In this recorded professional learning session join Nicola Daly, Associate Professor in Education, expert in children’s literature and developer of the picturebook collections – picturebooks.co.nz and pacificpicturebooks.co.nz, and Greta Dromgool from the Science Learning Hub in a webinar highlighting the strength of picture books as a tool to promote science conversations and capabilities.
From The Hungry Caterpillar to the Battle of the Mountains classroom teachers regularly include picture books in their programmes. Use this known teaching approach to springboard into science – a curriculum area research shows us needs greater focus in primary schools.
Thanks a ton – awesome to have meaningful kōrero around picture books and science
Participant
In this session Nicola and Greta will be looking at the book, Ngā Rongoā a Koro – Koro's Medicine written by Melanie Drewery, illustrated by Sabrina Malcolm and translated by Kararaina Uatuku. We will demonstrate how you can support children to connect with the ideas about and from science and the depth of learning that can be explored in this book. Some of the ideas include acknowledging mātauranga1 as a valid knowledge system, rongoā2 Māori, plant identification and more.
I'm inspired to explore picture books for some of my geology3 students, thanks a lot for the webinar.
Participant
And picture books aren’t just for little ones. They provide a great way to access older student’s prior knowledge and to assess their understanding of science concepts, making this session valuable for teachers in ECE, primary and lower secondary school.
Ngā mihi ki a kōrua, awesome kōrero!
Participant
You can download both the video and slideshow presentation.
Index
| Topic | Slideshow number(s) | Video timecode |
| Introducing the Science Learning Hub | 1–2 | 00:00 |
| Index | 2 | 00:26 |
| Introducing Dr Nicola Daly | 4 | 00:35 |
| Participants ideas – favourite picture books | 5 | 01:55 |
| Why use picture books in the classroom? | 6 | 02:16 |
| Koro’s medicine – reading by Nicola | 7 | 09:40 |
| Curriculum links | 8 | 19:04 |
| – Plant identification and classification4 | 9 | 20:08 |
| – Language | 10 | 22:30 |
| – Ways of knowing | 11 | 25:52 |
| Participant ideas – picture books and science concepts | 12 | 29:19 |
| SLH links, keep in touch and thanks | 13 | 31:43 |
Related content
Have a look at the resources under our Literacy through science topic or explore our article showcasing PLD for primary teachers.
Check out our entire range of Connected articles here – we’ve curated them by topic and concepts.
Looking for an engaging science book to add to your next teaching plan/topic? We have created a curation of ones we like on our Pinterest board here.
Webinars
You might also be interested in these recorded webinars:
Useful links
Have a look at these picture book collections linking to a variety of curriculum areas:
Listen to Dr Nicola Daly and Dr Dianne Forbes in this RadioNZ interview from August 2021 about the value of picture books.
Acknowledgement
The Science Learning Hub would like to thank Dr Nicola Daly.
- mātauranga: Māori cultural knowledge and understanding of the world; Māori wisdom.
- rongoā: Traditional Māori medicine.
- geology: Study of the origin, history and structure of the Earth; the geological features of an area.
- classification: To arrange or organise by a set of chosen characteristics. In biology, the process of ordering living things into a system that allows scientists to identify them. Modern science uses the Linnaean system of classification where organisms are grouped based on what species they are most closely related to. In soil science, the grouping of soils with a similar range of chemical, physical and biological properties into units that can be geo-referenced and mapped.
