Monday, March 15, 2010

Book Sharing Monday - Eggs!

Our part of New England has been fortunate (in my eyes) to have both a mild winter and an early spring this year.  Though it may be 38 degrees and rainy today, in two days it's supposed to be 59 and sunny, which sounds like heaven.  

Nature study is a big part of a Charlotte Mason education, and while we may not get outdoors quite as much as I would like, the type of science my kids gravitate toward lends itself very well to the study of nature.  Recently, I've been putting books about birds, eggs, and life cycles in their workboxes, and they've been a big hit.   Here are a couple of our favorites, with a more exhaustive list at the end.


An Egg is Quiet, by Dianna Aston (author) and Sylvia Long (illustrator)

From the same team that brought us A Seed is Sleepy, this beautiful book is short on words, but long on enjoyment.  The pictures, from endpapers to endpapers and everything in between, are meticulously drawn and softly tinted.  And while there isn't a ton of information presented, what is here is apt to provoke some interesting observations and discussions.

Eggs, by Marilyn Singer (author) and Emma Stevenson (illustrator)

This book about eggs has much more written text than the one above, and was enjoyed by my eight- and twelve-year-olds.  Published in 2008, it is the illustrator's first book.  I hope we see more by her!

Other books and resources we used in this unit: 

Ducks Don't Get Wet (Goldin & Davie; a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book)
Falcons Nest on Skyscrapers (Jenkins & Lloyd; a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book)
A Nest Full of Eggs (Jenkins & Rockwell; a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book)
How Do Birds Find Their Way? (Gans & Mirocha; a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book)
Lemon the Duck (Backman & Cleyet-Merle; for a teacher's guide for this book, go here)
From Egg to Chicken (Ganeri)
Animals in Flight (Jenkins & Page)
How Animals Grow (Llewellyn)
The Egg (Jeunesse, de Bourgoing, & Mettler)
Bird Songs (Franco & Jenkins)
What Bluebirds Do (Kirby)
A Duckling is Born (Isenbart & Baumli)
The Life Cycle of a Duck (Hipp & Kuhn)
From Egg to Bird (Reidel)
Duckling (Magloff)

DVDs:
Bill Nye the Science Guy: Birds
Birds of a Feather (Reading Rainbow)
All about Birds
All about Animal Life Cycles
Life of Birds





Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Serendipity Home School.

2 comments:

l said...

What a fantastic Book Sharing Monday! We have read the Egg is Quiet book and it is beautiful. I will look for some of the others you mentioned at our library. Thank you!
We love nature study here too, especially since we have been participating in the Outdoor Hour Challenges.

Christina said...

Thanks for stopping by, Alex. I've looked at the Outdoor Hour Challenge but haven't had the gumption to jump on that wagon yet, LOL. That and the State Park Passport program. Mostly we just take long walks through "our" woods and occasionally some of the other parks around here.