Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday 1.22.14

NF PB 2014

We know that a big part of the CCSS is to include more informational texts into our students' reading.  I quickly discovered I had a "gap" in my reading diet - the genre of informational texts!  To help me fill the gap this year, I am going to participate in Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesdays!  This is a great link-up hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy.  Please visit this website to see other educator's link-ups.  My goal is to read at least one informational text each week and post information on the blog.  The more books and subjects I read, the more I can encourage (my #OLW for 2014) other teachers to use in their classroom! 


I'm going to spotlight 2 books today.  One for Science and one for Social Studies.

The Animal Book: A Collection of the Fastest, Fiercest, Toughest, Cleverest, Shyest--and Most Surprising--Animals on Earth
The Animal Book by Steve Jenkins
5/5 stars
This book is amazing.  I think younger and older students will POUR over this book.  Younger readers will soak up the illustrations, older students will be fascinated with the facts and illustrations.  I was a little worried with the size of this book.  It's very big, very thick.  I'm not much of an animal person, much less someone who would pick up an animal book to read.  If it wasn't for the fact that this was Steve Jenkins, I would have probably skipped over it.  The facts were fascinating.  The amount of writing about each animal at a manageable size.  The organization was impeccable.  Kids can skip to certain parts that interest them the most.  Read a few pages, read the whole section, or read the whole book.  I think kids will enjoy looking at the illustrations (done in true Steve Jenkins style) and talk about the facts.  Some are interesting, some are gross, some are unbelievable.  Jenkins also includes interesting information about how he goes about and puts his research together when writing a book.  He gives descriptions, photographs and even timelines to show his process!
Great addition to your home or classroom.

Classroom Connections:  Use a page for close reading.  Talk about similarities and differences between the animals.
4th gr. NGSS:  Structure, Function and Information Processing (LS1-1, LS1-2)
3rd gr NGSS:  Inheritance and Variation of Traits:  Life Cycles and Traits (LS3-1, LS4-2)

Deep in the Sahara
Deep in the Sahara Kelly Cunnane
4/5 stars
Although this story is actually a fiction story, I am putting it in the nonfiction category today because of the connection to traditional Muslim customs.
Beautiful story that explains the tradition of the Muslims' traditional dress for women, the malafa. Use this book to inference the meaning of new words (traditional Hassaniya words) and look for patterns that the author used to describe the beautiful dress. The author included a great note that gives the reader additional information about the dress.

Classroom Connections:  Figure out the meaning of the traditional Hassaniya words using the text and illustrations.  Check inferences using the glossary in the back.
Throughout the story, the author uses additional words to describe the meaning of the dress.  Use these descriptions to talk about what the dress stands for in the Muslim society.

CCSS:  standard RL.4 and RL.7

And I finally read:
Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives
Lifetime:  The Amazing Numbers in Animals Lives by Lola M. Schaefer
5/5 stars
Numbers your thing? This is a book to check out! The author has written about different animals' specific activity and averaged it over the animal's lifetime. I liked how the author included additional notes on each animal and explained the word "average" and how averaging works.

15 comments:

  1. I have a couple of students that would love the book, Lifetime. I'm waiting for my library to get it!

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    1. It's worth it! I think it will be a great book to grab those kids who like math... might help them with wanting to pick up a book!

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  2. I LOVED The Animal Book. Jenkins's video on how he made it is awesome too! I liked Lifetime a lot.

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    1. I'll have to check out the video! I'm just getting into book trailers and youtube... have so much to learn :)

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  3. Thanks for recommending Lifetime. We hadn't heard about that one. Can't wait to get it.

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    1. It's different from so many other informational texts!

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  4. Sounds like great books about animals. I love the last one with its ties to math as well. Fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

    Mary-andering Creatively

    Mary-andering Among the Pages

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    1. Thanks, Mary! The Animal Book is amazing! I could read it for hours!

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  5. I have enjoyed The Animal Book and Lifetime but this is the second time I've read about Deep in the Sahara. I think it's time for me to find it. Thanks.

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    1. I cheated on that one since technically it's fiction, but it tells such a beautiful story about a beautiful custom.

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  6. I am expecting The Animal Book any day from my library and I can't wait. Deep in the Sahara looks like an important book to read. Thank you!

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    1. You and your students are going to love The Animal Book!!!! It will be a hot read in your class for months!! I got it from my library and within one read, I had it in my Amazon cart!!

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  7. Numbers are totally my thing! and I have LOVED Lifetime. My students are enthralled with the math. I am reading - a few pages at a time- The Animal Book to my children. We are all enjoying discussing our learning.

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    1. I have shared it with some of my intervention students, and it has just enough text to keep it manageable! I love this book since I work with 1st-4th gr, and you can use it with all of the kids!!!

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  8. I love that Lifetime is getting embraced by so many people. It really is a unique book. Thanks for sharing these titles with us.

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