Every Wednesday I join Alyson Beecher from kidlitfrenzy and other
kidlit bloggers to share wonderful nonfiction picture books.
The intention of today's blog post is to give professionals that work in the
education field new nonfiction reading material and ideas to use
education field new nonfiction reading material and ideas to use
with students to promote a love of reading nonfiction materials.
I know our first grade students do an extensive study on insects as part of their science unit. It correlates to the NGSS and to our Woodland Days problem based learning project. Here are two books that would be a great pairing for a study on insects.
Cricket in the Thicket
written by Carol Murray
illustrated by Melissa Sweet
published by Christy Ottaviano Books - Henry Holt and Company
A collection of poems about bugs, this book is sure to delight the young readers. Featuring quick poems by Carol Murray that spotlight something fun or silly or interesting about a bug and illustrated in Melissa Sweet's recognizable style. Here are some things I love about this book:
- features a table of contents if you are looking for a specific bug (perhaps those that are native to your area, or a region you are studying)
- each page has a caption that gives additional information about each bug
- in the backmatter is additional information about each book, which makes it perfect for a fictional text that also gives information!
Don't Bug the Insects
written by Ben Richmond
published by Sterling Children's Books
Most of us just dislike bugs/insects. We forget about how helpful they are - even if it's just being food for another insect! Each page in this book features an insect (many of which are also found in Cricket in the Thicket - see, great pairing!) and information about why that insect is important to keep around. Each page shows a close up photograph of the insect, and the details in each photograph are amazing! Here are some things I love about this book:
- I enjoyed the way the author changed the voice for the different insects. They "spoke" to the reader which made the insect seem more personable.
- some pages had cutaways that gave additional information
- the insects have different reasons why they are important to be around - some for environmental reasons, some have reasons that directly affect humans, some because of the impact they have on the food chain. I like that the reasons were varied.
I love finding pairings of books that help readers make more connections about their learning. Enjoy these books!
Both look good, Michele. This is certainly the time to look for and then learn about insects we're seeing right now.
ReplyDeleteWow, Michele, you and I are on the same wave-length today - I wrote an entire post all about insect nonfiction (on my other blog, The Book Wars)! And I didn't have either of these books, so thanks so much for putting them on my radar!! :-)
ReplyDeleteI've been seeing lots of Cricket in the Thicket a lot recently. I should seek it out.
ReplyDeleteJust read & liked Cricket :)
ReplyDeleteThe topic this month in T's room is Insects--I'm going to share these with them. (I'm really hoping that the focus on bugs helps T with his fear of them!)
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