First Grade, Science, Set Five

Since our map already has the main rivers and lakes of the world marked on it, we are labeling them as we read about them in these books.

Here are the resources I recommend for learning about Rivers and Lakes and their Animals:

• Rivers and Lakes by Helena Ramsay -- this book teaches what rivers and lakes are, how they are made and used. It has a lot of illustrations and is written for younger children.
• The Brook Book by Jim Arnosky -- if you have a brook that you can explore, this would be a good resource
• River Beds by Gail Langer Karwoski -- picks one animal from many rivers around the world. It doesn't give a lot of information about the animal, but you can find more in other books. This is almost a picture book.
• The River by Gallimard Jeunesse -- an interesting book with wonderful illustrations. Shows life cycle of a dragonfly. Introduces some birds, animals, and insects. Shows frogs laying/fertilizing eggs
• Amazing Water Frogs by Meish Goldish -- great photos and simple text
• Animals of Rivers, Lakes, and Ponds by Sandra Donovan -- great photos with text that is easy to pick out the information you need or interesting facts without reading long passages that bore first graders
• What Lives in Streams and Rivers? by Oona Gaarder-Juntti -- great photos, but not a lot of information
• River Life by Barbara Taylor -- great photos with easy to use information
• River Food Chains by Rachel Lynette -- good book for older children; talks about a lot of rivers throughout the world
• A Nile River Food Chain by Rebecca Hogue Wojahn -- a Who-Eats-What Adventure; we really like this series

Literature or Picture Books:

• River Song by Steve Van Zandt -- if you get this from your library, be sure it has the cd. The book would be nice to read, but the cd has it in song, which makes it a lot of fun. The pictures illustrate each verse of the song. The story starts in the mountains at the source of the river and takes you all the way to the mouth of the river at the ocean.
• The River by Brigitte Sidjanski -- this book follows five pine cones that fall into the streamlet all the way to the ocean.
• The Raft by Jim LaMarche -- a boy enjoys a summer on the river at his Grandmother's house