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In these days of Common Core standards and a focus on text compplexity, I am interested in what non-fiction reading you have your students do to upport a unit? For example, if I was working on a rocks and minerals unit, I might ask the students to read Let's Go Rock Collecting (Let'S-Read-And-Find-Out Science. Stage 2) pages 3-5. We would then do some literacy and science work around those pages. I might pull out science vocabulary and have the students do some word sorts/categorization.

What are some non-fiction books you use for Grades PK -6 in science? What do you do with them?

Kathy

Hi Kathy,

I try to combine science and literacy whenever I can. One resource that I use frequently is Books to Build On: A Grade-by-Grade Resource Guide for Parents and Teachers by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. ISBN: 978-0-385-31640-8. This book lists books based on grade level and subject and is an excellent reference book.

Hi Kathy and Maureen,
I know of an article in the Learning Center that discusses Before-, During-, and After-Reading Strategies to support science learning and literacy development. It is called, 'Primary Students & Informational Texts.'
In the Before-Reading phase, students engage in Preview-Predict-Confirm (PPC) activities. To appreciate what this means, the article gives very detailed explanations for replicating this strategy in a first grade classroom. I found the article to be very informative and filled with other neat ways to integrate science and informational text readings.
Also all of the Science & Children journal articles that begin with 'Teaching Through Tradebooks' are filled with excellent book resources. When I did an advanced search, 40 journal articles were listed. This one: Teaching Through Trade Books: May the Force Be with You!, mentioned 2 books about motion: Go,Go,Go! Kids on the Move
and Why Doesn't the Earth Fall Up? And Other Such Dumb Questions About Motion. What's great is that each article also provides activities to supplement the informational text readings. I, too, think it will be fun and interesting to hear what specific books teachers are using in their classrooms and how they are using them to support their instructional science units.

Hi Carolyn, Thank you for posting the link to the article, "Primary Students & Informational Texts." in the discussion thread. I had mentioned in another thread that I needed to use literature in a science lesson concerning magnets and that all I could find was informational text despite looking for a different literary genre to read about magnets. That being the case, your article will be a valuable resource as to how I can incorporate the informational text into an elementary science lesson. Thank you.