EARTHQUAKE ABC
Guide For Elementary School Teachers
by Paula Rao
This book is appropriate to use with children of all ages. How you share it will depend on the age of the child, the setting, and your personal way of responding to books. You
may wish to skip around informally or you may choose to read straight through and
return to favorite parts for discussion. This guide suggests possible ways to use the
book in a classroom setting. It would be useful to peruse the glossary (A Parent's Guide
to Earthquakes ) to gain some background before you read the book to the class; then
you could add bits of appropriate information when you pause to discuss children's
questions or comments. The bullets below indicate questions or challenges you might
pose to your students. You will need to decide which are appropriate for the students
you teach.
BEFORE YOU READ
- Read or paraphrase the portion of the preface that tells why this book was written.
- Does this book remind you of any projects you've done before?
- What are some words you think of when you hear the word "earthquake"? (Record
student responses.)
AFTER THE FIRST READING
- Do you feel any differently about earthquakes after reading this book?
- What surprised you most?
- What question would you like to ask the author/artist of (a chosen page) in this
book?
EXPLORING FURTHER
- The children who made this book tried to include science, feeling, and
preparedness words. In which group would (your chosen word) be? Can you sort
other words into these three categories?
- What do you know about this word that the author didn't say? What else would you
write if you were the author of this page?
- Pick an earthquake science word to research and write about.
- Make a model of one of the science words. See Baker: Make it Work! Earth for
useful ideas on modeling several concepts in this book. Refer also to "Jello" in the
glossary.
- Pick a feeling word to explore through poetry. See Stolz: Storm in the Night for
beautiful descriptions of natural forces at work.
- Make a list of preparedness plans that you learned from these pages to share with
your family.
- Make your own drawing for one of these words.
(Indicate a page) Do you agree or disagree? Why? How would you rewrite that
entry?
- If you chose a topic to make an ABC book about, what would it be?