following texts will support students’ research: How Many Baby Pandas?, Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and
Adventure in the Asian Tropics, Garden of the Spirit Bear: Life in the Great
Northern Rainforest, and Jasper’s Story: Saving Moon Bears.
Mentor Text: Survey Text: Variations in
Species. Guide your
students to examine Wild About Bears
as a mentor text for the nonfiction subgenre of a survey text. Survey books
tend to focus on one broad topic and break it down into a variety of subtopics.
They do not go very in-depth with any of these topics, but they give the reader
a general introduction. (For more on nonfiction subgenres, see our Classroom
Bookshelf entry at http://classroombookshelf.blogspot.com/2012/08/nonfiction-and-classroom-bookshelf.html ) Notice how Brett begins her survey text
with an overview of the eight bear species. Following this, she describes
physical characteristics and behaviors bear species have in common. This serves
as an introduction to double page spreads describing the habitats and special
characteristic of each species. These descriptions are followed by a concluding
statement. Be sure to discuss the Back Matter of the book. Your students can
use the structure of this book as a model to compose their own animal books
highlighting commonalities and differences across species.
Websites:
Jeannie
Brett: Author’s Website
Great Bear
Foundation
National
Geographic Kids: Animals
Search for
“Bears”
New York
Times Topics: Polar Bears
International
Association for Bear Research and Management
Books:
Barner, B.
(2010). Bears! Bears! Bears! New
York: Chronicle Books.
Guiberson,
B.Z. (2010). Moon bear. Ill. by E.
Young. New York: Henry Holt.
Guiberson,
B.Z. (2008). Ice bears. Ill. by I.
Spirin. New York: Henry Holt.
Markle, S.
(2009). How many baby pandas? London:
Walker Children’s Books.
Mongomery,
S. (2004). Search for the golden moon bear: Science and adventure in the Asian
tropics. Boston, MA:
Houghton Mifflin.
Patent, D.
H. (2004). Garden of the spirit bear: Life in the great northern rainforest. New York: Clarion Books.
Robinson, J.
& Beckoff, M. (2013). Jasper’s Story:
Saving Moon Bears. Ill. by G.van Frankenhuyzen. Ann Arbor, MI: Sleeping
Bear Press
Sartore, J.
(2007). Face to face with Grizzlies.
Washington, DC: National Geographic.
Swinburne,
S.R. (1998). Moon in bear’s eyes.
Honesdale, PA: Boyd Mills Press.
Swinburne,
S.R. (2003). Black bear: North America’s
Bear. Honesdale, PA: Boyd Mills Press.
Written by
Loree Griffin Burns
Photographs
by Ellen Harasimowicz
ISBN
978-780761393429
Duet Model Reading with A Place for Butterflies. To engage your students in a comparison of butterflies in their natural habitats and butterflies on a farm, such as El Bosque Nuevo, read Handle with Care: An Unusual Butterfly Journey paired with Melissa Stewart’s A Place for Butterflies. Provide students with lots of discussion time to share their learning about butterfly life cycles, habitats and behaviors, and the need for conservation efforts. These two titles could be used to launch a unit of study on butterflies focusing on their role in ecosystems, current threats, and conservation efforts. After their initial reading and discussion to these two titles, students can brainstorm a list of inquiry questions to pursue, using additional print and digital texts.
Understanding Metamorphosis. Gather a collection of texts to use in a
Solar System model (Cappiello & Dawes, 2013) focusing on metamorphosis.
Depending on the age of your students, you may choose to have students read one
or multiple texts in a small group or you may read them aloud to your students
over the course of several days. Read titles such as: Frogs, Butterflies, Growing Frogs, How do Tadpoles Become Frogs?,
Metamorphosis: Changing Bodies, and
Face to Face with Caterpillars (see listing of books below). Provide your
students with note-making graphic organizers that prompt them to illustrate and
write about the changes frogs, butterflies, and beetles undergo through the
process of metamorphosis.
Missing Monarchs?: Butterflies as Endangered
Species. Recently, backyard observers,
naturalists, and scientists have noticed a dramatic decline in monarch
butterfly populations. Share with your students digitally-available video,
audio, and newspaper clips that discuss this decline in population. Use the
collection of monarch related resources accessible on the Teaching with Text Sets blog site (accessible at: http://www.teachingwithtextsets.blogspot.com/p/monarch-text-setbibliography-frost-h.html ) to explore suspected causes for the
decline of the species. This site includes a collection of texts that invite
kids to take action to change our world, making a difference for threatened
species.
Genre Study: Photo Essay. Handle
with Care: An Unusual Butterfly Journey is a beautifully crafted photo
essay in which the author’s clearly written text is accompanied by fascinating
photographs that play an equal role in conveying the story of butterfly farming
at El Bosque Nuevo. Read Handle with Care along with other well crafted photo
essays such as George Ancona’s It’s Our
Garden: From Seeds to Harvest in a School Garden and Nic Bishop’s Frogs. Discuss the relationship between
the photographs and the text on double page spreads, as well as aspects of the
book’s layout and design, such as placement of the photographs, the use of
white space, borders, and captions. Discuss, too, the inquiry processes used by
authors and photographs to craft a photo essay. Photo essays often (although
not always) involve first hand research and documentation. Using the photo
essays you have studied as mentor texts, invite your students to plan,
research, document, and craft a photo essay featuring your school or community.
Loree
Griffin Burns: Author’s Website
American
Museum of Natural History: The Butterfly Conservatory
Boston
Museum of Science: Butterfly Garden
Monarch
Watch
North
American Butterfly Association
Costa Rica:
Entomological Supply
Books:
Arnosky, J.
(2002). All about frogs. New York:
Scholastic.
Bailer, D.
(2011). How do tadpoles become frogs?
New York: Marshall Cavendish.
Bishop, N.
(2008). Frogs. New York: Scholastic.
Bishop, N.
(2009). Butterflies and moths. New
York: Scholastic.
Cappiello,
M.A. & Dawes, E.T. (2013). Teaching
with text sets. Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Education.
Frost, H.
(2008). Monarch and milkweed. Ill.
by. L. Gore. New York: Atheneum.
French, V.
(2000). Growing frogs. Ill. by A.
Bartlett. Cambridge, MA; Candlewick.
Hutts, D.A.
(2011). A butterfly is patient. Ill.
by S. Long. New York: Chronicle.
Kalman, B.
(2002). Metamorphosis: Changing bodies.
New York: Crabtree Publishers.
Kelly, I.
(2007). It’s a butterfly’s life. New
York: Holiday House.
Murawaski,
D. (2007). Face to face with caterpillars.
Washington, DC; National Geographic.
Simon, S.
(2011). Butterflies. New York: Harper
Collins.
Stewart, M.
(2014). A place for butterflies. Ill.
by H. Bond. Atlanta, GA.
Stewart, M.
(2014). How does a caterpillar become a
butterfly? And other questions about butterflies. Ill. by A. Patterson. New
York: Sterling Children’s Books.
Written by
Melissa Stewart
Illustrated
by Sarah S. Brannen
Published by
Charlesbridge in 2014
ISBN
978-781580894319
Local Bird Guide. Have
students select birds you can find in your community that they would like to
research in greater detail. Students may do this individually, in pairs, or
small groups. Read Look up! Bird Watching
in Your Own Back Yard for inspiration. Work with students to create a guide
for observing birds in your area. Have students convey what they believe is
most important to share about their bird. Ask your public library to display
students’ finished work.
Feathers Not
Just for Birds?: Exploring the Bird / Dinosaur Connection. After reading, Feathers Not Just for Flying, students
may be inspired to learn more about recent discoveries indicating that more
dinosaurs may have had feather than scientists had previously thought. Read
sections of Catherine Thimmesh’s Scaly
Spotted Feathered Frilled: How Do We Know What Dinosaurs Really Looked Like?
and Nic Bishop’s Digging for
Bird-Dinosaurs: An Expedition to Madagascar (noting the ten year gap in
copyright dates) along with online resources to support students’ inquiry into
scientists’ evolving understandings of the connection between dinosaurs and the
birds we see every day.
Similes Metaphors in Science Writing. Authors of nonfiction often use similes and
metaphors to help readers better understand and/ or visualize the scientific
concepts they want to convey in their writing. Melissa Stewart employs this
technique through Feathers Not Just for
Flying (hear Melissa describe this technique in her video on YouTube). Record
several of these metaphors on a large piece of chart paper. Read aloud another
science trade book in which the author uses similes and metaphors, such as Big Blue Whale by Nicola Davies. Ask
students to identify the similes and metaphors in the book and to record them
on chart paper. Add to this chart over a period of a couple of weeks as
students collect additional examples from their reading. Invite students to use
metaphors to enliven and improve the clarity of their nonfiction writing.
Specialized Nonfiction: Duet Model with Bird Beaks. With its in depth and specific focus on
bird feathers and their functions, Feathers
Not Just For Flying is an example of the subgenre of nonfiction known as
Specialized Nonfiction. Compare the writing and styles and organizational
structure of this book with Beaks by
Sneed B. Collard, III, reading the two titles in a Duet Model (Cappiello &
Dawes, 2012). There are subtle differences between these two examples of
specialized nonfiction, as well as many similarities to discuss. Following this
comparison exercise, invite students to research and write about bird feet
types, using these two texts as models.
Sarah S.
Brannen: Illustrator Website
Melissa
Stewart: Author’s Website
Cornell Lab
of Ornithology
and
NY Times
Topics: Birdwatching
Audubon
Society
American
Museum of Natural History
Search for
“Dinosaurs with Feathers”
Fernbrook
Science Center: Bird Feet
YouTube
Video: Melissa Stewart: Similes in
Feathers Not Just For Flying
Books
Cappiello,
M.A. & Dawes, E.T. (2013). Teaching
with text sets. Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Education.
Cate, A.L.
(2013). Look up! Bird watching in your
own back yard. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.
Collard, S.
(2002). Beaks. Ill. by R. Brickman.
Cambridge, MA; Charlesbridge.
Davies, J.
(2004). The boy who drew birds: A story of John James Audubon. Ill. by
M. Sweet. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Davies, N.
(1997). Big blue whale. Ill. by N.
Maland. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
Bishop, N.
(2000). Digging for bird-dinosaurs: An expedition to Madagascar. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Henkes, K.
(2009). Birds. Ill. by L. Dronzek. New York: Greenwillow.
Judge, L.
(2012). Bird talk: What birds are saying
and why. New York. Roaring Brook Press.
Stewart, M.
(2009). A place for birds. Ill. by H. Bond. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree.
Thimmesh
(2013). Scaly spotted feathered frilled: How do we know what dinosaurs really
looked like? Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Yolen, J.
(2011). Birds of a feather. Ill. by J. Stemple. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong
Poetry.
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