Snoozefest: The Surprising Science of Sleep

 

Snoozefest: The Surprising Science of Sleep by Tanya Lloyd Kyi and Valéry Goulet is a nonfiction, middle grade book that explores the topic of sleep through multiple lenses.  Readers will be intrigued by how sleep science has changed over time.  The topics are posed as questions, like, can a human survive on little to no sleep?  

Every chapter's readability is what stands out the most for me.  Getting middle grade readers to read nonfiction can be a struggle, but I don't see that happening with this book. With extra information in the sidebars and beautiful illustrations, this book reads like a dream! Pun intended.

Another part that I think will be of importance to young readers is the section dedicated towards age and sleep.  Teenagers' sleep patterns and needs are different in that stage of their life so the impacts upon having school start times be moved to a later time, for example, are discussed.  The authors also discuss the physiological reasons behind these needs leading to readers better understanding their bodily development. 

Athletes' need for sleep and rest is also addressed.  Many readers may be surprised to learn about the world-famous athletes who dedicate so much of their training towards rest.  Coaches, health teachers and physical education instructors can use this part of the book to supplement their lessons they use with students and athletes.  

Animal lovers will be happy to see their favorite creatures featured.  How do different animals' sleeping habits and needs differ?  What are the reasons behind those differences?  Readers will be able to learn a great deal from the information in these sections. 

I have a lot of students who are interested in the science behind dreams.  This book looks at the origins of dream science and describes it in an understandable way.  What do our dreams mean?

Overall, I would recommend this book to any middle grade reader, teen and adult for that matter.  The topics Snoozefest are well-suited for book clubs, discussions and inquiry projects. Do you have other titles that address the science behind sleep? If so, please share them in the comments and a big thank you to publisher, Kids Can Press, for sharing a copy with my book review group, #BookExcursion.  

Teaching idea: "Today is..."

Today is "National Pizza Day!"  These five words will cause students to begin thinking, talking and asking questions about the topic.  These special days, which occur every day, are ideal topics for students to practice inquiry-based questions, make connections with one another, serve as writing prompts and go perfectly with library resources and standards.  

Here are some ways that I have used them:

• Share a joke, fact, or quote about the topic
• Find a GIF to help illustrate the special day, or show the GIF first and ask students to try to guess the special day
• Direct students to a database to find out more about a topic
• Guide students to write open-ended questions about the topic
• Connect the topic to a current event 
• Challenge students to create a survey about the topic
• Collect books, both fiction and nonfiction, from your library collection and invite students to check them out (Twitter post example)
• Put out realia that goes with the topic and allow students to handle the items
• Play a song, game or listen to a poem or speech about the topic, like in Dean Koontz's book, Every Day's a Holiday:
  
  
  
• Make an iMovie, TikTok or Instagram Reel of your display
• Use the topic to ask students to choose between "This or That" options 

Here is my SLIDESHOW of days I have used with students, in person and during distance learning. 

Some questions you may have about this approach:

Q: Where do you find what special day it is?

A: Type "TODAY IS" in an Internet browser window and click on the search results.  Or bookmark: National Today  ,  National Day Calendar ,    Days of the Year

Q. How do you choose what to feature?

A. You know your student development levels and what is appropriate as an educator. Think about how you would expect to use the topic: discussion only or a full lesson? 

Q. What if you have students who don't celebrate holidays?

A.  You can focus on historical events and famous people's contributions.

Q. Do you check every day or can you look ahead of time to plan?

A. I like to check on a daily basis but if I know a certain observance is coming up, I will pencil it in my plans ahead of time. 

Q. Can you go beyond special days, like special months or weeks?

A.  Yes! There is a librarian on LM_NET who posts each month with the title: January is..., February is..., March is..., etc. You can search the archives for those threads.

Q.  What if I don't have time to make a slideshow or display?  

A.  No problem! You can just tell the students without any visuals and ask them to describe their experience with the topic.

UPDATE: since I first published this on 8/18/2022, I have done more with this teaching idea:  

Shannon McClintock-Miller created a School Librarian Plan Book and it is full of special days that are school-appropriate! You can purchase it on the DEMCO website. 

Capstone Publishing  has a yearlong calendar that is in a single poster format that includes special days.  Contact your representative to request one to be sent to you. 

Calendars: You can also find wall calendars on this this topic! Here's one I found at a supermarket:

 

Egg Hunt for a topic:  I printed a list of the "May is..." list from LM_NET and cut apart the days to put into plastic eggs.  I hid the eggs around the library and told the students that they were to pick an egg and then read over the special days that are on inside of that egg.  From that list they are to choose one to find out more about. They can find a book that goes with the topic or they can make a visual about the special day to share with others.  Here are some photos from that lesson: 

Student presentations:  allow students the time and space to share what they learned by teaching others and even planning a lesson around it. Here are my 4th-6th graders presenting on May the 4th:

Publish a Whole Class Book on a Topic:  My 6th graders used their special day and used it to go through an entire inquiry cycle.  

They developed questions about the topic, chose one on which to focus, set out to research their question and took notes over what they found. 

We used Google Jamboard to brainstorm and sign up for questions.  You can also partner students up or use Padlet. 

During the research process students monitored their learning and adjusted their question based on what they found out. 

 Finally, they each designed a page in a whole class book about the topic that would be available for reading in our school library.  

They added their resources to their individual pages or compiled them at the end of their book. As a class they brainstormed titles for their class book, critiqued each other's pages, and chose a book cover design for their published book created by one of their classmates.  

To print their final books, I used Wal-Mart's photo center, however, because of the template restrictions some of the pages didn't come out completely.  In the future I will use the BookCreator APP or get more funds to print the book on a larger scale.  

At the end of the process we had a book publishing party where students read all of the class books and reflected on what should change for the next time I do this with a class. 

Student reflections:

Read Every Day's a Holiday and ask students to create their own special day: 

The Menderist Blog published my experience with one instance of this approach in which one of my students felt seen. 

Check my Instagram (@thestoryspectator)  and Twitter (@ffarokhi) for my past displays of special days.

Do you currently use or have you used these in the past with students?  Please share your experiences and tips in the comments below! 

The Mushroom Fan Club: putting the FUN in Fungi!

 The Mushroom Fan Club, a nonfiction picture book written and illustrated by Elise Gravel is a delight for all of the senses.  We have Gravel's popular nonfiction  Disgusting Critters series   in our school library and it's highly popular with our students, so when I spotted this book in our local comic book store, Chops Comics, I knew I had to take a closer look!

Gravel takes the reader along with her and her daughter as they venture into the woods looking for some mushrooms. She adds diagrams that help readers learn the names of the parts of the mushrooms and differentiates among popular types they have encountered on their hunts.  

The best part is that Gravel brings personality to the mushrooms so readers can remember the information, connect with it and share what they've learned with others.  I am going to use this book with my kindergarten - 2nd grade classes when we are working on the difference between fiction and nonfiction.  I've used her book, The Fly, for this learning objective before and the students love to listen to the facts about flies, which they see everyday.  

The Mushroom Fan Club offers many opportunities for interactive listening and follow-up activities.  My favorite parts of the book are that there are actions that readers can do along with the mushrooms.  For example, Gravel's daughter stomps on puffballs to help spread their spores for reproduction, so readers can act out stomping, just like her daughter.  

There are also species of mushrooms that Gravel does not get to describe, she leaves only the attention-grabbing names.  Readers can choose one to research, illustrate and share a fact with the community.  Or they can draw what they think the mushroom would look like based on the clues in the name and then they can look up the actual one to see how close they were!

Readers can, of course, walk outside and look for mushrooms as a follow-up and document what they have found.  They can learn about what mushrooms grow in their area.  We are lucky in our town to have a mushroom hunting club and at our farmers' market, many mushroom growers who are happy to share their knowledge about mushrooms.

Finally, Gravel adds instructions on how to do a spore print which is perfect for a classroom art activity.  All you need are mushrooms, paper and a glass or bowl. 

 I'm looking forward to reading this book with my students and encouraging them to get outside to look for mushrooms.  I'm incredibly impressed with anything that Gravel has written so I feel lucky to have found this copy nearby! It's a must-have for school libraries, science classrooms and home libraries.

Friendbots: engaging young readers with STEM

Friendbots: Blink and Block Make a Wish by Vicky Fang is a lovely graphic novel or comic for children who are learning to read on their own.  At first the two robots are strangers and engage in conversation about what they are doing.  From there the story takes funny twists with an inspiring ending.  I especially like how the robots model how to talk with one another and make friends.  The bonus comes at the end of the book where readers can learn a STEM term, for example, a sensor.  That is an important part of the story so later on they can compare sensors that they encounter with the ones that Blink and Block use.  

Fang's author website has more activities and videos that go with her robot books.  So many of my students, including my daughter, enjoy learning about and creating their own robots!  I'm looking forward to sharing these with them.

A big thank you to the publisher, HarperCollins, for sharing this book with our Book Excursion group of educators who review books.  

 

A Female Ahead of Her Time: Ada Lovelace Cracks the Code

Ada Lovelace Cracks the Code, a nonfiction narrative written by Corinne Purtill with the cover and inside illustrations by Marina Muun and the cover lettering by Monique Aimee, is an eye-opening look at Lovelace's perspective in a period of history that changed the course of the world as we know it.  My daughter and I loved reading this book aloud and marveling at Ada's story!

Ada Lovelace was born into privilege since her father was the world-famous poet, Lord Byron.  But she was not interested in that type of life.  She wanted to study math and flight.  Living in England in the early to mid 1800s didn't offer Ada the chance to do it on her own so she made friends with like-minded people.  One person, Charles Babbage, was working on a Difference Machine and Analytical Engine.  Ada helped him with it and foresaw the large number of possibilities it had.

When she alerted Babbage to this notion, he scoffed and told her to keep her imagination to herself.

Due to the lack of respect women had in scientific fields Ada kept her ideas to herself.  She did continue to follow the industrial revolution and was excited about the possibilities these technological breakthroughs could have on people's lives.  Towards the end of her life she took Babbage to the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations.  Readers can study this and other Great Exhibitions to learn about the ideas that we see today.

At the end of the book is a surprising section of coding activities for readers to try based on Ada's computational thinking:

The activities are all written by the Wogrammer organization that aims to increase women's accomplishment in the sciences.  They have a podcast if you want to listen to their topics.

Another notable aspect of this book are the fanciful illustrations sprinkled throughout the text.  Each chapter opens up with clues to the next part of Ada's journey so the reader can infer what could be happening next.

Finally, readers can consider the relationships that Ada formed and how those affected her life.   Starting with her mother and her absent father.  How did those change over the story?  Can readers relate to having adults in their lives push them in one direction that they don't want to explore?  Ada's relationship with Charles Babbage is also one that is relatable to many readers.  How many times have they had to work with someone on a project where they differed in their approach to the task?  Teamwork, collaboration, reaching consensus are all parts of Ada's story that connect to our lives today.  Readers can think about what they would do in Ada's shoes when Babbage refused to see her vision for the machines they were designing? 

This is a must-have book for elementary and middle school-aged readers because it's engaging and offers a real model of a female scientist who pushed against gender norms to pursue her interests. I'm looking forward to reading more from the Rebel Girls series to add to our biography & STEM collections.

 

37 Environmental Picture and Chapter Books for Children & Middle Schoolers

How is the Earth connected to its creatures?  Why is it important for humans to be aware of the Earth's needs and be able to protect it as much as possible?  These questions and more can be discussed with readers in the following chapter and picture books that have environmental themes.  From plays to nonfiction and fiction books, there is something interesting for everyone. 

Need more ideas? Check A Mighty Girl's blog for additional titles.