Rocks and Minerals

National Geographic Readers: Level 2

by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

From dazzling gemstones to sparkling crystals to molten lava, this brilliantly illustrated book introduces children to the exciting world of rocks and minerals, including both the building blocks and the bling. This level two reader, written in easy-to-grasp text, will help cultivate the geologists of tomorrow!This high-interest, educationally vetted series of beginning readers features the magnificent images of National Geographic, accompanied by texts written by experienced, skilled children's book authors. The inside back cover of the paperback edition is an interactive feature based upon the book. Level 1 books reinforce the content of the book with a kinesthetic learning activity. In Level 2 books readers complete a Cloze letter, or fun fill-in, with vocabulary words.Releases simultaneously in Reinforced Library Binding: 978-1-4263-1039-3 , $13.90/$15.95 Can

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Childrens, Picture Books, 2nd Grade, Geology, Spanish Literature

32 pages, Paperback

First published August 14, 2012

About the author

Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld is the award-winning author of more than sixty books for children, including DINOSAUR TRACKS, "a great choice for even the most discriminating dinophiles" (School Library Journal); DID DINOSAURS HAVE FEATHERS?, a Children's Book of the Month Club selection, described as "fascinating" by Kirkus Reviews; and DINOSAURS BIG AND SMALL, a 2003 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Book Award winner.

When she's not reading, researching, writing, or editing, Kathleen loves to spend her free time exploring, doing fieldwork, and preparing fossils for her local natural history museums.

Reviews

[Sarah (YA Love) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack is really into rocks/minerals/crystals right now.

[Rachel Mong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an informational text about rocks and minerals that describes the three types of rocks and highlights fun facts about rocks.
The genre of informational text is evidenced by the presentation of facts about a specific subject, rocks and minerals.
This book could be used to teach the mentor trait of sentence fluency. There is a lot of information in this book, but sentences are organized into simple and short pieces of information, making it easy to read and comprehend. For writing, I would ask my students to write an informational piece that uses sentences like this. I think the tendency for young writers is to try to fit as much information into a sentence as possible. This practice can make the piece confusing for the reader. By writing shorter, more concise sentences, the writer gets his point across more easily. This book would also be a great resource for a science content lesson on rocks and minerals.
The book level is 3.6, and the guided reading level is O.

[Skylar]

Rocks are all around you may even see rocks right under your feet . Rocks can be gray, or black, tan or brown. Rocks may feel rough or smooth depending on the minerals in the rock,each mineral has a special shape[called a crystal] to give it the characteristics it has.Magma turns into igneous rock when it cools,sometimes magma cools slowly underground .Rocks are broken into small pieces by wind, rain and ice these pieces are called sediment, sediment is washed or blown into lakes.

Sometimes shells,bones, or other parts of living things, tiny spaces get filled with water .Washington monument is the tallest stonework structure in the world.Diamonds are the hardest minerals on earth.They can even cut steel,obsidian feels smooth as glass.The moon is made mostly of igneous rock , also The softest mineral in the world is talc,You can crumble it with your fingers.

[Kristin Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book for a science unit or for children who enjoy rocks and like to go rock hunting. After reading this information text students will have a good understanding about the different types of rocks, the rock cycle, fossils, minerals, etc. As a class, the teacher could take the children outside to search for rocks that would fall into each rock category. Illustrations are very well done and very realistic. I like the question and answer boxes that are found on most pages and the quiz at the end of the book.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about rocks and minerals and how they form,I learned a lot more than I already knew and I know more about what minerals form what stuff and what type of rocks can they make,Its really short book with lots of valuable information and I highly recommend reading this.

I would recommend this book to my friends who really rocks and minerals and they take science and it would really help them a lot,I give this book 5 stars.

[Melissa Namba · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, educational book for inquisitive minds. There are rock related jokes included in the corners. There are pronunciation guides for the hard words. A nice quick synopsis or introduction. A kid would need more than this for a science report though.

[Savannah Domeyer]

This book has a ton of information about rocks. Different rocks, making of rocks, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. There is also information about hidden rocks, crystals, how some turn into birthstones and what each stone is for!

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

From dazzling gemstones to sparkling crystals to molten lava, this brilliantly illustrated book introduces children to the exciting world of rocks and minerals, including both the building blocks and the bling. Full color.

[Lindsay Koltas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nonfiction/ Twin Text #5

I read the nonfiction book, "Rocks and Minerals" that was part of the National Geographic children's collection. This book used a variety of text features to examine types of rocks and where they are found common and uncommon minerals found throughout the world. The pictures of real-world expeditions gave a deeper look into rocks and minerals. This book is great for primary students because of the text features that provide an easy-to-read and understand format of text. Also, this book is an informational text because it provides facts and details about rocks and minerals and this information can be applied to a fiction book.
I paired this text with the children's book, "A rock can be." Both of these books are for primary readers because of the easy to read vocabulary and many pictures. A rock can be is a picture book for young children for when science topics about rocks and minerals are first introduced. The drawn pictures provide students with the knowledge to see the different types of rocks out their and what their composition is like. The picture book would be a great reference for children to learn more about rocks from the National Geographic guide as they get older and their reading levels advance.

[Addie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explains the differences between rocks so simply. It's very informative and easy to understand. We loved the quiz at the end meant to stump the parents!

[Lauren Duffy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent pictures and picture to text ratio for young readers.

[Elpida Cervantes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This National Geographic book on Rocks and Minerals by Kathleen Weider is full of wonderful illustrations. It also has several facts and vocabulary words to help students understand the information they are reading. It has longer sentences and many vocabulary words students might not know. However, the book does provide pictures and simple definitions for its readers. This book would be great for students who are starting to read independently.

[No Sa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marble is a metamorphic rock turned from limestone by pressure or heat

[Araceli Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great easy read for lower level readers that provides great information on rocks and minerals. There are real word photos to gage students interest and know what they are reading about.

[Jj]

Not the same author. Used as a placeholder.

[Crystal M]

Learned marble is the metamorphic version of limestone, and that the moon is igneous rock.

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great info.

[Maki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and easy to read for level two readers. Explains the rock cycle and what the various types are and how they are formed. Great visuals and photographs to add great detail.

[J.]

AR Quiz No. 153260 EN Nonfiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: LG - BL: 3.6 - AR Pts: 0.5

[Carina Rolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nonfiction/Twin Text Entry 4

Fiction Book Pairing:
The Magic School Bus - Inside the Earth
By Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen


The Magic School Bus books are some of my favorite children's books because they couple learning with entertainment. They each have a fiction storyline that teaches facts along the way. They make the fiction parts so drastically unrealistic, that it isn't difficult to delineate fact from fiction. If that weren't the case, they would be useless. I particular like this one paired with 'Rocks and Minerals' because they discuss and teach the same material. 'Rocks and Minerals' is 100% fiction presented in a colorful, dynamic way; whereas 'Inside the Earth' presents the same material throughout an imaginative adventure. The Magic School Bus tunnels to the center of the earth and learns about rock formation along the way. The bus is then brought back to the surface with an erupting volcano (which happens to start more rock cycles.) It is a very well-illustrated book with the same visual and learning features you find in nonfiction books! There is even a guide for using this book in the classroom available for purchase. I would use these twin books for the primary grades.

[Kaitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book because it is interactive. It is engaging readers with questions throughout the book. There is a quiz that they can take home and quiz their parents. The information in this book is good and straight to the point for my third grade students. I like the illustrations in this book because students get to see awesome rocks that aren't in Ohio. I would definitely use this book in my rocks and minerals unit for science.

[Loretta Buike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twin text 2

Rocks and Minerals makes boring rocks seem fun again. The pictures go into detail about the different kids of rocks and how they are made. It also gives different uses for rocks.

I paired this book with the fictional Paddington Bear in the Garden. Paddington also uses rocks to build his garden.

I would put both of these books in the age rage of pre K- 3rd grade.

[fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it was good and I really like it.

I learned a lot from this book and it was fun. I learned about jewels and fossils and how rocks are made. It was not to hard to read. Chloe, age 7

[Lindsey Richard]

Easy, small book with all the basic rock information you could need. Has real life pictures and animated pictures for students to really see all different types of rock and layers of Earth. Easy reading with big text.

[katsok · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read facts about rocks and minerals with beautiful pictures.

[Christen Griego · Rating 2 out of 5]

5 th
Rocks and minerals

[Erin Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

My students really enjoyed reading this book. The returned to it often after I put it in the classroom library.

[Tracie Little · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book, would be excelent for teaching the students about minerals in science class

[Heather Ligman · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a nice nonfiction book about rocks and minerals. I really like at the end it includes a "stump your parents" section. this book gives a quick overview of each different area of geology.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome photos with simple captions and easy to follow narration.