Informational Text

The Planets

Written and Illustrated by: Gail Gibbons

Holiday House. 2005

32 pages

Informational Text

              Informational books have really began to grow on me this semester. I am in a third grade classroom and the boys only read informational books. I was so surprised how excited they were about finding out new facts while reading. As they would read and find new facts they would run over to me and say Ms. Wilson look and then give me a fact. Most of their books were on animals. They would teach me a new fact almost every day. In this informational book we learn about planets. This book goes over the planets. It also talks about how they move together and in what direction. The students learn key vocabulary words as well. This book goes right along with what students are learning about the solar system.

              The illustrations in this book are very bright and eye catching. They will catch students and keep them engaged. Some of the pictures look hand drawn like the people or alien on one page. Others look very precise. The precise pictures to me look like a textbook picture but added to make it pop in a children’s book.

              This book is great for kindergarten through second grade. This book has not won any awards to my knowledge and research. There are really endless possibilities of activities to do when talking about the solar system. For a writing center you would have the book available for your students. You would pose the question, “Pick a planet and talk about your journey there and what conditions you encounter on the planet.” For a science station we would act out the solar system we would have students standing as the planets maybe even allowing them to dress up. As they stand we will spin as our planets and then rotate around the sun. This will get the students involved in the learning. An art activity we can do with this book is to create models of our solar system. This will be a take home project for students.