Books for 5 year old about evolution
annamilan2077
Hello,
My 5 year old daughter is interested in Evolution.
I am currently reading the book, The Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Gonick. My daughter loves looking at the pictures and is asking a lot of questions.
Does anyone have any suggestions for good books about the Theory of Evolution or/and Charles Darwin. Most books that I find are either too basic or way to complicated for a 5 year old.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Cheers,
Anna
My 5 year old daughter is interested in Evolution.
I am currently reading the book, The Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Gonick. My daughter loves looking at the pictures and is asking a lot of questions.
Does anyone have any suggestions for good books about the Theory of Evolution or/and Charles Darwin. Most books that I find are either too basic or way to complicated for a 5 year old.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Cheers,
Anna
Sylvia Woodman
Have you seen this book?
http://www.amazon.com/Mammals-Who-Morph-Universe-Evolution/dp/1584690852/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342047514&sr=1-2&keywords=born+with+a+bang
It is part of a three part series but this one deals with your daughters
area of interest. The art work is amazing and it is written in such a way
that you can read as much or as little of it as you like or as appropriate.
Warmly,
Sylvia
http://www.amazon.com/Mammals-Who-Morph-Universe-Evolution/dp/1584690852/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342047514&sr=1-2&keywords=born+with+a+bang
It is part of a three part series but this one deals with your daughters
area of interest. The art work is amazing and it is written in such a way
that you can read as much or as little of it as you like or as appropriate.
Warmly,
Sylvia
Meredith
This is more of a "how unschooling works" reply than a list of specific resources.
"annamilan2077" <anna.milan@...> wrote:
What sorts of things is she asking? Evolution crosses over into other topics - it's not one thing, it's a complex intersection of biology, chemistry, probability and time so most books are either going to be bare bones basics or pretty complex. It may be better to just answer her questions and see what comes up next. There's certainly no need to jump from looking at pictures and answering questions to creating a lesson - she's Already learning about evolution and it will keep coming up over and over, organically,
That being said, here are some general ideas to help you narrow down your question a little:
If she likes playing with ideas related to evolution, you can get the game Spore. If she prefers something with a story, there's Pokemon - books, movies and games. Spore's more "realistic" but Pokemon might be more fun for a little kid ;)
If she likes real differences in animals, get some books on her favorite animals which talk about different breeds, or some of those great posters which show animal breeds and how they're related.
If she's interested in dinosaurs, get books on that. Timeline posters are nice, too. And there are gobs of movies about dinosaurs, real and fanciful. If she's interested in extinction more generally, the new Ice Age movie is out - you can watch the whole series ;)
National Geographic is a good resource for all sorts of things, and they have videos, games and magazines for kids:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/
On the other hand, if she finds the style of Cartoon History itself intriguing, you might want to get some Asterix books and see if she likes those, too. Or get some old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons and watch Mr Peabody travel through time. If it's time travel she likes, maybe watch some old Dr Who episodes (with Tom Baker).
"annamilan2077" <anna.milan@...> wrote:
> My 5 year old daughter is interested in Evolution.******************
>
> I am currently reading the book, The Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Gonick. My daughter loves looking at the pictures and is asking a lot of questions.
What sorts of things is she asking? Evolution crosses over into other topics - it's not one thing, it's a complex intersection of biology, chemistry, probability and time so most books are either going to be bare bones basics or pretty complex. It may be better to just answer her questions and see what comes up next. There's certainly no need to jump from looking at pictures and answering questions to creating a lesson - she's Already learning about evolution and it will keep coming up over and over, organically,
That being said, here are some general ideas to help you narrow down your question a little:
If she likes playing with ideas related to evolution, you can get the game Spore. If she prefers something with a story, there's Pokemon - books, movies and games. Spore's more "realistic" but Pokemon might be more fun for a little kid ;)
If she likes real differences in animals, get some books on her favorite animals which talk about different breeds, or some of those great posters which show animal breeds and how they're related.
If she's interested in dinosaurs, get books on that. Timeline posters are nice, too. And there are gobs of movies about dinosaurs, real and fanciful. If she's interested in extinction more generally, the new Ice Age movie is out - you can watch the whole series ;)
National Geographic is a good resource for all sorts of things, and they have videos, games and magazines for kids:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/
On the other hand, if she finds the style of Cartoon History itself intriguing, you might want to get some Asterix books and see if she likes those, too. Or get some old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons and watch Mr Peabody travel through time. If it's time travel she likes, maybe watch some old Dr Who episodes (with Tom Baker).
>>or/and Charles DarwinThere are children's stories of the Voyage of the Beagle which would be fun for a kid who likes travel tales. If she's interested in naturalists more generally, she might like Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: the lives of six pioneering naturalists. Or she might like stories of modern scientists and paleontologists.
Schuyler
Does she like colouring books? http://www.amazon.com/The-Human-Evolution-Coloring-Book/dp/0062737171%c2%a0might be something that she'd enjoy. I've not read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Anthropologist-Scientist-People-Mary-Batten/dp/0618083685/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342045678&sr=1-2&keywords=magdalena+hurtado, but Magdalena Hurtado's and Kim Hill's book about the Ache is an amazing book on behavioural ecology, on human adaptation to specific environmental conditions. I've had the Anthropologist: Scientist of the People in my basket for a long while. If she enjoys listening to essays, Natalie Angier has written some amazing essays on evolution. I really liked the Beauty of the Beastly and Women: An Intimate Geography. Matt Ridley's book The Red Queen is brilliant. Meredith Small's two books on children are good; Our Babies, Our Selves and Kids. Her blog is also really fun reading, more links, more pictures: http://www.meredithfsmall.com/%c2%a0.
Oh! Jane Goodall, all of Jane Goodall's books are amazing. And there are wonderful National Geographic video collections of her working in the field. Stephen Jay Gould's The Panda's Thumb and some of his other essay books might be something she'd like. Richard Dawkin's The Magic of Reality book, with illustrations by Dave McKean (who is a fabulous illustrator!) might be wonderful. Fetal development books probably have good pictures and information about how humans and other animals develop in similar ways.
It is hard to find readable books for adults on evolution. I struggle to read Richard Dawkins and Jared Diamond even though they've written amazing books. I just can't manage to continue after a point. There is a book by David Quamman that I devoured, The Song of the Dodo, but it is not a book I'd recommend to a 5 year old. Dense. Very dense book. His biography of Charles Darwin is really good as well. I don't know that there are lots of good books on evolution for children. http://www.amazon.com/Book-Life-Illustrated-History-Evolution/dp/0393321568/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342047952&sr=1-15%c2%a0might be good at exploring Gould's and Lewontin's punctuated equillibrium ideas. Oh! I have this book, picked it up ages ago at a used bookstore, it's quick little entries on different ideas and facts about evolution: http://www.amazon.com/ENCYCLOPEDIA-EVOLUTION-Humanitys-Origins-Foreword/dp/B001SM5NEM/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_5. And this is a beautiful book:
http://www.amazon.com/Lucy-Language-Revised-Updated-Expanded/dp/0743280644/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342048204&sr=1-3&keywords=donald+johanson%c2%a0my dad gave my husband a few years ago.
Maybe something amongst those will be good.
Schuyler
________________________________
From: annamilan2077 anna.milan@...
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, 12 July 2012, 5:58
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] Books for 5 year old about evolution
Hello,
My 5 year old daughter is interested in Evolution.
I am currently reading the book, The Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Gonick. My daughter loves looking at the pictures and is asking a lot of questions.
Does anyone have any suggestions for good books about the Theory of Evolution or/and Charles Darwin. Most books that I find are either too basic or way to complicated for a 5 year old.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Cheers,
Anna
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Oh! Jane Goodall, all of Jane Goodall's books are amazing. And there are wonderful National Geographic video collections of her working in the field. Stephen Jay Gould's The Panda's Thumb and some of his other essay books might be something she'd like. Richard Dawkin's The Magic of Reality book, with illustrations by Dave McKean (who is a fabulous illustrator!) might be wonderful. Fetal development books probably have good pictures and information about how humans and other animals develop in similar ways.
It is hard to find readable books for adults on evolution. I struggle to read Richard Dawkins and Jared Diamond even though they've written amazing books. I just can't manage to continue after a point. There is a book by David Quamman that I devoured, The Song of the Dodo, but it is not a book I'd recommend to a 5 year old. Dense. Very dense book. His biography of Charles Darwin is really good as well. I don't know that there are lots of good books on evolution for children. http://www.amazon.com/Book-Life-Illustrated-History-Evolution/dp/0393321568/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342047952&sr=1-15%c2%a0might be good at exploring Gould's and Lewontin's punctuated equillibrium ideas. Oh! I have this book, picked it up ages ago at a used bookstore, it's quick little entries on different ideas and facts about evolution: http://www.amazon.com/ENCYCLOPEDIA-EVOLUTION-Humanitys-Origins-Foreword/dp/B001SM5NEM/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_5. And this is a beautiful book:
http://www.amazon.com/Lucy-Language-Revised-Updated-Expanded/dp/0743280644/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342048204&sr=1-3&keywords=donald+johanson%c2%a0my dad gave my husband a few years ago.
Maybe something amongst those will be good.
Schuyler
________________________________
From: annamilan2077 anna.milan@...
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, 12 July 2012, 5:58
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] Books for 5 year old about evolution
Hello,
My 5 year old daughter is interested in Evolution.
I am currently reading the book, The Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Gonick. My daughter loves looking at the pictures and is asking a lot of questions.
Does anyone have any suggestions for good books about the Theory of Evolution or/and Charles Darwin. Most books that I find are either too basic or way to complicated for a 5 year old.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Cheers,
Anna
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Anna
Thanks for all the input and suggestions. I will research them all.
Sora (my daughter) was looking at the pictures in the book and was really
interested in why the people looked more like apes then people. So the
main focus of our discussion was on why and how animals change based on
their environments.
The main point that I am having trouble with was the concept of time.
Sora in general, has difficulty understanding time and large numbers. We
talked about how our ancestors have gradually changed. But she thinks of
her ancestors as her grandma and grandpa. I think we are going to create a
timeline to visually represent all the different elements.
Meredith you are right about the comic books. She loves Comics! She
loves Asterix,
Tintin, and the Amulet. Some new favourites are Hilda and the Midnight
Giant (http://lukepearson.com/2011/11/hilda-and-the-midnight-giant.html) and
Guinea Pig Pet Shop Private Eye (http://www.colleenaf.com/bookscomics/).
Check them out!
Thanks again!
Sora (my daughter) was looking at the pictures in the book and was really
interested in why the people looked more like apes then people. So the
main focus of our discussion was on why and how animals change based on
their environments.
The main point that I am having trouble with was the concept of time.
Sora in general, has difficulty understanding time and large numbers. We
talked about how our ancestors have gradually changed. But she thinks of
her ancestors as her grandma and grandpa. I think we are going to create a
timeline to visually represent all the different elements.
Meredith you are right about the comic books. She loves Comics! She
loves Asterix,
Tintin, and the Amulet. Some new favourites are Hilda and the Midnight
Giant (http://lukepearson.com/2011/11/hilda-and-the-midnight-giant.html) and
Guinea Pig Pet Shop Private Eye (http://www.colleenaf.com/bookscomics/).
Check them out!
Thanks again!
Schuyler
Time is conceptually difficult. It's why you get all those different analogies about how long life has been on the planet over the course of a day or an hour or a year, with human's coming in in the last micro-second or something. I don't know that I grasp it. Actually, I know I don't. I wouldn't worry so much about what she grasps. Find interesting ideas and resources, graphic novels are good. I have no idea about this, but it came up early in a search: http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Jay-Hosler/dp/0809043114. They may all be too dry.
Don't overdo it, don't push too hard. Play with the idea a bit, get some books for you to read more than for you to read to or with her and make it easy for you to explain quickly if she ever asks questions. My mom learned how to make string figures from a book we had when I was 9 and wanted to know but couldn't follow the instructions, she than showed me and promptly forgot how. I can still do all the string figures she showed me 34 years later.
Stop when she's full or information or books or videos focusing on evolution and is ready to move on to something else. Evolution is all around. It's not as though it's not going to be a part of her day to day for all of her days, but focusing intensely on it may only be a couple of days or weeks or months interest.
Schuyler
________________________________
From: Anna <anna.milan@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, 12 July 2012, 13:01
Subject: Re: [unschoolingbasics] Books for 5 year old about evolution
Thanks for all the input and suggestions. I will research them all.
Sora (my daughter) was looking at the pictures in the book and was really
interested in why the people looked more like apes then people. So the
main focus of our discussion was on why and how animals change based on
their environments.
The main point that I am having trouble with was the concept of time.
Sora in general, has difficulty understanding time and large numbers. We
talked about how our ancestors have gradually changed. But she thinks of
her ancestors as her grandma and grandpa. I think we are going to create a
timeline to visually represent all the different elements.
Meredith you are right about the comic books. She loves Comics! She
loves Asterix,
Tintin, and the Amulet. Some new favourites are Hilda and the Midnight
Giant (http://lukepearson.com/2011/11/hilda-and-the-midnight-giant.html) and
Guinea Pig Pet Shop Private Eye (http://www.colleenaf.com/bookscomics/).
Check them out!
Thanks again!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Don't overdo it, don't push too hard. Play with the idea a bit, get some books for you to read more than for you to read to or with her and make it easy for you to explain quickly if she ever asks questions. My mom learned how to make string figures from a book we had when I was 9 and wanted to know but couldn't follow the instructions, she than showed me and promptly forgot how. I can still do all the string figures she showed me 34 years later.
Stop when she's full or information or books or videos focusing on evolution and is ready to move on to something else. Evolution is all around. It's not as though it's not going to be a part of her day to day for all of her days, but focusing intensely on it may only be a couple of days or weeks or months interest.
Schuyler
________________________________
From: Anna <anna.milan@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, 12 July 2012, 13:01
Subject: Re: [unschoolingbasics] Books for 5 year old about evolution
Thanks for all the input and suggestions. I will research them all.
Sora (my daughter) was looking at the pictures in the book and was really
interested in why the people looked more like apes then people. So the
main focus of our discussion was on why and how animals change based on
their environments.
The main point that I am having trouble with was the concept of time.
Sora in general, has difficulty understanding time and large numbers. We
talked about how our ancestors have gradually changed. But she thinks of
her ancestors as her grandma and grandpa. I think we are going to create a
timeline to visually represent all the different elements.
Meredith you are right about the comic books. She loves Comics! She
loves Asterix,
Tintin, and the Amulet. Some new favourites are Hilda and the Midnight
Giant (http://lukepearson.com/2011/11/hilda-and-the-midnight-giant.html) and
Guinea Pig Pet Shop Private Eye (http://www.colleenaf.com/bookscomics/).
Check them out!
Thanks again!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
alma
At that age both my kids loved
"The Story of Everything" by Neal Layton - a pop up book from the big bang onwards (and specifically mentions Charles Darwin).
You can get some great Tree of Life posters.
Richard Dawkins "Magic of Reality" - the hardback one with illustrations has a chapter on evolution which has some great 'tricks' for getting your head round the timescales. This book is probably a bit old for a 5 year old but my 9 year old is loving it.
What about a morphing video like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F2J5l17UPo
But definitely I agree with the idea of looking at all aspects of what piqued her curiosity rather than just what looked educational :-)
Alison
DS1(9) and DS2(7)
"The Story of Everything" by Neal Layton - a pop up book from the big bang onwards (and specifically mentions Charles Darwin).
You can get some great Tree of Life posters.
Richard Dawkins "Magic of Reality" - the hardback one with illustrations has a chapter on evolution which has some great 'tricks' for getting your head round the timescales. This book is probably a bit old for a 5 year old but my 9 year old is loving it.
What about a morphing video like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F2J5l17UPo
But definitely I agree with the idea of looking at all aspects of what piqued her curiosity rather than just what looked educational :-)
Alison
DS1(9) and DS2(7)
Tam
http://www.open.ac.uk/darwin/devolve-me.php/ Not a book but it's a fun online tool from the Open University where you put a photo in and it shows you what you might have looked like as an early human.
This http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-What-Earth-Wallbook-History/dp/0956593631 isn't specifically evolution but is good for visualising timescales in the Earth's history.
Tam
This http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-What-Earth-Wallbook-History/dp/0956593631 isn't specifically evolution but is good for visualising timescales in the Earth's history.
Tam
--- In [email protected], "annamilan2077" <anna.milan@...> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> My 5 year old daughter is interested in Evolution.
>
lindaguitar
Two other ideas to add to Meredith's.
1) Ask your local librarian what books and videos the library has on evolution and Darwin, for young children.
2) Look for short videos about these topics on YouTube and other sites.
(And I second the recommendation for the "Spore" game. Specifically, "Spore, Galactic Adventure". It's an awesome game that starts with a one-celled organism, and allows players to design their creatures, as they evolve, and then to create whole worlds. The creatures progress through tribal stage, villages, and high-tech cities, to become galactic explorers. The player can choose a warrior society, an economic/trade society, or a couple of others.)
Linda
1) Ask your local librarian what books and videos the library has on evolution and Darwin, for young children.
2) Look for short videos about these topics on YouTube and other sites.
(And I second the recommendation for the "Spore" game. Specifically, "Spore, Galactic Adventure". It's an awesome game that starts with a one-celled organism, and allows players to design their creatures, as they evolve, and then to create whole worlds. The creatures progress through tribal stage, villages, and high-tech cities, to become galactic explorers. The player can choose a warrior society, an economic/trade society, or a couple of others.)
Linda
--- In [email protected], "Meredith" <plaidpanties666@...> wrote:
>
> ... If she likes playing with ideas related to evolution, you can
> get the game Spore. ...
> National Geographic is a good resource for all sorts of things, and
> they have videos, games and magazines for kids:
> http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/
> ... There are children's stories of the Voyage of the Beagle which
> would be fun for a kid who likes travel tales. ...
Meredith
Someone mentioned that it was hard to grasp the amount of time involved in evolution.
Here's a simple graphic showing the geologic time scale:
http://images.wikia.com/dinosaurs/images/8/86/Geological-time-scale.jpg
This is rather a long link, but it's another kind of graphic for geologic time - including a page you can print and color:
http://www.lewistonpublicschools.org/~lhaines/FOV1-0003C686/FOV1-0003E815/FOV1-0003E819/FOV1-0003D65A/?OpenItemURL=S021FEDF8
here it is as a tinyurl:
http://tinyurl.com/7h55mbu
The scale of space is a fascinating and difficult to comprehend as that of time - I just came across a website with an interactive graphic comparing sizes of everything from the Plank length (shortest possible length) to the estimated size of the universe:
http://scaleofuniverse.com/
Here's a simple graphic showing the geologic time scale:
http://images.wikia.com/dinosaurs/images/8/86/Geological-time-scale.jpg
This is rather a long link, but it's another kind of graphic for geologic time - including a page you can print and color:
http://www.lewistonpublicschools.org/~lhaines/FOV1-0003C686/FOV1-0003E815/FOV1-0003E819/FOV1-0003D65A/?OpenItemURL=S021FEDF8
here it is as a tinyurl:
http://tinyurl.com/7h55mbu
The scale of space is a fascinating and difficult to comprehend as that of time - I just came across a website with an interactive graphic comparing sizes of everything from the Plank length (shortest possible length) to the estimated size of the universe:
http://scaleofuniverse.com/