Brenner, Barbara. (2004). Illustrated by Tom Leonard. One small place in a tree. New
York: HarperCollins. 32 pages. ISBN 0-688-17180-x
Award: Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12, 2005
Genre: informational picture storybook
Content area: science
Grade level: K-3
Credibility of author: The author acknowledges Thomas C. Harrington from the Department of Plant Pathology at Iowa State University for his contributions to this book.
Summary: This book leads the reader on a journey through several seasons in the life of an oak tree and the relationship it has with all of the forest creatures. The story begins with a bear making scratch marks on the bark. The scratch marks invite timber beetles to make a home in the tree. From there the tree continues to provide a home for different animals, even after it has died and fallen to the ground.
Standards: Life Science IV (Ecology and Environment)
Illustrations: colorful two-page spreads
Text: Chunks of text are spaced at the left side, right side, middle, bottom, and/or top of a page. The font is approximately 14-point.
Text structure: chronological
Tone: narrative
Voice: The author conveys a love and appreciation for nature as she speaks directly to the reader.
Language: The author uses simple sentence structure along with descriptive language that matches the illustrations perfectly.
Access features:
Use: I would use this book as a read aloud because there are so many good discussions that could evolve from it. This would be a great book to read before a field trip to the Noxubee Wildlife Refuge. Then, students could look for trees with holes, make observations, and then hypothesize about what creatures they believe are using the tree for a home. This book could be used for teaching about forest animals, habitats, and ecology.
Response: In the throw-away society that we live in today, I love how this book teaches an ecological lesson. Children can see that even an old, rotten tree has a purpose.
Related texts:
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Nature in the Neighborhood by Gordon Morrison
Forest Explorer: A Life-sized Field Guide by Nic Bishop
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I have never heard of this book before. But, I thought I could use it with my zoo unit when we talk about different animals and their habitats. I also like how it discuss how the tree changes over time, I could see this as a great journaling piece as well as using this book to start an inquiry based project going.
I was walking in my backyard today and saw a tree with a really distorted bulge. I was curious to see what might have caused it and there was a hole that the tree had grown around. When I read your blog, I immediately wondered what creatures might have lived in it over the years.
I was trying to find a children's book that I've read that gives the history of a tree in Texas. WHen I googled it, here's the Wikipedia entry I found with famous trees all over the world--I had no idea!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famous_trees
Post a Comment