Scampers is no ordinary mouse. She's curious. She asks questions. And she experiments. In short, she thinks like a scientist! Her friend Nibbles, reluctantly joins her as they set out to discover the truth about the owl in the garden. Children will enjoy the jaunty dialogue and whimsical illustrations, and along the way they'll learn how think like a scientist, too!
A little bird, a big sky, and the first time out of the nest! A robin’s first flight is a gentle reminder about what we can accomplish if we just keep trying. As reviewer Sue Lowell Gallion says, "Children (and parents!) experiencing the many firsts of growing up will relate to this lively story of a young robin learning to fly. Playful, rhyming text and winsome water color illustrations give readers a birds’ eye view of the baby birds' emotions and adventures on its way to solo flight."
Meet the feet that help birds eat! You can learn a lot about a bird just by looking at its feet. The size, shape, and type give you important clues about where a bird lives, how it moves, and what it eats. Discover seven birds, each with a different type of foot, including a roadrunner with strong legs and feet running across the desert to snag a lizard for lunch, a cardinal with flexible toes perching on a branch to pick berries, and a heron with long legs and toes wading through a river to search for fish. Bright, bold illustrations and simple text invite children to guess what birds will be revealed on successive pages. But look out! Predators are lurking, and they’re hungry, too! "Fun Foot Facts," food chains, bird watching tips, and more are presented in Explore More for Kids, Teachers, and Parents in the back of the book.
“If you were an animal—wild or tame, would you know your daddy’s name?” Every page answers this question with a different animal. Meet a joey riding piggy-back whose daddy is a sugar glider, a calf whose daddy is a towering giraffe, and a tiny fry floating next to its seahorse daddy. Children will be delightfully surprised by the animal in the middle of the book, and dads will especially appreciate the scene on the last page. Rhyming verses describe animal characteristics, and watercolor illustrations capture the feeling of all the different habitats, making every page a teachable moment. Additional animal information and matching game in the back of the book extends the learning.
Wild ones are moving into the city! Follow the dog Scooter as he wanders an urban landscape, seeing many wild animals and not seeing even more. Supplementary material contains true stories and helps children become aware of the presence of wild animals and understand why they have taken to living in cities.
Teachers, here is an elementary insect field trip between covers from Tony Fredericks, a funny but very astute professor. The trip takes place all on one flower, a goldenrod, which is practically a minibeast park. A butterfly sipping nectar...a ladybug snacking on aphids...oh ladybug, look out for the ambush bug! Dr. Fredericks focuses on the whole plant-and-animal community inhabiting a single flower. Two pages of Field Notes and fun facts at the back of the book offer intriguing information on these creatures.
A young mouse quickly comes of age as he sets out to explore his meadow. There he meets many remarkable creatures. Spider has tangled intentions. Firefly really knows how to put on a show. Mother rabbit is kind. Turtle is wise. Others would have him for lunch! Fortunately, help arrives just in time.
Rivers are teeming with life! Children will learn the geography of North American rivers and to appreciate the animals that live there while they count the baby otters or dragonflies. Their learning will be reinforced as they "squeal" like muskrats and "hop" like frogs. All of this fun learning activity is set to the rhythm of the classical tune of "Over in the Meadow."
Storyteller Brian 'Fox' Ellis draws from his memories of fishing with his father to tell this true tale of a fish, a frog, a dragonfly, a mosquito, and himself. The experience helped mold Fox's life-long connection with nature, and is a wonderful example of entertainment that also educates.
The five intrepid BLUES are caricatures of little bluebirds, yet the featured REAL birds are accurate and carefully researched. In this volume, the Bird X-Games are coming soon. Sammi, the sportster, is determined to enter. In her quest, Sammi and the other BLUES travel the globe to see the most extreme birds - the fastest-moving, longest migrating,deepest-diving, and many other record-holders. And in the process, they discover that they have become X-treme themselves. X-citing!
The 54,000-acre Childrens Eternal Rainforest in Costa Rica began with a few kids and a bake sale. Word spread, and children from over 44 countries raised the funds to make it happen. Here is its story with a fresh twist, as young Peter discovers that his mother was one of those original kids. What a terrific way to learn both about cooperation and a magnificent habitat!
This is the second in a series designed to inspire youngsters to appreciate birds. In this episode, the BLUES follow in the footsteps of the great birder, Roger Tory Peterson, and discover birds along all North American coasts, from Newfoundland to Alaska. Kids love to follow the fun-filled personalities of the five cartoon birds even while they learn about remarkable REAL birds. Bird facts and birding tips are scattered throughout. Major birders and birding organizations have endorsed the BLUES series.
The BLUES are five little cartoon bluebirds, each full of personality, who love to travel, and everywhere they go they discover new birds--REAL birds, that is. Bird facts and birding tips are scattered throughout. Major birders and birding organizations have endorsed the BLUES series.
Listen to the "buggy" concert happening in your yard, or in the fields and woods nearby. What insects are making those sounds? Learn who is making what sound, and why. Sing along with them! This book is a wonderful introduction to the noisy, busy world of insects.
Teachers and parents, this book is an outstanding teaching resource, much more than the title might suggest. Beginning with a lifetime for a mayfly is about one day, it presents 24 lifetimes such as that of an earthworm (about six years), a giant sequoia (about 2,000 years), a bacteria (well, that depends), a dinosaur (never again) and the universe (about 15 to 20 billion years). Each example comes with detailed illustrations and something to ponder, such as, for earthworms: Worms teach us that our work can be very important, even if it cannot be seen. Each plant or animal is practically a lesson plan in itself, with tell about it, think about it, and look it up challenges. Written by a retired teacher, this is a favorite book for children and teachers alike.
Written and illustrated by a 14 year-old in 1992, this best-selling book has introduced a whole generation to the wonders of a very important habitat. Following XYZ the Ant, young readers walk through the alphabet and engage in fun alliterations about the amazing anteater, majestic macaw, and quiet quetzal along with the other inhabitants they encounter in the rainforest. The colorful illustrations were done in magic marker. It reaches a large age range because the large text is for young readers, while smaller text is for you or more advanced children. Kristin Joy Pratt (A Swim through the Sea) once again successfully inspires a generation of children about one of the most precious and fragile realms on Earth.
This true tale actually happened in Alaska to the famous naturalist, John Muir, and it became what he called the most memorable of all his wild days. One day, Muir set out to explore a huge glacier during a blizzard. Stickeen--an aloof little dog belonging to a fellow traveler--insisted on going along. They become stranded on the glacier. The only way out was over a precarious ice bridge, dangerous for a man and almost impossible for a dog. When amazingly they both escape, Stickeen's aloofness is replaced by rapturous adoration for Muir. The author skillfully weaves Muir's own words, the illustrations are extraordinary, and the result is a classic.
Here is the ideal introduction for preschoolers and early elementary children to insects that are not only amazing but also critically important to humans. Inside-the-hive views of a wild colony of honey bees offer close-ups of the queen, the cells, even bee eggs. Simple verse will engage a young child, while sidebars with fascinating information satisfy the somewhat older child. Parents, teachers, and interested children will enjoy much more information about both wild and domestic hives in the back of the book. The detailed art shimmers with life, highlighting each hair or grain of pollen on the bees. A wild hive in a tree in her own backyard served as a model for the artist!
Elementary science teachers! Here is a low-cost field trip between covers from Tony Fredericks, a funny but very astute professor. Plus, the habitat lies under just about every rock. A whole community of insects and other creatures lives under rocks--worms and ants, spiders and slugs, crickets and beetles. Dr. Fredericks focuses on the whole community of neighbors where the ground beneath a big old rock is home to them all. Two pages of Field Notes and fun facts at the back of the book offer intriguing information on these creatures.
This remarkable evolution series, narrated by the Universe itself, concludes with this third book, the amazing story of mammals and humans. It picks up after From Lava to Life: The Universe Tells Our Earth Story with the extinction of dinosaurs, and tells how tiny mammals survived and morphed into lots of new Earthlings ... horses, whales and a kind of mammal with a powerful imagination--you! It is a story of chaos, creativity and heroes--the greatest adventure on Earth! And it is a personal story...about our bodies, our minds, and spirits. It is our story. As the president of the American Montessori Society said, These books are alive with wonder, radiance, and deep relevance.
Old MacDonald had a...pond? Yes! Come along with Jo MacDonald and learn about the wild creatures at the farm pond. You'll find fish, frogs, ducks--and a few surprises. This delightful riff on "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" playfully introduces youngsters to the concept of ecosystems. Quattlebaum engages little ones with rhythm, repetition, wordplay, and onomatopoeia, while Bryant charms them with lively watercolors of a pond community. A resource section in the back features both outdoor and indoor activities and games sure to encourage young naturalists at home and school. Jo MacDonald's pond discoveries closely resemble those that Mary discovered, too, when she grew up in the country with fields, gardens and ponds.
Here is a favorite of elementary science teachers for the food chain. Each of the creatures passes the energy in its own unique way. In this upbeat rhyming story, the food chain connects herbivores, carnivores, insects and plants together in a fascinating circle of players. All beings on Earth--from the anchovy to the zooplankton--depend upon the green plant, which is the hero of the story. The special talent of the author shines again (see also A Drop Around the World) for being able to present the science curriculum so concisely, creatively, and cleverly. A 48-page Teacher Guide based on the book is also available.
Teachers! This book is like a whole unit on migration wrapped in a winning combination of easy verse, factual language, and beautiful illustrations. For animals, migration is a powerful compulsion to travel, sometimes over long distances, often skipping many meals. Sometimes, as in the case of the monarch butterfly, a round-trip takes several generations. Why do they do it? How do they succeed? The ten featured species offer a broad representation of migration: loggerhead turtles, monarch butterflies, manatees, ruby-throated hummingbirds, Pacific salmon, Canada geese, California gray whales, caribou, Arctic tern, and emperor penguin. The book is loaded with additional tips for teachers. Once again Marianne Berkes combines her teaching, writing, and theatrical skills to combine entertainment with education--creative non-fiction at its best.
This collection of true stories of animal behavior is not only captivating and thought-provoking, but also a terrific way for teachers and parents to have children to consider feelings--whether animal or human. A young antelope was being dragged into a river by a crocodile. A nearby hippopotamus saw what was happening and charged the croc, which released the antelope. The hippo gently pulled the antelope up the riverbank, comforting and protecting it until it died. Was this compassion? A zoo monkey routinely used a banana to bribe a moose to carry him across a moat designed to keep him confined to a small island. Was this cleverness?
