"Because of me the land is green. I’m why the sky is blue. All of life depends on me. I'm even part of you." Lyrical verses present water in its many colors, shapes, and forms as it follows its natural cycle through the seasons. From rain to rivers, from fog to thunderheads, from snowflakes to ocean waves - water is always changing. Along the way, water speaks for itself, connecting deeply with readers. The evocative illustrations highlight water’s many moods. "I can show you rainbows/ in mist or morning dew/ I can be a muddy flood/or a pool of aqua blue." Teachers and parents will appreciate the Explore More section in the back of the book that includes "The Science Behind the Poetry," STEM activities, water conservation tips, and more.
Plant it - water it - weed it - protect it - and under the blossoms is the perfect shady nook to read a book! Pretty soon its time to pick all those long, lean beans, and to harvest a full season of garden knowledge and experience.
Below your feet, Mighty Mole is on the move. Like a swimmer in dirt, she strokes through the soil. Her tunnels are everywhere! She finds food, eludes a predator, has a family, and helps to make Super Soil. Moles live almost everywhere yet are rarely seen. Similarly, soil is a largely invisible ecosystem and yet is vital to the health of the world. Following the story, two Explore More for Kids pages offer a matching challenge and a review of some of the remarkable traits that make moles mighty. Two additional pages of Explore More for Teachers and Parents offers activities in visual and language arts, science, technology, and math. Further activities are available at www.dawnpub.com.
Honey is a sweet gift from nature - ALL of nature, actually. Honey is linked in a very real way to dandelions, earthworms, mushrooms, the old oak tree and even the blue jays squawking in its branches. Take another look at honey. If you love natures honey, you are sure to love nature too. How sweet it is! The author fell in love with bees as an amateur beekeeper, and then learned to appreciate flowering plants even ones she once considered weeds as an important nectar source. And then she realized how the plants were connected to insects and soil. A simple but accurate diagram in the back matter explains how bees make honey and also pollinate plants, as well as the role of beneficial insects and decomposers. Also presented are activities and a recipe for children. Further activities are available at www.dawnpub.com.
Discover twenty cool animals, ten great mountain ranges, and seven continents all in one story! And do it in the age-old style of children the world over - by clapping, counting, singing, and acting like...well, animals! What fun!
Take a ride with Pitter on a water cycle! You'll go through a watershed, down, around and up again. How about going with Patter? You'll even go underground. Oh, the places you'll go and the creatures you'll see. A water drop is a wonderfully adventurous thing to be!
Every kind of bird has their very own kind of sound! Cheerful sounds, mournful sounds, sweet sounds, weird sounds. You can tell who they are without even opening your eyes. And what fun to sing along!
A wild prairie is a lively place in this rhythmic romp with munchers and crunchers above and below the grasses so thick, and fires that flare, and rains that quenchand always the prairie grows green. Back matter offers information and activities for a fuller appreciation of this marvelous, disappearing habitat.
A tiny baby sea turtle scrambles across the sandy beach and into the sea. Floating far out in the ocean, Kiki is becoming a gentle giant. She swims to shallower water where a rainbow of corals puts on a show. Kiki adopts the busy coral reef as her new home and discovers fish of all sizes and lots of surprises! But something keeps calling her back to the beach...and the circle of life continues.
Nature comes alive to a curious young girl in this gently rhyming, delightfully imaginative book. She notices everything around her with awe: "A rock is an island for a frog...a turtle makes a bridge from a log...the sky is a place to be free...the Earth is a home for me." This book combines the best of fiction and nonfiction, and shows the joy of discovering the beauty of nature.
So you'd like to go back in time to see real dinosaurs and other ancient reptiles? Yes, that would be very cool. And if you start by giving a T-Rex a bone, things will be, well - interesting. Dangerously interesting! So go ahead - offer him that bone and see what happens. Along the way you're bound to encounter many other animals from the past, creatures wild and amazing. Dangerously amazing!
Rivers make beautiful music - from the trickle of snowmelt to the burble of a full-flowing stream. Here the famed children's musical ensemble, the Banana Slug String Band, celebrates rivers as a fascinating, ever-changing source of life and joy.
Upbeat, funny and irresistibly singable, this song was made famous by John Denver and now made doubly delightful by Christopher Canyon's illustrations. Especially if you listen along with Denver, kids will say, play it again! It is all about the cousins, the chicken pie, four hound dogs and a piggy, but as the song says, the best darn thing about Grandmas house was her great big feather bed. Vince Gill put it in a nutshell: "It just makes sense--John Denver and kids!"
Under the algae that carpets the swamp, near the duck who paddles in ooze, close to the turtle who takes a snooze...hides a gator! Still as a log, only his watchful eyes can be seen. But when gator moves, he really moves! What happens to the duck, the turtle, the egret, the deer, and the many other critters of the swamp when gator makes his move?
This book is the record of a miracle. The metamorphosis of a tiny egg to a caterpiller, then to a chrysalis, and finally to a beautiful butterfly is one of nature's most astonishing miracles. The stunning pictures in this book - many taken with a microscopic lens - will guide you and your child or student to record and understand the progress of the miracle that takes place in your hands, with your own caterpillar/butterfly. More than 140 photographs capture rare sequences: the hatchling eating its way out of the egg; the first green meal moving through the caterpillar's intestines; and a caterpillar shedding its skin. Ample space for notes, drawings and progress charts encourage children to be scientists - and in the process, gain a profound appreciation for these remarkable tiny beings. The book includes 20 pages of teacher information, including answers to questions, charts, tips for teachers, and pages of resources.
Ancient trees embrace a wonderful world of creatures, each playing their special role. From lowly fungi to majestic owls, the book connects the web of nature and aptly portrays the amazing ways in which the inhabitants of the forest depend upon one another for survival. Stunning illustrations by the renowned illustrator, Christopher Canyon, manage to be both magical and true. As AAAS Science Books & Films says, "The science is accurate and the book painlessly teaches important ecological lessons."
Remember the wonder and innocence of catching fireflies as they dance through the summer nights? Here is an opportunity to share the magical experience with your children. Amy is afraid of dark shadows in her bedroom, but notices a slight glow in the back yard. With exuberance she catches fireflies in a jar, only to find their lights go dim until they are free again--and finds that her fear of the dark is gone too. The photo-illustrations are lifelike yet dreamy. A wonderful read-aloud.
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.
From the trickle of snowmelt to the roar of the ocean, River Song celebrates rivers as a fascinating, ever-changing source of life and joy. It also introduces the young reader to vocabulary such as eddy, riffle and meander, and tells about some of the plants, animals, and insects that depend on the river.The author is not only an award-winning environmental educator and river guide, but also member of the famed Banana Slug String Band.
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.
Here is a gentle way to share a birth with a child. John Denver's hauntingly beautiful song "Ancient Rhymes" is about the birth of a baby dolphin, and Christopher Canyon's luminous illustrations - including a baby dolphin curled up with an umbilical cord and also a live birth - convey a sense of mystery, awe, and anticipation of things to come. The baby soon tastes the air and learns of dolphin ways, much the same way as a human baby does. There's something magical and indescribable about it - a timeless and endearing lullaby.
Just imagine all of nature - mountains, prairies, oceans, and all - lying on your bed as a patchwork quilt! Take flora and fauna in their unique habitats, fold them up and you have a book, this book. Earth's major habitats are spread before you, ready to be examined. Here in this beautiful package are revealed the key concepts of natural science. This patchwork quilt of nature covers the whole Earth, your home - yours to learn about, to enjoy, to care for, and to love.
Named a prestigious CBC/NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book, this is a poetic yet accurate description of the life cycle of salmon. For kids, it is fun and eye-opening. For teachers, it is a valuable supplement to a unit on water, fish and ocean animals, and life cycles. Fast-paced prose and brilliant illustrations follow the salmon from their form as eggs in a stream to the wide ocean, eventually making a hazardous journey home to their stream of origin. As in her earlier best-selling book, The Tree in the Ancient Forest, author Carol Reed-Jones uses cumulative verse--a literary technique that is not only enjoyable but suggests how interconnected salmon are with their habitat. At the back is a section on salmon facts and what makes a good habitat for them, teaching the basics of ecology and why clean streams and waters are so important.
Teachers and parents, take note: this book is already a classic. Two geniuses--author and illustrator--came into perfect alignment to create this book. The author has kids thinking it is entertainment while adults think it is a great lesson about the ocean. The genius of the illustrator is obvious. With painstaking detail each illustration is created entirely of polymer clay, then photographed, creating a 3-D impression of tremendous vitality. Kids will sing, clap, and count their way among pufferfish that puff, gruntfish that grunt, and seahorses that flutter, and begin to appreciate life in the ocean. And the art will inspire many a project. Plus there are several pages of extension ideas for curriculum and art projects as well as resources on the web and elsewhere.
Old MacDonald had a...garden? Yes! Sing along with young Jo MacDonald as she grows healthy food for people and wild creatures. E-I-E-I-O! Find out how butterflies, bumblebees, and birds help a garden to thrive - and how you can help them too. And keep an eye on one mysterious plant. What will it become? Youngsters learn about garden ecosystems and stewardship through this playful adaptation of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm."
