STEAM Tales The Wizard of Oz is not a word-for-word retelling of the classic book by L. Frank Baum. Nor is it a twisted version of the Yellow Brick that changes the tone and heart of the story in favor of accentuating certain characters. This is a truncated version of The Wizard of Oz text that inserts four instances of science, and two STEAM activities for kids to do in each chapter. It’s not as far-fetched or as uninteresting as you might think, let’s take a look at an example.
Illustrated books can also be reference books. Aliens is one that fits in that category, although given its subject title and alluded subject matter you’re right to be suspicious. The key to where upper-elementary students will get the most from the book is in the book’s full title. Aliens, Join The Scientists Searching For Extraterrestrial Life is more about the science-based aspects around aliens, rather than the green basketball-playing men in our imagination.
If you’re older than 12 trips around the sun then you know the answer to that, but you may not know why. Actually, you may not even know the answer to it, you’ve just stopped caring or have moved on to less bathroom-centric queries. Is It Okay To Pee In The Ocean? is the most comprehensive look at going number one that elementary school kids will experience. It’s a surprisingly entertaining STEM read and runs deep with scientific research and credibility, so much so that those middle school students will enjoy the book also.
I was talking to a student one day about the approximate distance between Georgia and New York and they had absolutely no clue. Their spatial abilities were suspect at best with them guessing at only a couple of hundred miles to multiple thousands. Space is like that too, except so much more interesting and potentially complex. The Planets Are Very, Very, Very Far Away puts the impossibly massive scale of the solar system into a scope that anyone is able to understand. Author Mike Vago is an author who produces books that are as much of a publishing statement as they are informative, entertaining, or both.
Family, especially the older branches in our trees can be complicated, can’t it? When Dinosaurs Conquered the Skies is an illustrated book whose sibling we read in 2022. That book, When Plants Took Over the Planet is a gorgeous illustrated book that’s all about the massive wave of plants that crept out of the water millions of years ago. Its sibling, When Dinosaurs Conquered the Skies is cut from a similar cloth in its layout and illustrations. However, in reading it I decided to treat it as a narrative book, instead of a reference book and the result was quite interesting.
From its title, Do You Know Rocket Science? could be confused with something from the What Is or Who Was from the Who HQ authored series of books. While that series is awesome, they’re for older readers, which is somewhat ironic given the subject matter of rocket science. Instead, Do You Know Rocket Science? is actually a book about rocket science, that’s presented on a level that pre-k through first, as well as, their parents, will understand and enjoy. It’s from Chris Ferrie, an author who we’ve written about on a couple of occasions that has a knack for turning science and STEM into something that kids want to know about.
Being a substitute primary school teacher I know what schools look like, and sadly, most of them look the same. If you work in an office building you probably know what they look like too and I’d bet that most of them are cookie-cutter-tastic. I’m not naïve, I realize that architecture, especially those that make a statement, come at a price of either money, land, resources or a combination thereof. The Power of Architecture: 25 Modern Buildings from Around the World is an illustrated book for curious kids that want to explore how things are and the way that they could be.
Octopuses Have Zero Bones is one of the best books of the year. Granted, it is very early in 2023, but that’s OK because it was technically released in September of 2022. We’re not going to let a little technicality like that get in the way of calling this book an instant classic and a ‘best of’, whichever year you want to put it in. One thing that we ascribe to is treating kids as smart as you want them to be. When our own children were younger we did it that way and it’s the way that I teach my classes, regardless of the grade. Octopuses Have Zero Bones is a counting book, but it’s so much more than just a book that’ll teach counting to toddlers.
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