Wonderful new book!


So today I took my son to the Earth Day festivities in my hometown of Fredericksburg, Va.  While I was there, I bought a new book called ABC's from the Rappahannock River.  by Betty Lewis Ellett.  I loved this book because it shows real photographs of a river system and highlights the animals that live there, the weather that affects it, safety measures (including a great segment on life jackets), and also words like rapids, bridges, anglers and marinas.

I can't wait to share it with my students when we start our unit on Virginia's Natural Resources.  Rivers and watersheds are extremely important to our environment. 

Can you think of a connection to your classroom?  Could you have your students create their own ABC book for Earth Day? I have created a generic version of the ABC brainstorming chart that you can use for any content area brainstorming session.  I like to give these to cooperative groups to use as a preassessment on a new topic or a formative assessment before a test.  Enjoy your copy here for FREE...

Popular posts from this blog

A Novel History of Psychology

Image
BOOK REVIEW: Vanessa L. Ryan, Thinking Without Thinking in the Victorian Novel (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012) ——————————————— Science and (the study of) literature are growing closer together. From  Stanford's Literary Lab  and a recent New York Times piece on the Digital Humanities  to reading Austen in an MRI machine  and so-called " Literary Darwinism ," there's both controversy and a certain cache (and maybe even a little cash) in bringing scientific techniques and the study of literature closer together. This is your brain on Austen ( http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/september/images/mri_reading_news.jpg ) So what about the study of science and the study of literature? History of science, say, and literary history? The short answer is that it's happening in English departments, but not so much in History. Why? More on that below. Work on the interplay between science and literature has been dominated by scholars of the Victorian novel. G...
Read more

Scientific Comparison Writing

Image
My friend, Kip Bisignano, (a Delta/FOSS Sales Rep for Virginia, Maryland and DC) came to play with my class this week. We are presenting together at the Virginia Association of Science Teachers (VAST) in November on reading strategies and science. So yesterday, we used the book and the strategies with the class. The results were amazing! We started the day by having the kids read the book: Blue Whales and Buttercups by Seeds of Science. It is an excellent book that has the students reading about how animals and plants are similar and different. They eventually get to the point that they are all related - due to the fact that all living things are made up of cells. My students loved the book and we had a great discussion! Next we reread page 12 and 13 and brainstormed how the animals fox and wolf are similar and different using a great graphic developed by Kip. You can see how my student Darlene was able to compare two characteristics easily using this forma...
Read more

Chocoalate...Sink and Float

Image
What's better than chocolate?  not much! Here's another experiment brought to you by Candy Experiments.   Most candy sinks in water, because sugar is denser than water.  But some candy floats. Why? This experiment is so easy...all you need is some leftover chocolate candy and water.  Drop the candy in the clear glass and observe what happens.  Here's what Loralee at Candy experiments says is happening: "Some kinds of candy, such as Kit Kats, 3 Musketeers, and marshmallows have air trapped inside. This makes them float.  " I have created another recording sheet to go along with this experiment!  Hope you can use it!    
Read more