Mentor Text (Science)!

If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press the Mentor Text Linky by my friends at Collaboration Cuties!

I have been terrible about linking up lately but am so grateful the ladies offer this linky every Sunday!  I will be using Mentor Texts in conjunction with Mentor Sentences next year and this linky always gives me so many great ideas!
It might not be the greatest thing for my budget though:)

The Mentor Text I am linking up this week is The Wide Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner.  

It is a pop-up book with that uses colorful pictures, vivid descriptions, and engaging pop ups to feature different animals on each page with their meal of choice.  This is a fun way to spark discussion in science when introducing or reviewing the predator/prey relationship, herbivores/omnivores/carnivores, and then naturally leads into the discussion of the food chain.

In addition to the science skills that this book lends itself to, it also is a great example of using adjectives to create vivid images.  Here are some of the highlights from the text with adjectives in red. 

The Wide Mouthed Frog eats flies by sticking out his long sticky tongue. 

 "I eat wriggly worms and slugs," replied the bird, snapping his pointy beak.

Now the wide mouthed frog met a furry brown mouse.

"I eat crunchy seeds and juicy berries."

 "I eat delicious wide mouthed frogs," replied the alligator, showing his sharp white teeth.

You will have to get the book to see how this turns out!  Haha!  

Actually, it has a funny ending and the frog escapes (well, that might be open to interpretation!).

Teachers could make a chart of the predators vs. prey from the book, discuss which animals are carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores, and then use this information to begin investigation of food chains.

I found this amazing website where students can play a game with the food chain.  

 The food chains get progressively more difficult and they are all interactive.  After a food chain is complete, the animals come to life and eat their "meals"!  It is so fun that I sat and played the game for 10 minutes after finding it.  Here is a snapshot of a bird eating a caterpillar.

 There are also many links to information about topics that correlate with food chains.  

This website (Sheppard Software) has tons of other topics too!  Check it out!

Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead!! :)