Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday - December New Releases Roundup

December 3, 2014 Alyson Beecher

Thank you everyone for all of the great posts each week for the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge 2014. We are nearing the end of the year. How are you doing on your goal of reading more nonfiction?

Since this is the last new releases post for 2014, it seems to have morphed into a collection of titles that I missed in other months. I know that these posts are not comprehensive, and many of these I am still tracking down, but I do hope that it helps you to find many new titles to check out.

Since December does not seem to be a big release month, I searched best of 2014 lists and other sources to find titles that I missed during previous months this year. I also included a few longer titles for older students.

If you missed the posts from the past eleven months, I have included links to them below.

December

Chimpanzee Children of Gombe by Jane Goodall; Photographs by Michael Neugebauer (Minedition)

November

Monstergami by David Mitchell (Firefly Books)

Rain Forest Colors by Janet Lawler; Photographs by Tim Laman (National Geographic)

October

Attack! Boss! Cheat Code!: A Gamer's Alphabet by Chris Barton; Illustrated by Joey Spiotto (POW)

Because I am a Girl by Rosemary McCarney; Photographs by Jen Albaugh (Second Story Press)

September

Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth by Molly Bang; Illustrated by Penny Chisholm (Blue Sky Press)

Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines by Paul Fleischman (Candlewick)

Hello, I'm Johnny Cash by G. Neri; Illustrations by A.G. Ford (Candlewick Press)

Something About a Bear by Jackie Morris (Frances Lincoln's Children's Books)

Stand There! She Shouted: The Invincible Photographer Julia Margaret Cameron by Susan Goldman Rubin; Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline (Candlewick Press)

On the Wing by David Elliott; Illustrated by Becca Stadtlander (Candlewick Press)

August

Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious by Jacqueline Briggs Martin (Readers to Eaters)

The History of Money: From Bartering to Banking by Martin Jenkins; Illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura (Candlewick Press)

Spic-And-Span!: Lillian Gilbreth's Wonder Kitchen by Monica Kulling; Illustrated by David Parkins (Tundra Books)

March

Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle by Cheryl Bardoe; Illustrated by Alan Marks (Charlesbridge)

Grizzly Bears of Alaska: Explore the Wild World of Bears by Debbie S. Miller, Photographs by Patrick J. Endres (Little Bigfoot)

January

Friends for Freedom by Suzanne Buckingham Slade (Charlesbridge)

Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America by Tonya Bolden (Abrams)

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews:

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday: #NCTE14 - It's a Wrap!

November 26, 2014 Alyson Beecher

Recently, I arrived back home after spending several days in National Harbor, MD for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention. If you are an elementary teacher and you believe that NCTE is only for High School English Teachers guess again. This was my fourth year attending NCTE and I can confidently say that there are amazing sessions for teachers of students at all grade levels.

However, one thing I realized this year is that relationships can make or break the experience for a participant. Early in my career as a teacher, I would at times be sent to a conference. If I was fortunate to be sent as part of the team, the conference seemed to be better than if I went alone. However, when you have worked to develop relationships with those all over the country, the conference is a completely different experience with much more depth.

One of the things that made this experience so meaningful were all of the relationships and connections that I have developed over the past several years. Though I could list dozens of people that I loved seeing, hanging out with having a meal with or a special chat. I would be afraid of missing someone. So I have just provided some highlights from the conference. However, friends please know that this experience was more amazing because of the chance to spend it with each of you.

Day 1:

A few highlights that I must mention -

The Scientist in the Field Session - Loree Griffin Burns and Elizabeth Rusch shared respectively about their new books Beetle Busters and Next Wave. The session was extremely informative as those who attended were able to learn about the research and back stories to the books that they write. Additionally, I have been wanting to meet both of these authors for quite awhile and finally got a chance to meet them after their presentation.

Attending the Panel led by Jeff Anderson which featured Kate Messner, Erin Dionne, Varian Johnson, Sarah Albee, Laurel Snyder, and Linda Urban. The focus was on how to "read like a writer" leading hopefully to writing like one. The focus was on mentor texts, which is an area that I want to learn more about and was excited that I was able to attend.

In the evening, I attended a special dinner hosted by Boyds Mills Press to celebrate authors and poets. It was an "once in a lifetime" opportunity. For the first half of the dinner I sat between authors, Eileen Spinelli and Larry Dane Brimner. For the second half of the dinner, I sat between poets, Rebecca Kai Dotlich and Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. For the most part, I sat in awe and needing to pinch myself to believe I was really there.

Day 2:

On the second day of NCTE, I was kind of nervous. I think the day is a partial blur. Since I was presenting in the late afternoon, I seemed to have trouble focusing. I attended a session about the Orbis Pictus Award and a special luncheon where I was able to hear Lucy Caulkins speak.

Below is a group selfie of Cynthia Alaniz, Lisa Morris-Wilkey, and myself as we wait to get into our room.

Our presentation was on nonfiction and ways to support students while using nonfiction in the classroom.

In the event that the slideshare doesn't work as an embedded app, here is the link.

Finally, in the evening, I had a chance to meet up with Nerdy Book Club friends and of course there was a lot of book talking going on.

Day 3:

On the final day of NCTE, I found myself at some wonderful gatherings and then spending some time in the afternoon with a variety of Nerdy Book Club friends.

Children's Literature Assembly Breakfast - The guest speaker at the breakfast was Jon Klassen. I love hearing all of the back stories to the books that he writes.

Scholastic Brunch - One of the fun sessions is the Scholastic Brunch where authors join in for a form of readers' theater. I am excited about new books from Augusta Scattergood and Pamela Muñoz Ryan.

What's next?

My challenge to you: If you have never attended NCTE, give it a try and sign up to attend in 2015. If you have attended, think about pairing up with others to submit a proposal to present.

Hope to see you in Minneapolis, Minnesota next November for #NCTE15.

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews:

Perfect Pairs in Action

November 16, 2014 Alyson Beecher

Perfect Pairs: Using Fiction and Nonfiction Picture Books to Teach Life Science, K-2
by Melissa Stewart and Nancy Chesley
Stenhouse Publishers (August 2014)

Late August, I received a copy of Perfect Pairs to review. However, I quickly saw the potential of this book and wanted to do more than an initial review. I wanted to try out the lessons. This can be a challenge since I don't have my own class.

In one of my early school visits, I stopped by the library of Jackson STEM Magnet school. The school received a grant last year to become a STEM school and in conversations with the librarian at the site, who also happens to be the scientist in residence, we bounced around the idea of working together with the K-2 classrooms.

We spent some time reviewing the lessons, talking with the STEM teacher at the school, and also running the idea past the principal and the resource teachers. Everyone was interested but a little hesitant about how it would work out.

The first few lessons in the first grade unit and in the second grade unit actually paired nicely with the themes that the STEM teacher would be focusing on. A definite plus in our minds. Then came the work of planning and tweaking. Since we did not have a full week to work with each lesson and each classroom, we would need to pull parts to focus on and provide the teachers with the rest of the ideas to extend what we started. The teachers were to also read one of the books in the classroom and Mavonwe (librarian) would read the other one in the library.

Another challenge we faced was time. Both Mavonwe and I had limited time due to other obligations. So, trying to fit four first grade classrooms into the same day for a lesson wasn't easy. If a classroom was late even by 5-10 minutes, we would lose precious time to complete what we planned.

Here is the first lesson for the first graders...I obviously got better with the photo-documenting by the second lesson.

Lesson 1.1 How an Animal's Body Parts Help It Survive

The classroom teachers read The Snail's Spell to the students prior to coming to the library.

Mavonwe read Steve Jenkin's What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? to each first grade class.

Since we had limited time to chart out the various animals and their body parts and use, I modified some of the chart ideas in the lesson. I color copied the 30 different animal parts and backed them on colored card stock, and I created word cards for the body part. Students would randomly pick an animal body part, find the corresponding word card, and then identify what the animal used the body part for.

We also planned on the Wonder Journal activity:

A ________ (animal 1) uses its tail to ______ (job 1).
But a __________ (animal 2) uses its tail to _______ (job 2).

A ________ (animal 1) uses its ______ (body part 1) to find, catch, or eat food.
But a __________ (animal 2) uses its _______ (body part 2) to find catch, or eat food.

Unfortunately, in two of the four classes, we needed to send the wonder journals back with the teachers since we ran out of time.

At the end, we reviewed what we had talked about before dismissing students back to their classrooms.

The following week we met with three second grade classes for Lesson 2.1 How Wind, Water, and Animals Disperse Seeds.

The classroom teachers read Miss Maple's Seeds by Eliza Wheeler to their class prior to the students arriving in the library for the lesson. Mavonwe read Planting the Wild Garden by Kathryn O. Galbraith to each class on the day of our lesson.

I promised I was getting better with photo documenting the activities.

Though we did not read Miss Maple's Seeds during the lesson, Mavonwe connected it to Planting a Wild Garden.

There are a number of great ideas in the lesson in the book and one was to print out examples of burrs. This was especially important for our students who are English Language Learners. Since we were unsure how familiar they were with the concept of burrs getting stuck on their socks and shoes, the visual examples helped.

The students loved looking at pieces of velcro and learning that it was invented by Georges de Mestral who was inspired after a walk through the woods. Later we also learned that there is something called "space grade" velcro. According to Mavonwe's husband who works at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), "they have a big strip of it on the InSight spacecraft. It is made from a different material because regular Velcro "sheds" a bit every time it is used and eventually wears out. Somehow the space grade Velcro is made so that there is no 'shedding'". (quote taken from an email from Mavonwe)

Second grader carefully studying the velcro strip.

After looking at the velcro, we talked, acted out, and charted the various ways we learned about how seeds are dispersed. Students then had an opportunity to write and draw about what we discussed.

Students picked a card with a different animal or means of dispersing seeds and wrote about it.

These are drafts. Since many of our students are English Language Learners and we had limited time, we focused on getting thoughts down on paper and making sure they understood the concepts being discussed.

Here is another student in process of writing and drawing about how rabbits help disperse seeds.

This coming Tuesday, we will be doing another lesson with first graders. Mavonwe and I reflected about what happened and how we would change things up in the future. One of the things that we felt was essential - finding more time so that each class would have enough time to really dig into what we were teaching within that lesson.

Additionally, I was concerned that students may not have really absorbed as much as we had hoped they had. However, both Mavonwe and I were thrilled to receive feedback from the STEM teacher. She was really excited that the first graders came in with so much information, which made her lesson go better than expected. Just that alone was something to celebrate. The STEM coach decided to order Perfect Pairs for the First and Second Grade teachers to use as an on going resource, and she is excited about the book for Third to Fifth graders. Though we all wished that it was out now.

If you are looking for a fantastic resource for pairing science and literacy with young students, I would highly recommend Perfect Pairs by Melissa Stewart and Nancy Chesley. Stewart and Chesley put an amazing amount of work into this resource, which is evident when you read through the lessons.

Book Review - Perfect Pairs: Using Fiction and Nonfiction Picture Books to Teach Life Science, K-2

September 18, 2014 Alyson Beecher

Perfect Pairs: Using Fiction & Nonfiction Picture Books to Teach Life Science, K-2
by Melissa Stewart & Nancy Chesley
Stenhouse Publishers (August 2014)
Barnes & Noble | WorldCat |

Behind the Books: Perfect Pairs | Reproducibles for Perfect Pairs

Description from the publisher:
Hands-on lessons can be fun and compelling, but when it comes to life science, they aren't always possible, practical, effective, or safe. Children can't follow a lion as it stalks a gazelle, visit the exotic kapok tree in a rain forest, or swim alongside the underwater life in a pond. But they can explore a whole world of animals, plants, and ecosystems through the pages of beautifully illustrated, science-themed picture books.

Perfect Pairs, which marries fiction and nonfiction picture books focused on life science, helps educators think about and teach life science in a whole new way. Each of the twenty-two lessons in this book is built around a pair of books that introduces a critical life science concept and guides students through an inquiry-based investigative process to explore that idea—from animal/environment interactions to the role of structure in plant and animal survival, from inheritance of traits to variation of species.

Each lesson starts with a "Wonder Statement" and comprises three stages. "Engaging Students" features a hands-on activity that captures student interest, uncovers current thinking, and generates vocabulary. The heart of the investigative process, "Exploring with Students," spotlights the paired books as the teacher reads aloud and helps students find and organize information into data tables. "Encouraging Students to Draw Conclusions" shows students how to review and analyze the information they have collected. Bringing high-quality science-themed picture books into the classroom engages a broad range of students, addresses the Performance Expectations outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards, and supports the goals of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.

Even if you are science shy, Perfect Pairs can help you become a more confident teacher whose classroom buzzes with curious students eager to explore their natural world.

My thoughts on this book:
In 1991, I had my first classroom. In those day, curriculum was truly developed by teachers. It was my belief that all things could be taught with the use of literature. For young children, this means through many different picture books. I would create units and hunt down the books that I wanted to use to support a theme or emphasize a concept. In those days, I really never thought about fiction vs. nonfiction. As I think back to those early years of teaching, I certainly had a mix of fiction and nonfiction that I used.

In the past few years, as I think about the many English Language Learners that I work with, I have been pondering how to return to some of what I did in those early years of teaching but to do it with even more intent and purpose. How can I use the wonderful books available in ways that will facilitate instruction in science, while also building stronger skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking?

When I opened up Perfect Pairs by Melissa Stewart and Nancy Chesley, I fondly thought about the books I have used in lessons. The books that I used as read alouds and the ones that I used as the foundation for a lesson and those that I used to supplement and support the main text. Books like Swimmy by Leo Lionni, The Salamander's Room by Anne Mazer, or Jack's Garden by Henry Cole. I also thought about newer books like A Seed is Sleepy by Diana Hutts Aston, or Miss Maple's Seeds by Eliza Wheeler.

However, what I loved about this book is despite how comprehensive it is there is an ease in which it is laid out and how it is structured. Whether someone is a new or an experienced teacher, the ideas and suggestions are easy to follow and can be implemented in the classroom. For teachers, who may be a bit nervous about teaching science or for those, who are feeling overwhelmed when they hear NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards), Perfect Pairs helps by making it all a little more understandable.

Recently, I took Perfect Pairs into a meeting I was having with a school librarian. She is one of the few librarians I know who also has an advanced degree in science. As she flipped through the book, her comment was "every K-2 teacher needs a copy of this". Yes, my sentiments exactly.

Unlike most book reviews, this one will be more on-going. I am planning on partnering up with the school librarian I mentioned and implement some of these lessons with her and her teachers and then report back. At the same time, I would love to hear from teachers who have decided to pick up Perfect Pairs and how they have used it with students. Let's keep this conversation going and see where it leads us.

About the Authors:

Melissa Stewart is the award-winning author of more than 150 science books for children. She has always been fascinated by the natural world and is passionate about sharing its beauty and wonder with readers of all ages.

Nancy Chesley was an elementary teacher for 26 years and a K-5 science and literacy specialist for six years. She won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Elementary Science Teaching in 2000 and the Milken Foundation National Distinguished Educator Award in 2002.

Building a Nonfiction Classroom Library Part V - Marine Life

August 31, 2014 Alyson Beecher

When I began this series, I wasn't sure where it would take me. Of course, I want each post to assist teachers and other readers of the series to find great books to include in their classroom libraries, but I never realized how much I would learn too.

In high school, my biology class took a field trip to the coast of Connecticut and we spent the day on a fishing boat discussing the various marine life in the area. I was completely enthralled by the trip and always thought it would be cool to be a marine biologist. Though that never became a part of my career path, I have always maintained an interest in and a love for the ocean and marine life.

Today, listed below is over 25 titles written in different styles and also geared towards a range of reading levels. Some of the books are great for their photographs and others can be used as a read aloud or a reference, while others will draw students into shared reading experiences as they call others over to see what they have discovered.

Also don't forget to check out the previous posts for more book recommendations:
Part I Introduction | Part II Biographies | Part III Animals/Mammals | Part IV Creepy Crawlies

This time I am taking a slightly different approach and instead of focusing on individual authors, I have grouped some titles together. Below are 28 titles and really this is just a small number of titles that are out there. I realize that I have so many more books to read it this area and to expand beyond the parts of the ocean that I naturally gravitate towards, but this list will certainly get you started.

National Geographic Kids - There are so many amazing titles by National Geographic Kids that it is best just to go browse on their website. I have enjoyed everyone of their titles.

Scientists in the Field - This is an amazing series with so many wonderful titles. Check out the website for the series and all of the titles including the six listed below.

Biographies - Here are two biographies that I did not include in my previous post. Here are the links - The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino and Life in the Ocean by Claire A. Nivola