Growing With Science Blog

Category: Book Review (Page 4 of 63)

Planting a Garden in Room 6: #Kidlit for #NationalGardeningDay

April 15, 2022 / / 0 Comments

April 14 was National Gardening Day, which reminded me of a perfect children’s book to celebrate it:  Planting a Garden in Room 6: From Seeds to Salad by Caroline Arnold.

Caroline Arnold has visited Mrs. Best’s kindergarten classroom before for this series (see our previous review of Carolyn Arnold’s Butterflies in Room 6  and Hatching Chicks in Room 6 was a winner of the Cybils Award for Elementary Nonfiction.)

This time:

The children in Room 6 are planting a vegetable garden.

Mrs. Best brings in some seeds and transplants. The children plant them in a raised bed garden outside their classroom. Caroline Arnold takes gorgeous photographs of the process, step by step.

Before long the plants have grown enough to be harvested and the children eat the results.

This  book is absolutely delightful. The series is called “Life Cycles in Room 6,” but the life cycle aspect is subtle. Arnold includes just the right amount of information to hold a young reader’s attention. Plus, seeing children in the photographs draws them right in.

There’s also a how-to aspect. Helpful tips for gardening are included as mini-sidebars overlaid on a cute watering can graphic.

Planting a Garden in Room 6 would be fantastic to accompany a gardening project, either at home or at school. It would be a great addition to a unit on plants, as well. Grow some young minds and pick up a copy today!

Related Activities:

Timid about gardening? Start with a pot of lettuce. Find a container that is at least 8 inches in diameter. Fill it with soil (potting soil works best for containers.) Buy some seeds and plant them as directed by the instructions on the package.

Place your container in a place that gets at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight, and water as needed.

If the seedlings seem crowded, you can carefully pull out a few to give the rest space to grow.

You should be able to start eating your lettuce in a few weeks.

Check our previous posts about:

  1. Planning a garden
  2. Ideas for theme gardens
  3. Butterfly gardening

See our growing list of books for gardening with children at Science Books for Kids.

 

Reading age ‏ : ‎ 3 – 7 years
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Charlesbridge (March 15, 2022)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1623542405
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1623542405

 

Disclosure:  An electronic galley was provided by the publisher for review purposes. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission, at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

Moving Words #kidlit About Dandelions

March 28, 2022 / / 3 Comments

Perfect to read for National Weed Appreciation Day (March 28) and then have on hand for National Poetry Month (April) is the gorgeous new picture book Moving Words About a Flower by K. C. Hayes and illustrated by Barbara Chotiner.

***

At its simplest, this book is about the life cycle of dandelions. Open the first pages, however, and you will be surprised and delighted.  It is filled with bright, bold shape –or also called concrete– poems. The words form images in many fun and creative ways.  For example, in this spread can you find lightning and rain?

 

After the rain, a dandelion grows in a crack in the sidewalk in the city.

When the dandelion plant is mature, its seeds fly out to the countryside, where we learn more about how dandelions grow and what happens to them.

The back matter has a lovely diagram of the life cycle of a dandelion, when it blooms, how the seeds fly, and their value as food.

Young readers will want to explore Moving Words About a Flower again and again. Use it to inspire lessons on life cycles, poems, and art.

Related Activities:

1. Why appreciate dandelions?

Dandelions can survive almost anywhere. Blowing on the white, puffy seed heads is a common childhood experience and almost everyone can identify a dandelion.

Although now treated as a weed in our culture, dandelions were once revered in the garden. Let’s explore some reasons to let these hardy plants grow once again.

 

 

1. You can eat dandelion greens. They are featured in the book Diet for a Changing Climate (previous post). You also make dandelions into tea.

2. They are associated with spring, but they flower through summer and fall.  Late-blooming dandelions are an important source of nectar for honeybees (previous post) and food for wildlife.

3. There’s growing evidence that dandelions improve the soil and make nutrients available to other plants.

Maine Organic Farmers has a list of 10 reasons to let them grow.

2. Write a shape poem.

Decorate your page with dandelion art and have fun!

 

Reading age ‏ : ‎ 3 – 7 years
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Charlesbridge (March 8, 2022)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1623541654
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1623541651

 

 

Disclosure: Electronic galley was provided by the publisher for review purposes. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission, at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

 


Looking for more children’s nonfiction books? Try the Nonfiction Monday blog.

#Nonfiction Monday #kidlit: Soar with Breaking Through the Clouds

March 7, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Right in time for Women’s History Month, we have a wonderful new picture book biography,  Breaking Through the Clouds: The Sometimes Turbulent Life of Meteorologist Joanne Simpson by Sandra Nickel and illustrated by Helena Perez Garcia.

Joanne Simpson’s story is one of perseverance. When she was a girl, Joanne discovered the joy of watching clouds. As she sailed in her boat– or flew in her plane in later years– she learned the importance of paying attention to the weather.

Joanne went to the University of Chicago about the same time World War II broke out. They needed someone to teach Air Force officers about winds, and Joanne an aptitude for weather, so they asked her to take over. Once the war ended, however, and Joanne decided to continue her studies, her professors didn’t agree. They told her:

“No woman ever got a doctorate in meteorology. And no woman ever will.”

Joanne wasn’t willing to give up. She worked hard.

She discovered so many important things that she was able to achieve her dreams.

Breaking Through the Clouds is a perfect choice for Women’s History Month, as well as for budding historians and budding scientists. Get inspired by a copy today!

Related Activities

1. Keep a weather journal.

Writing in a journal is a wonderful habit to start. You can keep a journal that is devoted to the weather or you can keep weather records in other kinds of journals.

This Scishow video discusses how to keep a journal and gives a few basics about weather.

 

2. Learn to identify clouds.

Being able to recognize and understand clouds can help in many careers that rely on the weather, from aviation (as mentioned in the book) to agriculture.

Some clouds form thin sheets high in the sky, like altostratus and cirrostratus.

Other clouds are piles, like cumulus clouds.

You can find guides online. For example, NASA has a Cloud ID sheet and activity guide to download (PDF).

Books, like the Peterson Field Guide To Weather (Peterson Field Guides) by Jay Anderson and John A. Day, may also help.

Want to learn more? Visit our growing list of children’s books about weather at Science books for Kids.

And for Women’s History Month, delve into some of the wonderful biographies of women scientists at Science Books for Kids.

 

Sandra Nickel says that story ideas are everywhere; you just have to reach out and grab them.  She holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her first book, Nacho’s Nachos: The Story Behind the World’s Favorite Snack, was awarded a Christopher Award and was a Golden Kite Award finalist. Sandra lives in Chexbres, Switzerland, where she blogs about children’s book writers and illustrators at whatwason.com. To learn more, visit her website.

Twitter:  @senickel
Facebook: @sandranickelbooks
Instagram: @sandranickelbooks

Check out the book trailer and activity/discussion sheets on the resource page!

 

Reading age ‏ : ‎ 6 – 9 years
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Abrams Books for Young Readers (March 8, 2022)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1419749560
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1419749568

Disclosure: This book was provided by the publisher for review purposes. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission, at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

 


Looking for more children’s nonfiction books? Try the Nonfiction Monday blog.

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