STEM Book of the Month
Standards-Based STEM Reading
January 2022
Blizzard by John Rocco
The book Blizzard is based on the author, John Rocco’s, experience as a child during the Blizzard of 1978. This blizzard brought 53 inches of snow to his hometown in Rhode Island. With the entire town snowed in, our intrepid main character researches and then engineers a way to bring supplies to his neighbors. Not only is this a great story about a boy who puts the needs of others first, but students of all grades will find it interesting as they study weather and the water cycle.
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November 2021
Neighborhood Shark and Giant Squid
This month I would like to highlight two books, Neighborhood Sharks by Katherine Roy and Giant Squid by Candace Fleming. Every elementary school grade has science standards that discuss animals. Kindergarten and Grade 5 discuss how animals are classified. Grade 2 discusses animal needs. Grade 3 and 4 discuss how animals adapt to and fit into an ecosystem. These two Sibert-honor books enrich the standards of all the grades. The books discuss the life cycle, needs, ecosystem, characteristics and habits of these two uncommon ocean animals. Neighborhood Sharks is all about great white shark, based on the latest research and an up-close visit with sharks. Giant Squid is a beautifully illustrated (by Erich Rohman,) almost poetic description of these elusive and unusual animals.
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October 2021
My Light by Molly Bang
Although the book, My Light is about the many ways that the sun’s energy affects the earth, it contains so much information that it is a book that all grades can learn from. As the author and illustrator, Molly Bang, traces the flow of the sun’s energy, our fourth grade students can learn about the water cycle, the creation of oil and gas, and how the sun’s energy is converted to food sources to drive the food web. Our fifth grade students learn how fossil fuels and water power are used to create electricity. Third and first grade students will learn about the sun as a source of both light and heat. Kindergarten students will learn how the sun is part of the daylight sky. But the book is not only informative but has dazzling and clever illustrations that convey information in an attractive and enjoyable way and can be used as a springboard to far more advanced concepts such as atomic structure and how light manages to be both a wave and a particle.
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September 2021
Hey Water by Antoinette Portis
Hey, Water is a Siebert Award-winning book about water in our world! A young girl explores and discovers that water does not always look or feel the same. It can change from one form to another, and we find water in the atmosphere, in lakes and rivers, in snow and rain, in tears, and in our blood. This book is great for our school because our students study water every year. In kindergarten, they learn that water is a part of our earth. First-grade students learn about weather and precipitation. Second-grade and third-grade students learn how water affects the environment. Fourth-grade students learn the water cycle, and fifth-grade students learn how water is one of the causes of weathering and erosion!
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Created by Oreta Hinamon Campbell
Library Media Specialist
Humphries Elementary School
3029 Humphries Drive
Atlanta, GA 30354