Honk, Honk, Goose!

Honk, Honk, Goose! and Trout Are Made of Trees

By April Pulley Sayre

Illustrated by Huy Voun Lee

Henry Holt and Company, 2009

ISBN #0-8050-7103-2

NF picture book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roles of male and female goose provide the impetus for this simple story that reveals the life cycle of Canada geese. As the female made and prepares the nest, the male protects his home, eggs, and emerging offspring with onomatopoeic, goosey sounds that make the book a fun read-aloud story. The final spread provides further information about a variety of geese and an author’s note details information about sources. Intriguing mention of the fact that no long term study on goose behavior has been done may interest students, and the passage suggests the possibility that they might be the first scientist who does.

 

 

Honk! He honked at a kingfisher.

Honk! at a skunk.

Honk, hee-honk, honk! He chased off a heron.

 

 

Activity

Look up information about Darwin frogs, sticklebacks, Emperor penguins, and seahorses. Find the role the males of those species play in rearing their young and compare the different jobs of the fathers.

 

National Science standard: life cycles of organisms

 

See also

Flight of the Snow Geese by Deborah King.

 

 

Trout Are Made of Trees

April Pulley Sayre

Illustrated by Kate Endle

Charlesbridge, 2008

ISBN #978-1-58089-137-0

NF picture book

 

 

 

 

 

In a simple, concise narrative, this book shows a stream ecosystem and the organisms that support the life in and around it. Falling leaves begin the chain and each animal supported by the nutrients passes along the energy at each step until the ultimate consumer catches the trout—yum, yum.

 

Trout are made of trees. In fall, trees let go of leaves, which swirl and twirl and slip into streams.

 

 

For this activity, see the 2009 TLA handout page. I’m using Trout Are Made of Trees in my TLA presentation with Becky McKee on April 1. This book is one of the best that I’ve seen for introducing food chains. I hope you love it as much as I do.

 

Simply Dandy!

 

Dandelions

By Robin Nelson

Lerner Publications, 2009

ISBN #978-0-7613-4069-0

First Step Nonfiction

Life Cycle Series

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This early reader traces the life cycle of a dandelion from flower to seeds and back to flowers again. The simple text is supported by photos and diagrams and the book includes additional dandelion facts, a simple glossary, and short index. The bright colors of the yellow dandelions on the front cover are appealing and invite early readers to trace the familiar seed pod through its life cycle.

 

This is a dandelion. How do dandelions grow?

 

Activity

 

Walk through the school grounds or nearby parks in spring and locate a dandelion seed pod, or bring some of the seed pods to the classroom. Pick several of the yellow flowers. In groups, ask the children to pick apart the seed pods with toothpicks and isolate an individual seed. Use magnifying glasses or tripod magnifiers to examine the individual seed. Draw the structure they see. Then blow on the seed. Discuss why dandelions make seeds that blow away so easily.

The yellow dandelion flowers are not a single flower. They are made of many tiny separate flowers called ray flowers. Examine a dandelion flower and pull apart the individual rays. Each ray is actually a flower.

 

Find more dandelion information here.

 

 

Find interesting and unusual information here.

 

 

Other books about dandelions:

Dandelions: Stars in the Grass by Mia Posada

Dandelions by Eve Bunting and Greg Shed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Electric

Wired

By Anastasia Suen

Illustrated by Paul Carrick

ISBN #978-1-57091-599-4

Charlesbridge, 2007

Nonfiction PB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using poetry and facts, this book explains in simple language and great detail how electricity is generated and then moved through wires to power the appliances and outlets in our homes. The poetry provides the simple text and each line of poetry is supported by facts explained in an easy to understand way. I especially liked the concept of explaining electrons as “dancing in a circle” and that this motion sends the energy along the line, rather than the electrons themselves. This is one of the best explanations I’ve seen of how power is generated and moved. Carrick’s collage illustrations lend a 3-D feel to the art and help the reader better visualize the text. The book has a combined glossary and index.

 

humming, thrumming,

power’s coming.

 

Electricity starts with something you cannot see: electrons. Electrons are part of an atom, and atoms are inside everything, including you!

 

Activity 1

After reading the book, pass out the sequencing list. Have the students cut apart the sentences. Reread the book, allowing time for the students to put the steps in order.

 

SEQUENCING ACTIVITY

Electricity moves along the high transmission wires.

Inside your house, switches and outlets complete the circuit to your appliances and lights.

Water moves big wheels called turbines.

Long coils “step up” the electricity to make it stronger.

Electrons are part of an atom.

Moving makes electrons “dance,” or move.

Short coils “step down” the electricity to send it to homes.

Lines carry the electricity to your house.

Wires to your house and back complete a circuit.

Turbines move the magnet inside a generator.

 

Correct Sequence

1 Electrons are part of an atom.

2 Water moves big wheels called turbines.

3 Turbines move the magnet inside a generator.

4 Moving makes electrons “dance,” or move.

5 Long coils “step up” the electricity to make it stronger.

6 Electricity moves along the high transmission wires.

7 Short coils “step down” the electricity to send it to homes.

8 Lines carry the electricity to your house.

9 Wires to your house and back complete a circuit.

10 Inside your house, switches and outlets complete the circuit to your appliances and lights.

 

This page has good background information.

 

 

Activity 2

Make a simple battery with a complete circuit. See Anastasia Suen’s site for the details.

 

Here is another way to make a battery.

 

Try this page to read an electric meter and add some math to the fun.

 

 

National Science Standards: Properties of objects and materials; position and motion of objects; light, heat, electricity, and magnetism

 

A Tall Tail

Little Skink’s Tail

By Janet Halfmann

Illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein

Sylvan Dell Publishing, 2007

ISBN# 9-780976-882381

Picture book

 

 

Little Skink starts the day looking for breakfast, but after a hungry crow attacks from above, Little Skink is fortunate to be alive. Unfortunately, she’s missing her lovely blue tail. Happy to be alive, Little Skink wishes she had another tail, and goes about the forest trying on tails of other animals. Finally, when none of them will do, she discovers that her tail has grown back.

 

 

As she lay basking and thinking, a cottontail rabbit hopped in front of her rock. “Hmmm, I wonder how I’d look with a tail like that?” Little Skink thought. She pictured her new look. “Very cute,” she thought to herself, “but too puffy-fluffy.”

 

 

Activity 1

Introduce invertebrate and vertebrate and define the words. Skinks are reptiles and classified as vertebrates.

 

Look up information about how skinks can lose their tails.

 

Discuss the major groups of vertebrates—amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals. Talk about what they have in common, which is a backbone.

 

 

 

Activity 2

Look up characteristics of reptiles.

 

List the characteristics of reptiles. Next, look up characteristics of amphibians (whose members are frequently confused with reptiles) and list them. Name as many reptiles and amphibians as the students can think of.

 

Use library books to add to the list.

 

Suggested books:

A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians by Robert C. Stebbins and Roger Tory Peterson

My First Pocket Guide Reptiles and Amphibians by S. Kirshner

 

 

Ask your librarian about other good books on reptiles, amphibians, and vertebrates.

 

National Science Standards: characteristics of organisms