The story of the Shark Lady is a great way to encourage children to find ways to pursue their dreams and their quest for knowledge. Eugenie Clark, the girl fascinated by her experiences at the aquarium, grows up to become the Shark Lady, discovering three new marine species and dispelling myths about sharks.
Dive into mathematician Paul Erdős’ life and experience his passion for numbers and solving problems. You can encourage the children to look for numbers and mathematical symbols in the text and illustrations. What rules do the children know? Which rules make them feel safe and which ones do they not like? Do they know any rules or patterns to do with numbers?
The children will notice that Freddy looks normal in size when Eddy is holding him but tiny in the bear’s hands. This is a great introduction to the mathematical concept of size. This is also a brilliant opportunity to combine STEM learning with promoting the children’s language development as they will be using their comparative and superlative adjectives of size: “How big is your teddy?” – “It’s bigger than yours. But’ Laura’s is the biggest.”
One of the educational pillars of our program is co-construction – where educators and children work together and collaborate to build knowledge. We like to use this book in our Water workshop to talk about how important it is to recognise a child’s developmental stage and prior knowledge to give them the best support in their cognitive development.
Enjoy the rich colours and wonderful shapes in Bronwyn Bancroft’s magnificent celebration of country with the children. Which are their favourite pictures? What colours and shapes do they like? Which plants grow in this landscape and which animals live there? Which of the landscapes from the book can you see when you go outside?
This book is an excellent choice if you would like to explore water displacement with the children. This could lead into projects on investigating the best ways to get into a boat or even building model boats and trying out how much weight these can carry and how it can be distributed.
Dive into the colourful and exciting world of blubber, tusks, jaws and fins with this vibrant book. Can the children walk like crabs? How do other animals move? Learn how dolphins speak and think about how other animals communicate. From the anatomy and habitat of different creatures to food chains and colours, there is a lot to explore with your children.
Use this book to encourage the children to make their own wombat stew. Which ingredients dissolve and which don’t? Which ones float and which ones sink? Once the wombat stew has been cooked, the children can investigate how the Dingo could go about cleaning the water again.
Reading this story about one brave fish and his friends may inspire conversations about optical illusions, camouflage, food chains and how animals stay safe from predators. The story also has a message appropriate for little scientists: It is much more fun to explore the world as a group than on your own.
A picture book about Zog, the ambitious dragon and a princess who chooses a medical career over doing nothing whilst wearing frilly dresses.