Perfect Pairs, 3-5 Using Fiction & Nonfiction Picture Books to Teach Life Science, Grades 3-5

Introduction; Getting Started; Meeting the Standards; Lessons for Grade 3; Lesson 3.1: What the Lives of All Creatures Have in Common, Even When Their Life Cycles Are Different; Lesson 3.2: How Being Part of a Group Helps Animals Survive; Lesson 3.3: Why Some Animals Look Different from Their Family Members; Lesson 3.4: What Fossils Can Tell Us About Life and Environments Long Ago; Lesson 3.5: How Variations in Characteristics Can Help Some Animals Survive; Lesson 3.6: How Animals Survive in a Cold Environment; Lesson 3.7: How People Try to Solve Problems That Occur When an Environment Changes; Lessons for Grade 4; Lesson 4.1: How Our Body Structures Help Us Survive; Lesson 4.2: How Feathers Help Birds Survive; Lesson 4.3: How a Tree's Structures Help It Survive; Lesson 4.4: How Animals Depend on Their Senses; Lesson 4.5: How Natural Resources Provide Electrical Energy; Lesson 4.6: How Energy Use Affects Environments and the Animals Living There; Lessons for Grade 5; Lesson 5.1A: Where Plants Get Most of the Materials They Use to Grow; Lesson 5.1B: Where Animals Get the Energy They Need to Live and Grow; Lesson 5.2: Why Dead Plants and Animals Don't Pile Up in Natural Places; Lesson 5.3: How Matter Moves Among Living Things and the Environment; Lesson 5.4: How Living Things Depend on Their Environment for Survival; Lesson 5.5: How Introduced Species Can Affect an Ecosystem; Lesson 5.6: How We Can Protect Earth's Resources and Environments

Biography

Melissa Stewart is an award-winning author of more than 150 science-themed nonfiction books for children and the coauthor of Perfect Pairs: Using Fiction & Nonfiction Picture Books to Teach Life Science, K-2. She also maintains the blog Celebrate Science (http://celebratescience.blogspot.com) and offers school visits and teacher inservice programs that focus on nonfiction writing, using children’s books to address curriculum standards, and creative ways to integrate science and language arts instruction. Her website is www.melissa-stewart.com.

Nancy Chesley was an elementary teacher for twenty-six years and a K–5 science and literacy specialist for six years. She won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Elementary Science Teaching in 2001 and the Milken Foundation National Distinguished Educator Award in 2002. She received a BA in elementary education and an MSEd in literacy education from the University of Southern Maine. Nancy is the coauthor of Perfect Pairs: Using Fiction & Nonfiction Picture Books to Teach Life Science, K–2.

'Hands-on lessons can be fun and compelling, but when it comes to life science, they aren't always possible, practical, effective, or safe. Children can't follow wolves as they hunt elk, visit a prehistoric swamp, or shrink down to the size of a molecule and observe photosynthesis firsthand. But they can explore a whole world of animals, plants, and ecosystems through the pages of beautifully illustrated, science-themed picture books.
 
The collaborative work of Melissa Stewart (an award-winning author of more than 150 science-themed nonfiction books for children) and Nancy Chesley (a former elementary school teacher for twenty-six years and a K-5 science and literacy specialist for six years), Perfect Pairs: Using Fiction and Nonfiction Picture Books to Teach Life Science, Grades 3-5, showcases fiction and nonfiction picture books focused on life science, helps educators think about and teach life science in a whole new way.
 
Each of the twenty lessons comprising Perfect Pairs is built around a pair of books that introduces a critical life science concept and guides students through an inquiry-based investigative process to explore that idea-from life cycles and animal-environment interactions to the inheritance of traits and the critical role of energy in our world.
 
Each lesson starts with a "Wonder Statement" and comprises three stages.

• "Engaging Students" features a hands-on activity that captures student interest, uncovers current thinking, and generates vocabulary.
• The heart of the investigative process, "Exploring with Students," spotlights the paired books as the teacher reads aloud and helps students find and organize information into data tables.
• "Encouraging Students to Draw Conclusions" shows students how to review and analyze the information they have collected.

 
Bringing high-quality science-themed picture books into the classroom engages a broad range of students, addresses the Performance Expectations outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards, and supports the goals of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.
 
Critique: Thoroughly 'user friendly' in organization and presentation, Perfect Pairs: Using Fiction and Nonfiction Picture Books to Teach Life Science, Grades 3-5 is an extraordinarily informative and practical instruction manual and textbook that is unreservedly recommended for college and university Teacher Education reference collections in general, and Elementary School Classroom Instruction supplemental studies reading lists in particular.'
 
- Julie Summers