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STEM Tuesday — Human Body– In the Classroom

By on November 12, 2024   /   Human Body, STEM Tuesday  

 

Many of the books in this month’s theme—the fascinating, sometimes gross human body—have fun activities you can try in the classroom. But here are a few more to get students involved and learning about human biology, how it works, and some if its quirkiest parts.

 

The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers: A Tour of Your Useless Parts, Flaws, and other Weird Bits

written by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Clayton Hanmer

A funny, wacky book, led by tour guides Wisdom Tooth and Disappearing Kidney, about our vestigial organs: our body parts that were essential to our ancestors but are no longer useful to us.

Activity

This book seems like the perfect start to some great fiction stories. Encourage students to find their favorite odd body part, use some of the facts they discovered, and then develop a fiction story from there. Imagine there’s a scientist who discovers what that body part if meant to do. Or imagine that the body part is its own character on a mission to find out why it is in the body. Tell students to weave in facts from the book, but to be as creative as they can be. And encourage them to experiment with format: maybe a graphic novel format would work best, maybe lots of dialogue is needed, or maybe a diagram would help. When students are finished, invite them to share with the class what their body part discovered in their fiction story.

 

 

It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, Gender and Sexual Health

by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley

A book for young people who want answers to questions about their bodies, about growing up, and about new, unfamiliar feelings in their tween years.

 

Activity

Questions about our bodies can be hard to ask, a little scary even until you know the answers. So encourage students to do their research. Before reading this book, have them jot down any questions they might have about their changing bodies. As they read, tell them to look for answers in the book. And if those answers aren’t in the book, encourage them to research more at the library or on safe online sites. When they are done, have them write an interesting piece of information they discovered on an index card. Post a collection of body facts somewhere in the classroom for students to check out.

 

 

The Ultimate Kids’ Guide to Being Super Healthy: What You Need To Know About Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep, Hygiene, Stress, Screen Time, and More 

by Dr. Nina L. Shapiro

Embark on a fact-filled journey through the human body. What happens when it gets fed? Exercised? Cleaned? Rested? Read it and find out. This in-depth book gives answers to those pressing questions between kids and parents about how to take care of yourself and why it is important.

Activity

Now students can be their own health experiment! How does reducing screen time affect how they feel? How does it feel to exercise every day? Tell them to choose a theory they want to test and make a journal to use for a week. They need to complete the activity, gather data, note how they feel each day, and then compile results at the end of the week. Encourage students to make graphs or charts to creatively show their data. Then they can present their findings to the class.

 

Karen Latchana Kenney is a children’s author and editor who loves creating all kinds of STEM books and classroom content. Find her at https://www.karenlatchanakenney.com/.

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Creative Ways to Keep Kids Reading During the Holidays

By on November 11, 2024   /   For Parents, For Teachers  
Happy Holidays

The holidays are a busy time of the year, and we often forget to do the things that we love the most–like reading. Here are some fun ways to promote reading during these busy weeks. You can send these suggestions home with your students or do this with your own family. You can start anytime, but I find Thanksgiving break through New Year’s Day always works well.

Embrace The Joy of a Read Aloud

book with headphones on it

Listen to an audiobook on all those drives while you are out working on your holiday to-do list. Or while baking in the kitchen together or while wrapping presents, crafting, etc. You could also have somone in your family read out loud. Someone could be the designated reader, or you could take turns. All of my kids ages 4-15 love listening to books read out loud! You could also have books that you read every holiday. Many years we take turns reading A Christmas Carol out loud. My husband teases me that I always fall asleep, but its really only sometimes and he does have such a soothing reading voice lol, and most importantly it doesn’t change the memory I have of the moments.

 

Holiday Count Down

stack of wrapped books

You can choose how many days you are going to count down. Wrap a book for each day, and either take turns opening the packages or have enough books for everyone to open their own each night. Many people do this with holiday picture books, but you can also select a book that is the right reading level for the recipient. And no need to break the bank here. You can get used books or library books (assuming you can check them out for the duration of the countdown). My family has a stack of Christmas books that we pull out each year and we buy one new one every year to add to the pile. The kids enjoy unwrapping one each night and they know certain books are certain sizes so they have fun trying to unwrap a desired book or find the new one. I am of the opinion that you are never too old to enjoy a good picture book. Just like the above suggestion, no one is ever too old to listen to someone read a book out loud.

 

 

Read the book/Watch the Movie

Read a book together and then watch the movie together. This is one of my family’s favorites. There is always extra motivation to participate when kids know that they get to do a movie night after you finish the book. I do have to tease one of my reluctant readers that they don’t have to listen to me read, but they don’t get to watch the movie with us if they don’t.

Host a Read-A-Thon

family reading together Get everyone together for a read-a-thon. We started this tradition a couple of years ago on my birthday. Everyone gets a new book, and we read and eat, read and eat, read and eat. Everyone in the family loves this! Even my reluctant reader looks forward to these events, although it certainly helps that his new book is always a desired graphic novel.

 

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Remember the words of the song, “there will be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories…” Ask your kids to come up with their own scary story. Then sit around in a cozy setting, maybe with the lights dimmed by the light of a glowing fire (or one on the TV if you don’t have a fireplace). Scary stories are often a great way to appeal to reluctant readers. A couple months ago I was interviewing author M.R. Fournet and she was talking about her experience writing middle grade horror. She talked about how so many kids love a good scary story and that they often invent their own just as scary as anything published authors are coming up with. If they don’t want to write their own there are so many great scary stories out there. I remember sitting around at recess taking turns reading Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark when I was a kid. There was a similar book released this year called The Haunted States of America.

Give the Gift of a Graphic Novel

As much as kids love receiving and reading graphic novels, they also find joy in writing them as well. Suggest that they create a graphic novel of their own and gift it to a sibling, friend or parent. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy. My son has a spiral notebook in which he is always drawing boxes to sketch and write his own graphic novels. You could even print out pages of blank boxes and get a simple inexpensive binding done for them after they create the words and images.

Learn About Other Holidays Through Books

When we think of winter holidays we often think of Christmas and Hanukkah, but there are so many more out there to explore. You could learn about Kwanzaa, Diwali, Chinese New Year, etc. There are fun fiction books, like Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy, and there are nonfiction books, like A Kids Book About Diwal by Chhavi Arya Bhargava. You can find more bookish ideas in From the Mixed Up Files blog post Holidays are For Books

Reading Challenges

Many kids love the joy of a challenge or competition. Make a game out of reading and see who can get the most in each category. You could have a winner for each category or 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places for categories done as a large group, like at school. Prizes can be as simple as bragging rights, certificates, little treats, bookmarks, etc.

Holiday Reading ChallengeHoliday Reading Challenge printable

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Motivate Middle-Grade Readers With Phenomena

By on November 6, 2024   /   Common Core & NGSS, Teacher Tips  

As a teacher, I know the importance of getting students interested in a book before they read the first line. When students are motivated to read, it flips the script from a book the teacher is “making me read” to a book “I want to read.” Using a prediction strategy, such as a picture walk (quickly browsing the images in a book), can ramp up student interest.

Yet, have you ever excited students about a book using information not in the book? What if you could share information with your students from outside sources that would activate curiosity and make connections to science or social studies? Count me in for those cross-curricular connections, right?!

Let’s Try the Phenomena Pre-Reading Strategy!

Before we learn about the phenomena pre-reading strategy, take a moment to experience it yourself.

Look at the animated map below. What do you notice? What do you wonder? (If it doesn’t appear in your browser, you can view it here.)

 

Imagine sharing this map with students and having a notice-and-wonder discussion before reading They Are Here! How Invasive Species Are Spoiling Our Ecosystems by Roland Smith.

How could this type of introduction benefit your students?

What is the Phenomena Pre-Reading Strategy?

Engaging with phenomena, like the lionfish map, is a strategy I use to motivate students to want to read and to prepare them to read, a middle grade book–especially nonfiction. According to the Next Generation Science Standards, “Natural phenomena are observable events that occur in the universe and that we can use our science knowledge to explain or predict.” Snowflakes falling, a python eating a deer, and a plant growing toward light are all natural phenomena. Phenomena occur all around us every day, and a science best practice involves asking our students to “notice and wonder” about those phenomena.

Side Note: “phenomenon” is singular and “phenomena” is plural. I hope someday to not have to stop and think for 10 full seconds about which to use in a particular sentence. Today is not that day.

I apply phenomena best practices during English Language Arts (ELA) by sharing a phenomenon related to the core concept in a nonfiction book before we even crack open the cover. The phenomenon could be a photograph, a video, a map, an audio file, or a graph. Then I simply ask: What do you notice? What do you wonder?

We refer to this as a “notice and wonder routine” in science. The less information you give students and the less you lead them with my questions, the better. This is a time for students to call up their background knowledge and to think deeply about what they are seeing and/or hearing. So, I encourage you to stick with: “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”

You can hold a simple discussion, or you can record student ideas on a chart. While students read, they can refer back to the chart and even add to it when the text answers their questions.

Let’s Review a Few Examples!

Here are a few examples of phenomena introductions paired with middle grade nonfiction:

Before reading Who Gives a Poop by Heather Montgomery, enjoy a discussion about this photo:

https://www.waynesword.net/images/scat4b.jpg You’ll have to forgive me. I live with two boys and information about poop is a hit in our house. Oh, and here are the answers in case you’ve never taken a deep dive into poo identification: https://www.waynesword.net/scat.htm

Before Reading Unseen Jungle: The Microbes That Secretly Control Our World by Eleanor Spicer Rice, notice and wonder about these photos: https://telegrafi.com/en/after-seeing-these-pictures%2C-you-won%27t-sleep-without-brushing-your-teeth/amp/ These mysterious pictures may serve the dual purpose of motivating students to read and brush their teeth!

Before reading The Great American Dust Bowl by Don Brown, share dust bowl photos with your students. They will certainly start wondering, “How did this happen?!”

https://infosys.ars.usda.gov/WindErosion/multimedia/dustbowl/dustbowlpics.html

However, you don’t have to limit yourself to phenomena. Sometimes showing students media related to what they are about to read will be enticing. In Total Garbage: A Messy Dive into Trash, Waste, and Our World, Rebecca Donnelly begins by describing a location that is not open to the public: Treasures in the Trash. Conducting a notice and wonder with three photographs of this museum-of-sorts will pique curiosity. And it will certainly provoke deep thoughts about trash when students find out what the images depict.  https://www.mas.org/events/treasures-in-the-trash-group-1/

Plus, there are no photographs in the book, so it is an effective way to demonstrate how conducting research beyond the book can lead to interesting information that enhances the reading experience.

Let’s Discuss Discussions!

If you are used to responding to student ideas with phases like, “Great idea!” or “Hmm…I’m not sure about that one,” I encourage you to take a different approach with phenomena discussions. It is important to facilitate these discussions without judging or favoring specific answers. Your classroom should be a safe space for all students to share their ideas, and you don’t want students to feel that you seek one “correct” answer.

Using Talk Moves, like the following, facilitate open discussion: “Would anyone like to add on to what Angel said?” and “Who has something else they would like to share?” You can find a list of Talk Moves here: https://inquiryproject.terc.edu/shared/pd/Goals_and_Moves.pdf 

If Talk Moves are new to you, don’t be afraid to print the document and keep it by your side as you get used to letting students lead the discussion. And most importantly, don’t answer your students’ wondering questions. Let them read to find out!

Not only does beginning with a phenomenon motivate your students to read, it also provides all students with an equitable experience to build on as they read the text.

So, go ahead, try a phenomenon introduction for your next middle grade read. I think you’ll find it works phenomenally well! (Sorry, I had to!)

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