15 Living Books About Flying Creatures
We have compiled a list of some of the most interesting living books about flying creatures to accompany Apologia’s science curriculum, Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures. You can find the first post about living books for Exploring Creation with Astronomy here). Finding living books with beautiful illustrations to expand your study is a treat!
Making the Most of Living Books
When selecting any item to bring into your home or to consume for nutrition, you want to choose books of high quality. Once you decide which books to add to your homeschool schedule, how can you derive truth, goodness, and beauty from them?
Charlotte Mason gives us ideas on how to maximize our living books:
- Read the book with pleasure. Enjoy the story for yourself, and your enthusiasm will be contagious to your children.
- Refrain from interpreting or interfering between the author and your child. Allow each listener to form their own relation to the author’s ideas.
- Avoid asking direct questions that prematurely form a specific relation for your reader.
- After a single reading, allow your child to narrate a paragraph or chapter. Providing this opportunity to tell back what they recall in an open-ended format is an excellent way for them to form a connection for themselves.
“Let them learn from first-hand sources of information––really good books, the best going, on the subject they are engaged upon. Let them get at the books themselves, and do not let them be flooded with a warm diluent at the lips of their teacher. The teacher’s business is to indicate, stimulate, direct and constrain to the acquirement of knowledge, but by no means to be the fountain-head and source of all knowledge in his or her own person” (School Education, p. 162).
Living Books About Flying Creatures
Here are some amazing living books about flying creatures that would pair well with any study on birds and insects. Many of these are popular enough to be found at your local library!
- A Way with Wild Things by Larissa Theule
- The Bug Girl: A True Story by Sophia Spencer
- A Butterfly is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston
- Honeybee: the Busy Life of Apis Mellifera by Candace Fleming
- A Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle
- Pterosaurs: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age by Caroline Arnold
- The Secrets of Animal Flight by Nic Bishop
- One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey
- Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater
- Tiger with Wings: The Great Horned Owl by Barbara Juster Esbensen
- Bird Build a Nest by Martin Jenkins
- No Fair Science Fair by Nancy Poydar
- Look Up!: Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard by Annette Cate
- The Journey: Stories of Migration by Cynthia Rylant
- The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling by John Muir Laws
Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures
Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day, 2nd Edition, is part of Apologia’s award-winning Young Explorer Series for elementary students. Throughout this homeschool science curriculum, students will learn about the amazing design and characteristics of flying creatures as part of God’s creation. They’ll also be empowered to apply their newfound knowledge as they observe the wonder of flight in their own backyards!
We believe your child’s education is at its best when learning begins with curiosity. That’s why this course was designed for elementary students with no prerequisite. We use the practical concepts and things in their world to help them learn that science isn’t just a class—it’s a means for them to experience and discover their world!
In Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures, 2nd Edition, students will soar to new heights as they learn about the dynamics of flight and the uniqueness of birds, the value and misconceptions of bats, and the anatomy of insects (they’ll even get to collect and study some for a project!). After students complete this zoology study, they will never view or interact with nature in the same way again.