Robins: Songbirds of Spring - By Mia Posada

This book, written and illustrated by Mia Posada (Corolrholda Books, Inc. Minneapolis, 2004) is a great science concept book about Robins. It is great to read to younger children and has a readability lexile of ages 9-12.

The book tells the story of robins, how they build a next, their blue eggs, caring for the young, and migrating south. It is a great story for children in Minnesota because they can see robins with their red breasts in the springtime. The writing rhymes and is written in a somewhat sing-song rhythm. Because of that, it is a great story to read aloud to children. I read it to the pre-k and k students at my work and they were enthralled. We discussed the blue eggs and the babies getting bigger. We predicted what would happen to the babies. The children were so interested.

The pictures add a lot to the story because they give the children a visual of what the writing is about. Thy can see the careful nests being made and the bright blue eggs. Some of the words are different colors, which adds to the story as well. The word "mud" was brown and the the word "berry" was red. I asked one of the students which word was mud and she pointed right to it. She said she knew it because it was brown.

Mini-lesson:
The children could write a story and/or draw pictures of robins at different stages. We could do a small research project on robins or a different bird that we are interested in. This will reinforce the knowledge they just learned from the book.