Top 10 Amazing Animal Tales

Sidenote before getting into this Top Ten recommendations: There is a lot of great animal stories in chapter book format, but I only included picture books in this list. I will eventually do some chapter book Top Tens but it seems most my readers have younger kids. If you like my book recommendations also check out the Shelfari Widget I added. These are books I have run across recently that I love but don't really fit into a Top Ten theme. There are always some good choices on there and I will keep adding to it. Hope you enjoy the new list....

1) The World's Greatest Elephant by Ralph Helfer: A boy and an elephant were both born in the circus in the same day. There bound was unshakable and when the elephant was sold to America the boy stole away and the ship rather than be apart from his best friend. In a shipwreck the elephant saved his live. Even when they got separated-years later they found each other. Some argue if this is a true (as it claims) or not but either way it is a beautiful story!

2) One Tiny Turtle by Nicola Davies: A poetic, illustrated story of the life of a loggerhead sea turtle. The text is very informative but yet remains accessible to young children.

3) Jubela by Cristina Keller: A true story of a rhino that was orphaned by poachers and finds adoptive parents. This story can be sad for younger ones but it does have a heartwarming ending, and is a great way to discuss endangered animals.

4) KoKo's Kitten by Dr. Fracine Patterson: Koko is a gorilla who has famously learned to communicate with sign language. This book is about when she kept asking for a kitten of her own. An amazing tale that also has some heartwrenching & heartwarming moments, but great insight into the emotions of animals. Follow this up by going to KoKo's Kids Club website and learn more about her. You can see videos and even paintings made by her.

Koko reading the book. (Picture from The Gorilla Foundation)

5) Titanicat by Marty Crisp: Another tale that claims to be based on a true story. A young cabin boy for the Titanic was in charge of caring for the ship's cat. When the cat starts to act weird and move it's litter of the ship the day of sailing the boy takes it as a sign he shouldn't sail either. Good thing he didn't. Kid's are intrigued by the Titanic story and this is a different side to the story.

6) A Mother's Journey by Sandra Markle: Another informative text that reads like a picture book. The story the mother's journey of an emperor penguin after she lays the egg and leaves it with the father. It is about her plight and dedication to return back to her chick. A great companion to The Emperor's Egg by Martin Jenkins which is the tale of the father's penguin.

 7)Seaman's Journal-On the Trail with Lewis and Clark by Patti Reeder Eubank: I don't know if it is because we are were the Lewis and Clark trail ended but its a pretty big deal where I live. This is the story of the expedition from the view of Seaman-Lewis's Newfoundland.

8) Craig, Juiliana and Isabella Hatkoff books: The first book was Owen and Mzee. It is the true story of a baby hippo and tortoise over 100 years old. With the success of this book they kept writing about true animal stories. Some other favorites is Knut (all though since the book was written he unexpectedly died just this year), Winter's Tail (about a dolphin with a prosthetic tail, which a movie is being made about), and more.

9) Togo by Robert J. Blake: Many kids know the story of Balto from books and the Disney movie. Balto was the lead dog that brought the serum to Nome, Alaska that helped save the town from Diptheria in 1925. What most people don't know is that all though he ran the last 50 miles and crossed the finish line, a dog name Togo ran 350 miles to get the serum before passing it on to Balto. Togo gave so much of himself he could never mush again. It's a great story about sacrifice, persevering, and being a winner/hero doesn't always mean crossing the finish line-and getting all the glory.

 10) And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell: I have been hesitant to put this on so that I don't get angry comments, but I have to be true to myself- I love this story. It is the true story about two male penguins in a New York zoo who paired up and tried to hatch an egg of their own. When zookeepers observed this they gave the couple an egg (that would have been abandoned), and the same sex pair raised the chick together as a family. I find it fascinating this behavior observed in other animal species, besides humans. If homosexuality is something you have a problem with please just delete this suggestion on the top ten. I on the other hand find this story touching and remarkable.

Taking a look at the Solar System

Now that we have explored our moon it was time to look at the planets. We started with talking about what planets are and what they are not. I had printed out a great worksheet that helped "A" with the classification from 1+1+1=1 Solar System Preschool Pack. This is a fabulous resource and I recommend everyone check out all the printables she has!

Next on the agenda for learning we talked about the orbit the planets have around the sun. From Exploring the Solar System by Mary Kay Carson I found an activity to help demonstrate that the planets don't go around the sun in a perfect circle but in a orbit we call elliptical.

1st fold a paper in half both ways. Put a tack in the middle as the sun. Take a string and draw a circle.

Next put a second tack anywhere on the horizontal line. Put the string over both tacks and draw another circle (elliptical orbit)

I had "A" color a sun for the middle and color an Earth to put it on orbit around the sun.

This has some great learning activities but the text is better for children over ten.

 I had "A" watch Magic School Bus Space Adventures because he walks away with a wealth of knowledge that he retains from these movies. The movie is from the 90s so we talked about how when I was younger we said we had nine planets in the solar system, but now they don't classify Pluto as one of the planets. We now call it a dwarf planet and we have new dwarf planets that we didn't recognize before. I tried to tell him it was an exciting time because scientist are really gaining new insight into our solar system, rather than comment on how confusing it is (which it is!!!) We then watched a read a book online at NASA called The First Annual Planet Awards. It was a great way to learn just the most important facts about each planet, a must for short attention spans. We followed up our research with some books from our library. We also looked at space photos, "A's" age and weight on NASA too. "A" had figured out his weight on the other planets earlier when we went to the Seattle Pacific Science Center in May. I then had "A" sort the planets into terrestrial planet and gas giants.

Movie Research:

 Books We Read:

13 Planets by David Aguilar ( an update look at the solar system by National Geographic Kids)

Me and My Place in Space by Joan Sweeny (these ME books are a series and a must read)

There's No Place Like Space by Tish Rabe

The Planets in Our Solar System by Franklyn Branley (Read-and-Find-Out Science book)

Pacific Science Center:

"A" in a space capsule

Sorting the Planets:

Planets are from the preschool pack mentioned earlier!

Then it came time for our huge activity of the day. I took the printable planets that I got from 1+1+1=1 blog (mentioned above) and we went for a walk to do a scaled down look at the distance of the planets from each other and the sun. Our front door was the sun (since that is the center of our universe), and then using a guide in the Exploring the Solar System book mentioned earlier we started counting our steps. It was great practice for "A" to practice his counting higher than 30. It was remarkable how far we got!

Our guide for you to try!

The sun-our starting point

The four terrestrial planets (pretty close to the sun and each other)

Our first gas giant starting to get farther away

Our planets on the sidewalk. Luckily no one took them. We put rocks on them so they wouldn't blow away!

Saturn-our house is at the big tree and up the driveway

Our ending point (Neptune). Our house is two trees up!

Finally, since I can't finish any day of learning with out some art strewn in "A" made two solar systems. The first is chalk around circles to give it almost a eclipse look. The second is a spattered paint solar system. I walked to make planets to go on the splattered paint but "A" was anxious to use his space stickers.

Lapbooks Galore

I discovered lapbooks back in February. I can't get enough of them. The homeschooling community uses these as tools for their curriculum. I may not homeschool, but I find them perfect for supplemental learning with my preschooler. A lapbook is a folded up file folder that you put pocket books studying a theme in. One of my favorite things is how you can have a keepsake of your learning that touches all subjects in one folder. I get almost all of my lapbook ideas and printables at Homeschool Share, an amazing free resource. There are tons of websites and ideas out there if you Google lapbooks, I just think Homeschool Share is the best. The ideas are endless and it's fun trying to find ways to be creative and add more to the lesson.

I wanted to include some of the lapbooks I have done with "A". I have done more than the ones included but they were a study on holidays, so I will save them for other posts. I hope this gives you an idea of what lapbooks are and what you can do with them. To get started on how to make a lapbook watch this YouTube tutorial.

Little Toot Lapbook (Homeshare Printable):

 

Watched movie for book comparison

 Video of our lapbook

Officer Buckle and Gloria Lapbook (Homeshare Printable):

Video of our Lapbook

Pirate Lapbook (Homeshare Printable)

 Video of themed lapbook "A chose-pirates

 

Japan Lapbook (LapbookLessons Printable):

 Our study of Japan

 

Human Body Lapbook (Homeshare Printable):

"A's" life size human body held in pocket in the back of book

Close up to see labels and organ print-outs

 Our biggest one yet

 

All About Me Lapbook (homeshare printable):

 No supplemental text for this one, since it is just about your little one.

These are the ones we have done so far. Phew, that was a lot!!! I am trying to find ways to incorporate these into my classroom with older children. I think lapbooks may be a fun way organize and teach social studies units. I am thinking in particular The Colonies, Native Americans, Revolutionary War, etc. Let you know if I complete one. They also have them for older children literature studies. In fact, "A" and I are doing one now for our read-aloud of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

A note on storing these bad boys: They are pretty compact but they can pile up. I have seen some people put duct tape on the edge and then three-ring hole punch the tape. I don't really like that. I think it takes away from the look of them. Let's face it, duct tape is ugly (except the cool new ones in craft stores). I saw one person who didn't keep them in a lapbook form but put each individual page in a plastic page protector, so all the books where in a binder. I like that idea and may switch to it later on down the road. I tried to put them in the page protectors as they are now and they don't fit, so I need to do some problem solving...another day!

Dino Mom

My five year old LOVES dinosaur. Tis the age, I guess (it started around 4 years old). Between him and my work in an elementary library I have had my share of dinosaurs books and items to preview. So here is my list of my favorite dinosaur books, films, and crafts.

 Books 

1.)  Dinomummy by Phillip Lars Manning: This is one of my favorite dinosaur books about mummified remains a teenager found in 2000. The book has a great mix of non-fiction and fiction. It is great to see the computer graphics of what they think happened to Dakota the dinosaur based on the remains. A true detective discovery.

2.) Dinosaurs In Your Backyard: The Coolest, Scariest Creatures Found in the USA by Hugh Brewster: This book is a new discovery for me but I loved the illustrations and text features. It was especially fascinating to see what the continental United States looked like during the time of dinosaurs and where oceans lied. The text is very informational but still easy to understand for a preschooler.

3.) Prehistoric Actual Size by Steve Jenkins: I am the hugest Steve Jenkins fan. I recommend you get your hands on any book he has written and/or illustrated and devour them with your children immediately. He creates amazing cut paper artwork with exceptional eye to detail. Being an actual size book it was fun to see that not all things were huge. However, we would flap the book over our heads for the massive flying reptiles and imagine the horror of what it would be like to have something like that overhead.

4.) Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley: This picture book is the true story of an artist 150 years ago who was the first person to create life size replicas of dinosaurs. It follows the life of Waterhouse Hawkins and his tremendous successes (having Queen Victoria for a dinner party inside a replica of a dinosaur) and defeats (a mob boss destroying his museum in Central Park, NY). I wonder if one day we will excavate Central Park and find Hawkins work?

5.) My Daniel by Pam Conrad: This was one of my favorite chapter books as a child. It is geared more to ages 9 and older.It is the story of an old women who shows her grandchildren a dinosaur fossil her and her brother found as children on their farm in Nebraska. The majority of the story is a flashback of the discovery and excavation of the dinosaur fossil. If you or your child like historical fiction this is a great read.

6.) Dinosaur Cove Series by Rex Stone. This is a chapter book series for beginning readers. My son likes this as a read aloud, but children in 1st-3rd grade if they like dinosaurs will find this series enjoyable. It is about a boy and his friend who likes to look for fossils finds a secret cave that puts them into dinosaur time. Each book follows their adventure with one of these giants.

7.) and 8.) National Geographic Kids Ultimate Dinopedia by Don Lessem and Insiders: Dinosaurs by John Long. Both of these books are great expansive reference books for older children. The illustrations are engaging and hours of fact finding can be hand. P.S. I am a fan of most books National Geographic Kids and Insiders.

Films

 1) Land Before Time film and show series. Most people are familiar with this series. It is just sweet little movies with great messages for preschoolers.

2.) Dinosaur Train (PBS): TV Show that has a family of dinosaur travel through eras on a train and learn about different dinosaurs. Great for preschoolers that like both dinosaurs and trains. A side note: PBS Kids has a computer game on their website that goes along with this TV show that is really fun and informative.

3.) Walt Disney's Dinosaur: I think this film is stunning and sweet and I am not sure why it hasn't been widely known as other Disney films.

4.) and 5.) Chased By Dinosaurs (BBC) and Clash of the Dinosaurs (Discovery Channel). Both of these documentaries are really fun for all ages, although Clash needs parental guidance. Chased by Dinosaurs is described as a cross between Jurassic Park and Crocodile Hunter. It is fun to see the size of a man to a dinosaur in computer graphics. Clash of the Dinosaurs is my new favorite because it looks at scientific features they have found dinosaurs to have and how that made them survive. My five year old loves it! PS. Both are currently Play Instantly on Netflix if you want to check them out.

Crafts

1) Dinosaur Excavation Kits: There are many brands out there. This is the one we did, but with a Brachiosaurus rather than a T-Rex. All kids should have the chance to be a paleontologist. I was surprised how difficult it was to get to the bones. It took a lot of elbow grease. Also once we found the bones "A" had a hard time stopping so I think some of the bones got chipped away. He holds his skeleton fossil like a prized trophy among his prized possessions.
 
2) Create your own Dinosaur Environment Using Live Plants. This is one of my most favorite things we did this summer. We took an under the bed storage bin and drilled a few holes in the bottom. Then we lay down pebbles and potting soil. "A" then picked plants that he thought looked prehistoric (ferns, grass, plants with colored leaves) and we planted them. Next I used more pebbles to make a path. Lastly, he decorated the environment with dino figurines, items from his shell and rock collection, driftwood and he added cars and a tunnel Daddy made from a PVC pipe a for good measure. It turned into more of a Jurassic Park environment, but he gets to drive and play so it's okay with me. Later we can change dinos out for jungle animals if we want. Make sure to water with a light mist every couple of days to keep your plants alive.

"A's" Jurassic Park with live plants