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What is Informazing?
- a series of science/ literacy books for K-6
- an introduction to reading and writing information
- game and puzzle books that engage the young reader
- cross-curriculum learn-to-read + read-to-learn
Small Worlds (Grades 3–5)
Informazing series
Which planet has a volcano three times higher than Everest? Which has a moon that never sets or a day that lasts eight months? Small Worlds presents the four smallest planets, their mysterious weather, their strange skies and their world-beating records.
Grade level 3-8
Visual literacy
Photographs: to show authentic details on Mars and other planets
Scale diagrams: to show planet sizes relative to the Earth, and to compare mountains and valleys on different planets
Spectrum diagram: to show the temperatures on other planets from the coldest to the hottest
Storyboard: to explain how craters are formed on Mercury
Block diagram (picture glossary): to define landforms on Mars such as ice caps, canyons and sand dunes
Cyclical timeline: to explain why Pluto's summer lasts 62 years
Subject areas
English/Language Arts
- Information reports and explanations
- Research strategies
Science/Technology
- The terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Pluto)
Mathematics
- Temperature units, positive and minus
- Notation for thousands and millions
Social Studies/Geography/Biology
- Requirements for life
- Landforms on other worlds compared with those on Earth
- Rock formation (craters, molten rocks)
- Weather and climate on other worlds
Learning strategies
Research: collect, read, summarize, visualize, write
Recomposing: read information in one form and summarize the content in a different form. (This avoids simply copying the source material.)
Samples from the book
A scale diagram helps children to visualize concepts of vast size.
Block diagram/picture glossary
Block diagrams are often used in geography and biology to show details that are partly hidden. These diagrams show a "piece" of the subject as if "cut" and removed like a slice of cake. This allows more than one "side" to be viewed in the same image. Diagrams that name their parts are picture glossaries; these visual texts help to define the meanings of specialized terms.
More about block diagrams can be found here.
Ideas to get you started
- With a focus on the planet Mars, "walk through" the book, stopping only at the diagrams and photos of Mars. These are on pages 4, 5, 7, 12 and 13.
- It helps if you have already covered all the paragraphs and headings with removable "sticky notes" so that only the diagrams and photos can be seen. Two of these diagrams are in our sample. (Don't try to cover the words inside the diagrams themselves!)
- Using only the diagrams and photos, ask the children to help you to compile as much information as possible.
- On a large sheet of paper draw up a table like the one shown below. Fill in each cell of the table using the information in the diagrams.
- Now the children have enough facts to write an information report called How is Mars Different from Earth? Children can follow the numbering in the table so that they know where to start and what to write next.
- This strategy helps children to write well-organized information reports. More on this strategy can be found here.
| How is Mars different from Earth? | |||
| Mars | Earth | ||
| 2. Size: smaller/larger? (p. 4) | |||
| 3. Color of sky (p. 5) | |||
| 4. Temperatures (p. 6) | |||
| 5. Highest mountains (p. 7) | |||
| 6. Deepest valleys (p. 7) | |||
| Etc. ... | |||
| 9. Conclusion | |||
| Decision: | |||
|
Informazing is a science/ literacy series for K–6 by David Drew
Titles in this series: Animal Acrobats Animal, Plant, or Mineral? The Book of Animal Records Caterpillar Diary Earth in Danger The Gas Giants The Life of the Butterfly Millions of Years Ago Mystery Monsters Postcards from the Planets Skeletons Small Worlds Somewhere in the Universe Tadpole Diary What Is It? |
How is Mars different from Earth? In some ways Mars is very different from the Earth, but in other ways the two planets are similar. Mars is smaller than the Earth, in fact about half the Earth's size. The sky on Mars is pink, whereas Earth's sky is usually blue. Mars is a much colder ... The mountains ... The valleys ... ... In conclusion, Mars has some similarities, such as ..., but many differences, in particular ... |
Contents of Small Worlds
The planets
Small worlds
Other skies
Record breakers
Hottest and coldest
Highest mountain
Deepest canyon
Mercury
The giant crater
The planet that shrank
Venus
Heavy air
Glowing rocks
Mars
Is there life on Mars?
Voyage to Mars
Pluto
The snowball planet
Planet X
The tenth planet?
Earth
What's so special about Earth?
Glossary
Index
To ask a consultant to show you this book
in Australia and NZ click here (Nelson)
Companion book: The Gas Giants
The rest of the planets in our solar system are explored in this companion book.
These books are now out of print
Second-hand copies can sometimes be bought from
Copyright © Black Cockatoo Publishing PL 2006
