Winter Ecology

Children's Book Project

This quarter your project will be to create a children’s book about some aspect of winter ecology.  You will illustrate and write your book, as well as read your book to the class. I expect you to spend about 10-12 hours doing this project.

Requirements

• Illustrations: drawings, sketches, pictures (click here to get to a site where you can search for photographs), photocopies of pictures (try to get good detail or color them), downloaded pictures from the internet, clip art, etc.
• Writing about winter ecology.  (You should aim for language suitable for K – 4^th, like most children’s picture books.)  Your handwriting must be legible, so type the book if it is not!
• A book cover page, complete with title and author’s name.  You can find a way to bind your book together – in a 3-ring binder, punch holes and tie with string, make cardboard covers, etc.
• You should use at least two sources to research your topic.  No more than one source may be class notes, and one may be the internet.  You must include a bibliography at the back of the book.  We have class books available on winter plants and animals, ask Tiare to photocopy the pages you would like.

Benchmark Dates

Feb 3rd:          Topic due and rough idea of book elements (for example, are you doing fiction or non-fiction, rhyming, what kind of plot,  etc.)

Feb 17^th:         Bibliography due (two sources)

March 10^th:     Book due;  Book presentations

Book Ideas:

• Pretend you have gone on a trip to a wintry area and write a diary with pictures
• Compare a variety of animals or plants and what changes they go through during the winter
• Focus on one animal or plant and how it survives the winter
• Make a children’s field guide to winter animals, nests, scat, footprints, twigs, berries, mushrooms, etc.
• Describe winter: why we have seasons, how snow is formed, the many kinds of snowflakes, subnivean life, why it is wet and muddy, etc.
• Tell about people who live in wintry areas and their culture
• Examine how the human body reacts to cold
• Whatever else interests you about winter!

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