Engineer a Great Readaloud
Engineering titles for grades K-4
Dreaming Up: a Celebration of Building by Christy Hale
This book uses concrete poetry, illustrations and photography to showcase the power of play, exploration, and construction. Our youngest students will be able to relate to the images of blocks, forts, sandcastles and the like as they listen to the words and see photographs of architectural works. Brief biographical entries and quotes from architects are included in the end matter. A nice package for encouraging our youngest students to "dream up".
If I Built a House & If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen
Celebrations of creativity and design, these books offer an engaging storyline to get students thinking about possibilities. Be sure to check out the fabulous diagrams included on the end papers.
Those Darn Squirrels by Adam Rubin; illustrated by Daniel Salmieri
Fookwire demonstrates an analysis of his problem, gives evidence for his solution, and refines his design when it is not immediately successful. He also has a shift in his mindset by the end of the story. Pay careful attention to the pictures. Those clever squirrels are engineers as well! You can keep up with further feats of engineering with the other books in the series, Those Darn Squirrels Fly South and Those Darn Squirrels and the Cat Next Door!