Book Review - One Well: The Story of Water on Earth

When viewed from space, our home is blue, largely due to the fact that nearly 70% of its surface is covered by water. It is because of this that the Earth is often called "the water planet." Rochelle Strauss' new book, One Well: The Story of Water on Earth, tells the story of our planet's most precious resource. The book begins:

Imagine for a moment that all the water on Earth came from just one well.

This isn't as strange as it sounds. All water on Earth is connected, so there really is just one source of water--one global well--from which we all draw water.

The double page spreads in One Well provide both informational paragraphs and short, factual boxed insets, beginning with the distribution of water on earth, the water cycle, water's essential role in life on Earth and watery habitats. From here, the author looks at how people use, need and access water. The book concludes by looking at demands on the well, pollution, and saving our water.

One Well provides an instructive and often-times inspiring look at water. Inspiring? Absolutely. The author reminds us that the amount of water on Earth hasn't ever changed. Since this water has been around for billions of year, it is entirely possible that the water we drink may have "quenched the thirst of a dinosaur" more than one hundred million years ago.

There is much in this book that kids will connect with. The author has done a superb job using simplified ratios to help make concepts understandable. For example, in describing how much freshwater is available to meet our needs, she writes:

Most of the water on Earth is saltwater--almost 97 percent. Only 3 percent is freshwater. If a tanker truck filled with water represented all the water on Earth, then the water used to fill a large bathtub would represent all of the planet's freshwater.

This is precisely the kind of comparison kids need to put descriptions of such vast quantities in perspective. The author goes on to discuss how over 99 percent of this freshwater is frozen in icecaps and glaciers or otherwise unavailable, and provides an even more startling measurement to represent the freshwater we can actually access for our use.

In looking at access to the well, the author compares the daily water use per person of the residents of North America, Russia, Poland, India, Nepal, Haiti and Ethiopia. We are told that for about 1 billion people on Earth, water is not found within the home, and that for these people, access to the nearest water supply is often a walk of more that 15 minutes.

While much of the material in this book was familiar to me, I did learn many new things such as:

• Both tomatoes and jellyfish are composed of about 95% water.
• Some rainforest organisms live their entire lives in the pools of water trapped by the leaves of the bromeliad.
• In my lifetime, I will drink the equivalent of a backyard swimming pool of water.

The illustrations by Rosemary Woods beautifully support and complement the text. The pastel and colored pencil drawings provide a varied look at water and the range of organisms (including people!) that rely upon it. One young girl, clad in a red shirt and blue shorts, leads readers through each double-page spread.

As the book draws to a close, it might be easy to get discouraged upon realizing the fragility of the resource we depend upon for our very lives. However, the approach of the author is not heavy-handed. A final section on becoming "Well Aware" provides readers with concrete suggestions for ways that they can make a difference. The book concludes with notes to the adults (parents, guardians and teachers) who will read this book with children.

One Well is an outstanding introduction to our most precious resource. It will not only teach readers about the importance of water, but will move them to action in an effort to conserve it. This title is highly recommended.

Book: One Well: The Story of Water on Earth
Author: Rochelle Strauss
Illustrator: Rosemary Woods
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Publication Date: March, 2007
Pages: 32
Grades: 3 and up
ISBN-10: 1553379543
ISBN-13: 978-1553379546
Source of Book: Copy received from Raab Associates, Inc.

Reading Maps

I have been trying to find the "official" date for National Reading a Road Map day. Did you know there was such a day? Some sources suggest the date is April 4, while others cite April 9. Since I can't find a definitive answer, I'm going with a day that's sort of in-between.

So, being in a map mood, I found this funky little site where you can map the states and countries you have visited. Here's the map of U.S. states I have visited:

Can you tell I grew up in the Northeast? There's a whole section there in the middle that I've missed, as well as some places out west, that fabulous place that nearly links us with Russia, and that ever-growing mass of volcanic remnants.

While I'm thinking about maps and places, this is a great time to share some of the titles I use when teaching map skills to my students.

• The Once Upon a Time Map Book by B.G. Hennessy - This is one of my favorite map books. Each double-page spread presents a map of a famous storybook location, such as Neverland, Wonderland, Oz, Aladdin's kingdom, Snow White's forest, and the realm of the Giant from Jack and the Beanstalk. For each map there are special points of interest and hidden objects to find. This is a beautiful book that children will spend a great deal of time looking over.

• Mapping Penny's World by Loreen Leedy - In this follow-up to Measuring Penny, Lisa learns about maps in school, and decides to map all the places she shares with her dog Penny, such as her room, the yard, neighborhood and local park.

• As the Crow Flies: A First Book of Maps by Gail Hartman - This is a terrific book that looks at the perspective maps can provide. The geographical areas in the book are looked at from the perspectives of an eagle, rabbit, crow, horse, and gull.

• Maps: Getting From Here to There by Harvey Weiss - This well-organized book for older readers introduces maps, how they are made, and their many different types and uses. Essential elements such as compass direction, scale, latitude and longitude, altitude, and symbols are nicely explained. The book even includes topographic maps, marine charts and aircraft maps. The final chapter provides directions for mapping your own backyard.

• There's a Map on My Lap! by Tish Rabe - This fun title from the Cat in the Hat Learning Library presents different kinds of maps (city, state, world, topographic, etc.), map formats, and the tools we use to read them, such as symbols, scales, grids and compasses.

• Are We There Yet, Daddy? by Virginia Walters - When a father, son and dog set out on a 100 mile trip to Grandma's, the son asks, "Are we there yet, Daddy?" A large foldout map precedes the title page, and a smaller version is reproduced on each two-page spread so that readers can see the progress the travellers are making at each 10-mile interval. This is also a terrific book for counting back by 10.

• Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney - A young girl introduces maps by sharing crayon drawings the floor plans of her room and house. These maps expand from home to street, to town, to state, to country, and finally to the world. This sales is then reversed as the girl finds the U.S. on a world map and works back down to the map of her room.

• Which Way to the Revolution?: A Book About Maps by Bob Barner - This interesting take on maps uses Paul Revere's ride to teach map skills. At the end of the book, the terms compass rose, map key, and scale are defined and a note provides background information on Paul Revere.

In addition to these "traditional" map books, I like to use books where the characters travel to different destinations, so that we can follow their adventures on a globe or map. Other good books focus on the the animals in different parts of the world, or the interesting things you'll find there. Here are a few of my favorites.

• How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman - When you want to make an apple pie and the market is closed, there is nothing else to do but travel the world to get your supplies. Using different modes of transportation, readers set off to gather seminola wheat in Italy, a chicken (for its egg) in France, bark from the kurundu (cinnamon) tree in Sri Lanka, a cow (for butter) in England, salt water and sugar cane in Jamaica, and apples in Vermont. Once the pie is baked, the friends invited to share are the children from all of the countries in which the foods have been found. A recipe for apple pie can be found on the last page.

• My Granny Went to Market: A Round-the-World Counting Rhyme by Stella Blackstone - Granny travels around the world to buy a few items. She begins in Istanbul where she buys the magic carpet that takes her on her trip. A one-page legend at the end of the book shows Granny's purchases, from one carpet to 10 llamas, while the endpaper maps out her trip.

• This is the Way We Go to School by Edith Baer - This lovely book looks at the different modes of transportation children take to get to school. At the end one page lists the children's names from the story and tells where they live, which is then followed by a world map with that shows the children's countries.

• The Armadillo from Amarillo by Lynne Cherry - In this book, an armadillo explore his native state of Texas and travels from San Antonio to Amarillo. When he is still not sure where in the world he is, he catches a ride on the back of a golden eagle and eventually boards the space shuttle. As the story moves forward, his perspective on his place in the world changes.

• All in a Day collected by Mitsumasa Anno - collected by Mitsumasa Anno - Ten artists, including Raymond Briggs, Eric Carle, Leo and Diane Dillon, and Mitsumasa Anno, illustrate the similarities and differences in children and their activities in eight different parts of the world throughout one 24-hour day.

• Curious Creatures in Peculiar Places by Amy Goldman Koss - "Toads with fire-engine red tummies, goggly-eyed tarsiers with sticky fingers and sloths who hang upside down from their toes are among the many creatures you'll find in this look at some of the nature's most bizarre animals and where they live. Lively rhymes provide oodles of facts to fascinate all readers (from the book)." A map is provided so readers can identify where each animal comes from. This book was a selection of the 1989 John Burroughs List of Outstanding Nature Books for Children.

• Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest by Steve Jenkins - In this wonderful book of comparisons, the author takes readers to some of the most extreme and amazing places on Earth. It begins, "If you could visit any spot on Earth, where would you go? What if you wanted to see some of the most amazing natural wonders in the world?" Each wonder is depicted in cut paper collage, and is accompanied by a map that shows that shows its location.

As a child, I loved Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, though I'm not sure how it will play with kids today. There is a version in the Classic Starts series that was released early this year. I'll be interested to see what kind of reviews it gets. Let me know your thoughts on this, and while your at it, please share your favorite books for encouraging kids to turn to maps and globes for more information.

Publisher Spotlight - Kane/Miller

For several years a taught a course in Content Area Literacy for all our students preparing to teach in grades 6-12. I love teaching this class, because it is all about integrating reading, writing, and discussion into content classes. It provided me with the perfect opportunity to share my love of books and encourage students to move beyond textbook use in the classroom. For years I worked easily with future teachers of English, social studies, biology, physics and math in preparing for this integration. In class I modeled all the strategies I was encouraging students to try. We read excerpts from the very books they would be using to teach their classes. Then, last year, I hit a major snag. In the spring of 2006, I had a class in which 5 of the students were preparing to teach Spanish. It is with great reluctance that I admit I speak no language other than English. Five years of Latin prepared me well for many things in my academic life, but not for this.

My challenge then, was to find material my students and I could use for instruction, and that in turn my students could take out and use in their middle school field placements. I decided that even though the subject was different, my philosophy and approach would not change. I tried to convince these students that they too could use children's books to develop literacy skills, even in a second language. All I needed to do was get my hands on some outstanding books.

This is where I learned about Kane/Miller, and came to love both their English and Spanish language books. One of the reasons I am so thrilled with the Kane/Miller catalog is because they specialize in foreign translated children's books. These books open a whole new world to readers. Their motto is "Open-minded books opening young minds to the world." Here is their mission as found on the Kane/Miller web site.

We are a very small, very specialized, very independent publishing company. We choose the books we publish with extraordinary care and attention. We think about them, we discuss them, we argue about them. We read them aloud, and then we read them to ourselves, to our families, and to each other. We live with them. In the end, we publish those books that speak to us - and those that we believe will speak to children.

We believe that children's books should comfort and challenge, that they should awaken the imagination and the conscience. We publish books we think are important to bring to American children. We truly believe in bringing the world closer to a child and the children of the world closer to each other. We want books that capture life's and lives experiences and present them in a way that will make children say both "wow, that's just like me" and also "wow, that's different."

We search the world for books that through great stories and arresting illustrations enrich the lives and the imaginations of the children who read them. American children need to learn not just about the United States, but about the world. They need to know that they can share adventures, and fantasies and dreams. Because the children of the coming millennium will not simply be citizens of their own countries, they truly will be citizens of the world.

Some of my favorite books include:

• Learning to Fly by Sebastian Meschenmoser
• Are We There Yet? by Alison Lester
• Kali and the Rat Snake by Zai Whitaker
• Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen

One title that really stands out for me is Yellow Umbrella by Jae-Soo Liu. The book is wordless, but it comes with a CD of music that is meant to accompany the reading of the book. This is a lovely book that will capture the imagination of all who listen and read it.

In addition to a fabulous selection of books that truly meet the mission stated above, teachers can find a wealth of resources on a page of Teacher to Teacher Tip Sheets.

I can't say enough about how important it is for children to read about others who do not look or act like them. Kane/Miller does a fine job bringing to our shores a wonderful selection of books that expose children to the human experience in all it's varied forms. Do yourself a favor and visit Kane/Miller for some of the loveliest translated books on the market.

No, I Don't Live in Iowa

Kelly at Big A little a bemoaned the fact that she had snow a few days ago. Well, I don't live in Iowa, and this is what I woke to this morning.

Hello, snow! Welcome to Virginia.

Exploring the Natural World - Part 1

A few days ago I wrote a post about the need to get kids outdoors so that they can spend time exploring the natural world. I was an outdoor kid, so this comes naturally for me. I always took my kids (students) outside for study, and today I take my preservice teachers and the practicing teachers I work with out to consider all the ways the outdoors can enhance and expand their teaching. Even with structured guidance, I still have students who are reluctant about this approach because they aren't sure how to begin or what exactly to do once they go outside.

In an effort to encourage more teachers and parents to get outside with their kids, I would like to share some of my favorite outdoor explorations with connections to books and indoor extensions. For most of these activities you need nothing more than a clipboard, pencil, hand lens (or magnifying glass), jumbo crayon, some paper and a container for your "finds." I have a collection of old plastic cups (kids drink size) from restaurants (Friday's, Olive Garden, etc.) that work really well for scooping up dirt and insects. You may even want to keep a few small baggies in your pocket for the non-living things you find on the ground. If you have a digital camera, consider capturing some photos to use for additional projects and/or discussion.

I Spy Shapes - Looking for shapes outdoors can be a fun activity. When you begin your walk outside, start by noticing the shapes of the buildings, the materials in the walkway, the objects on the playground, outdoor furniture and more. When you move away from the built environment, the challenge is in finding these shapes in the natural world. What shapes are the stones you find? The leaves? Sticks? What do flower petals look like up close? How about at a distance? Have you ever stood far enough away from a tree to really look at its overall shape? Is it round, oval, pyramidal or something else? Get up close to the tree. What does the bark look like? Can you recognize any shapes in the pattern? Do you see any animals? Can you recognize any shapes in their forms? (Does a bird beak really resemble a triangle?) While searching for shapes, encourage kids to sketch what they see. They can even trace objects they find on the ground. After spending some time just looking, play a game of I Spy. Say, "I spy a circle." See how quickly the children can find the object you have in mind. How many other things can they find with the same shape? Finally, consider using all these experiences to have kids write and illustrate their own "Natural Shapes" book.

• Icky Bug Shapes is a great book for looking at shapes in nature. Read this after exploring shapes outside.
• For some great background information on trees, their shapes and identification, take a look at this Tree Diversity Activity from the National Arbor Day Foundation.
  

Looking at Logs - What happens when a tree dies? Even though the tree may be dead, it lives on in the food and shelter it provides for other organisms. One of my favorite outdoor activities is exploring fallen trees. Take your kids to a wooded area and find yourself a tree that is decomposing. Spend some time looking for signs of life in this "dead" plant. How does it look? Smell? Feel? Carefully roll the log back and look closely at what is underneath. Scoop up a small sample of material and pour it out onto a white piece of paper on your clipboard. What do you see? Peel back a section of bark and examine the wood below. Do you see evidence of living things? Is anything growing on or inside the log? What role is the log playing in the forest?

• Wendy Pfeffer has written a terrific book called A Log's Life. In it she explores what happens to an oak tree that crashes to the ground in a storm. This is a wonderful look at the life cycle of the tree and a really neat introduction to decomposers.
• Robin Brickman contributes fascinating artwork to A Log's Life in the form of collages of 3-dimensional molded paper forms. You can view samples at her web site. Using paper, scissors and glue, children can try to create some similar pieces of their own.
  

What Happens to Our Trash? - Kids often ask why we recycle, but we do little in the way of concrete activities to show them why it is important. Find an old shoe box and pick a place in your yard where you can "plant" the box in the ground. Fill the box with soil. Pick a few items to bury in the soil. Take photos or draw sketches of the items before they are placed in the soil. I usually use some apple peelings or rinds from melons, newspaper, an aluminum foil ball, and a small plastic bottle. Make sure the items are covered with soil and then place the top on the box. The lid does not need to be covered with dirt. (This just makes it easy to find the box and its contents again.) Ask children to predict what will happen to these items. Once a week, check on the items in the box, and the box itself, and see what kind of changes have taken place. I would recommend using a stick or similar item to stir the soil each week when examining the contents. You can keep a journal of these weekly observations.

• There is a terrific book in the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series called Where Does the Garbage Go? In it, a group of school kids look at where garbage comes from and then looks at what happens in landfills, incinerators and recycling centers.
• Gail Gibbons has written a great book called Recycle: A Handbook for Kids. It looks at the content of landfills and how we can recycle to reduce the need for landfills.
• Composting is a wonderful way to create rich soil for your garden while reducing the amount of trash you produce. You can view the slide show Composting for Kids to learn how to get started. A quick how-to guide on Composting with Kids provides the recipe for composting.
  

Sock Walk - Provide children with a pair of old white athletic socks (adult size). Go to an outdoor area (a yard, field, park or forest) where you can take a short walk. Once you get to the desired location, help the children to put the socks on OVER their shoes. Take a short walk through the area. Remove the socks and examine the material that is stuck to them. Don't forget a hands lens! Once you are done, you may want to scrape off the dirt and "stuck" material to plant in some soil. You may be surprised by what happens. I like to do this in the late spring and again in early fall in the same location.

• Generally, the socks will accumulate all manner of seeds. This is a good time to talk about how seeds are dispersed. For kids who want to know more, the Ken Robbins book Seeds is a marvelous photographic examination of different seeds and their methods of dispersal. Kids can learn even more about seeds in the ink and watercolor illustrations and poetic text of A Seed is Sleepy.
  

That's all for now. Look for the next installment where I will share suggestions for keeping a nature journal, bug hunting, and more.

**Continue on and read Part 2!

Poetry Friday - From the Shore

Today I present this lovely poem from Carl Sandburg.

From the Shore
A lone gray bird,
Dim-dipping, far-flying,
Alone in the shadows and grandeurs and tumults
Of night and the sea
And the stars and storms.

Out over the darkness it wavers and hovers,
Out into the gloom it swings and batters,
Out into the wind and the rain and the vast,
Out into the pit of a great black world,
Where fogs are at battle, sky-driven, sea-blown,
Love of mist and rapture of flight,
Glories of chance and hazards of death
On its eager and palpitant wings.

Out into the deep of the great dark world,
Beyond the long borders where foam and drift
Of the sundering waves are lost and gone
On the tides that plunge and rear and crumble.

If you like this one, you can read more like it in Chicago Poems.

Happy Poetry Friday!

Julius Lester's Speech on Children's Literature

One of my regular blog reads is A Commonplace Book, written by author extraordinaire Julius Lester. It links to another blog called Olio, a place where he puts material that simply doesn't fit into his other sites. He recently posted the text of a speech he gave at the UMass Perspectives in Children's Literature Conference. Here is an excerpt:

Only those of us passionately involved with children’s literature seem to understand one simple but profound fact: If we are going to have a nation of literate and articulate people, they have to become avid readers long before they become adults. The child who does not like to read becomes an adult who will not read.

You can't imagine how wonderfully insightful this speech is. (Oh, sure you can, it's Julius Lester.) Go now and read the speech in its entirety. Really. Go!

Break a Leg - Climb More Trees!

I heard this on Morning Edition this morning.

The popularity of video games may have an unintended safety benefit: fewer children are falling out of trees. Britain's Daily Telegraph reports that hospital admissions for tree-related accidents are way down since 1999. On the other hand, a spike has been seen in repetitive-stress injuries among young people.

I'm not surprised. I grew up in an area of western New York surrounded by open fields and dairy farms. I regularly climbed trees, raced through corn fields, picked raspberries off the vine (and ate them without washing them!), tramped through puddles and creeks, and picked up all manner of slimy, warty, smelly things you can imagine. When I describe these "adventures" to my students, they look at me as if I have three heads. "You did what?" Young people today just don't spend enough time outside in unstructured play.

Richard Louv looks at this issue in Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Published in 2005, this book focuses on the term coined by Louv. He uses it to describe the fixation of children today on the artificial entertainment rather than natural wonders. Louv writes, "Our society is teaching young people to avoid direct experience in nature."

Not my kid. I let him play outside in the rain, bathe in mud puddles, plant seeds (from every apple he eats!), explore in the nearby creek, collect acorns, sticks and leaves, and engage in lots of other gloriously dirty and disgusting things. However, not all kids have this luxury. As a teacher in the city of Buffalo, I was amazed at how many of my kids had never seen Niagara Falls (just 30 minutes away) or been to the Buffalo Zoo, a facility within the city limits. We can talk all we want about the power of the Internet and other electronic media to bring the world together, but as far as I'm concerned, too many children reside in worlds that are too small, where the people who care for them don't even take them to local areas of interest.

Why bring this up now? Well, besides being prompted by this morning's news bite, National Environmental Education Week will soon be upon us (April 15-22). Yes, I know that April is National Poetry Month and Math Awareness Month, but I am a science geek at heart and a nature lover. So, check out Last Child in the Woods and then do something about the problems described. Get outside with binoculars or a magnifying glass, put on your listening ears, give yourself permission to get dirty, and just revel in all the amazing things in our natural world. Once you've done that, find a kid and share all this beauty with him or her.

And just in case you need an incentive in the form of a children's book, read My Father's Hands by Joanne Ryder. It is the beautiful story of how a little girl and her father share the wonders of nature when they examine several small creatures in the garden.

Education News - Reading and Reading and Reading . . . ad infinitum

In the last few days I've read two articles that have me thinking a lot about what is happening in classrooms today.

In the March 30 edition of Science magazine, an article entitled Opportunities to Learn in America's Classrooms appeared. Here is some background.

Here, we describe results from a study of elementary school classroom experiences for more than 1000 American children recruited at birth from 10 U.S. sites and enrolled in more than 2500 classrooms in more than 1000 elementary schools and 400 school districts. Our investigation approximates an epidemiological study of opportunities to learn in U.S. classrooms, although the sample was not nationally representative.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, educational researchers spent thousands of hours in more than 2,500 first-, third- and fifth-grade classrooms, tracking kids through elementary school. It is among the largest studies done of U.S. classrooms, producing a detailed look at the typical kid's day (USA Today).

The results?

• In fifth grade, children spent most of their time (91.2%) working in whole-group or individual-seatwork settings. Students spent little time (7%) in small-group instruction (two to five students).
• In fifth grade, 37% of instruction was in literacy and 25% was in math; in first and third grade, more than 50% of instruction was in literacy and less than 10% was in math.
• Science and social studies activities occurred in 11 and 13% of intervals in fifth grade, respectively.
• The average fifth grader received five times as much instruction in basic skills as instruction focused on problem solving or reasoning; this ratio was 10:1 in first and third grades.
• Teachers in fifth grade spent 17% of their time instructing students on managing materials or time.

For anyone who teaches, or spends large amounts of time in classrooms these days, the results are not surprising. They are, however, very depressing/discouraging/frustrating. Take your pick, or add your own word.

I routinely spend time in classrooms where teachers tell me that science and social studies are not taught every day because there simply isn't time. In many schools these days, teachers have a block of time, usually 15-30 minutes, devoted to both of these subjects, where a unit in science is taught (perhaps for two weeks), and then a unit in social studies is taught. For any teacher who wants to integrate the curriculum, this makes integration extremely difficult, if not downright impossible.

Yes, I know basic literacy skills are important. But I can easily define mathematical and scientific literacy skills that are necessary for negotiating life in the real world. I now have students and teachers spending 90-120 minutes per day on reading, and 60-90 minutes per day on math, in large part because of NCLB. The short-sightedness of this is that in 2006, states were also required to begin testing and reporting science scores for students in grades 3 through 8. And as for social studies, wasn't it George Santayana who said "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it?"

In March 2006, the Center on Education Policy reported that:

• 71% of school systems admitted to reducing elementary school instructional time in at least one other subject to make more time for reading and math
• 60% of the districts surveyed had policies that required teachers to devote a specific amount of time to reading
• 50% of the districts surveyed had policies that required teachers to devote a specific amount of time to math
• 97% of the poorest districts had policies specifying how much time should be spent teaching reading, compared with 55 percent of the wealthiest districts

How do schools make room for all this reading and math? They cut science and social studies. Perhaps most distressing of all is what I read regularly in our local newspaper. This year, the paper is following a first year teacher in one of the city (poor, urban) schools. Here is an excerpt that provides one picture of how these statistics are reflected in public school classrooms.

The schedule on Butler's classroom wall allots two hours each day for reading instruction, an hour for math and about 55 minutes for science and social studies combined. But many days, science and social studies lessons are compressed even more, into five- or 10-minute capsules at the end of the day.

"With science and social studies, that's about as much as you can get in, five or 10 minutes," Butler said after school one day. "Our main focus is reading and math."

On one recent afternoon, Butler's class discussed recycling.

They had already had a reading lesson, a math lesson and a trip to the cafeteria for lunch and the playground for recess. A Spanish teacher visited earlier in the day. Then the students settled down on the carpet for a quick science lesson.

They made a chart with columns for information they already know, information they want to know and information just learned.

By the end of the minutes-long lesson, they had filled in the first column with a list of items that can be recycled, such as metal and glass. In the next, they listed questions, such as "How do we recycle?" and "Why do we recycle?"

Soon, it was time for the students to pack their book bags and get ready to catch their buses. They left the recycling chart on the board, with its final column -- for information they had learned -- empty.

And just before they left for the day, the students settled back on the classroom rug for a little more reading before heading home.

"Kids this age -- first grade -- I don't think their focus should be science and social studies," Butler said. (Read the article in its entirety.)

I'm speechless. Since when is science not important at the first grade level? Many science educators have believe that elementary school science is important because of the interest it has the potential to engender in students at an early age (NSELA article). What happens when we begin to quash this natural curiosity? Will there by any students left who find joy and beauty in science? Who are inspired by it? Who want to learn more? I can say the same things about social studies. But really, where do all these rhetorical questions get me? In the end, I am one lone voice shouting into the storm of insanity. I feel like the old woman in the Wendy's commercials yelling "Where's the beef?" However, my mantra now is "Where's the science?"

I suppose this is why I quietly build my lists, in the hopes that some teacher, somewhere, will think about bringing a little science and social studies back into the curriculum. Perhaps the way to begin is through reading and sharing the books I love so much.

Re-Reading Hugo Cabret

My sitter was sick today, so I left work at 2 pm to get William off the bus. It was a glorious afternoon, so while William played in the sandbox, I sat and re-read The Invention of Hugo Cabret. What can I say that hasn't already been said? I was intrigued by the clocks, gears, mechanical toys and the automaton. The way the story is propelled forward by both pictures and words is utterly compelling. On several occasions I looked up to find my 6-year old looking over my shoulder studying the illustrations. He was as enthralled as I was.

I was particularly taken by these two excerpts. For some reason the words resonated with me, and I could not get them out of my head.

Hugo also remembered that sometimes at night, Father would read to him from amazing adventure stories by Jules Verne and a collection of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, which were Hugo's favorites. He missed being read to. (pp. 146-147)

I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too. (p. 378)

When I came to the end, for the second time in less than a week, I must admit to finding myself teary-eyed. I am a sap however (I cry when I see Folger's and Hallmark commercials), so this should come as no surprise. I closed the book and found myself hungry for a silent Chaplin film and a trip to Paris, post haste. In the meantime, I'm going to dig out the antique windup gorilla I received while hospitalized as a teen, and see if I can't just get it going again.

You can learn more about this fantastic book at The Invention of Hugo Cabret web site.

Celebrating a Poetry Maven

One of my favorite bloggers in the kidlitosphere launched her own blog yesterday. Please welcome Elaine Magliaro to her new digs at Wild Rose Reader. I am so looking forward to all the new and great things I know she plans to offer.

While you are out there celebrating Elaine's new home on the web, stop by Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and eyeball their latest interview, which just happens to spotlight - you guessed it - Elaine!

Month by Month

I wrote an entry about time just a short while ago that focused on children's literature for supporting the teaching of time in the elementary school. My list included books about telling time and the passage of time, as well as all manner of books on the calendar. As the list continued to grow, I decided it would be wise to write a new entry to focus specifically on the calendar.

So, without further ado, here is a list of terrific books about the days and months of the year. (Generally there is no particular order to the books I list, though you will find today's offering is alphabetical by author.)

• Parade Day: Marching Through the Calendar Year by Bob Barner - With rhyming verse and lovely torn paper and fabric collages, this book introduces the calendar year by featuring a parade for every month. The closing pages provide a bit of calendar history and some additional facts on each month. Step-by-step instructions for making a simple calendar are also included.
  

• Around the Year by Elsa Maartman Beskow - This is a nicely illustrated book of poems with a series of selections focused on each month of the year.
  

• Seasons of the Circle: A Native American Year by Joseph Bruchac - This illustrated celebration of the Native American year begins with Maliseet hunters following moose tracks in the snow in January and ends with a Lakota elder's winter tales during a cold December. An author's note at the beginning introduces the traditions and cycles that comprise many Native American lives. Also included is a chart listing the name of each month as it is known by each of three American tribal nations.

• Eric Carle has a few books that look at days and months of the year. Be sure to visit the Caterpillar Exchange, a bulletin board where teachers and parents describe using Eric Carle's books in creative ways.
  
• A House for a Hermit Crab by Eric Carle - When a hermit crab outgrows his shell, he must find a new one. Over the course of the year he not only finds a new home, but meets a variety of sea creatures who help him make it just perfect.
• Today is Monday - Using the lyrics from a well-known song, Carle's illustrations show a different animal eating each food of the day. In the final spread, a diverse group of children sit down to a banquet while the previously featured animals look on from paintings on the wall.
  

• Alligators and Others All Year Long: A Book of Months by Crescent Dragonwagon - Accompanied by pen-and-ink and gouache drawings, the text presents short, lively verses that compare each month to a present waiting to be unwrapped.
  

• The Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall - This Caldecott Medal winner, beautifully illustrated by Barbara Cooney, describes the day-to-day life of an early nineteenth-century New England family throughout the changing seasons. Though not all months are mentioned by name, enough are included to give children a sense of what happens throughout the year.
  

• A Busy Year by Leo Lionni - On a snowy day in January, two mice mistake the branches of a tree for a snowmouse's broom. The tree changes month by month, watched over by the two. After a full year of friendship, the mice and tree rejoice together, looking forward to the next busy year.
  

• Calendar by Myra Cohn Livingston - The months of the year, from January through December, are celebrated in verse and art in this lovely book.
  

• One Lighthouse, One Moon by Anita Lobel - Here, in one book, are the days of the week, the months of the year, the four seasons, the basic colors, and an exciting counting adventure. Divided into three "chapters," the first section shows a different pair of shoes in a different color for each day of the week, the middle section introduces the months of the year through the adventures of a cat named Nini, and the final section provides a seaside counting exercise.
  

• The Turning of the Year by Bill Martin Jr. - The activities of a young boy and girl through the year are chronicled in the rhyming text and illustrations.
  

• Pepper's Journal: A Kitten's First Year by Stuart Murphy - One of the books in the MathStart series, the story of Pepper's growth is told in journal format. A monthly calendar appears on each double-page spread showing the progression of days, weeks, and months.
  

• Dog Days: Rhymes Around the Year by Jack Prelutsky - In lively poems, a fuzzy yellow canine narrator shares the fun of being a dog, from January to December.
  

• The Year at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen - I am a huge fan of the work done by the Provensen's. This book provides readers a glimpse of life on Maple Hill Farm, where month by month the animals the animals sense the changing seasons and respond to the changes.
  

• Chicken Soup With Rice: A Book of Months by Maurice Sendak - This is a story about the ways a little boy and his friends enjoy chicken soup during each month of the year.
  

• Turtle in July by Marilyn Singer - Singer presents a poem for every month, from a deer in January to a cat in December.
  

• Snowy Flowy Blowy: A Twelve Months Rhyme by Nancy Tafuri - Based on this poem by George Ellis, Tafuri has illustrated each month with pictures that celebrate the beauty of the natural world. Kids will love chanting the rhyme while appreciating the beauty of the illustrations.
  

• A Child's Calendar by John Updike - In this Caldecott honor book, the author presents 12 poems celebrating everyday life month by month.
  

• October Smiled Back by Lisa Wesberg - Beautifully illustrated by Caldecott artist Ed Young, this book of poems provides a moving portrait of the months.
  

• One Year in Beijing by Xiaohong Wong - In the format of a month-by-month journal format, Ling Ling describes Chinese culture and destinations, holidays and festivals, school and family life, and more. This is another book fabulously illustrated by Grace Lin!
  

I'll close here with a poem by Sara Coleridge.

The Months

January brings the snow,
makes our feet and fingers glow.

February brings the rain,
Thaws the frozen lake again.

March brings breezes loud and shrill,
stirs the dancing daffodil.

April brings the primrose sweet,
Scatters daises at our feet.

May brings flocks of pretty lambs,
Skipping by their fleecy damns.

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,
Fills the children's hand with posies.

Hot july brings cooling showers,
Apricots and gillyflowers.

August brings the sheaves of corn,
Then the harvest home is borne.

Warm september brings the fruit,
Sportsmen then begin to shoot.

Fresh October brings the pheasents,
Then to gather nuts is pleasent.

Dull November brings the blast,
Then the leaves are whirling fast.

Chill December brings the sleet,
Blazing fire, and Christmas treat.

If you are looking for even more poetry for the months, visit the page devoted to months at the Poets' Corner. Be warned, however, that many of these entries are for more sophisticated readers. For more child-centered selections, check out these songs and poems for months and days of the week. If I've missed some of your favorite books, please let me know.

Celebrating Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen (or H.C. Andersen as he is known in Scandinavia) was born on this day in 1805. While hoping to succeed as a novelist and playwright, he found his fame in the fairy tales he created. Some of his tales you may be familiar with include:

• The Ugly Duckling
• The Emperor's New Clothes
• The Little Sea-Maid

My favorites are The Nightingale and The Fir-Tree.

You can learn more about him and his work at the Hans Christian Andersen Center. In honor of the anniversary of his birth, they have published two new galleries of fairy tale illustrations from Russia and Chile.

Poetry Friday - On Reading and Books

For poetry Friday today I offer a poem and some thoughtful words about reading and books.

First, here is a poem by Emily Dickinson. You can also read it at Bartleby.

Part One: Life
XCIX
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!

Second, here are some of my favorite quotes about reading.

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.

Francis Bacon

When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.

Maya Angelou

We read to know we are not alone.
C.S. Lewis

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.

Dr. Seuss

To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.

Victor Hugo

Happy reading and happy poetry Friday, all!

A Circle, A Square, A Book Over There

The concept of shape serves as the basis for most geometric learning in the early elementary grades. Children are regularly asked to identify and describe objects in their environment that depict plane geometric figures, often without regard to position and/or orientation in space.

Studying these simple figures (circle, triangle, square, rectangle) in our daily lives is one of my favorite math activities. In addition to what we can see in the classroom, at home and the world outside, there are many terrific pieces of literature that allow children to examine these figures. In this list of books you will find selections that present shapes in a variety of interesting ways and, where possible, include children representing diverse backgrounds.

• I Spy Shapes in Art by Lucy Micklethwait - This book takes art appreciation to a new level by using the "I Spy" format to encourage children to find geometric shapes in paintings.

• Museum Shapes from the Metropolitan Museum of Art - Using pieces of art owned by the Met, children are encouraged to recognize shapes and geometric forms in the details of the pictures. A key at the end identifies the artwork presented.

• Shapes by Philip Yenawine - Using the paintings of Picasso, Seurat, Gauguin, Malevich, Mondrian, Arp, Klee, Smith and Dali, readers are asked questions relating to the shapes that are present.

• Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes by Roseanne Thong - Illustrated beautifully by Grace Lin, this book takes readers on a tour of a young girl's neighborhood where the shapes she sees are celebration of Chinese culture.
  

• The Village of Round and Square Houses by Ann Grifalconi - This Caldecott honor book describes a village in Central Africa where women live in round houses and men live in square ones.

• A Triangle for Adaora by Ifeoma Onyefulu - Using full color photographs, readers learn about life in an African village while Ugo and his cousin Adaora find a variety of shapes (squares, circles, ovals, diamonds, etc) while searching for a triangle.

• Shape Space by Cathryn Falwell - When a young gymnast opens a box to reveal a variety of shapes, she tosses them out and balances on them, builds with them, and even wears and dances with them.

• Tana Hoban's wordless picture books are a visual delight. These books focus on a variety of shapes in our world. Plane shapes are the focus of:
  
• So Many Circles, So Many Squares
• Shapes, Shapes, Shapes
• Circles, Triangles and Squares - This one is out of print, but you may find it in your library.
  

• Icky Bug Shapes by Jerry Pallotta - Who wouldn't love a book that uses bugs to introduce readers to basic shapes? Kids love this one.

• The Wing on a Flea by Ed Emberley - In this update of the 1961 (I have the original!) text, Emberley using rhyme and simple pictures to show where we might find circles, triangles and rectangles in the world around us.

• Ship Shapes by Stella Blackstone - When two children and a dog set sail, they search for nine basic shapes on the sea. In Barefoot Books tradition, this one is illustrated with bold colors and beautiful artwork.

• Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins - In this wordless picture book, two wooden dolls rearrange a variety of shapes (blocks) to form different objects.

• Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh - While keeping an eye out for the cat, three creative mice play in a pile of shapes. They build a house, a tree and a sun, but when the cat comes back, they build the best shapes of all.
  

• Lois Ehlert has created two books that introduce colors and shapes with illustrations of shapes on die-cut pages that form animal faces when placed on top of one another.
• Color Farm
• Color Zoo - This one is a Caldecott honor book!

• When a Line Bends . . . A Shape Begins by Rhonda Gowler Greene - Watercolor and ink illustrations accompany verse in this book that presents the shapes of circle, square, triangle, diamond, rectangle, octagon, oval, star, heart, and crescent. Each shape has a its own double-page spread with lots of examples.

• In Shel Silverstein's book A Light in the Attic, you will find this wonderful poem.

Shapes
A square was sitting quietly
Outside his rectangular shack
When a triangle came down--keerplunk!--
And struck him in the back.
"I must go to the hospital,"
Cried the wounded square,
So a passing rolling circle
Picked him up and took him there.

• Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews - This simple counting book shows readers where circles appear in the world around them.
  

• A String of Beads by Margarette Reid - A young girl and her grandmother spend time together stringing beads to make necklaces. The beads come in many different shapes.

While not a book, you should most definitely take a look at these songs and poems about shapes.

Since the focus here is on plane figures, I have not included books relating to 3-D shapes (cones, cylinders, cubes, etc.) or any other aspect of geometry. Please let me know if I've missed any of your favorite shape books.

More on Science Books for Kids

Thanks to Elaine over at the Blue Rose Girls blog, I have found a new blog to follow. It is the Science Musings blog of Chet Raymo. I'm a science geek at heart, so I love this stuff, but for those of you with an interest in books, you should definitely check out these entries from last year.

In the first entry, Kid Lit, Raymo writes:

Science is an attitude toward the world -- curious, skeptical, undogmatic, and sensitive to beauty and mystery. The best books for children are the ones which convey these attitudes. They are not necessarily the books labeled "science."

In the second entry, Kid Lit - Part 2, Raymo shares excerpts from Randall Jarell's book The Bat-Poet.

Both of these are extraordinary pieces on the wonder and value in using children's literature as a springboard to science. Don't miss them!

Selecting Literature for Science Instruction

Just as my students and I spend time evaluating books for math instruction, we also carefully examine and debate the qualities of books that make them useful for science instruction. We begin by reading two terrific articles. They are:

• Mayer, D. A. (1995). How can we best use children’s literature in teaching science concepts? Science and Children, 32(6), 16-19, 43.
• Rice, D. C., Dudley, A. P., & Williams, C. S. (2001). How do you choose science trade books? Science and Children, 38(6), 18-22.

The Rice article builds on the earlier work presented in Mayer's article. Both use a checklist to evaluate trade books for their appropriateness for introducing and reinforcing science concepts. The checklist looks like this:
In addition to this guide, we also use a series of questions devised by Jo-Anne Lake in her 2000 work Literature & Science Breakthroughs: Connecting Language and Science Skills in the Elementary Classroom. These questions are:

• Is there a strong science thread running through the text and illustrations?
• Are there opportunities in the text and illustrations to enhance science skills?
• Does the text incorporate vocabulary familiar to science teaching?
• Do the illustrations and text introduce hands-on material reflecting and encouraging their use in an activity-based environment?
• Have I chosen books that provide a balance in opportunities for all science strands?
• Do my selections reflect a variety of literary genres?
• What scientific principle and/or concept is projected?
• Have I considered using a variety of special effects books in my selections?

After using both forms of guidelines, we work together to develop a list of criteria that we are all comfortable in using to guide our selection of books. The one guideline that students struggle most with in its use and application is: Are the animals/objects portrayed naturally? In this case, I like to encourage them to think more broadly about "living things," since often times plants and animals are anthropomorphized.

I'll admit, that I find this difficult myself. Take for example, the new book by Dianna Hutts Aston entitled A Seed is Sleepy. I love the artwork and the sheer poetry of the language. It is a glorious book. I bought it and I plan to use it with my students. However, somewhere between the strong science and the poetic language is this nagging feeling that the seeds are just too "human." Here are some examples:

A seed is sleepy.
It lies there, tucked inside its flower,
or its cone, or beneath the soil. Snug. Still.



Once a seed has shed its coat, it drinks in the rain, the dew, and yesterday’s icicles. It feasts on minerals in the soil. It knows to seek the sunlight… to push itself up, up, up through the soil. But it must wait awhile before that happens.

I balance my uneasiness about these anthropomorphized seeds with this idea presented by Patricia Manning in an article entitled Promoting Science Books at the Library.

"Science books can be beautiful as well as accurate and evocative. When the type font is elegant, the layout graceful, and the illustrations luminous, the whole book feels good to the hand and eye."

I interpret this to mean that there are some books out there that just demand to be loved and appreciated for their beauty, and A Seed is Sleepy and its Cybils-winning forerunner, An Egg is Quiet, certainly fall into this category. I'm not sure how I feel about this book as an instructional resource yet, or how I will address this issue in the classroom. What I do know for sure is that A Seed is Sleepy will be one of the books I pull out for intense discussion with my students when we begin to delve into the appropriateness of resources that use anthropomorphism. Until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Celebrating Robert Frost

Robert Frost was born on this day in 1874. Of poetry Frost wrote, "A poem...begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion finds the thought and the thought finds the words."

In celebration of his day, here is a poem befitting the season.

A Prayer in Spring
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.

Books That Fill the Senses

I am one of those people lucky enough to live within walking distance of work. Mind you, this is not a "walk 20 blocks in Manhattan" kind of jaunt, but rather one that takes me through a hole in a privacy fence near the fraternity lodges and through the parking lot, across the street (where people drive well above the posted 25 mph speed limit), around the baseball field, over the Lake (the most beautiful part of the morning or afternoon), into the woods, past the Greek Theatre and up the hill to North Court. This beautiful building was completed in 1914 and is one of the oldest on campus. As you can see from the picture, it is surrounded by green space that is lovely to look out on any time of year, though the array of colors in fall are particularly nice.

My walks to and from work are the only "quiet" times of my day. There is no iPod, no NPR, no other voices to distract me from my thoughts. I am always moved by what I observe, like the ping of a ball off an aluminum bat, the leaves crunching under my feet, the sweet smell of lilacs in spring, or my favorite blue heron looking for a meal. These walks are a veritable feast for the senses, though I don't eat while taking them, and my extreme allergy to poison ivy (and there's lots of it here!) keeps me from touching anything. So as I arrived this morning, greeted by a beautiful spray of cherry blossoms, I decided this would be a good time to write about books that make us think about using all of our senses to really "see" this world of ours. Mind you, I think the best way to teach kids to be careful observers is to go and actually practice the skill, but leading off or following up with a book is always a good thing to do.

• Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young - This Caldecott honor book is a variation on the story of the blind men and the elephant. It ends with the moral, "Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole." I use this to help kids understand that careful observation comes from using all the senses.

• You Can't Taste a Pickle With Your Ear by Harriet Ziefert - This terrific book has an introduction to the senses, chapters for each one, and a conclusion. Each sense chapter ends with questions for kids to think about like: What sounds does your body make? How do you sound when you're happy? What sounds from the outside world are coming through you window right now?

• Was there any doubt that Bill Martin and Eric Carle would be on this list?
• Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

• The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses - Mrs Frizzle is at it again. This time she and her class board the bus and then enter the eye of a policeman, the ear of a child, the nose of a dog, and more.

• Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Martin Briggs - This Caldecott Medal winner tells the story of Wilson Bentley's obsession and love for photographing snowflakes. Because of his diligence and careful observation, he produced more than 5000 images of snowflakes, not finding any two alike. You can see digital images of the collection at The Bentley Snow Crystal Collection.

• The Other Way to Listen by Byrd Baylor - In this story, an old man teaches a young boy how to truly listen to the world around him.

• Good-Night, Owl! by Pat Hutchins - How will Owl ever get to sleep, with the bees buzzing, the crows creaking, the starlings chittering, the jays screaming, and the other inhabitants of the tree making a cacophony of sounds? I love this for way the sound words roll off the tongue and for what it teaches children about nocturnal animals.

• The Listening Walk by Paul Showers - In this book, a father and daughter take their dog for a walk and listen to the sounds around them.

• Too Much Noise by Ann McGovern - In this story, an old man named Peter lives in an old house where it was much too noisy. "The bed creaked. The floor squeaked. Outside, the wind blew the leaves through the trees. The leaves fell on the roof. Swish. Swish. The tea kettle whistled. Hiss. Hiss."

• Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan - In poetic form, a young girl describes her experiences at the beach using her five senses.

• More Than Meets the Eye: Seeing Art With All Five Senses by Bob Raczka - Have you ever tasted a painting? This is a question the author asks as he encourages readers to experience art imaginatively with their mouths, ears, noses, and fingertips. Artwork is selected and arranged by the senses.

• Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin and John Archambault - With onomatopoeia and poetic language, the authors describe the sound of rain in its many forms.

• Animal Senses: How Animals See, Hear, Taste, Smell and Feel by Pamela Hickman - This book looks at each of the senses as experienced by a variety of animals and compares them to corresponding human traits.

• Voices From the Wild: An Animal Sensagoria by D. Bouchard - This volume contains 25 poems, 5 for each of the senses, with each one about a different animal. Each poem describes how animals use their senses to survive in the wild. A lifelike painting of each animal accompanies each poem. Finally, the book concludes with short paragraphs about each of the animals.

• Animal Sense by Diane Ackerman - This wonderful volume contains 15 poems, 3 for each of the 5 senses, with each one about a different animal.

• Touch the Poem by Arnold Ardoff - This book of poems is a wonderful salute to the senses, with its poems of seeing, feeling, tasting, hearing and smelling.

• Picture Window Books has a terrific series by Dana Meachen Rau entitled The Amazing Body: The Five Senses. In it you will find:

• Look!: A Book About Sight
• Shhhh…: A Book About Hearing
• Sniff, Sniff: A Book About Smell
• Soft and Smooth, Rough and Bumpy: A Book About Touch
• Yum!: A Book About Taste

• Vicki Cobb has written several books that focus on the senses and provide simple activities for kids to try.
• Feeling Your Way
• Your Tongue Can Tell
• Follow Your Nose
• Open Your Eyes

• My Five Senses by Aliki - This book in the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out series provides a basic introduction to the senses that is appropriate for kindergarten.

• Sounds All Around by Wendy Pfeffer - Another book in the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out series, this one provides a simple explanation of sound and hearing.

• All good science and nature poetry is based on careful observation. Check out my Poetry of Science list for some additional book ideas. If you want to try writing some of your own poems, check out the lesson Color Poem - Using the Five Senses to Guide Prewriting.

In addition to these titles, don't forget the I Spy series, Where's Waldo? and the Look-Alikes books as welcome titles for encouraging close observation.

I'll leave you with this wonderful poem by Shel Silverstein. You can find it in A Light in the Attic.

Senses
A Mouth was talking to a Nose and an Eye.
A passing listening Ear
Said, Pardon me, but you spoke so loud,
I couldn't help by overhear."
But the Mouth just closed and the Nose turned up
And the Eye just looked away,
And the Ear with nothing more to hear
Went sadly on its way.

Enjoy the list, and do please tell me what I've missed!

A Foggy, Froggy Poetry Friday

I'm longing for a quiet, misty morning. One of those days where I can get up alone (stay in bed, boys!) and take my pot of tea out on the patio to sit, and sip and listen. Here are some poems that make me feel as though I'm almost there.

This first poem is by Carl Sandburg.

Fog
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking

over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

The second is by Aileen Fisher.

I Like It When It's Mizzly
I like it when it's mizzly
and just a little drizzly
so everything looks far away
and make- believe and frizzly.

I like it when it's foggy
and sounding very froggy.
I even like it when it rains
on streets and weepy windowpanes
and catkins in the poplar tree
and me.

Happy Poetry Friday, all!