Reader’s Theater for Pluto Demoted Day & Beyond

by Jacqueline Jules

Did you know that August 24^th is Pluto Demoted Day?  That’s the day the International Astronomical Union voted to downgrade Pluto’s status from the ninth planet in our solar system to belong, instead, to a group of dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt.

In my new book, Pluto is Peeved: An Ex-Planet Searches for Answers, Pluto seeks answers in a museum. After meeting Earth, some wild-and-crazy germs, a friendly dinosaur, and others, Pluto learns that his change in status is not unique in scientific history. Earth was once considered the center of the solar system. The Apatosaurus was originally named Brontosaurus.

After reading Pluto is Peeved with your class, challenge your students to research and write about scientific breakthroughs such as how Anton van Leeuwenhoek first saw tiny wiggling “animalcules” through a microscope in the 1670’s or how Louis Pasteur proved it was possible to kill germs through a heating process now known as pasteurization.  

Illustrations by Dave Roman

Scientists make observations and question everything—even ideas people have long considered to be facts. They spend years researching and collecting data. When new evidence is discovered, scientists present discoveries to the world, expanding our knowledge of the universe. Other topics your students can investigate include: The Fate of the Dinosaurs, The Center of the Solar System, The Discovery of Radium, Penicillin, or DNA, Plate Tectonics, and the New Horizons Space Mission. For a list of 11 Innovations That Changed the World see this list from The History Channel.

When research is completed, challenge your students to write a Reader’s Theater script in which one scientist describes his/her discovery to another person. Will the discovery be received with excitement or skepticism or confusion? Dialogues your students write could include spirited discussions.  

Reader’s Theater is a fun, interactive tool for developing oral reading skills and reading fluency. When your students have the opportunity to write their own scripts, it doubles the fun. In addition, a Reader’s Theater based on research can integrate science into the language arts curriculum.

For an example of a science-based Reader’s Theater, please visit my website and download a Reader’s Theater for Pluto is Peeved.

Enjoy!

Jacqueline Jules

Charlotte The Scientist

by Laura Gehl

Charlotte The Scientist Is Squished, by Camille Andros, illustrated by Brianne Farley, is a cute bunny story with adorable illustrations appropriate for very young kids.  But Charlotte The Scientist Is Squished is also way more than that.  Charlotte uses the scientific method in trying to solve problems, which provides a fun way to introduce the steps of the scientific method to elementary school students. Charlotte is also a strong, powerful girl who will remind kids of any age that girls can be scientists, mathematicians, or engineers…and that girls are problem-solvers in whatever careers they choose.

Charlotte The Scientist Is Squished makes an excellent writing prompt for the classroom.  After you read Charlotte out loud to your students, here are a few suggestions to get kids writing:

1) Scientists try to find the answers to important questions. If you were a scientist, what questions would YOU want to answer?

2) Do you ever feel squished at home, at school, on the bus, or in other parts of your life?  Write about when you feel squished. Or, if you never feel squished in real life, imagine when you might feel squished….when you and all your friends try to cram into a closet when you are playing hide and seek? When you and your eight dogs (remember…you are imagining this, so you can have as many dogs as you want!) try to fit in one sleeping bag on a camping trip?

3) Do you have anyplace in your life where you have your own space? Describe it. Or, design the perfect place where you could have your own space.  Would it be a private island? A treehouse? A boat?

4) Camille and Brianne are working on a sequel to Charlotte The Scientist is Squished.  If you were writing the next book about Charlotte, what would happen?  What discoveries might Charlotte make?  What problems might she try to solve?

5) What if you were illustrating the next Charlotte book…what changes would you make in the sequel?  Would you give Charlotte a new lab coat?  Different safety goggles? Cool earrings? Rubber boots? How would you make your pictures of Charlotte stand out?

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