Children's Science Literature

One of the most important things for children and elementary classrooms is children's literature. It enhances critical thinking and is a huge foundation of learning. It is also important for children to read and be exposed to a variety of different children's literature. Combining different subject areas into children's literature is a great way to combine content areas and incorporate literature into different subjects and lesson plans. Literature is key to making these lessons successful and engaging for the kids. 

In science lessons, it is extremely important to incorporate science literature, both fiction and nonfiction. Below I have made a list of children's literature examples in both of these categories that can be used at home or in classroom settings when teaching science lessons. 

Nonfiction science children's literature:

• Galaxies, Galaxies! 
• Water
• Eyewitness Books: Rocks and Minerals
• Human Body! 
• Little Kids First Big Book of Dinosaur 
• The Everything Kids' Science Experiments Book 
• Mistakes That Worked
• Little Kids First Big Book of Space 
• Forces: Physical Science for Kids 
• A Butterfly's Life
• How Plants Grow
• Living or Nonliving? 

Fiction science children's literature:

• What A Waste 
• How Do Apples Grow? 
• Cece Loves Science and Adventure 
• Goodnight Lab: A Scientific Parody
• A Raindrop's Journey 
• What is Science? 
• Run Wild
• Deep in the Ocean
• Over in a River: Flowing Out to the Sea
• Just Grace Goes Green 

Children's Engineering/Makerspace Projects

What is a Makerspace Lab? A Makerspace Lab is a collaborative workplace found in schools or libraries that are made for learning, exploring, creating, and inventing. There are different types of equipment found in these labs which could include 3D printers, sewing machines, and other activities and tools. These labs incorporate many STEM/STEAM activities for children to engage in and connect different ideas and subject areas.

During my time in this course, I was able to experience many hours doing practicum at a local Makerspace Lab. I had never heard of these before taking this course and volunteering at these Makerspaces but they are so much fun and are a great outlet for young students to have. I went to this Makerspace Lab every Wednesday for a handful of weeks in a row and began to become familiar with some of the children that would come each week. Each week we would choose a couple different educational STEAM activities for the students to use and each week it was so fun to see how these children would get so into the different activities and be so creative with them. The kids used problem-solving to figure out a lot of the tough activities and did a lot of trial and error to strategize and problem solve. Some examples of the activities and tools that we would bring out during these Makerspace Labs are LEGOs, Straws & Connectors, marble runs, snap circuits, and the drawing tablet. I learned so much by attending these labs and would encourage everyone to try them out and research if there are any near you or local to you!

In Fredericksburg, VA there are many options and locations for Makerspace Labs! The one that I attended was at the Howell Library but there are many others and the Central Rappahannock Regional Library website shares these different locations and the times that these labs occur.

There is an abundance of websites that have information about different MakerSpace Labs and provide a lot of resources for parents and educators. Some of these websites include:

• Why Your Students Need a Makerspace 
• Defining STEM Makerspace
• 15 Best Makerspace Lab Images 
• STEAM Lab Makerspaces 
• Designing a School Makerspace 

Coding & Programming

Coding and programming is an important tool that all elementary students should have the chance to learn and advance in! What is coding exactly? Coding is what makes it possible for us to create computer software and different websites. Being able to code and to program is important because it allows us to understand what goes into computers and gives us an appreciation of how things work. By being able to code and learn these basics, students are problem-solving and figuring out the best strategies to complete things and they go through a variety of ways of doing things efficiently and successfully. Coding and programming give students a challenge to overcome and it really allows them to deep dive into problem-solving and effective strategies to overcome these challenges.

There are endless resources for elementary schoolers to use for learning/practicing coding and programming. Common Sense Education gives many different tools for elementary students to use to practice coding and gives a mini summary of each so that the students can find the best resources for them! Educators can use this website as a resource for finding and narrowing down some of the best resources.

I wanted to give a quick list of some of my favorite coding tools that are perfect for elementary schoolers to use!:

ScratchJr- ScratchJr is available as an app for young children and allows them to think creatively and create their own interactive stories and games using animations and different sprites as characters! Students will learn how to problem-solve and express themselves using this interactive website/app.



SpriteBoxCoding- SpriteBox Coding is a great website/app for all ages that teaches students different programming and coding skills such as parameters, sequencing, and loops. These skills are very important to have and can be used in different situations moving on with students' education. This resource gives students the opportunity to solve different coding puzzles using icons and have a great time doing it!

Ozobot- Ozobots are such a great resource to have in the classroom! Ozobots are little robots that teach kids programming in a fun and unique way. The student can calibrate these robots to follow colors, lines, and identify different surfaces. The Ozobot website has many different resources including videos, how to shop this resource, different lessons that educators can use with the Ozobot, and much more.


Code & Go Mouse- This is a fantastic tool and activity set to have at home or in the classroom for young students to use and practice coding with! The kit comes with coding cards that help the student create a path for the mouse to follow. The students will program the sequence of steps into the mouse and then watch it follow the code! There are endless amounts of activites and lessons that you can use with the Code & Go Mouse and it allows you to get creative with it and be very interactive with the students.

Virginia Fish

Learning about fish in the elementary classroom is very important and can help students be more knowledgable in biology and understanding more about fish that live in their local bodies of water that they might have not ever heard about. 

The Virginia DGIF gives many great resources about fish that can be found in Virginia and is a great guide for learning more about them! The website breaks down the fish into different groups and provides links to different types of fish and provides us with details about them and pictures. This is very helpful as we learn about fish and it gives us a lot of information including other common names, identification, where's best to find them in VA, feeding habits, and habitats. This website is such a great guide and can help educators come up with creative activities that are based on specific types of fish found locally in Virginia. 

A fun and creative website for elementary students is 40+ Fish Theme Activities for Kids and it provides parents/educators with some fun and engaging fish lessons and activities that can be modified and adjusted to identify with Virginia fish and local fish to the students. 

Another familiar teaching resource that has a topic on fish is BrainPOP!  This website shares videos, different standards, and lesson plans that are friendly and fun for students to learn more about fish in general and their characteristics and qualities. There are quizzes for students to take and also great vocabulary terms that students can use as a great fish resource. 

Virginia Insects

Being able to identify and learn about insects that are common in your area is super important. Virginia has many different types of insects and bugs that are found in different places and there are many online tools to learn more about them! Insect Identification is a great website that interactively provides different insects that are found in Virginia. The website allows you to click on the pictures of the insects and it provides you with a description of the insect and a little summary. 

A great website that provides educators/parents with many great resources for bug/insect activities is Pest World for Kids. This website gives information on insects/bugs for elementary students in grades K-5. The website is loaded with arts/crafts ideas, insect science fair projects, games, and elementary school bug and insect lesson plans for the use of educators and teachers! 

Pinterest also has some really great ideas for activities to do in the classroom such as 10 Ideas for Doing Insect Week in the Classroom. 

Virginia Birds

A good website that provides some great resources for teachers to create some meaningful lesson plans about Virginia birds is the Virginia Society of Ornithology.  This website provides some great notes on how to become a birder and how to use field guides and better understand the birds that are local to your area. The website also includes many links to websites for young students to use to learn more and also includes links to worksheets and coloring pages for young students! There are also resources for educators on this website.

It is important that while learning about birds, students have the chance to be engaged in some fun and creative lessons about birds! Here are 10 fun activities you need to try when teaching kids about birds.  This website includes many different links to fun activities that are perfect for elementary schoolers to interact with! Pinterest is another great resource that gives many ideas and they can be modified to apply to local birds in your area that you are teaching from.

Virginia Plants

It is very important for elementary students in Virginia to study and learn about native plants and flowers that can be found here. These plants are local and are probably ones that these students see every day but just don't notice that they are specific and important to Virginia!

There is an online guide from Virginia's Department of Education that is absolutely terrific in giving an overview of Virginia's Native Plants. This guide gives a great overview of what native plants even means and why it is important to learn about them. This resource breaks it down into different topics including Physiographic Regions, Only in Virginia, and Conserving Natives. This guide also is great at giving the specific SOLs that go along with learning about VA and native plants including K.11, 1.8, 2.8, 3.10, 3.11, 4.9, 6.5, 6.9, and ES.11. This is very helpful for teachers who are creating lesson plans for their students! Just go to the Virginia Natural Resource Education Guide! 

Another great resource for teachers to do some research on Virginia's Native Plants to create lessons is Plant Virginia Natives. This website is very interactive and allows you to actually see what specific plants are native to your area of Virginia and it includes Fredericksburg, Va! This is a great resource for teachers and can be a very handy tool.

A fantastic resource for lessons on plants for elementary schoolers is Plants-Teacher Resources. This website gives many different ideas for lessons and has printables about plants for K-12 grade levels. Pinterest is also a great resource for this and has many plant lesson ideas!