Hello Reading Public Schools!
I am excited to share the kick-off of our Book of the Month for the 2022-23 school year. Our goals for the Book of the Month program include:
- provide quality books for school collections that highlight STEM themes and celebrate diversity
- provide a model/structure for using read-alouds across content areas and in relation to multiple content and/or practice standards.
- build community networks with students, staff, and wider Reading community through the Reading Library and Whitelam Books.
Why picture books? Picture books and read-alouds are a great way to connect and integrate STEM themes across the content areas, even (and especially) in upper grades. They allow beautiful imagery supporting complex content, created shared experiences in a short amount of time, and entice curiosity, discussion, and exploration.
We have an awesome line-up this year of titles... and our first title for September is "Crossings." “Crossings” examines engineering solutions to animal passes to alleviate the dangers creating by traffic in animal habitats. The author pulls from a wide range of animals, geographic locations, and engineered solutions embedded in beautiful illustrations. (Did you see the cute video of these 2 animal pals that went viral a few years ago? That’s a real-life example in action!) The book can be simplified for younger readers by reading only the larger text – or go more deeply into the biology/ecology/engineering solutions with the detailed captions.
I encourage you to visit the Reading Public Library or Whitelam Books and enjoy this great title. Happy Reading!
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STEM Curriculum Coordinator, Reading Public Schools
Twitter: @STEMReading
https://readingstem.blogspot.com/
