Category: STEM Friday

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Exploring Fall with a Book!

The air is changing just a bit, giving us a hint that fall might be coming. What better way to get into the mood for autumn than reading a beautiful nonfiction picture book like Exploring Fall by Terri DeGezelle?

Part of the Exploring the Seasons series, this book features full page color photographs and illustrations matched with simple, controlled text. The book answers all the questions about the upcoming season a child might ask, including when does it start, why does it happen, and what changes to expect. It even mentions why we might expect more hurricanes to occur in the fall!

Exploring Fall by Terri DeGezelle is an obvious choice for a fall theme collection. Consider it for units on seasons and weather as well.

Activity:
Inspired by A Tree Grower’s Diary: Take a photograph or draw a picture of the same tree once or twice a week from the same position and see how the colors change. (For adults and older children to share with younger children).

 

Reading Level K-1
Paperback: 24 pages
Publisher: Capstone Press (January 1, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1429679085
ISBN-13: 978-1429679084

More books by Terri DeGezelle

The book was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

Come visit the STEM Friday blog each week to find more great Science, Technology, Engineering and Math books.

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We’re Hosting STEM Friday

We at Wrapped in Foil are excited to be hosting STEM Friday this week.

STEM Friday is the meme that highlights Science, Technology, Engineering and Math books for children. The weekly round-up can found each Friday at the  STEM Friday blog. It is a great resource if you are looking for the newest and best in STEM books for kids.

If you have any blog posts to add about STEM Books for children, be sure to stop by over that the STEM Friday blog and leave a comment so we can add them to the list.

 

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Technology: A Byte-Size World

The Basher Science series has a new addition released this month: Technology: A byte-size world! by Dan Green and illustrator/author Simon Basher. This installment tackles machines, from simple to complex, and the materials that are used to create them.

You are probably already familiar with the Basher Science series, but if not, each topic generally consists of a two-page spread with illustrator/author Simon Basher’s unique cartoon illustrations that have the flavor of Japanese chibi on the right side and the text discussion on the left side. The text follows a formula of three bullet factoids, a paragraph or two of kicky first-person narrative about the topic with a few groan-worthy puns thrown in, and then three more bullet points.

As you might expect, this brief-and-flashy formula works better for some topics than others. Still, the kid-friendly tone of the characters and lack of density of the text entices struggling or jaded readers to give it a try, which is the book’s -and the series’- real strength. Once readers are drawn in, they will likely want more information on inventions such as such as a 3-D printer or a particle accelerator. Even though the brevity sometimes is frustrating, I have to admit that I often learn something new from these books. Did you know that rockets need to carry oxygen with them in order to fire in space? How about that rack-and-pinion steering was not patented until 1975?

Technology: A byte-size world is a byte-size introduction to the world of invention. For readers looking for something unique and refreshing, it will be a treat.

Note: This version comes with a detachable poster.

Other Basher book reviews:
Punctuation: The Write Stuff
Oceans: Making Waves!
Chemistry: Getting a Big Reaction!

For more information, be sure to visit the Basher Books website.

Reading level: Ages 10 and up
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Kingfisher (July 17, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0753468204
ISBN-13: 978-0753468203

More books from the Basher series:

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The book was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

Come visit the STEM Friday blog each week to find more great Science, Technology, Engineering and Math books.

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Look Inside a Bee Hive

Look Inside a Bee Hive by Megan Nicole Cooley Peterson is a timely picture book for young children interested in learning more about honey bees.

The format is similar throughout the book. On the right side of the two-page spread is a full-page color photograph. On the left are simple sentences with controlled vocabulary written at the first grade level. Children learn vocabulary words such as queen bee, worker bee, and comb.

The photographs are uniformly of high quality, although see if you can spot the bee that is not a honey bee like I did. Clue:  look how fuzzy the honey bees are.

This would be a good book to pair with Look Inside an Ant Nest by the same author.

Suggested activities to accompany the book:

1. Honey bee anatomy

2. Honey bee life cycle

3. Honey bee science activities

4. How honey bees keep warm

Reading level: Ages 4 and up
Library Binding: 24 pages
Publisher: Capstone Press (August 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1429660759
ISBN-13: 978-1429660754

The book was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

Come visit the new STEM Friday blog each week to find more great Science, Technology, Engineering and Math books.