Did you know that children grow more in spring than any other time of year? I didn't until I found it while researching for this blog and it is an example of the many amazing things you learn with research. Spring is a great time to do some research about growing!
Spring is a time when everything seems to grow. Many animals have their babies in the spring and plants burst with leaves and flowers. But why is that? What makes spring a special time for growing and how to animals and plants grow? Explore the answers to those questions and different things that grow in the following books and do your own research to find answers to other questions you think of after reading these books.
The poem "The Egg" by Jack Prelutsky from the National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry: 200 Poems with Photographs That Squeak, Soar, and Roar! edited by J. Patrick Lewis is about a chicken hatching. A sweet start for this unit about growing.
In Growing Like Me by Anne Rockwell, a small boy tells us all the ways he is growing, as well as the plants and animals around him. Talk about the different names, such as chick versus bird or blossom versus fruit, we have for things when they are small. Go on a walk to see how many things you can find growing in your neighborhood.
Growing your food is the theme of Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert. A child plants a garden with their father and tends it from seed to harvest to soup. A great book to discuss the stages of growing a plant goes through until they are harvested and die back in the fall. Discuss with your child how food is most plentiful in spring and summer which is one reason why so many animals have their babies then.
A young boy tells how his is growing in I'm Growing by Aliki. He shows how each part of him is growing. Cut out different sized bones to compare sizes using this link (print them different sizes) and talk about how bones grow with the help of nutrients in our food. Chat about calcium and foods that you can get calcium from, such as broccoli, kale, spinach, green beans, milk, and almonds.
Miss Frizzle is at is again when she takes the class on a field trip to get seeds from Phoebe's plant at her old school in The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds: A Book About How Living Things Grow by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. As always lots of great science facts are in this book.
Oscar, the cat, visits a pond and observes all the living things growing there in Oscar and the Frog: A Book About Growing by Geoff Waring. After reading this book, create your own book about the stages of living things and compare them plants versus animals. Start with seed to seedling to plant to flower to fruit and back to seed, and for animals from baby to child to adult.
Summer Jackson no longer wants to be 7, so she declares that she is now a grown up. Her family goes along with it, and in fact, her parents decide to take the opportunity to be childlike themselves in Summer Jackson Grown Up by Teresa E. Harris and AG Ford. But Summer learns that growing up doesn't just mean getting bigger; it also means responsibility.
Here is one final question to ponder with your child: Are living things the only things that grow?
As always, I hope you enjoy these recommendations. Feel free to share with credit to Words Reflected and Kim Bogren Owen on Facebook, your website, or in your newsletter. Please add your favorite book about growing or what you discovered in your research in the comments!
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