Blandy pK-12 Recommended Reading | Blandy Experimental Farm

Literacy resources are selected with an eye towards scientific accuracy, program relevance, a diversity of characters and reading levels, strong writing, and beautiful illustrations. They are organized in the same Virginia Standards of Learning progression as our catalog. We encourage those interested in these resources to seek them from local and independent booksellers or your local library. Note: most, but not all, of these recommendations include suggested activities.

For more information on these programs, view our catalog and request a program registration here.

Early Explorers (preK-K): observations & investigation

Mammals (preK-2nd): animal life

Let's Sprout (K - 2nd): plant life processes & needs

A Seed is Sleepy Non-Fiction

Author: Dianna Hutts Aston Illustrator: Sylvia Long

Grade: K-3 Lexile: AD750L

Suggested Activities:

Create a seed collection: have students bring seeds from home (hint, look in the kitchen!), look for seeds in the schoolyard, or ask permission to collect seeds in a public place. Sock Seeds are a fun way to collect.
Use the seed collection or mixed packets of seeds to sort and classify the seeds based on physical characteristics like size, color, texture, and shape.
Try sprouting the seeds from the collection of packets. Set up basic experiments that adjust variables like light, water, soil, and temperature and have students take measurements over time. Record the stages of the plant's life cycle.
Additional lessons can be found at the National Agriculture in the Classroom site.

Up in the Garden, Down in the Dirt Non-Fiction

Author: Kate Messner Illustrator: Christopher Silas Neal

Grade: K-3 Lexile: AD730L

Suggested Activities:

Connect to seasonal cycles and plant/animal life cycles sprinkled through the book (tomato hornworm, robin) – more info at the end of the book. Create an annual wheel, each student makes the life cycle stages of an organism and puts the different stages on the different seasons.
Explore outside. How many of the creatures mentioned in the book can you find? Where should you look for them? Does your schoolyard have everything they need?
Create above/below terrariums from two-liter bottles. Make sure you meet all of the life needs of your inhabitants!

From Seed to Plant Non-Fiction

Author and Illustrator: Gail Gibbons

Grade: K-3 Lexile: 560L

Suggested Activities:

Guided Reading suggestions from achievethecore.org
Kindergarten level read-aloud plan (PDF)
Second-grade level plan (PDF)
Explore outside and make collections (or take photographs) to make a life cycle collage.
Look for patterns and symmetry in the images of the plant parts.

Pumpkin Circle Non-Fiction

Author and Illustrator: George Levenson

Grade: K-3 Lexile: AD630L

Suggested Activities:

Explore (video) decomposition as part of the life cycle with “The Case of the Missing Pumpkin (PDF)” from National Agriculture in the Classroom. (We do recommend watching actual decomposition, *outside*, and then letting students take the seeds home or planting them at school.)
Pumpkins can be hard to grow and take up a lot of space. Instead, create a "growing" diagram of student understanding in the hallway. Add student-created pumpkin plant structure (vining stem, leaves, flowers, fruits) that demonstrates their learning and models the pumpkin life cycle. (PDF)

Summer Supper Fiction

Author: Rubin Pfeffer Illustrator: Mike Austin

Grade: K-3 Lexile: AD90L

Suggested Activities:

Students watch an adult making a meal (in person, or a video) and make a list (written or picture) of all the ingredients. Engage in a class discussion of the ingredients. Which ones come from plants? What part of the plant? Cut out and sort the list based on parts, beginning sounds, ending sounds, etc. What do plants need to grow? While reading, identify the plant life needs. What about people's life needs?
National Agriculture in the Classroom "Edible Plant Game"

Plants Feed Me Non-Fiction

Author and Illustrator: Lizzy Rockwell

Gradel: K-3 Lexile: 210L

Suggested Activities:

National Agriculture in the Classroom lists several lessons that could work well with this book! One of theirs not listed on this page, the Edible Plant Game, could also work well.
Life cycle activities at We Are Teachers may fit well with this text.

Jack's Garden Fiction

Author & Illustrator: Henry Cole

Interest Level: K-3 Reading Level: Minimum age 4 Lexile: 20L

Suggested Activities:

Story retell to work on sequencing in a story: https://app.seesaw.me/activities/5z6kmu/story-retell-jack-s-garden
Conduct a seed sort: search for different seeds around your home and bring them in for a show-and-tell learning activity. Describe the seed's physical characteristics and sort based on those properties. Biggest to smallest? Make a rainbow? Who brought the same seeds? Additional suggestions here http://totallytots.blogspot.com/2012/05/jack-garden-seed-observation-once-upon.html
Make an ecology web. Many organisms are listed in this book. How are they connected?
Do you have a garden at home? There can be many, many different types of gardens. Some for food, some for pollinators, some to look at. They can ben in the ground or in pots. They can be outside or inside. A garden is a collection of plants that a human cares for. What are your garden experiences? What surprises have you experienced?

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf Narrative Non-Fiction

Author and Illustrator: Lois Ehlert

Gradel: PK-3 Lexile: AD530L

Suggested Activities:

It's For the Birds (2nd - 4th): adaptations

Incredible Insects (2nd - 3rd): diversity of life, life cycles

Vivid Virginia (3rd - 4th): food webs & ecosystems

Scoop on Soils (3rd): soil science

Snake Savvy (3rd - 4th): animal behavior

Flower Functions (4th): flower structure and function

Rocks Talk (5th): rocks, geology

Watershed Investigations (6th): MWEE

A Long Walk to Water Non-Fiction

Author: Linda Sue Park

Grade: 6-8 Lexile: 720L

Suggested Activities:

Students record daily water use for a week, tracking which activities need to have clear, purified water, which clear water, and which could use muddy water. Calculate the volume of water used in a day, and determine the weight of that water. "My Water Footprint" by Project WET is an excellent and similar activity.
This "Clean Water For All" (PDF) from World's Largest Lesson (in partnership with UNICEF and with help from UNESCO) explores global issues of inconsistent access to clean sources of water.
Where does the water for the school come from, and what has to happen for it to come out of our taps? Visit a water treatment facility either in person or virtually.
This book lends itself to an excellent action project for a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience unit: raising funds to provide clean drinking water for an at-risk population. Specifically, the author recommends Water for South Sudan, however, there are many quality projects all over the world. Ideas for raising money are in the back of the book.
Additional activities are suggested on the Water for South Sudan website. We particularly like the Two-Voice Poem (PDF) module.

I Am the Rain Fiction

Author and Illustrator: John Paterson

Grade: PK-3 Lexile: AD470L

Suggested Activities:

Prior to engaging in water quality testing, use this book as a hook for students. Conduct a read-aloud (even with middle schoolers), and then have students brainstorm additional ways that they interact with water and create an "I Am the Rain" statement about one of those interactions.
After water quality testing, select one of the "I Am the Rain" statements (When springtime comes I melt away and run into a creek. Waiting, I'm the ocean bay that searching rivers seek) and have students describe what would be different if one or more of the abiotic parameters were altered.
Develop a deeper sense of the watershed by having students use pins or stickynotes to identify places in their watershed where each of the "I Am the Rain" statements could take place.

One Well: The Story of Water on Earth Non-Fiction

Author: Rochelle Strauss Illustrator: Rosemary Woods

Grade: 3-7

Suggested Activities:

Project Wet A Drop in a Bucket clearly illustrates how much freshwater is actually accessible.
Multiple pages in this book connect to other recommended readings. For example, page 21 has an excellent graphic depicting water use by humans in different areas and could be used in partnership with A Long Walk to Water and The Water Princess. Prior to reading one of the other stories, examine the related page in One Well. Refer back to that page while reading, and use sticky notes to add supporting information.
Conduct a schoolyard watershed assessment. There are many schoolyard report cards online (like this PDF from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation) that can be adapted to focus on how the land could influence water. Identify problem areas and suggest improvements.

STEAM Team Adventure #4 - Water Ninjas and the Mystery of the Potomac Fiction

Author and Illustrator: airfax Water

Grade: 5-9

Suggested Activities:

Explore turbidity by placing a constant quantity of tap water into a CLEAR container and reading text through the bottom. Measure and add a small quantity of sediment, stir, and attempt to read the text. Be sure to record quantities and observations. Continue to add sediment in increments until the text is unreadable.
Devise a filter to clean turbid water. Engineer (design, test, refine) the most efficient filter possible (produces the most, cleanest water).

The Water Princess Fiction

Author: Susan Verde and Georgie Badie Illustrator: Peter H. Reynolds

Grade: K-3 Lexile: 480L

Suggested Activities:

Learn more about water access issues across the world. Create a short story (or comic) from the first-person perspective of someone facing these challenges that can be shared with younger students.
Identify organizations working to bring clean water to populations without access. Students brainstorm a way to support an organization's mission.

Blandy Experimental Farm

State Arboretum of Virginia