ALL FROGS FRONT AND CENTER

Frogs

By Nic Bishop

Scholastic, 2008

ISBN# 0-439-87755-5

Nonfiction

Froggy facts fill the pages of this beautifully photographed frog book. Nic Bishop gets up close and personal with a wide variety of frogs, even training one frog with crickets on tweezers to stay nearby until he could photograph it. Large, close-in photographs show the colors, sizes, and habits of the chosen frogs. From travel to rainforests to a nearby pond, Bishop catches frogs being themselves. The text begins with a topic sentence in large font and provides details in the body in a different size. Captions add more information that related to the text. A centerfold shows a frog jumping from start to finish in a timed sequence shot. From the definition of amphibian to the frog life cycle, this book covers frogs in a way that will appeal to readers and photograph viewers of all ages.

Frogs are found on every continent except Antarctica. They live in ponds, rivers, forests, and fields. Some even live in sand dunes.

 Activity 1

Label the life cycle of a frog.

Activity 2

Research the frog’s life cycle. Create a timeline and show the stages of a frog as it hatches from an egg to a fully grown frog.

 For an interactive frog life cycle activity, see this Harcourt School activity.

This Scholastic page has activities at many levels for froggy learning.

National Science Standards: characteristics of organisms, life cycle of organisms, and organisms and environments

 Another book about frogs:

 All About Frogs by Jim Arnosky

A Who-Eats-What Adventure

A Temperate Forest Food Chain

 

By Rebecca Hogue Wojahn and Donald Wojahn

Lerner Publications, 2009

ISBN #978-0-8225-7496-5

 

 

 

 

 

Following an introduction to the woodland habitat and a review of related terms, this book asks the reader to choose a tertiary consumer from a list on page 7. According to which animal is chosen, the reader is directed to turn to a specific page for more details. From that page, facts are detailed in the text and further choices are provided for the next link in the food chain. Interactive and entertaining, A Temperate Food Chain provides a fun-filled trek though the forest habitat as it shows specific examples of energy flow.

 

Filled with photos and game board-appearing pages, this book will educate as it entertains, keeping the reader moving back and forth to find the next piece of the food chain puzzle.

 

This book is one in a series that covers various habitats in a who-eats-what adventure set. It could be used in conjunction with biomes.

 

 

In food chains, the strongest predators are called tertiary consumers. They hunt other animals for food and have few natural enemies.

 

 

Activity

Trace one food chain from the book and write down the path of the energy flow. Then choose another animal whose food chain links with the first one. Create a diagram to show the overlapping aspects of food chains into food webs. Draw arrows to show the direction of energy flow.

 

 

For more food chain activities, visit me and see the lessons I presented at TLA April 1. The lessons will be up for about a week longer.

 

Trout Are Made of Trees by April Pulley Sayre

The Wolves Are Back by Jean Craighead George

When the Wolves Returned by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

 

 

 

 

Cover It With Green

Wangari’s Trees of Peace

By Jeanette Winter

Harcourt, 2008

ISBN #978-0-15-206545-4

Nonfiction picture book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Based on the true story of Wangari Maathai, environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, this simply worded picture book tells of the power of one woman who made a difference in the environment of her native Kenya. After returning home from studying in the United States, she sees now barren land where trees were cut to make room for new buildings. Starting with nine seedlings, she encourages the women throughout the villages and they in turn plant more trees, until the land is barren no more.

 

Wangari thinks about the barren land. I can begin to replace some of the lost trees here in my own backyard—one tree at a time. She starts by planting nine seedlings.

 

 Activity 1

Ask the students if they’ve heard about global warming. Discuss greenhouse gases and why and how they warm the earth.  

Explain that these greenhouse gases trap energy in the atmosphere and make the Earth warmer.  

Discuss climate changes that are taking place and the impact it can have on habitats. Examples might include rising sea levels, loss of ice in Antarctica and the Arctic, or climate change might have effects on crops that can grow.

 Use the book to define reforestation and discuss how replenishing trees can reduce global warming.  how we can help.

 

Take this global warming quiz.

 

Activity 2

Define reforestation. Review photosynthesis and remind the students about the use of carbon dioxide by plants to make energy in the form of food. Then define the greenhouse effect and discuss how reforestation like that shown in the book can help restore balance to the natural system.

Reforestation is the restocking of existing forests and woodlands which have been depleted, with native tree stock.

Greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere due to certain gases trapping the sun’s energy. These atmospheric gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane. We need them to keep all the Earth’s heat from escaping, because we need some heat. They are called greenhouse gases because of how they keep the world warm. 

 

Global warming is the average increase of the Earth’s temperature due to the addition of more green house gases. These additional gases can cause a change in the climate

 

Photosynthesis is the process where green plants make carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water using light as the source of energy, and release oxygen as a waste by-product.

 

For more, see the carbon cycle and the carbon cycle game.

 

Another book about saving a tree is The Tree, by Dana Lyons.

 

 

 

 

 

Tweet! Tweet!

United Tweets of America

50 State Birds Their Stories Their Glories

By Hudson Talbott

G.P. Putnam’s Sons

ISBN #978-0-399-24520-6

Nonfiction

 

A factual and funny book, this collection of state birds includes interesting tidbits of information along with hilarious art, state mottoes and capitals, and asides from the birds themselves. One of my favorite spreads features the mockingbirds of Tennessee and Texas bickering about mocking one another. The light storyline of competition is answered when the birds get together and sing America the Beautiful.

 

Activity 1

Assign state birds to individual students or groups and ask them to use the book to make and write observations about the characteristics of their bird. Guide them toward beak shapes and sizes, feet, toe directions, color and pattern (distinguishing markings), and tail shapes and sizes. See this site for more information.

 

Have them make a detailed list. Then have them write predictions about where the bird might live (based on its feet) and what it eats (based on the bill).

 

Use a bird book, field guide, or this link to look up their birds and analyze their predictions.

 

Activity 2

Use this handout to talk about bird skeletons. Identify and discuss the bone names.

Then fill in this page with the correct names.

  

For a simple activity, use this page to identify the different birds.

 

 

 

For more reading, see Bird, by David Burnie

 

or

 

The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton W. Burgess

 

National Science standards: Structure and function in living systems, diversity and adaptations of organisms.

 

This book was recently reviewed by some other bloggers, but I can’t find them. If you’ll send a comment if you reviewed it, I’ll add a link to your blog.

 

 

 

Simply Fabulous

 

Using simple, rhyming text and rich illustrations, Fabulous Fishes introduces early readers to a wide variety of fish and their underwater habitats.

 

Author-illustrator Susan Stockdale

 ISBN: 978-1-56145-429-7 

 

“Shiny fish, spiny fish,
fish that hitch a ride.
Flatfish, catfish,
fish that ride the tide.”

 

Activity 1: Review the names of the fish in the book. Ask the students to create categories and group the fish into the different categories. Challenge them to decide on several categories in which to classify the fish. Categories may include things like color, habits, habitats, living in groups or solo, shape, or size. Some examples: Fish with yellow on their bodies, fish that live in deepwater,or fish we don’t usually eat. Group the fish into their categories and share them with the class.

 

Activity 2: Read the book again and ask the students to notice where the fish live. Using the information in the back matter, talk about why each fish lives where it does and how the environment helps each live in that particular niche.

 

National science standard: Table 6.8–characteristics of organisms, organisms and environments

 

Visit Susan Stockdale to see more of her work.

Visit Shirley Smith Duke or Peachtree to find the teacher’s guide for Fabulous Fishes that Shirley wrote.