craft Archives - Page 32 of 40

Basketball (Making the Play)
by Valerie Bodden (Author)

Do you think about science when you play baseball? Probably not. But you use science anyway. See how the physics of launch angles and inertia affect dribbling and shooting.

#kidlit Writing Lesson: the small details

STEADY SPEED
A ball keeps going where
you threw it until something
stops it. This is called
inertia (in-NUR-shuh).

This page defines the word inertia, but it doesn’t do so by beginning with an unfamiliar word. It defines the new word by beginning with something that young readers understand:

A ball keeps going where
you threw it until something
stops it.

After showing readers what inertia looks like in the sport of basketball, the name is introduced:

This is called
inertia (in-NUR-shuh).

The phonetic spelling helps young readers pronounce this new unfamiliar word.

A new word is best defined by moving from a familiar idea to an unfamiliar one. Begin with something that young readers understand and then name it.

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Pitter and Patter
by Martha Sullivan (Author) and Cathy Morrison (Illustrator)

Booktalk: The BIG Picture

Take a ride with Pitter on a water cycle! You’ll go through a watershed, down, around and up again. How about going with Patter? You’ll even go underground. Oh, the places you’ll go and the creatures you’ll see. A water drop is a wonderfully adventurous thing to be!

#kidlit Writing Lesson: the small details

The two water drops landed in different places. The story follows one water drop at a time:

Pitter landed on the leaf
of an oak tree.
Hello, squirrel.
Good morning, blue jay.
Rise and shine, caterpillar.

After following Pitter all the way to the ocean, the book shows readers where the other water drop landed. The water cycle repeats:

Meanwhile, Patter had landed
in a spring meadow.
Hello, daisy.
Good morning, bee.
Rise and shine, butterfly.

The second water drop falls to the ground, travels back to the sea, and the water cycle begins again. The repeating pattern in the text reinforces the idea behind the story.

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)