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Building Science Skills with Compare and Contrast Picture Books

Kids love animals and have an innate desire want to categorize and sort things into groups. Why not combine these passions to build early observation skills in science? I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to review this year's Compare and Contrast books from Arbordale Publishing. I'd love to share this engaging book series with you along with resources and activity ideas for science class.

In this post you will find information about Compare and Contrast books, written by seasoned zoo and aquarium educators, as well as links to an infographic activity and how to use graphic organizers to build science skills in observation and categorization.

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I receive a commission from purchases made through links, at no additional cost to you. Please see disclosures for more information.

Animal Compare and Contrast Books

The newest compare and contrast books from Arbordale Publishing feature dazzling photos of animals. In many cases the pictures give a glimpse of something we would not have an opportunity to see otherwise. We especially loved the images of turtles in Turtles: A Compare and Contrast Book. You can preview the turtle book here. (Recommended for ages 4-9, grades K-3)

Each book in the series is well organized. For example, Birds: A Compare and Contrast Book is organized by feature and adaptation. I think this makes this series perfect for the classroom or at home because students can find interesting information in a way that is logical and scaffolds off of their prior knowledge. You can preview the bird book here. (Recommended for ages 4-9, grades K-3)

While the turtle and bird books focus on one group of animals, others compare and contrast two similar yet different types of animal. These are wonderful for finding out why we may confuse two types of creatures and what actually makes them different from one another. These titles include: Alligator or Crocodile?, Black Bear or Grizzly Bear?, Hippo or Rhino? and Octopus or Squid?.

We definitely learned some interesting things we didn't know before from this book series.

Did you know?

There are 16 subspecies of Black Bear in North America. All subtle differences in DNA.
In addition to eight arms, squid have two tentacles covered in suction cups and hooks.
Black rhinos can grab onto things with their prehensile upper lip.

And many, many more interesting facts, but I don't want to spoil them all!

I loved that each book contained additional learning material, activities and ideas in the back. You could read the book just for fun, or turn it into a deeper learning experience with these extensions.

I believe the Compare and Contrast series would be an excellent addition to any classroom or home library. Engaging images, interesting and understandable content on topics kids get excited about.

Comparing and Contrasting for Preschool

Little ones love to sort! After a Compare and Contrast book read-aloud, get out a big sheet of paper (we love big paper rolls!) tape it to the floor and draw some sorting circles. Grab some animal toys (our Octonauts made it into the mix!) and have the kids sort based on color, type or however they choose.

This is excellent practice in making observations, looking carefully, comparing and contrasting.

Create an Infographic with Elementary Students

Use the Compare and Contrast series to have students design their own infographics. Using this template, kids can illustrate and write about an animal they have read about. Bits of information comparing their animal to another are explained with text and information. Once everyone is done the students can become the teachers and share their illustrated information with their peers.

Grab the infographic template worksheet here.

Graphic Organizers

Here is a great article on using graphic organizers in literature-based science instruction. After reading a compare and contrast book help students organize and process new information by using a graphic organizer such as a T-chart or Venn diagram.

T-charts are an easy way for young students to organize information when comparing two things. Circle the kids up and get out the chart paper to have them help you populate information into two categories.

If you're looking for another book to inspire some STEM learning in the elementary classroom, check out my post: Poetry and Engineering Inspired by Nature.

Using Epic! to Find Science Themed Children's Literature

As many of you know, I love sharing children's books that are related to the information and activities in my posts. Although I think there are great benefits to holding a book made of paper, there are incredible resources for digital books now available.

Visit our Facebook page to enter to win a 2 month Epic! subscription! Now through May 31st 2017.

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I really like the children's book service Epic! My friends and colleagues in libraries and elementary schools are raving about it. Their students enjoy using it and there are great titles available.

Epic! is essentially the Netflix of children's books. Subscribers can access over 15,000 children's books digitally on their computers, laptops and mobile devices. If you are an educator, you can use Epic! for free. This is a great opportunity to try it out if you're not already familiar with it.

There is a non-fiction section full of great science books available. I like using non-fiction alongside fiction to teach science. Many of my favorite fiction titles are there as well. For more in-depth info and activities to use alongside children's books, see the links at the end of this post.

In addition to digital books through Epic! you can access audiobooks, read-a-long books and videos. If you're someone who frequently purchases books and other media, the program is a steal at only $4.99/month.

Read on Epic! Anywhere. Anytime. On any device.

Being a fluent reader and writer is of great importance to being able to explore, research and communicate science well. Building these skills when students are young is of the utmost importance. Because I love facts, here are some about reading:

Reading is the best exercise for your brain -- it relieves stress, improves focus and concentration. (source)
“Reading a lot” is one of the most powerful methods of increasing fluency, vocabulary, [and] comprehension. (source)
Children learn an average of 4,000 to 12,000 new words each year as a result of book reading. (source)

Epic! is being used in 70% of the elementary schools in the United States. Find your next favorite story there, as well as my favorite children's science themed books!

Check out these other posts that include children's books to teach and enjoy science:

Rozzy and Friends: Promoting STEM in the Early Years

I'm excited to share some thoughts on science in the Pre-school and early Elementary years today in addition to introducing you to Rozzy and Friends whose work focuses on this age group.

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Rozzy and Friends is an educational company whose aim is to bring STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) experiences to young children, particularly girls, ages 2-6. Exposure to STEM is just as important as language arts in early childhood education. The ideas that are inherent in STEM concepts and future careers in STEM fields are innate in young children: curiosity, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking.

In addition to developing and bringing STEAM (STEM plus Art!) curricula to schools, Rozzy and Friends has also published a book to engage young students in the scientific process. Maggie the Magnifying Glass is the story of a young girl who has a pretty magical adaptation: she IS a magnifying glass. Throughout the interactive story, Maggie describes how she makes scientific observations to find their lost class pet, a ladybug.

I particularly like how the book begins with a place to write the owners name. It says: "This book belongs to Scientist: _________________". Insuring from the get-go that the reader understands that they are a scientist too. The book depicts a wide range of characters that just about any reader could relate to.

I enjoyed that the text was interactive, in that statements are written to promote children's thinking and teach them how they might investigate something scientifically. The student's teacher Miss Rozzy suggests they think like scientists when their ladybug goes missing. They need to ask questions and use tools, like magnifying glasses. From then on, the kids are guiding the investigation, not the adults. The book ends with Maggie's tutorial on how to use a magnifying glass.

I did find Maggie's magnifying glass face to be a little off-putting, but that might just be me as an adult over-thinking things! I think that students might find her super power exciting, but I also believe that having a strong, young female character who was interested in using scientific tools would be just as engaging to young girls, regardless of super power. That caveat aside, I think that Rozzy and Friends is on the right track in terms of depicting children engaged in the scientific process, particularly girls, and promoting the idea that we are all scientists.

To learn more about Rozzy and Friends and to see their engaging school programs in action, visit them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. To learn more about their STEAM curriculum contact them through the Rozzy and Friends webpage. If you are interested in buying copies of Maggie the Magnifying Glass for your children or classroom they are available for purchase here.

Many preschool activities lend themselves conveniently to STEM. Students are naturally curious and in a stage where they are developing an understanding of the world around them, often through experimentation. More and more excellent resources are being developed to aid in formalizing STEM education in schools and at home.

If you are interested in promoting STEM learning with your young students or children, you might want to check out the resources from Bright Horizons, or the Boston Children's Museum's Preschool curriculum: STEM Sprouts.

In addition to some excellent programming depicting kids who take part in the scientific process, like Sid the Science Kid, PBS has some excellent tips for encouraging girls in STEM found here. You may also want to read my post, "Science Teaching Toolbox: Girl Power! Getting (and keeping!) Girls Interested in Science."

Note: I was sent a complimentary copy of Maggie the Magnifying Glass but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All opinions throughout are my own.

Unpacking Big Discoveries for Little Learners

There have been so many exciting scientific discoveries and breakthroughs in the past few years. Most recently, all the buzz is around the confirmation of gravitational waves, theorized by Einstein a century ago. The question for me as an educator is always how to share these important advances in science with students.

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How does one explain a concept like gravitational waves to the very young? Particularly if you have to read several articles on it yourself to feel like you've grasped it?! Good news: you don't. No, I'm not saying that young children are not capable of learning difficult concepts, nor am I saying that science is not an important part of early childhood and elementary education. However, I am saying that what is more important when teaching kids in the years before middle school is laying a strong foundation in the sciences so that they can grasp all of these cool scientific advances when they read about them in their future textbooks.

(That said, if you live with, or teach a budding astrophysicist, there is no need to stifle their passion by not exploring these more complex concepts.)

Image by: Bruno Sanchez-Andrade Nuno via Flickr

When I was a science specialist for Preschool through 6th grade, I was often met with the incredulous response of "You teach 3 and 4 year olds science?!?" as if the idea of it was crazy. Yes, I do, and it's a lot of play and discovery. I think many people hear science and can only think of lab coats and Bunsen burners. When you teach at this level you are building the foundation that students will pull from in the more advanced years of their education. Science at this age has so much to do with forming kids' understanding of the world around them.

So let's unpack the discovery of gravitational waves for the little guys. What basic science concepts are inherent in this topic? How can we build on understanding as they continue their education?

Early Childhood

Gravity: Young children do not feel the need to wait until science time to experiment, they are constantly experimenting. They've learned about gravity through learning to walk, building towers and knocking them down, building more towers and knocking them down...they might not have the vocabulary term for it, but they are already beginning to understand the concept of gravity. There is no reason not to introduce the vocabulary to go with their exploration.

Try some fun age-appropriate activities for exploring gravity:

Use fiction books such as Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw and non-fiction stories like I Fall Down by Vicki Cobb to explore the concept further.

Space: Explore the objects of space, starting at this age with the planets and the sun. Developmentally the idea of scale is a difficult one at this age. However, you can begin to show that some planets and space objects are larger than others, laying the groundwork for when scale is more comprehensible.

Waves: Students may have experienced waves at the ocean, or in the bathtub. Introduce the idea that there are other types of waves, some that we can't see. At this age, use sound as an example. Although we may not be able to see sound waves as they move from an object to our ear, we can see vibrations.

One of my favorite fun and messy ways to "see" sound is to tap a tuning fork and then dip it in a basin of water. It will make fun splashes and ripples.

Check out these other ways of seeing and feeling sound on my Pinterest board, "Sound Science"

Elementary

Gravity: Elementary students are better suited to begin to understand the concept of gravity beyond objects falling down. Try these gravity activities with elementary students.

Some elementary book suggestions for exploring gravity are Gravity by Jason Chin and Gravity is a Mystery by Franklyn M. Branley.

Space: This is the perfect age to begin building those to-scale solar system models on the playground. Students are better able to understand scale at this age (although it is still far from an easy concept!). They also love to learn about new things, so adding other space objects like asteroids, dwarf planets, etc. can be fun. You'll find seemingly infinite resources from NASA on their website.

Waves: You can now add light to your study of waves, in addition to sound (although those activities are still fun and useful here!) Try this activity, Big Wave, from the Center of Science and Industry to explore waves.

A great early elementary book for studying the properties of light waves and reflection is I See Myself by Vicki Cobb.

Einstein: Elementary is a great time for biographies. Inspire students with how Einstein's ideas and theories have held on and discoveries are still being made 100 years later. Try On a Beam of Light: A Story of Einstein by Jennifer Berne, and I Am Albert Einstein: Ordinary People Change the World by Brad Meltzer.

Middle School, High School and beyond

Gravitational Waves: At this point, students are poised to learn and understand current events like the confirmation of gravitational waves because of the strong background they've developed if they have been learning concepts like those we've outlined here.

Some excellent starting points to understand this idea:

As well as this video brought to my attention by the author of the blog iGameMom

Super Novas and Black Holes: Along with concepts like the Big Bang, pulsars and binary stars, super novas and black holes are not only interesting to study, but are applicable to the study of gravitational waves. Try these hands-on activities to further explore these concepts.

Einstein: Some books for early middle school: Who Was Albert Einstein by Jess Brallier and Albert Einstein and Relativity for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities and Thought Experiments by Jerome Pohlen.

Here's a bonus video, just because it's amazing: The Known Universe by the American Museum of Natural History

ABC's of Earth Science

A is for Asteroid?! It is in the ABCs of Earth Science, part of the Jumbo Minds' Science ABCs book series. In this book, illustrated with bright, bold colors, each letter of the alphabet is paired with an Earth Science vocabulary word and definition.

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This book series, that also includes the ABCs of Biology, Chemistry and Physics is based on the idea that children's capacity to learn new concepts and vocabulary at a young age is so great. Why not incorporate science into their study of the alphabet? A isn't just for Apple after all!

As an early childhood science teacher for many years, I found that young children are indeed capable of learning the words used in science when they are paired with age appropriate activities. You don't have to be teaching rocket science to help build a strong foundation for the later years in science. Using vocabulary like "hypothesis" and "observation" from the get-go allows students to accurately convey the process of science in experimentation through play or classroom science activities. Teaching the alphabet through science fits perfectly into my early childhood teaching philosophy.

The ABCs of Earth Science would be a great book to use along with any early childhood science or alphabet curriculum. Introduce cloud types while reporting the weather during morning calendar activities, N is for Nimbus! Teach the difference between rocks and minerals when you set out the rock collection in the science center, M is for Mineral and R is for Rock.

Although designed for a young audience, the definitions in the book accompanying each letter of the alphabet are not watered down. This makes the ABCs of Earth Science useful in the elementary classroom as well. In addition to the kid-friendly illustrations, the text is designed for all learners using a dyslexic-friendly font to increase readability.

This is certainly a series I will recommend to my colleagues who teach in the early childhood classroom, and for families with young children.

A copy of ABCs of Earth Science was provided by the publisher for review, however the author was not compensated in any other way for this review. All opinions in this post are those of the author.