Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni - Essay Example

Inch by Inch Leo Lionni Illustrator: Leo Lionni Grade Level: Pre-K Summary: Inch by Inch tells the story of inchworm who examines hisown developing body, measuring it against features in his environment as it grows and changes. One day, however, he meets a nightingale who threatens to eat him for breakfast. The inchworm protests, saying that he is useful and can measure things for the nightingale, and goes on to measure each part of his body, but cannot measure the nightingale’s song. Outstanding features: One of the most outstanding features of this book is that it explains what measuring is all about, such as talking about why a unit is a unit (makes children understand that units of measurement are arbitrary). It also shows the limit of measurement, as you cannot use inches to measure a song. It also has fantastic artwork that is very plain, but simply beautiful. Teaching Ideas: Have children develop their own units of measurement, and measure things in their life (using fingers, pencil lengths and so forth). Talk about how things that are very different from each other can actually be very very useful to each other, and ask how the inch worm helped the nightingale and vice versa. Finally, ask how they could measure things that do not appear to be measured at first. Ask them to try to measure air they are breathing with rulers and so forth. Title: Becoming Butterflies Author: Anne Rockwell Illustrator: Megan Halsey Grade Level: Pre-K Summary: Becoming Butterflies is a book about the butterfly life cycle. It describes a fictitious classroom of children who raise butterflies through their entire life cycle, from caterpillars through metamorphosis and into their adult form. Outstanding features: This book has many outstanding features. Firstly, it does an excellent job telling the butterfly life cycle in a way that children will be able to understand and remember. This allows them to learn about the growth and changes that can happen with animals, and also reminds them of their own changing bodies. More importantly, however, the book tells a story of a fictional classroom full of similar children. This allows the students to connect to ideas featured in the book, and serve as examples for how to properly behave in a classroom. Teaching Ideas: One of the easiest things to do would be simply imitate the book: raise butterflies as the book does to observe their different life cycles. One could also ask students to create a small piece of art detailing one particular stage in the butterfly’s development, for instance drawing a cocoon and showing what the cocoon is all about, or else drawing the full live butterfly. Finally, one can use this book to teach proper behavior, asking students if they are behaving like the children in the book. Title: Bugs are Insects Author: Anne Rockwell Illustrator: Steve Jenkins Grade Level: K Summary: Bugs are Insects is a non-fiction book, that does not tell a story but rather details features of different animals and what makes them what they are. It is relatively simple in format, talking about a feature of an animal (for instance a lady bug’s external skeleton) and relating that to an overall thematic category (insects). Outstanding features: This book is amazing for several reasons. First is simply the art. It is both detailed and beautiful, cut and paste art that will be very engaging to the students. More importantly, however, this book teaches students the critical skill of categorizing, of attaching certain features to an object, and then allowing that object to belong to a group. In this case what it discusses are insects, showing that because something has six legs it is probably an insect, or because it has an exoskeleton etc. This skill, however, is highly transferable. Finally, this book also quizzes people as they read, allowing them to check for themselves what they have learned and if they are continuing on pace with learning. Teaching Ideas: ask students to make lists of characteristics that make something an insect. Ask each student to illustrate one of those characteristics (IE legs) and then find other students who have done another piece (IE skeleton) and put them together to form all kinds of new insects. Title: A Ladybug’s Life Author: John Himmelman Illustrator: John Himmelman Grade Level: Pre-K Summary: A Ladybug’s Life simply details the life cycle of a ladybug, from its earliest stages of being a pupa until adulthood. It describes what the ladybug looks like at each stage, what the ladybug spends its time doing at each point and so forth. It also includes more minute details, such as predation and food that a ladybug eats. However, it is not as dry as this description makes it out to be, it has some amusing humor that will definitely keep younger readers interested. Outstanding features: Probably the best aspect of this particular book is that tells the story of the ladybug’s life from the perspective of the ladybug. This helps the children see several things. Firstly, it helps the children see how different life can be from a perspective of one different from one’s own – how small a ladybug is to us but how big we are to a ladybug and so on. Furthermore, it helps the children understand that their actions have consequences on others, by showing sometimes innocuous actions possibly harming something as small and delicate as a ladybug. Teaching Ideas: ask children to illustrate parts of the ladybug’s life-cycle. Ask children to compose stories detailing lives of something else from their own perspective. These things could be either animate (IE other animals that they have learned bout) or inanimate/imagined, such as a favorite teddy. Title: Diary of a Spider Author: Doreen Cronin Illustrator: Harry Bliss Grade Level: 1-2 Summary: This book features a journal written by a spider on leaves or whatever else he can find. It opens with a description of “grandfathers day” at school, where the spider brings a grandparent to school with them. The grandparent shared three things – that spiders are not insects, because insects have six legs and spiders have eight, that without spiders, insects would take over the world, and that butterflies taste better with barbecue sauce. Each item has a funny picture (for instance a picture of an ant sitting in front of the seal of the US president, illustrating what it would be like if “insects took over the world”). Outstanding features: This book is excellent because it allows children both to learn something new if they do not know some of the items in the book, but also rewards them for things they have already learned. In the opening, for instance, children would need to know that spiders eat butterflies for the last joke to be funny, but it would be very funny if they did. This provides rewards for learning in the form of entertainment. Teaching Ideas: Have students write a diary for another insect that they have learned about, trying to see the world as they would, but be creative as well. It also simply teaches children the difference between spiders and insects, a relatively basic but important part of biology. Title: Insects are my Life Author: Megan McDonald Illustrator: Paul Brett Johnson Grade Level: 1-2 Summary: This tells the story of Amanda, a girl who loves bugs even though no one else seems to. It details her interest in them, everything she learns about them (factual information is slipped in fairly frequently with the rest of the dialogue/plot of the work), and what her life is like because of her fascination with bugs. She often gets in trouble at home or at school because of her fascination, but that does not seem to deter her, as she follows her life passion to learn more about bugs of all different varieties. Outstanding features: This book is outstanding because it not only teaches information about insects, but also teaches a great deal about balance and passion in life – it teaches life-lessons along with teaching factual information. Children can clearly see that Amanda’s obsession causes her problems, showing that they need to find aspects of balance in their life, but also shows that a lot of good can come from dedication to what someone is interested in, encouraging them to go forward with whatever they want to do in life regardless of what other people might say or do. Teaching Ideas: This book might be best focused on life lessons. Ask the children what is the fundamental aspect of their life, what are they most interested in. Encourage them to learn more about that, but also ask them why it might be better if Amanda had a slightly more balanced outlook. Title: The Amazing Book of Insect Records: The Heaviest, Loudest and the Most Poisonous, and Many More! Author: Richard McCabe Illustrator: N/A (Photographs) Grade Level: 1-2 Summary: This is a non-fiction book that details amazing facts of individual insects, with each insect having a category of thing that it does the best or the most or the biggest or something like that. It has everything from insects that can eat the most or jump the highest to insects that can make the loudest noise or make the biggest migration across the earth. Outstanding features: This books defining feature is that it simply has a huge amount of information. Each insect that holds a record for something also has a great deal of other information about its life presented, so that children can learn a great deal about the varieties of insects in the world and their capabilities. It is also easily picked up and perused briefly and then put down again, and does not require dedicated time for long periods, because it has a relatively encyclopedic format. Teaching Ideas: Ask students to make a report on the most amazing insect that they have found on the book. Ask students things that they did not know an insect could do, or did not know an insect was capable of (such as growing to a certain length). Title: The Big Bug Book Author: Margery Facklam Illustrator: Paul Facklam Grade Level: 3-4 Summary: This book is entirely non-fiction, and is almost a very simple illustrated encyclopedia of different sorts of bugs. It includes all kinds of information on 12 different species of (very large) insects, with everything from life cycle and diet to interesting facts about things they can do that no other insect can. It only details twelve bugs, but these come from a variety of different parts of the world and different species, from water bugs and stick insects to dragonflies and beetles, so while information is somewhat focused, it is also very broad. Outstanding features: This book has many outstanding features. The first of which is simply that each bug is represented life-size, which allows the children to understand exactly what these bugs would look like in real life. Each bug is also meticulously illustrated in detail. Finally, this book simply includes a huge wealth of information that a determined student can absorb. It takes advantage of this age range’s ability to learn on their own if information is presented in an interesting fashion. Teaching Ideas: This book will allow children to identify things about the largest bugs on the planet. They will learn common features of large bugs, as well as how large insects can get. Finally, it simply teaches interesting features of a wide variety of different insects, down to the most minute details. Title: Listening To Crickets Author: Candice P. Ranson Illustrator: Shelly O. Haas Grade Level: 3-4 Summary: This is a non-fiction narrative about a girl/woman named Rachel Carson, who grew up loving the outdoors and learning everything she could. Eventually, Rachel Carson grew up to be a famous scientist and writer, who goes on to do everything from radio talk shows to articles and books to share her love of insects and the natural world with others. This book focuses mostly on her early life, but does detail the accomplishments she made later in her career. Outstanding features: The format of this book is outstanding, because it functions on several levels. Firstly, it works simply as a narrative, telling an interesting story. Secondly, there are tidbits of information about insects sprinkled here and there for children to learn. Most importantly, however, the book is a true story, and thus provides an example for the children to follow, showing how much they can accomplish if they put their mind to something. Teaching Ideas: Children can learn what kind of work skills and dedication it takes to be truly successful in a career, but also how much they can accomplish if they follow through on those. Children could be asked to research another person who was amazing at what they do, and give a report on it to encourage their learning. Title: Magic School Bus: Insect Invaders Author: Anne Capeci Illustrator: John Spiers Grade Level: 3-4 Summary: Wanda, a student in the class, wants some tips from her teacher on how to care for insects that she is keeping as pets. This being the magic schoolbus, the whole class obviously gets a field trip to discover the world of insects. They shrink down to insect size to better see what insects are like up-close, and have some harrowing adventures with insects that are no person-sized according to them. They make it through their adventures and return safely, having learned a great deal about insects in the process and gaining a new respect for how amazing these creatures they see all around them truly are. Outstanding features: This book is outstanding for several reasons. One is simply that it is one of the few books in this age range that teaches about insects in a narrative format: most simply have encyclopedic-style entries about different animals. As one of the few fiction books about insect for this age range, it thus stands out. Furthermore, it is heavily text-focused, encouraging students to develop their reading skills to learn about the different insects rather than simply looking at the illustrations Teaching Ideas: Students could illustrate an insect from the book that is described but not depicted. They could also pick out a fact they did not know about insects and present it to the clas. Read More