At Pleasant Hill Elementary, D’Etta is doing some terrific special days of reading. Small groups of readers order a paperback book. Then they all bring the book and lunch and read and do special activities related to the book. Because I was visiting, she featured One Is a Snail and Trout, Trout, Trout: a Fish Chant books. But she does this project even when there is not an author visiting. 

Also, take a look at what the Spanish Immersion classes are doing at her school. They do science and math in Spanish. Senorita Hood had them write sentences about where the dust in their sunset had originated. 

I love how one classroom retired (buried) general, overused words in favor of specific terms. The kids actually called the teacher on it if she used one of those words! They scoured The Bumblebee Queen for such words but found none. Whew. I believe they said they had learned this technique from Ralph Fletcher.

D’Etta and others organized a huge reading festival for the entire community. More on that later. Hurray, D’Etta, for all you do!

Students use ink pens to color parts of coffee filters, then fold each filter into a pie-piece shape.They dip the end of the “pie piece” into water. The water will travel up the filter and spread ink pigments to the far edges. Unfold the filter and find a beautiful sunrise or sunset color pattern with rays of color. Let the paper dry, and you have art!

If you want to tie in even more science, use this activity to introduce a wonderful scientific lab technique: paper chromatography. Many chemicals can be identified by placing a colored sample (a dot) of the substance on filter paper, then dipping the end of the paper in a solvent. The solvent moves through the paper and carries the chemical (the dot) a certain distance, based on its structure. By seeing how far the color travels, a scientist can figure out what chemicals are in the sample. This process is paper chromatography. (Check Wikipedia to see the entry on this.) Some inks can be separated into their component colors in this way.

Stars Beneath Your Bed

English/Language Arts Standards

K.1.1 Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.

K.1.2 Follow words from left to right and from top to bottom on the printed page.

K.1.3 Understand that printed materials provide information.

K.1.4 Recognize that sentences in print are made up of separate words.

K.1.5 Distinguish letters from words.

K.1.6 Recognize and name all capital and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

K.1.22 Listen to stories read aloud and use the vocabulary in those stories in oral language.

K.2.1 Locate the title and the name of the author of a book.

Grade 1

1.1.1 Match oral words to printed words.

1.1.2 Identify letters, words, and sentences.

1.1.3 Recognize that sentences start with capital letters and end with punctuation, such as periods, question marks, and exclamation points.

1.2.1 Identify the title, author, illustrator, and table of contents of a reading selection.

1.2.3 Respond to who, what, when, where, why, and how questions and recognize the main idea of what is read.

1.2.7 Relate prior knowledge to what is read.

Grade 2

2.2.2 State the purpose for reading.

2.2.3 Use knowledge of the author’s purpose(s) to comprehend informational text.

2.2.4 Ask and respond to questions (when, who, where, why, what if, how) to aid comprehension about important elements of informational texts.

2.2.5 Restate facts and details or summarize the main idea in the text to clarify and organize ideas.

Grade 3

3.2.2 Ask questions and support answers by connecting prior knowledge with literal information from the text.

Example: When reading informational materials about science topics or social science subjects, compare what is read to background knowledge about the subject.

3.2.3 Show understanding by identifying answers in the text.

Example: After generating a question about information in a text, skim and scan the remaining text to find the answer to the question.

3.2.4 Recall major points in the text and make and revise predictions about what is read.

3.2.5 Distinguish the main idea and supporting details in expository (informational) text.

3.3.1 Recognize different common genres (types) of literature, such as poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction.

Science Standards:

Kindergarten

K.1.1 Raise questions about the natural world.

K.2.2 Draw pictures and write words to describe objects and experiences.

K.3.1 Describe objects in terms of the materials they are made of, such as clay, cloth, paper, etc.

K.6.1 Describe an object by saying how it is similar to or different from another object.

Grade 1

1.1.1 Observe, describe, draw, and sort objects carefully to learn about them.

1.1.2 Investigate and make observations to seek answers to questions about the world, such as “In what ways do animals move?”

1.1.3 Recognize that and demonstrate how people can learn much about plants and animals by observing them closely over a period of time. Recognize also that care must be taken to know the needs of living things and how to provide for them.

1.1.4 Use tools, such as rulers and magnifiers, to investigate the world and make observations.

1.2.5 Demonstrate that magnifiers help people see things they could not see without them.

1.2.7 Write brief informational descriptions of a real object, person, place, or event using information from observations.

1.3.4 Investigate by observing and then describe how things move in many different ways, such as straight, zigzag, round-and-round, and back-and-forth.

1.6.2 Observe that and describe how certain things change in some ways and stay the same in others, such as in their color, size, and weight.

Grade 2

2.1.3 Describe, both in writing and verbally, objects as accurately as possible and compare observations with those of other people.

2.1.4 Make new observations when there is disagreement among initial observations.

2.1.6 Use tools to investigate, observe, measure, design, and build things.

2.1.7 Recognize and describe ways that some materials — such as recycled paper, cans, and plastic jugs — can be used over again.

2.2.5 Draw pictures and write brief descriptions that correctly portray key features of an object.

2.3.1 Investigate by observing and then describe that some events in nature have a repeating pattern, such as seasons, day and night, and migrations.

2.3.3 Investigate by observing and then describe chunks of rocks and their many sizes and shapes, from boulders to grains of sand and even smaller.

2.3.4 Investigate by observing and then describe how animals and plants sometimes cause changes in their surroundings.

2.3.5 Investigate that things can be done to materials — such as freezing, mixing, cutting, heating, or wetting — to change some of their properties. Observe that not all materials respond in the same way.

2.4.5 Recognize and explain that materials in nature, such as grass, twigs, sticks, and leaves, can be recycled and used again, sometimes in different forms, such as in birds’ nests.

2.5.3 Observe that and describe how changing one thing can cause changes in something else, such as exercise and its effect on heart rate.

Grade 3

3.1.2 Participate in different types of guided scientific investigations, such as observing objects and events and collecting specimens for analysis.

3.2.3 Keep a notebook that describes observations and is understandable weeks or months later.

3.2.6 Make sketches and write descriptions to aid in explaining procedures or ideas.

3.2.7 Ask “How do you know?” in appropriate situations and attempt reasonable answers when others ask the same question.

3.3.5 Give examples of how change, such as weather patterns, is a continual process occurring on Earth.

3.5.5 Explain that one way to make sense of something is to think of how it relates to something more familiar.

3.6.5 Observe that and describe how some changes are very slow and some are very fast and that some of these changes may be hard to see and/or record.

Grade 4

4.1.5 Demonstrate how measuring instruments, such as microscopes, telescopes, and cameras, can be used to gather accurate information for making scientific comparisons of objects and events. Note that measuring instruments, such as rulers, can also be used for designing and constructing things that will work properly.

4.2.5 Write descriptions of investigations, using observations and other evidence as support for explanations.

4.6.4 Observe and describe that some features of things may stay the same even when other features change.

Understanding Standards

Standards are created nationally. For example. in the case of English/Language Arts, the National Standards consist of 12 standards. Each state takes those twelve standards and develops their own objectives to indicate how they intend for those standards to be taught. Then, each school district takes their state’s standards and sometimes defines them even slightly more or determines in which order those standards and objectives will be taught. 

Therefore, the first number is the grade level, the second number is the national standard and the third number is the state objective. For example: 5.1.3 stands for 5th Grade, National Standard #1, and the state’s 3rd objective.

These are keyed to national standards and Indiana’s standards. As you can see from the explanation above, it should be simple to plug in your state’s standards, as needed.  

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

In 2006 STARS BENEATH YOUR BED won a big award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It was in conjunction with Science Books and Films and Subaru. Jeff and I traveled to St. Louis to accept the award for Best Science Picture Book of the year!

The ceremony and entire weekend gave us a chance to meet terrific educators, authors, reviewers, and scientists. It really was one of the highlights of my career.

The Bumblebee Queen won the John Burroughs Award for nature nonfiction for kids. Hurray!

In 2006 I visited many of you at schools and conferences in Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, and Texas. I loved presenting to teachers and librarians at ISRA, CYPD of ILA, Purdue Literacy Conference, the Picture Perfect Science Workshop in Ohio, and other events. We enjoyed visiting schools and relatives in Winchester, VA. We slipped in a visit to the Dismal Swamp while out on the coast. Look for a whale book that may come out of a chance meeting with a photographer when I was whale watching near Boston! On our San Antonio trip Jeff and I witnessed the amazing Snout butterfly migration. We love Texas and have so many other things to see and people to visit next time!