Dolphins are fascinating creatures of the sea! They're designed to be intelligent, inquisitive, and compassionate. Their slender bodies and pointed noses combined with the ability to swim gracefully and communicate effectively make these mammals one of the most loved animals in the natural world.
Everything Dolphins explores the world of these extraordinary creatures to help kids learn all about the characteristics that define dolphins, their daily lives, different species, conservation efforts, and much more. This book is also PACKED with fun facts and amazing photographs, features Expert's Corners that provide exciting, real-life experiences with dolphins from National Geographic explorers Flip and Linda Nicklin, and cool and interactive activities that add to the excitement and enchantment of these amazing animals. Page-by-page kids will get an in-depth look at these curious and captivating creatures.
National Geographic supports K-12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources. Visit www.natgeoed.org/commoncore for more information.
Elizabeth Carney is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. She specializes in children's nonfiction and science, math, and STEM-related subjects.
Elizabeth received the 2005 AAAS Science Journalism Award for science reporting for children. Her titles Face to Face With Cheetahs, Face to Face With Gorillas, and Great Migrations: Whales, Wildebeests, Butterflies, Elephants, and Other Amazing Animals on the Move appeared on the National Science Teachers Association's Outstanding Science Trade Book list for 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively.
Summary: This book title captures it all: everything dolphins. This book contains copious amounts of information about dolphins, from what they do, all different species, and the various characteristics of each.
Evaluation: I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars because the pictures are engaging and would definitely captive the reader. This book also has tons of information all about dolphins and honestly everything that you could ever think of.
Teaching Point: This would be a great book to use for informational/informative writing. Students could use this book is a resource when researching information about animals they are interested in. All these facts about dolphins would be very helpful for students to write about in this kind of writing.
Book Description: Using vibrant photographs, the author, Melissa Stewart shows a dolphin in its everyday existence. Stewart uses nearly all of the key text features in this book. There is a table of contents, glossary, photographs, captions, and labels.
Focus for my mini-lessons: • The focus for my lesson is to show how text features are important and helpful in a nonfiction/information book. Stewart provides a great mentor book for doing this. Using post-it notes, the students will find an example of each nonfiction text feature in various books. • Using Clarke’s book as a guide, I will model using my own created information book how we can add these text features in our own informational writing to help make our texts more understandable and interesting to our readers.
Teach: 1st Grade CCSS Connection – 1.RI.5 – Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text. 1.W.2. Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
• The students will use post it notes to identify nonfiction text features in a book. The students will work in partners to complete this. • The students will illustrate a picture and label the picture and the students will make a mini glossary about the given topic.
Learning Outcome: The students will be able to find nonfiction text features in any grade level appropriate nonfiction text. The students will understand that labels on a picture in an information book help the reader to understand the text.
Everything Dolphins is a well informational book put together about everything you want to know about dolphins. It provides amazing illustrations that look real life as if you are right there with the dolphin in the water. The book provides information about what dolphins are and their family tree, life of a dolphin, dolphins life in water and many more.
This book reminds me of a nonfiction book that I read not too long ago. The book is called If a Dolphin Were a Fish by Loran Wlodarksi. If a Dolphin Were a Fish is about a dolphin trying to imagine herself being other sea creatures. This book is quite funny as they learn about the difference between several sea animals. These books would be great paris for learning about dolphins through the book Everything Dolphins and then relating it to the book If a Dolphin Were a Fish exploring difference of dolphins and other sea animals.
Everything Dolphins would be for children at the intermediate grade levels because of its informational content and higher vocabulary.
If a Dolphin Were a Fish would be for children at the primary grade level because of its low vocabulary content.
I used this book to support/inspire our ocean studies! This is one of many National Geographic Kids books that we have read, since the children love the real pictures. The genuine quality of the pictures help children concretely understand the difference between fiction and non-fiction; and based upon how often they return to these books on the shelf, it seems like they can not get enough of the real world! Thank you National Geographic!
National Geographic books are great nonfiction books for students. They are available in a huge range of topics, so each child is sure to find one they are interested in. The books feature fascinating facts along with amazing images.
OMGG I loved this book! Even as an adult reading it, I found out things that I never knew, such as an Orca is really in the dolphin family vs. the whale family. WHAT???