Coral Reefs

Coral Reefs

By Jason Chin

Roaring Brook Press, 2011

ISBN: 978-1-59643-563-6

Nonfiction picture book with fantasy element

“For more than 400 million years, corals have been building reefs in the earth’s oceans. Corals may look like plants, but they are actually animals. Some are soft and sway back forth in the water, while others, called hard corals, are rigid. Corals are made up of polyps, and most have hundreds of tiny polyps on their surface.”

A young girl pulls a book off the shelf at the New York Public Library and begins to read. Like the boy carried into the forest in Redwoods, she is swept into the undersea world of corals. Before this happens, however, Chin presents some of the fascinating information about corals and the skeletons of these animals that form coral reefs. As the girl experiences slides into the coral reefs, she meets up with the plants and animals that live there.

Chin brings to life the brilliant colors and variety of animals living in the tropic seas where reefs are formed. Each spread presents information and brings what the child is reading to life. This book provides excellent information and makes the relationships among the life there clear and real.

This book slips into the undersea world more effortlessly than Redwoods. It’s lovely and lush—and guaranteed to be popular, especially among New York librarians!

Activity 1

Create a food chain or web from the organisms in the book.

 This site has a food chain explanation.

Activity 2

Look up the term for the relationship between two animals that is mutually beneficial called mutualism. Find other examples of beneficial relationships.

Here are two examples.

Activity 3

Find ways some of the animals have adapted to escape their predators using the book’s information.

Visit my post on Follow That Food Chain Coral Reefs post to pair the books and find more activities.

National Science Standards: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems, Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems, Ecosystems Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience

Book provided by Blue Slip Media and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group

WELCOME TO STEM FRIDAY

Mr. Linky and I didn’t work out after all. Feel free to send your posts  in the comments  thoughout the weekend.

STEM Friday

1. Archimedes Notebook reviews “Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature” – an awesome new book by Joyce Sidman.

2. MotherReader is sharing a preschool program she designed for the library, Science and Stories.

3. Anastasia at Chapter Book of the Day has The Water Cycle (Science Foundations) by Nikole Brooks Bethea (Author) – the debut book of her former student!

4. Roberta at Wrapped in Foil has has two Kingfisher books today from the My Life in the Wild series. She reviews Penguin and Cheetah.

5. Zoe at Playing By the Book has is has The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins.

3-D Theater Rainforest

By Kathryn Jewett

Illustrated by Fiammetta Dogi

Kingfisher, 2011

ISBN #978-0-7534-6467-0

Ages 4-8

“Stand still for a moment on the forest floor and armies of ant will stomp over our feet. Leeches start slinking toward you, hungry for blood. The trees above block out most of the light, so fungi, ferns, and mosses grow where the green plants can’t. It may be dark and damp, but this is one of the busiest layers of the forest.”

This gorgeous pop-up book puts the rainforest in a 3-D view to illustrate and narrate the rainforest layers and its inhabitants. Every other page gives information about the animals and plants living in that level. Alternating pages pop out to form a view deeper inside the rainforest. Cut out pop-ups fill the forest niches with animals and plants found there. Additional animal information is found around the edges of each theater scene.

This twenty page book is fun to read or simply look at. It’s remarkably sturdy and readers can find something new each time it was read. It would be a wonderful way to introduce rainforests to the classroom or make a lovely gift at birthday or holiday time.

Activity 1

Develop a food chain based on the plants and animals in the book.

Activity 2 (for younger children)

Identify the animals in the book or practice the colors of the life found inside the rainforest.

National Geographic has short information and pictures of rainforests.

This site explains a simple food chain.

This site has some rainforest activities.

National Science Standard: ecosystems dynamics, functioning, and resilience

Book provided by Kingfisher

3-D Theater Rainforest and 3-D Theater Ocean

3-D Theater Rainforest

By Kathryn Jewett

Illustrated by Fiammetta Dogi

Kingfisher, 2011

ISBN #978-0-7534-6467-0

Ages 4-8

“Stand still for a moment on the forest floor and armies of ant will stomp over our feet. Leeches start slinking toward you, hungry for blood. The trees above block out most of the light, so fungi, ferns, and mosses grow where the green plants can’t. It may be dark and damp, but this is one of the busiest layers of the forest.”

This gorgeous pop-up book puts the rainforest in a 3-D view to illustrate and narrate the rainforest layers and its inhabitants. Every other page gives information about the animals and plants living in that level. Alternating pages pop out to form a view deeper inside the rainforest. Cut out pop-ups fill the forest niches with animals and plants found there. Additional animal information is found around the edges of each theater scene.

This twenty page book is fun to read or simply look at. It’s remarkably sturdy and readers can find something new each time it was read. It would be a wonderful way to introduce rainforests to the classroom or make a lovely gift at birthday or holiday time.

Activity 1

Develop a food chain based on the plants and animals in the book.

Activity 2 (for younger children)

Identify the animals in the book or practice the colors of the life found inside the rainforest.

National Geographic has short information and pictures of rainforests.

This site explains a simple food chain.

This site has some rainforest activities.

National Science Standard: ecosystems dynamics, functioning, and resilience

Book provided by Kingfisher

POLAR LANDS

Nonfiction Monday is a 100 Scope Notes today.

Polar Lands

By Sean Callery

Kingfisher, 2011

Life Cycle Series

ISBN # 978-0-7534-6691-9

Ages 7 to 10

Nonfiction PB

“The Arctic and Antarctic regions are known as the polar lands. These are the toughest habitats in the world: dark all winter long, with freezing temperatures and storms. Against the odds, plants and animals live there.”

If you’re looking for a book about biomes/habitats and life cycles, Polar Lands (and other books in this series) is the perfect one for elementary-aged learners. Sean Callery takes a region and introduces it, then takes the reader along the food chain page by page. This book includes Arctic and Antarctic animals ranging from krill (which I especially liked, having never seen this organism’s life cycle in a book) to seals to the Arctic wolf. The first page of the spread introduces the organism and traces its life cycle in four steps. A sidebar adds the animal’s adaptation in three picture bulleted details and one more fact at the bottom, which leads the reader to the page turn and next animal in the food chain.

Bright photographs illustrate the text and a circular graphic presents the life cycle, interspersed with more photos. The spread out text and chunks of information make the book inviting and readable. Back matter includes a large silhouette diagram of the entire food chain, a glossary, websites, and an index.

This is one of the most clever ways of writing about and illustrating a food chain that I’ve seen in a book. It’s clear and concise, making both the concept and life cycle easy to follow. I’ve read another book in the series, Grassland, and it’s just as good.  This is a terrific book for libraries and schools, and is great for reading and holding the interest of kids, especially animal lovers.

Activity 1

Take one of the animals from the book and create a graphic to show the food chain in which it is involved. Illustrate the steps along the way or print and cut out pictures for the animals.

National Geographic has good animal information and pictures.

Activity 2

Look up more information about the Arctic and Antarctic. Make a diorama or mural to illustrate its features and the life there. Label each animal.

National Geographic has lots of excellent information on ecosystems and biomes.

Activity 3

Choose an animal. Read more about the animal and create a list of ways it is adapted, or suited, to fit into its environment.

National Science Standards: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems; Growth and Development of Organisms; Growth and Development of Organisms

Book provided by Kingfisher.

Grassland

A COMPOST STORY

Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow

A Compost Story

By Linda Glaser

Photos by Shelley Rotner

Millbrook Press (Lerner), 2010

ISBN # 978-0-7613-4911-2

Nonfiction

Ages 5-8

“At our house, we grow lettuce and tomatoes, pumpkins and potatoes, strawberries, sunflowers, cucumbers, and cauliflowers. And we use garbage to do it. This is where it starts—in our compost bin. It’s just a big box. But amazing things happen here.

Making a compost bin is a great way to recycle organic matter into soil and this simple book explains the entire process—from garbage and clippings to brand new soil—in a way young children can understand. Large photos fill the page to show in detail what is taking place in the text. The book relates ordinary household activities, such as Halloween pumpkins, to explain what can and can’t go into a compost pile. The food chain decomposers are mentioned as helping break down the materials in a simple explanation and the book shows the value in composting for its rich soil-making contribution as well as cutting down on the landfill trash.

Back matter defines organic matter and answers questions about composting. It includes a simple composting experiment. This is an excellent Earth Day book to read and can be used to help explain decomposition in early food chain lessons. This book makes me want a compost pile of my own!

Activity 1

Perform the experiment in the back of the book by making a mini-compost pile in a cup.

Use this sheet to help write up the results of your experiment.

Activity 2

Create a list of organic materials that are suitable for putting into the compost pile.

This page can help.

Activity 3

Follow the life cycle of a pumpkin as shown in the book.

Read here for more information about composting.

Here’s more good information about composting.

Go to Wild About Nature blog to see another post about this book.

National Science Standards: organisms and environments

Book donated by publisher

A Desert Food Chain

A Desert Food Chain

A Who Eats What Adventure in North America

By Rebecca Hogue Wojahn and Donald Wojahn

Lerner, 2009

ISBN #978-0-8225-7501-6

NF

Grades 3-6

“As the sun goes down, the Sonoran Desert comes to life. All day, most of the animals shielded themselves from the broiling sun in tunnels, burrows, and dens. Some huddled in arroyos—streambeds that hold a smidge more shade than the rest of the desert. As the air temperature drops, the hot ground starts to cool. And the desert animals creep out to explore their prickly landscape of cactus and brush. Daytime flowers close their blooms, but nighttime flowers spread their petals to welcome visitors.”

Another fascinating parade of organisms marches across the pages in this desert version of the Follow That Food Chain series by Lerner. Elf owls, suguaro cactus, chuckwallas, pallid bats, roadrunners, rattlers, pinacate beetles, centipedes fill the spaces as consumers and producers, allowing the reader to chose the direction the food chain takes—and finding the end in a variety of ways. Along the way, the book provides a fascinating look at the individuals comprising the chain. Set in the desert southwest of the United States, the Sonoran Desert provides an abundance of life in the arid, seemingly lifeless land.

Bright photos and sections of text make the book fun and engaging, while back matter includes additional information about desert plants and animals, an index, glossary, and for further information sections.

Activity 1

Organisms living in a desert environment must be well-suited for arid life. Choose one of the organisms and research the specific adaptations that allow it to live successfully in the desert.

Activity 2

Use this site to create your own desert food chain

Activity 3 For younger students

Choose an animal from the book. Make a chart showing what the animal eats. Then make another chart showing what eats that animal.

This movie shows desert food chain interactions.

This site has a good explanation of the energy flow in food chains.

See my other posts about this food chain series at

http://simplyscience.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/a-coral-reef-food-chain/

http://simplyscience.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/a-who-eats-what-adventure/

I visited the Sonoran Desert in college during a January term for desert biology. I loved the plants and animals and will always have a special place in my heart for this desert. These food chain books by the Wohans have generated more interest than any of my posts, so I felt I had to do one more. All the books in this series are fascinating and distinguished by the wealth of organisms they include. 

National Science Standard: organisms and environment

  Books provided by Lerner.

Molds, Mushrooms, and Other Fungi

Molds, Mushrooms, and Other Fungi

By Steve Parker

Compass Points Books, 2010

ISBN #978-0756542238

Grades 4-7

NF

     “The world is full of living things, from tiny bugs and delicate flowers to giiant trees, huge elephants, and massive whales. But nothing lives forever. Eventually all plants, animals, and other forms of life die. But what happens to them?

     The answer: They become food for fungi. This kingdom of living things includes mushrooms, toadstools, molds, mildews, yeasts, and many others. Fungi are nature’s recyclers.”

     This upper elementary-middle school level book, presented in a picture book format, defines and discusses the Kingdom Fungi. It begins with an explanation of cells, including the fact that fungi are eukaryotic, and goes on to detail the life processes of the variety of fungi that exist. Places of growth, the below the ground decomposing structures, and the helpful and harmful aspects of fungi complete the book.

     The information is broken into sections interspersed with large, fascinating photos of fungi, parts, and their effects. The back matter includes a classification of life table, fungi classification, a glossary, further resources section, and an index. Chock full of facts, my only quibble with the book is that it comes off a bit crowded. The information, however, is excellent and it’s good to see a quality book with some depth on a lesser studied group of organisms put into an interesting read.

Activity 1

Research yeast and find out how it makes bread rise. Look up Louis Pasteur and read about his early experiments with fermentation to find out how yeast is involved in his experiments that lead to the Germ Theory.

Activity 2

Explain how fungi and their hyphae play a role in the food chain and food web.

Activity 3

Look up the symbiotic relationship that exists in lichens.

Activity 4

Design an experiment that has to do with where molds grow well and what might inhibit their growth. Use the scientific method and write up the experiment. Conduct the experiment and then make your conclusions.

Great information for more details.

This site makes fungi about as fun as you can make it! 

Take a look at these fabulous mushroom pictures.

National Science Standard: structure and function in living systems; diversity and adaptations of living organisms

Book provided by publisher.

Nonfiction Monday Round-Up and My End of Year Books

    

When I took December off, I forgot about my time for Nonfiction Monday. So I’m back! Welcome to SimplyScience. Put your information and link in the comments and I’ll update them throughout the day.   

From Abby (the) Librarian, The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino with Jon Nelson.

Robin at The Book Nosher has a new National Geographic book: live, laugh, celebrate.

Roberta at Wrapped in Foil has Dragonflies of North America by Kathy Biggs

In Need of Chocolate has Paleo Sharks

Wild About Nature reviews About Penguins: A Guide for Children

Three Turtles and Their Pet Librarian reviews Zero is the Leaves on the Tree by Betsy Franco

Amanda at A Patchwork of Books has reviewed lots of picture book biographies 

Wendie’s Wanderings looked outside her window and decided that 20 inches of snow was the order of the day and so is offering Snowflake Bentley

Lost Between the Pages has Emily Post’s Table Manners for Kids

Check It Out has Redwoods by Jason Chin

Bookends Blog has a fabulous pair of poetry/animal camouflage books: Where in the Wild and Where Else in the Wild

Tundras

Frosty Treeless Land

By Laura Purdie Salas

Illustrated by Jeff Yesh

Picture Window Books, 2009

This fact filled book explained tundras in detail with excellent, reader-friendly text and supplied additional, fun information in sidebar Fun Facts. One in the series of Amazing Science—Ecosystems, it’s fun to read. Carefully labeled illustrations highlight the digital art. Tundra facts appear in the back matter. It includes a glossary, index, and further reading section.

Activity

Create a food chain for the tundra.

National Science Standard: organisms and environments

Book sent by publisher

Box Jellyfish

Killer Tentacles

By Natalie Lunis

Bearport Publishing, 2010

The deadly difference between box jellyfish and regular jellyfish are detailed in this book. The book begins with a girl being stung and explains the treatment, then goes on to discuss these tropical invertebrates. One in the series Afraid of the Water, this book contains fascinating photos and one of the stings is sure to be remembered. It includes a glossary, index, and further reading section.

Activity

Create a chart comparing the differences in box jellyfish and regular jellyfish. Don’t forget to include habitat, eyes, swimming, tentacle placement, and lots of other differences.

National Science standard: organims and environment

Book donated by publisher

Let’s Look at Snails

By Laura Hamilton Waxman

Lerner Publications, 2010

Lightning Bolt Books

Bold, bright photos mix with big text to describe snails and how they live. Labels point out specific facts and the book has additional fun facts and a snail diagram in the back matter. It includes a glossary, index, and further reading section.

Activity

Look up snails to find out all of the places snails live. Make a chart to show these habitats.

 National Science standard: organisms and their environment, life cycle

Book donated by publisher

Out of This World

The Amazing Search for an Alien Earth

By Jacob Berkowitz

Kids Can Press, 2009

This text dense book about the hunt to find an alien Earth that supports life as we know it begins as fiction, but is filled with facts. Sidebars provide additional information. It will appeal to the budding astronomer who can distinguish fact from fiction. Some of the ideas provide food for thought and this could be a fun book for the right reader.

Activity

Find out more about exoplanets.

http://exoplanets.org/

National Science standard: objects in the sky

Book donated by publisher

Many thanks to the publishers who contributed their books. The blog has been a pleasure and I’ll be able to include my two new science books in the blog in the coming year!

Life in the Boreal Forest

 

Life in the Boreal Forest

Brenda Z. Guiberson

Illustrations by Gennady Spirin
Henry Holt and Co., 2009
ISBN #978-0-8050-7718-6

K-5^th grades

NF PB

“Tika tika tika swee swee! A Tennessee warbler sings in a forest so huge that it covers one third of the earth’s total forest area. It grows across Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia. A swath of trees this big has many names, like taiga and boreal forest. Boreal means northern, from  Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind.”

This gorgeous book describes the variety of life in the boreal forest in its natural context of habitat and the food web. Including even a bit on the relationship of the predators and prey, the text portrays the life cycles and habits of the life within the forest and the effects the environment cause to its inhabitants. The text explains the reasons for the dwindling amount of boreal forest, a primary premise of the book, but does so in a slightly heavy-handed manner. The information is detailed and ecologically oriented, and includes the food web relationships of the organisms along with their adaptations for survival in the rugged climate.

The illustrations are beautifully rendered in lifelike paintings positioned across three-fourth of the spread with the text in the remaining space, positioned on one side or the other of each spread. The starving animals make an interesting, if pitiful, addition to the realities of life in the boreal forest and its harsh conditions and illustrator Spirin has done an excellent job with them. The animals in action are fascinating and I personally love the snow covered, frozen pond with the beaver lodge and a passing dogsled team.

Activity 1

List the adaptations that enable the inhabitants of the boreal forest to survive the harsh conditions.

Activity 2

Create a food chain using some of the organisms from the book.

Activity 3

Look up information about tropical rain forests. Compare and contrast the differences in the rain forest and the boreal forest. Look for adaptations the organisms in the rain forest have that help suit them for that biome.

Rain forest biome information.

More details about rain forests.

This site has information and facts about the loss of rain forest habitats

Read more information here.

This site has good general information.

 This site has good information and games; however, some links wre not not working. If you have patience, there were a couple of them, including one about The Lorax, that looked fun.

Anastasia has a 6 Trait writing activity for this book at Picture Book of the Day.

National Science Standard: organisms and environments

Book supplied by publisher to Librarian’s Choices review committee

A Coral Reef Food Chain

 

A Coral Reef Food Chain : A Who-Eats-What Adventure in the Caribbean Sea

Follow That Food Chain series

by Rebecca Hogue Wojahn & Donald Wojahn 

Lerner, 2010

ISBN # 0-8225-7611-2

Nonfiction, grades 3-6

“This coral reef lies hidden in the warm, shallow water just off the shore of a Caribbean island. From the beach, waves gently roll over calm water. But duck your head under the waves, and you’ll see an underwater jungle full of life.”

This new food chain book from the series Follow That Food Chain allows the reader to create a food chain by choosing the next link in the food chain and then following that organism to the page listed. This particular book is especially good because it includes so many invertebrates and other varied species that are not well-known to children within the complex ecosystem of a coral reef. Animals such as fan worms, corals, sawfish, parrotfish, moray eels, nudibranchs, and sea urchins are among the consumers, with the producers and well-explained phytoplankton included in the chain information. Decomposers and their job in the chain are also included.

The sidebars add additional sections of information and the value or relationship of some of the organisms are explained. The main text highlights the unfamiliar words that are in the glossary. Bright photos and diagrams of specific connections forming a food web from the chains allow the reader to picture the connections of the organisms they’ve just read about. The book also contains a further reading section, a bibliography, and an index.

I’ve blogged on the temperate forest food chain book in this series, but this one has so many invertebrates I wanted to highlight  it. Food chains are important parts of the science curriculum, and these books provide an excellent way of teaching both organisms and the complex ideas within a food web.

Activity 1

Create your own food chain by following one of your choosing from the book. Make a diagram to show the energy flow.

Activity 2

Look through the book and find the invertebrates. Choose one invertebrate and look it up. Find out in which group it is classified according to the phylum, class, or order. Then find other animals in each group.

For more information about food chains and definitions, see this site.

This site has good information about the energy flow within a food chain.

Lovely coral reef and organism pictures

My previous blog on temperate forests is here. Go to my website and click on links in the toolbar to see my TLA presentation that includes a lesson on food chains.

See another book in the series at Miss Rumphius Effect.

Other books:

Ecosystems – Life in a Coral Reef by Hayley Haugen

Jump Into Science: Coral Reefs by Sylvia Earle

National Science Standard: organisms and environments

 Book provided by Lerner