Shhhh! I’m Sleeping

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please Don’t Wake the Animals

By Mary Batten

Illustrated by Higgins Bond

Peachtree Publishers, 2008

ISBN #978-1561453931

Nonfiction picture book

 

 

Please Don’t Wake the Animals, A Book About Sleep, introduces the sleeping habits of a variety of animals. In an easy-to-read style, it details information about when and where the animals sleep, beginning and ending with children. Included are facts about the unusual ways some animals sleep. The illustrations are realistic and lush, and inset sidebars on each spread adds additional short facts to the text. The night time colors soothe the reader to the final page.

 

Shhh. Please don’t wake the animals in this book. They are sleeping.

 

Activity 1

Define nocturnal, diurnal, torpor, hibernation, and estivation. Read the book again and categorize the animals that fit into each group.

 

Activity 2

List the animals named in the book. Using library reference books, have the students look up the individual animals and search for the number of hours each one sleeps. Record the information and create a class graph.

 

Vocabulary

Nocturnal—animals that are active during the night time and sleep during the day

Diurnal—animals that are active during the day time and sleep at night

Torpor—a dormant or resting state of an animal

Hibernation—a state of inactivity where the animal’s metabolic rate slows

Estivation—a dormant state of sleep similar to hibernation, occurring during the hot, dry months; usually in summer

 

 

National Science Standard: characteristics of organisms 

 

Another book about sleep and animals is

Sweet Dreams: How Animals Sleep by Kimiko Kajikawa

 

 

Nonfiction Monday Round-up

Welcome to the Nonfiction Monday Round-up!

Here’s what the kidlitosphere is reading this week…

Add your post to the round-up by writing your info in the comments. Please write the title of your book or topic (in parentheses) and paste in the link for it. I’ll post the links on this page as the day goes on. Thanks for bearing with me–I had a school visit this morning and just caught up!

1. JustOneMoreBook! (Cookies: Bite Size Life Lessons)

2. Fuse #8 (How to Scratch a Wombat by Jackie French)

3. JeanLittleLibrary (Mysterious Universe by Ellen Jackson)

4. Abby the Librarian (All About Sleep)

5. Lori Calabrese Writes! (Lincoln Through the Lens)

6. BookMoot  (Extreme animals: the toughest creatures on Earth by Nicola Davies)

7. Check It Out (Flip, Float, Fly)

8. Sweetness and Light (The Four Seasons of Mary Azarian)

9. Book Scoops (honeybees)

10. A Patchwork of Books (Bodies from the Ice)

11. Jennie at Biblio File (The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and The Glass Castle)

12. Wendie’s Wanderings (Sibert Medal winner — We Are the Ship)

13. Miss Rumphius Effect (Bees, Snails & Peacock Tails)

IT’S ECO-FRIENDLY

 

10 THINGS I CAN DO TO HELP MY WORLD

By Melanie Walsh

Candlewick Press, 2008

ISBN #978-0-7636-4144-3

Nonfiction picture book

 

I remember…to turn off the light when I leave the room

 Turning off lights and using more efficient lightbulbs saves valuable energy.

 

Made from 100% recycled paper, this open-the-flap style book names ten easy things children can do to help our world. Ranging from turning off lights to recycling, the list of ten is written in an easy to understand format with a specific reason or fact stating why that is included with the art. Each double page spread has a large illustration with the fact written on the art and the page turn creates additional interest with its irregularly cut size. Simple and to the point, this book gives a list that is timely for any study of our environment and its future.

 

Activity 1

Make a class list chart and write the 10 activities across the top. Have your students check off which of the earth saving tips they do during a study of the environment or ecology. See if each student can do all 10 suggestions.

 

Activity 2

Choose one resource and brainstorm ways the students can cut down on their use. You might suggest resources such as water, energy, or paper goods. Have them keep track of how many times in a day (or week) they use that resource. Next have them list ways they could use less of that resource. Look at this example of how to pack a waste-free lunch and use it as a guide.

 

Another eco-friendly book is Journey for the Planet: A Kid’s Five Week Adventure to Create an Earth-friendly Life by David Gershon.

 

National Science Standard: Types of resources

 

 

 

 

 

Nonfiction Monday Round-up

Welcome to the Nonfiction Monday Round-up!

Here’s what the kidlitosphere is reading this week…

Add your post to the round-up by writing your info in the comments. Please write the title of your book or topic (in parentheses) and paste in the link for it. I’ll post the links on this page as the day goes on. Thanks!

1. 100 Scope Notes (Duke Ellington: His Life in Jazz with 21 Activities)

2. On the Scale, a Weighty Tale (a rhyming book about mass and weight)

3. Lori Calabrese Writes! (Howard Thurman’s Great Hope)

4. Trouble Talk by Trudy Ludwig

5. Abby (the) Librarian  (Swords: An Artist’s Devotion by Ben Boos)

6. Nonfiction Nuggets (Living Large – 3 books on size)

7. Charlotte’s Library (The Search for Antarctic Dinosaurs)

WAVE

Wave

By Suzy Lee

Chronicle Books, 2008

ISBN 978-0-8118-5924-0

Wordless picture book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wave takes the reader on a wordless trip to the beach, where a young girl joyously plays in the waves and discovers the surprises that the waves hold.

 

Activity 1

Discuss waves. Explain that waves are caused by wind and their oscillating motion is similar to a vibrating tuning fork or guitar string.

 

Use a jump rope for this outside activity. Take one end and allow the other end to remain free. Ask the students to watch for the waves along the rope. Lift the end and give it a hard, up and down shake. You may want to repeat it.

 

Back in the classroom, draw the image of the wave going up and down. Try to keep the waves symmetrical. Add a horizontal line through the center of the wave diagram. See this image for details.

 

Label the crest and trough and discuss how a wave length is measured from crest to crest or trough to trough. Then have the students measure one of their waves in centimeters and millimeters. Make a bar graph to compare their results.

 

 

Activity 2

Define invertebrate. Then use this link or a field guide to shells to identify the invertebrates on the back endpapers. Classify the shells into groups. Use the categories of: mollusk (gastropods or bivalves) and starfish, which are not fish, but echinoderms (related to sand dollars and sea urchins). Look for information and learn more about mollusks and echinoderms.

 

 

National Science Standard: Properties of earth materials; properties of objects and materials

 

 

 

A Wolf Story

 

The Wolves Are Back

By Jean Craighead George

Illustrated by Wendell Minor

Dutton Children’s Books, 2008

ISBN#978-0-525-47947-5

Nonfiction picture book

 The Wolves Are Back relates in lyrical narrative the reasons why wolves disappeared from Yellowstone National Park and shows the positive impact they made on the food web in the park following their reintroduction. Author Jean Craighead George, known for Julie of the Wolves and My Side of the Mountain, allows the relationships of the living organisms in the story to evolve naturally to let readers discern the conclusion-the wolves helped restore the natural balance. Illustrator Wendell Minor spent time with Ms George in Yellowstone before painting the lush, accurate pictures depicting the plants and animals in the park.

 The wolf pup pricked up his ears, pattered out of the den, and followed his father down the slope.

 Activity 1

Read the book a second time. This time, stop and list the plants and animals mentioned in the book. Point out the relationships among the various living organisms. Create simple food chains from this list.

 Activity 2

Review the vocabulary words. Then use the organisms listed from Activity 1 to create a food web. Use arrows to show the energy flow from the producers to the consumers. Add the flow back to the decomposers.

 Terms and explanations 

Food chain-the path of energy transfer from producers through the consumers.

 Producers-organisms that use the sun’s energy to make energy in the form of food; plants, algae, and some bacteria.

 Consumers-organisms who consume plants or other organism to get energy.

 First level-producers who use the sun’s energy to make food.

 Second energy level-herbivores who eat plants

 Third energy level-carnivores who eat herbivores (meat); including top level consumers who eat other carnivores or

                        –omnivores who eat both plants and meat.

 Decomposers-bacteria and fungi who consume dead and decaying animals and wastes for their energy; they break down the dead matter, releasing wastes of their own that return nutrients back to the environment.

This is an article about the return of the wolves to Yellowstone.

A good follow up to read aloud is Julie of the Wolves.  

Trout Are Made of Trees, by April Pulley Sayre, is a good look at a food chain.

National Science Standard: life cycles of organisms, organisms and environment