Children's literature that connects to science...

In keeping with thinking about the start of the year, I thought I'd post a few of my favorite science books as well.

Here are a few of my favorite books to start off the year -

• Monday with a Mad Genius by Mary Pope Osburn is a Jack and Annie tale where they travel back in time to meet Leonardo Da Vinci. That in itself is a cool idea - but what makes this book special is that they follow him throughout his day and see his ups and downs. The book shows that even Leonardo made mistakes and yet he kept on investigating and learning. The book also talks about combining drawing with science and even talks about his SCIENCE NOTEBOOKS. It is a wonderful story and a great start to the year.

• Boy Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs: This is another great book for the start of the year because it talks about how scientists have changed their thinking over the years. It talks about theories that were once univerally accepted that are no longer true! Great book!

• I love just about any book from Seeds of Science Roots of Reading...but my favorite is definately Why Do Scientists Diagree? I love this book on so many levels - first, it shows scientists in all forms - old, young, women, men, African American, Indian, Caucasian, Hispanic and Asian...second, it talks about how scientists must talk through their ideas together. Sometimes they disagree and sometimes they even get mad. I also love this books because it is a story within a story - on one side it shows the historical conflict between Galileo and his colleagues and on the other side it shows modern scientists disagreeing.

Another great Seeds book is Drinking Cleopatra's Tears. This book explains the Water Cycle in a question and answer format that is fun to read and informative too. It is also a little gross - like the part where we may be drinking a dinosaur's sweat. Kids love it!

Oh I could go on and on with this post...but will stop for now. I like the idea of showcasing books used in a unit. Our next unit is on Ecosystems: Plants and Animal Adaptations. If you would like, I can try to highlight the books we are using in class.