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.
"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.
Praised by Jacques Cousteau, this book, illustrated and written by a16 year-old, is a classic introduction to the marine habitat. This 1994 alphabet and alliteration book continues to be a favorite of kids, parents, and teachers everywhere. It is truly an exceptional swim through an alphabet of sea creatures. Each page highlights a selected species with a full-color illustration and a paragraph of fascinating facts, surrounded by a frame full of extra creatures and vocabulary. 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 Walk in the Rainforest) once again successfully inspires a generation of children about one of the most precious and fragile realms on Earth.
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!
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.
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.
When frogs get together, they love to sing! They fill their big, bulgy throat pouch with air and sing out loud. Some peep, some trill, some growl, some creek, and some go WAAH, WAAH, WAAH! It's a chorus that happens near almost every pond and stream. Learn more about these delightful creatures--and sing along with them!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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! Here is another field trip between covers from Tony Fredericks, a funny but very astute professor. Here he visits wetlands inhabited by leaping frogs and zip-zipping dragonflies. Teachers will appreciate the accurate science and great illustrations. Kids will appreciate the humor and cadence of the text, while learning how the wetland creatures interact in their community. Two pages of Field Notes and fun facts at the back of the book offer intriguing information on these creatures.
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...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."
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?
