Stellar poetry

Out of This World : Poems and Facts About Space by Amy E. Sklansky (811 SkO 2012 PIC BK) is a good book to connect science and language arts for early elementary grades.

The combination of poems written in various styles, interesting facts and darkly coloured illustrations provides an appealing opportunity to learn more about astral bodies and phenomena.

One of my favourite poems for its imagery is After Blastoff.

The Earth

fills

their window

and then

drops away,

like a

basketball

baseball

golfball

marble. 

How far from home

they’ve traveled today.

Facts that struck me as particularly interesting include:

*Each space suit costs more than 10 million dollars.

*Footprints left from any of the twelve astronauts to have walked on the moon remain unchanged for billions of years.

*Uranus spins on its side.

Who knew?

Check out today's Nonfiction Monday event at Capstone Connect .  Looks like an interesting round up of nonfiction children's literature.