{"id":293033,"date":"2010-02-08T10:52:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T15:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/archives\/2365"},"modified":"2010-02-08T10:52:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-08T15:52:00","slug":"teaching-earth-science-with-children%e2%80%99s-literature-kingdom-of-the-sun-a-book-of-the-planets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/293033","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Earth Science with Children\u2019s Literature: Kingdom of the Sun A Book of the Planets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sun.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Introduction and Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kingdom of the Sun A Book of the Planets<\/a> written by Jacqueline Mitton and illustrated by Christina Balit is a book written about our sun, moon and the planets in our solar system.\u00a0 The book starts with an explanation of how “planets,” named from the Greek word for “wanderers,” were discovered and named.\u00a0 At first, they were named for Greek gods and a goddesses.\u00a0 Now they are named after Roman Gods and a Goddess except for Uranus (which is named for a Greek god).\u00a0 The sun is the first celestial body that is explained.\u00a0 Mitton writes about each celestial body in first person.\u00a0 For example, “THE SUN– A MASSIVE BALL OF GLOWING FLAME, I am sovereign over nine planets.” (Mitton, pg 6) Pluto is included as one of the planets.\u00a0 For each celestial body, there is an illustration of the god or goddess.\u00a0 The illustrations by Balit are large and beautiful.\u00a0 Mitton starts with the sun, then the moon, and finally describes the planets in order from Mercury through Pluto.\u00a0 The book shows the size of the earth compared to the planets.\u00a0 On the final two pages, there is a glossary and other facts about the planets, the sun and the moon such as, the number of moons each planet has, the distance the planet is from the sun, and the time it takes for a planet to orbit the sun.<\/p>\n

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Curriculum Connections<\/strong><\/p>\n

This book would be great for teaching students about our solar system.\u00a0 The book describes the cycle of the moon.\u00a0 It also lists the planets in order from the closest to the furthest from the sun.\u00a0 Mitton explains that some planets are made up of rock while others are made up of gas.\u00a0 There is much technical information important for older students such as the information listed at the end of the last paragraph, the diameter of the planets equators, the size of the sun and moon compared to the earth, and terms in the glossary such as atmosphere, constellation, gravity, etc.\u00a0 (VA SOL 4.7 b,c,d)<\/p>\n

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Additional Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interactive Solar System <\/a>is a quick reference guide to the solar system at the “apples4the teacher.com website.\u00a0 It states that Pluto is no longer a planet and students can move the cursor over a rocket with the name of a planet and the sun to learn some fun facts.<\/p>\n

The Solar System <\/a>is a link that takes you to “Instructor Web” and gives a lesson plan and worksheets on the solar system.\u00a0 It is appropriate for 3rd through 5th grade.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the Planets<\/a> shows real photograph images of the planets.\u00a0 It is a photojournal that also has a list of human made satellites and a large glossary.<\/p>\n

The Moon Cycle<\/a>\u00a0 is a link to the “Instructor Web” site where there is a lesson plan for elementary school teachers on the moon cycle.\u00a0 It is appropriate for 3rd through 5th grade.<\/p>\n

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General Information<\/strong><\/p>\n

Book:\u00a0 Kingdom of the Sun A Book of the Planets<\/a>
\nAuthor:\u00a0 Jacqueline Mitton<\/a>
\nIllustrator:\u00a0 Christina Balit<\/a>
\nPublisher:\u00a0 National Geographic Society
\nPublication Date:\u00a0 2001
\nPages:\u00a0 30
\nGrade Range:\u00a0 K-4
\nISBN:\u00a0 0-7922-7220-X (Hard Cover)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Introduction and Summary Kingdom of the Sun A Book of the Planets written by Jacqueline Mitton and illustrated by Christina Balit is a book written about our sun, moon and the planets in our solar system.\u00a0 The book starts with an explanation of how “planets,” named from the Greek word for “wanderers,” were discovered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4215,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}