Resources for Teachers
Thank you for visiting my site. This page shares some useful resources and links for teachers. Please feel free to send me any questions or comments on using my books to teach science in your classrooms.
For information on live programs I offer for schools and libraries, click here.
TeachingBooks has many good resources about my books. Click here for more information.
Podcast Interview
Listen to Sara Levine discuss “Making hard science easy for kids” on an episode of Lesley University’s Why We Write Podcast.
ACTIVITIES
The Animals Would Not Sleep
Storytelling Math celebrates children using math in their daily adventures as they play, build, and discover the world around them. Joyful stories and hands-on activities make it easy for kids and their grown-ups to explore everyday math together.
Here is another outstanding guide for this book:
Flower Talk Activity
Here's an activity to do with kids after reading Flower Talk:
Print out copies of the two drawings of the vase or jar with flower stems. Children can use crayons or colored pencils to add on the flower heads. Then, have stickers of pollinators (easy to get online: bees, bats, butterflies, moth, hummingbirds) which children can add onto the appropriately colored/shaped flower. If you can't get stickers, kids can also draw in the pollinators.
Bone by Bone Activity
My publisher Lerner and I worked together to create a complementary activity for my book Bone by Bone: Comparing Animal Skeletons which is designed to teach students more about comparative anatomy. It has outlines of the skeletons of various animals with directions for children to color in the bones by name.
A page from the Bone by Bone activity guide.
Tooth by Tooth Activity
Here’s a link to a great resource to use with Tooth by Tooth: Comparing Fangs, Tusks, and Chompers.
BLOGS
Why I Write Expository Nonfiction by Sara Levine
In this interview, I discuss the joys and challenges of writing narrative nonfiction and expository nonfiction.
The Best Picture Books for Engaging Kids on Zoom and FaceTime
In this blog, find a list of books by Sara Levine and other authors that are great for Zoom, FaceTime, or in-person engagement.
LitLinks: The Math & Science of Sorting Helps Kids Make Sense of the World
In this guest blog on Patricia Newman’s website, I describe fun math and science sorting activities for kids to use with the book The Animals Would Not Sleep!
5 Kinds of Non-Fiction
In this blog, I discuss my writing process, expository literature and the 5 kinds of non-fiction.
Science and Education Can be Fun
Here’s a link to a blog I wrote for Wheelock College on teaching science to children. It has some suggestions on teaching comparative anatomy.
Melissa Stewart and Diversity in Thinking
This blog in School Library Journal by Melissa Stewart, writer of over 150 nonfiction books for children, discusses how to bring engaging STEM-themed expository writing to children.
How I Came to Write Tooth by Tooth: Comparing Tusks, Fangs, and Chompers
I knew from teaching at Wheelock that students loved to puzzle out questions about variation, and I thought children would, too.
There's a Book for That, "Cover Reveal: Fossil by Fossil: Comparing Dinosaur Bones."
Carrie Gelson shares the new cover art prior to the book's release and interviews author Sara Levine and illustrator T.S. Spookytooth.
MORE BOOKS
Here is a list of books that I have used that worked well when teaching science and environmental education to children. This list is now a bit dated, as there are now so many many new good science books for children that come out each year. But I’m leaving this up here as it has many books that were very useful to me and might be so to others. For other/more current recommendations, I suggest checking on Bank Street School’s Cook Prize and AAAS/Subaru prize winners.