This book is about vultures. But did you notice it was about something else? Physics. It told us a little bit about air. The sun warmed the air. Now, warming air goes where?

(Up, up!)

Cooling air goes where?

(Down, down!)

Now let’s learn about another physical part of our world; dust. Have you ever thought about dust? Let’s read…

Activities are available in the activities section. 

Other books to pair with these include:

Shadows, which is out of print but available in many libraries and used book stores.

Also, look for these physical science picture books by author Lola Schaefer:

This is the Rain

An Island Grows

What’s Up, What’s Down

After reading the book, students can learn observation skills by going out and looking for shadows and experimenting as the kids do in the book. Why are shadows hard to see when the sky is cloudy?

After reading some of these books, students can listen carefully, and write down the sounds they hear in their environment. Have older students use stopwatches and write down what they hear at each 30 second mark. Cars? Planes? Pencils? Voices? Scientists use these kinds of observations, called data, in their studies. Are certain sounds heard more often than others?