5 Informational Picture Books and 5 Good Reasons to Read Them

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I love narrative books. There's something about them that's so appealing because they often provide a nice escape from reality or an exciting adventure. I have no doubt that my children who are 4 1/2 and 20 months feel the same. So often we go to the library and come home with a stack of imaginative picture books. You'll see this blog is full of these types of stories. More often than not, the non-fiction and informational picture books can get left behind at the library!

There are really REALLY great reasons, though, to embrace (and yes, check out) books that are packed with information for children.

Here are 5 benefits of reading non-fiction and informational picture books with your young child.

• Children may gain interest in a new subject area, which drives them to learn (and read) about the topic even more.
• Opportunities for learning new vocabulary are plentiful (which is a great thing, since vocabulary knowledge has been linked to success in Kindergarten).
• Non-fiction and informational picture books can ignite curiosity in children and lead them to ask "why" questions.
• These books can provide a basis for hands-on learning activities (which is one of the best ways to learn about a topic).
• Often these books initiate more conversation than narrative stories, building language and comprehension skills.

Convinced you should check out some non-fiction and informational picture books on your next trip to the library? Take a look at these fall-inspired informational children's books!

Nuts to You by Lois Ehlert

Learn the names of plants and animals, and of course - some fun facts about squirrels. The blog Ready-Set-Read has several neat ways to extend the learning with this book in this post.

Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington

Learn all about growth, gardening, and the life cycle from seed to pumpkin. Check out this sequencing activity to accompany this book. 



Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert




This book is packed full of information about trees, birds, and gardening. Learn new science related vocabulary, and even practice several math concepts with these activities inspired by Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf.

             The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

Learn about the life cycle of an apple tree, then 
try one of these cute apple crafts!

The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons

Learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin, as well as pumpkin and Halloween traditions. Check out this post for some fun pumpkin games.

Do you have any books to add to the list?

Math and Science Learning with Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert

It's still summer, but Fall is in the air. For the past 3 weeks baby bookworm has been continuously asking, "Is it Fall yet?" She's been excitedly awaiting going back to music class and ballet - things that I told her would come in the Fall.

To get us in a Fall mood this week, we did a few learning activities inspired by the book Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert.

This book teaches children about the life cycle of a tree and introduces science-related vocabulary and concepts in a very kid-friendly way. 

The activities to go along with this book it seems were endless, so we did a few that reviewed important early math concepts such as counting, sorting, and size. We also made a graph, which was an activity we did for the first time. Of course, science & craftiness were also a part of this lesson!

Take a look:

We headed outside to collect our leaves first.

We selected a variety of leaves - not only on the ground but from bushes, too.

We classified leaves by color, and then counted the number of leaves in each pile.

We made a graph (color by number) based on the leaves we had found, sorted, and counted.

She identified which color had the "most" leaves and which had the "fewest".

We ordered our leaves by size, and she identified which was "biggest" and which was "smallest".

We "investigated" our leaves with a magnifying glass, and identified parts of a leaf we learned about

in the book such as stem. 

We also talked about why some of the leaves were green as opposed to 

yellow or brown.

Last but not least, we made some leaf rubbings and counted the number of points on each leaf. 

We noticed we only found leaves with an odd number of points!

Here's a summary of the Math & Science Concepts and Vocabulary in this Lesson:

Math 

Concepts: Counting, Sorting, Size

Vocabulary: Biggest/Smallest, Most/Fewest, Graph

Science 

Concepts: life cycle of a tree, Photosynthesis

Vocabulary: Stem, Photosynthesis, Deciduous, Bark, Vein, Investigate, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, Pigment

*Don't forget to make connections during this lesson (or any book-based lesson). In addition to making connections from text to activities, you can make connections from text to self, text to text, or text to world. It's an easy strategy to aid in comprehension!*

Bring on Fall!!!

Oodles of Animals by Lois Ehlert {Book-based Craft}

Can't make it to the zoo? Then I suggest you check out Oodles of Animals by Lois Ehlert. In this book your child will meet lots of animals beautifully crafted out of paper shapes, not to mention learn a little bit about each in rhyming text that is quite poetic.

I thought it might be fun to attempt to make our own paper cut-out animal in the style of Lois Ehlert. So I asked baby bookworm to select an animal she would like to make. She chose the butterfly (I guess she's all girl after all). Then I let her pick the colors she wanted to use, and we rounded up our materials for the craft:

Our Materials

• Scissors (we used adult, child, and "fancy")
• glue (we used Elmers and a paint brush for application, but a stick would be fine too)
• Googly eyes (optional)
• Colored paper 
• Sequence & glitter for decoration

Creating our shape butterfly

I used the book as a guide and cut out various shapes that could be assembled easily into a butterfly. While I was cutting out the shapes with the "fancy" scalloped scissors and "adult" scissors, I let baby bookworm practice cutting on her own with her child-safe scissors (this was just to keep her occupied). 

Then, I guided her with questions such as "What shape is this?" or "Where do you think the diamond goes?"  as we placed the shapes together to make a butterfly. Last, she decorated the butterfly with sequence. 

I thought this was a cute activity to reinforce some of the shape and color concepts from the book. Hope you have fun creating your own animals!