Details
| Type of Product: | NSTA Press Book (also see downloadable PDF version of this book) (also see downloadable PDF version of this book) |
| Average Rating: | 
based on 4 reviews |
| Publication Date: | 6/10/2010 |
| Pages: | 403 |
| Stock Number: | PB186E2 |
| ISBN: | 978-1-935155-16-4 |
| Grade Level: | Elementary School |
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Using Picture-Perfect Science Lessons in your classroom is easier than ever! NSTA’s ClassPacks, each
sufficient for a class of 28 students, are lesson-specific collections of materials—an unmatched
time-saver and a great deal.
[Click here to view all ClassPacks]
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Our reviewers—top-flight teachers and other outstanding science educators—have determined that this resource is among the best available supplements for science teaching.
[Read the full review] |
Description
Winner of 2011 Bronze EXCEL Award from Association Media & Publishing!
How do you improve upon perfection? For years, new and experienced elementary school teachers alike have extolled the virtues of Picture-Perfect Science Lessons—the expertly combined appeal of children’s picture books with Standards-based science content. The award-winning, bestselling book presents ready-to-teach lessons, complete with student pages and assessments, that use high-quality fiction and nonfiction
picture books to guide hands-on science inquiry.
This newly revised and expanded 2nd edition of Picture-Perfect Science Lessons manages to surpass the original. Classroom veterans Karen Ansberry and Emily Morgan, who also coach teachers through nationwide workshops, know elementary educators are usually crunched for science instructional time and could often use refresher explanations of scientific concepts. So the authors added comprehensive background notes to each chapter and included new reading strategies.
They still show you exactly how to combine science and reading in a natural way with classroom-tested lessons in physical science, life science, and Earth and space science. And now they offer five brand-new lessons—“Batteries Included,” “The Secrets of Flight,” “Down the Drain,” “If I Built a Car,” and “Bugs!”—bringing the total to 20. As always, the appropriate National Science Education Standards are clearly identified throughout.
Picture-Perfect Science Lessons draws on such diverse—and engaging—books as Dr. Xargle’s Book of Earthlets, A House for Hermit Crab, Rice Is Life, Oil Spill!, Sheep in a Jeep, The Perfect Pet, and Weird Friends: Unlikely Allies in the Animal Kingdom. As a result, both reluctant scientists and struggling readers will quickly find themselves absorbed in scientific discovery. You’ll love how effective this book is, and your students will love learning about science.
For more information on how to implement Picture-Perfect Science in you classroom—including key reading strategies and NSES connections—download the free e-book of chapters 1 through 5, Why Read Picture Books in Science Class?
Additional Info
| Intended User Role: | College/University Professor (preservice science education), Curriculum Supervisor, Elementary-Level Educator, Informal Educator, New Teacher, Parent, Professional Development Provider, Teacher |
| Educational Issues: | Assessment of students, Classroom management, Curriculum, Inclusion, Informal education, Inquiry learning, Instructional materials, Interdisciplinary, Learning theory, Professional development, Teacher content knowledge, Teacher preparation, Teaching strategies |
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
About the Picture-Perfect Science Program
Lessons by Grade
1. Why Read Picture Books in Science Class?
2. Reading Aloud
3. Teaching Science Through Inquiry
4. BSCS 5E Instructional Model
5. National Science Education Standards
6. Earthlets
7. Name That Shell!
8. Rice Is Life
9. What’s Poppin’?
10. Mystery Pellets
11. Close Encounters of the Symbiotic Kind
12. Turtle Hurdles
13. Oil Spill!
14. Sheep in a Jeep
15. Sounds of Science
16. Chemical Change Café
17. The Changing Moon
18. Day and Night
19. Grand Canyon
20. Brainstorms: From Idea to Invention
21. Bugs!
22. Batteries Included
23. The Secrets of Flight
24. Down the Drain
25. If I Built a Car
Glossary
Index
This Title Also Available as Part of a Set:
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Set: Picture-Perfect, Expanded 2nd Edition, and the Picture-Perfect, Expanded 2nd Edition Science Book Collection |
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This set includes Picture-Perfect Science Lessons, Expanded 2nd Edition and the Picture-Perfect, Expanded 2nd Edition Science Book Collection. This set equips the teacher with the lesson book plus all 38 trade books that are used in the individual lessons.
The Picture-Perfect, Expanded 2nd Edition, Science Book Collection portion of this set includes these children’s trade books: • Dr. Xargle's Book of Earthlets • Seven Blind Mice • Seashells by the Seashore • A House for Hermit Crab • Rice Is Life • Rice • Popcorn! • White Owl, Barn Owl • Butternut Hollow Pond • What’s Eating You? • Weird Friends • Turtle Watch • Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! • Prince William • Oil Spill! • Sheep in a Jeep • Sound • The Remarkable Farkle McBride • Pancake, Pancakes • Rise the Moon • The Moon Book • Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me • Somewhere in the World Right Now • Erosion • Grand Canyon • Imaginative Inventions • Girls Think of Everything • The Perfect Pet • Bugs Are Insects • Ant, Ant, Ant! • Electrical Circuits • Too Many Toys • How People Learned to Fly • Kids’ Paper Airplane Book • Down the Drain • A Cool Drink of Water • If I Built a Car • Inventing the Automobile
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| Member Price: $380.76 |
Nonmember Price: $475.95 |
Published Reviews
“This book of twenty lesson plans for grades three through six combines children's literature and reading with standards-based science education to provide educators with ready to use units for their science curriculum. Ansberry and Morgan, both former elementary school science teachers and curriculum experts, use thirty-eight children's books as a teaching platform for elementary science education that also reinforce reading and comprehension skills. Including photographs, teacher prompts and hand out materials this work will appeal to elementary school science teachers and education students.”
Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR
“Forget the predictable lava-enhanced volcano models or brightly painted foam-ball solar systems; the hope is that today's elementary grade students are absorbed in inquiry-based projects. But in classrooms besieged by test-prep and anxiety over reading and math scores, time for extended explorations can be hard to come by. With Karen Ansberry and Emily Morgan's Picture-Perfect Science Lessons: Using Children's Books to Guide Inquiry, 3-6 (NSTA Press, 2010), teachers keep science alive while building literacy. It's a win-win proposition. … The core of the book contains 20 independent lessons which incorporate the BSCS 5E Instructional Model. … Each lesson is notable for its detail, with clearly stated objectives (based upon the National Science Education Standards); grade levels; a list of materials; reproducible student pages (specific to each lesson) for recording information, observations, activities, and results; an essay of factual background information on the topic; safety guidelines; and of course, the related picture books. For example, in the lesson "The Secrets of Flight," Fran Hodgkins' How People Learned to Fly (HarperCollins, 2007), and Ken Blackburn's Kids' Paper Airplane Book (Workman, 1996) support an investigation of flight which gets kids designing and testing paper airplanes. "Chemical Change Café" features a read aloud of Eric Carle's Pancakes, Pancakes! (Knopf, 1970), along with cooking and eating, to spur study of the differences between chemical and physical changes. Other lessons investigate an oil spill, electrical circuits, bugs, sea turtles, popcorn, sound, and more, replete with kid-tested, hands-on science activities designed to make learning authentic and fun.”
Curriculum Connections—School Library Journal, April 2011
Customer Reviews
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PERFECT Picture Perfect Science Lessons |
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Reviewed by: Sharon Ragan (Youngstown, OH) on July 2, 2008 |
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I met Emily Morgan while we were OSCI trained in Columbus, OH a few years ago. She introduced me to her book and I thought it was wonderful. The lessons follow the 5 E’s Model that allows students to EXPLORE, EXPLORE, EXPLORE. The inquiry method of teaching is so important when teaching children science. I use lessons from the Picture Perfect Science in my 6th grade classes too and the workshops that I facilitate the OPFERST classes at Youngstown State University. The teachers in the workshop are so impressed with the lessons that we have ordered both books for over 70 teacher participants. Many teachers are used to not teaching much science or teach it as a reading lesson. After using Picture Perfect Science lessons in the workshop, most teachers were excited about teaching science and cannot wait to get back to the classroom to teach using the 5 E’s Model. Integrating Picture Books is a great way to integrate Language Arts into Science while using inquiry. |
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Picture-Perfect Science Lessons |
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Reviewed by: Melanie Zook (, ) on May 5, 2008 |
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Picture-Perfect Science Lessons is an explanation and guide for using picture books and other children’s literature as a way to teach science. The book begins by outlining an argument for using such literature in science and provides best practice methods for reading picture books aloud to children.
The first chapter defines a picture book as being “…unique to children’s literature as they are defined by format rather than content. That is, they are books in which the illustrations are of equal importance as or more important than the text in the creation of meaning” (Strickland and Morrow 2000). Picture books tend to capture the interest of children for longer periods of time and lend themselves to comprehension strategy practice.
The book gave four research-based arguments for using picture books. First, they give context for concepts. Rather than having student memorize lists of facts, books give a real-life context in which new concepts can better be learned and observed. Second, picture books provide a greater depth of coverage. Unlike textbooks which often give broad coverage on many topics, picture books allow for in-depth coverage on one topic. Third, research shows that children showed great gains in literacy skills when introduced to children’s literature and literacy instruction in the science program. Their attitude towards science also improved. Finally, using picture books within the science curriculum provided opportunities to correct science misconceptions. “Repetition of the correct concept by reading several books, doing a number of experiments, and inviting scientists to the classroom can facilitate a conceptual change in children (Miller, Steiner, and Larson 1996).
The second chapter gave tips for reading aloud and reading comprehension strategies. The authors also listed tools for improving reading comprehension including anticipation guides, visual representations, rereading, stop and jot, think-pair-share, and word sorts.
The third and fourth chapters discussed using an inquiry model and leading children through prediction, inferring, and questioning. The authors introduce us to the BSCS Instruction Model (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study) and the 5E model. The 5E model is Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate. The purpose of the Engage stage is to capture students’ attention. The Explore stage provides opportunities for students to engage in activities, giving them concrete experiences, concepts and skills. In the Explain stage, students are given a chance to put their ideas into their own words, clarifying the concepts. This gives the teacher a checkpoint to assess student understanding. In the elaborate stage, students are challenged to extend the concepts learned and apply them to new situations. At the evaluate stage, the teacher is able to assess student’s understanding and give opportunity for students to self-evaluate.
The remainder of the book lays out each chapter as a lesson plan, including goals, objectives, all required materials, activities, questions and a rubric for assessment. Each chapter provides the worksheets needed for the activities and lays out each lesson according to the 5E model.
I would highly recommend this book for its many strategies and usability.
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Picture This |
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Reviewed by: Sharon M (Spanish Fork, UT) on October 31, 2007 |
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My goal as a teacher is to proviide an introductory activity that immediately engages students with the topic. One of my favorite methods for doing this is picture books. This book is an excellent resource for integrating picture books into the science curriculum. It suggests some great books and gives ideas on how to use them in the most effective manner. |
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A Must-Have Book for Elementary Teachers |
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Reviewed by: Claire T (Anytown, TX) on April 27, 2007 |
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This book is wonderful! Deserves the Nobel Prize and a National Book Award. |
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