Teaching reading standards for informational text can be a challenge. Students have such a wide variety of interests it can be difficult to find one that engages all students. Pairing reading informational text with visits to the school garden can help to increase engagement.
Pollinators is one topic that most students will find interesting. When asked about pollinators most students (and adults, for that matter) think of bees–more specifically, honey bees. Did you know there are 133 different species of bees native to North Carolina? Did you know that bats are pollinators (although not in NC)? Did you know that 1 in every three bites of food we eat rely on pollination? This website offers an interesting list of foods that we eat and their crop-specific pollinators. Looking for a seasonal connection? Did you know that bumblebees and squash bees are pumpkin pollinators?
These are just some of the many interesting facts to engage students in reading about pollination and there is no shortage of children’s non-fiction books on the subject. Here are a few to explore. Find more selections here and here.
Flower Talk explores why plants “talk” to animals and how they entice the animals with their flowers to carry their pollen from place to place. Author, Sara Levine goes into detail about how the different flower colors attract different kinds of pollinators even noting that plants with green flowers, like grasses, “aren’t talking to anyone,” but that’s ok, because they are wind pollinated.
This book illustrates the investigative scientific process as it explores how new technology confirmed a pollination hypothesis made by Charles Darwin more than a century earlier. Darwin never saw a moth that could pollinate the star orchid with its nectary that was more than 10 inches long, but he suspected such an insect did exist. With the help of special night vision cameras, a German entomologist captured footage of a hawk moth drinking nectar from the orchid solving the long held mystery.
Scientific discoveries are often collaborations, as demonstrated in this book as the understanding of the monarch butterfly migration is pieced together by a collective of scientists, backyard gardeners, students, adventurers, and farmers. The plight of the monarch is also discussed as readers are educated on how to support the monarch population through their precarious migration.
Rhyme can bring fresh energy to nonfiction text as demonstrated in this book which covers flowers, pollen, pollinators, and seeds, including many familiar examples.
Many children are scared of bees, but this book helps the reader understand how vital bees are in our ecosystem. The illustrations show what our environment would look like without bees pollinating, creating a bleak picture of a world without bees. Supplemental text offers an opportunity to dig deeper and better understand bees and their role.
This book provides great info on bees, their role in nature and pollination through beautiful poems, whimsical paintings and factual text blocks. The reader can explore bee anatomy, the types of bees, honey and pollen.
What relatable qualities, besides patience, as the title implies, help butterflies fulfill their role as pollinators? A few more considered in this book are being thirsty, helpful, and protective. Many are also adventurous, traveling impressive distances through many environments. Butterfly species are many and varied as illustrated throughout this book.
