105 Ways to Give a Book

Move!

Tomorrow I’m doing a program for four- to six-year-olds that focuses on simple science. I’ve done individual programs about water, air, snow, gravity, light, sound, magnets, and measuring. I mix in relevant picture books, nonfiction books, songs, and mini-experiments. I love doing this science program because the kids are so excited about everything we do. It’s a pretty basic overview, but to these kids it’s like I’m revealing the secrets of the universe. Which in a way, I suppose, I am. Wow. Heavy stuff.

Move!This time I’m talking about motion, and I thought of the perfect book to set the pace: Move! by Robin Page. If you haven’t seen any of Steve Jenkins’s illustrations in other books, you will not believe what this man can do with torn and cut paper. The animals just come to life and bring us along into their amazing world. Move! focuses on the many ways that animals get around, starting with the gibbon who swings through the trees or walks on his back legs. This picture leads to the jacana who walks on floating lily pads or dives to catch a fish. You see how it all links together.

At the end of the book are paragraphs about each of the animals pictured throughout the book. The text is simple enough to use with a beginning reader and can be supplemented by the additional information in the back. A beautiful and educational book in one. And tomorrow, it’s science.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Move" looks like fun, and sounds like what I should be doing!
How did the program go?

MotherReader said...

Why, thank you for asking. The program went quite well, though in retrospect, perhaps giving the group rubber balls to demonstrate gravity was just tempting fate.

I loved the non-fiction book I used with the group, Forces Make Things Move by Bradley. It explained things well and used cute little silly things within the text to keep it fun.