Using the Eyewitness Books with ALL Ages: YOUR personal tips and tweaks.

[Hunter]

I recently reread the logic level science in the 1st edition of TWTM. I noticed the suggestion of using a Eyewitness book as the core science text for grades 7 and 8. Is that recommendation in 2nd and 3rd editions too?

 

Eyewitness books are easily available at most bookstores and small libraries. I thought a thread about using these books with a variety of ages might be useful.

 

For those of you using Eyewitness books with young and preliterate students, especially those distracted by busy pages, how do you use them?

 

Has anyone applied the 1st edition high school schedule to Eyewitness books instead of the Wiley guides?

[jar7709]

My kids love the Eyewitness series and they are an important part of our homeschool. We frequently use them as a spine for a given history or science topic. We just finished a study on Shakespeare and the Elizabethans; the Eyewitness book on Shakespeare was our spine. We read a few pages of the Eyewitness title at a time, along with reading other books that wrap in with the material. Other books we read included Aliki's Shakespeare and the Globe, Who Was Queen Elizabeth?, a variety of Shakespeare graphic novels and adaptations, and DS read Dead Famous Shakespeare on his own time. We did a few activities from Shakespeare for Kids as well. So, that's how I use them, as well as just having a shelf full of them that the kids are welcome to pull and browse, which they enjoy doing regularly.

[Hunter]

My kids love the Eyewitness series and they are an important part of our homeschool. We frequently use them as a spine for a given history or science topic. We just finished a study on Shakespeare and the Elizabethans; the Eyewitness book on Shakespeare was our spine. We read a few pages of the Eyewitness title at a time, along with reading other books that wrap in with the material. Other books we read included Aliki's Shakespeare and the Globe, Who Was Queen Elizabeth?, a variety of Shakespeare graphic novels and adaptations, and DS read Dead Famous Shakespeare on his own time. We did a few activities from Shakespeare for Kids as well. So, that's how I use them, as well as just having a shelf full of them that the kids are welcome to pull and browse, which they enjoy doing regularly.

 

 

That is SO funny that you mentioned the Shakespeare book! I just placed a hold on it at my library, this morning. Thanks for the tips on the other books. I'm going to check my library for those too.

 

Is there a complete list anywhere with the books broken up by school subjects? Like all the chemistry books, and all the medieval books?

[jar7709]

That is SO funny that you mentioned the Shakespeare book! I just placed a hold on it at my library, this morning. Thanks for the tips on the other books. I'm going to check my library for those too.

 

Is there a complete list anywhere with the books broken up by school subjects? Like all the chemistry books, and all the medieval books?

 

I haven't seen anywhere where they are broken up by school subjects, but there's various lists of all the books available. Wikipedia has the simplest one. Some of the listed books are out of print but if you know what you are looking for, I've been able to find them pretty easily on the used market. DK's Eyewitness website I've found to be limited in usefulness because they only list the books that are currently in print. I do not find it difficult to scan the lists (or my shelves now, since I have so many of them) and pull out the ones most suitable for a given subject, or put "Eyewitness SUBJECT" into Amazon's search engine and see what comes up.

[Lori D.]

We used some of the Eyewitness Books as a supplement to pull out of the "book basket" and peruse for added enjoyment or filler. Mostly for grades 4-8. By high school, DSs weren't so interested in them. Hard to teach SOLELY out of these, IMO, other than using as the first-day springboard for a topic. Below, I've listed some more resources we've used at various ages. For high school, we switched to straight textbooks.

 

 

For middle school years (gr. 4-8), I also really liked the Reader's Digest How ... Works series (I personally think the most worthwhile of the series are How Earth Works, and How Science Works), and the Usborne Internet Linked Animal World; Plants; and Human Body. Again, all 2-page spreads which make a great first-day springboard for deeper exploration of specific topics.

 

 

You might also look at the Ultimate Visual Dictionary (UVD) (here's the most recent edition). For reading, I'd say this is for gr. 6+ -- the text is small and some of the terminology seemed to me to a bit more advanced than Eyewitness. HOWEVER: DSs each had one of these by their beds as gifts from Grandma when they were about Kinder/1st and LOVED pouring over the pictures at night before lights out. So just for interest and enjoyment, these are GREAT for all ages.

 

We had this older edition of UVD and used quite a lot of the section on Geology / Geography / Meteorology when we did Earth Science in middle school; I first used it as a sort of an index for ideas of topics to cover. Then we would use the UVD one day to launch a topic, and then go more in depth with other resources.

 

Back when DSs were grades 2/3 and 3/4 when we did chemistry and then physics, we used the Dempsey-Parr Science Encyclopedia and an older version of the Kingfisher Young Discovers Encyclopedia, GREAT for gr. K-5, for amount of text and do-ability of experiments. For these grades this was almost enough info to stand alone; we added various books at their age level to go a bit deeper on some of the topics.

 

One last resource I LOVED for grades K-3 is SO hands-on, with great little "bite" of info on "why it works" is 365 Simple Science Experiments with Everyday Materials and 365 More Simple... Between these two books you thoroughly cover all science areas. :)

 

 

The sections in my older edition of UVD are all a series of 2-page spreads with lots of photos, a few paragraphs of text, and then lots of identifying captions. Here are the topics covered in my edition:

 

1. Universe (10 spreads on galaxies, stars, etc.; 12 spreads on solar system items)

2. Prehistoric Earth (12 spreads on earth structure, geologic periods; 14 spreads on dinos, mammals, first hominids)

3. Plants (26 spreads on plant varieties and plant parts)

4. Animals (photo of the creature and then skeletons and labeled parts, 21 animals)

5. Human Body (all the body systems; some extra spreads on important special parts -- heart, brain, etc.)

6. Geology/Geography/Meteorology (physical features; rock cycle; minerals; volcanoes; 3 rock types; fossils; weathering & erosion; caves; glaciers; rivers; lakes & groundwater; coastlines; oceans and seas; atmosphere; weather)

7. Physics/Chemistry (matter; atoms & molecules; periodic table; chemical reactions; energy; electricity & magnetism; light; force and motion)

8. Rail and Road (transportation vehicles through time)

9. Sea and Air ( transportation vehicles through time)

10. Visual Arts (defines various fine arts media)

11. Architecture (defines architecture styles through time)

12. Music (musical notation; families of instruments)

13. Sports (explanation of how to various Olympic sports are played)

14. Everyday Things (exploded views of various around-the-house items)

 

There's also an UVD edition just on science, with 9 topics.

 

 

Just more ideas to help stuff your already overflowing bookshelves. ;) Although, actually, some of these volumes would reduce your shelf load, as the UVD would have multiple topics and it would take 9 Eyewitness Books to cover the same range of topics... Just a thought! BEST of luck in finding what works best for you and your students! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Hunter]

 

I haven't seen anywhere where they are broken up by school subjects, but there's various lists of all the books available. Wikipedia has the simplest one. Some of the listed books are out of print but if you know what you are looking for, I've been able to find them pretty easily on the used market. DK's Eyewitness website I've found to be limited in usefulness because they only list the books that are currently in print. I do not find it difficult to scan the lists (or my shelves now, since I have so many of them) and pull out the ones most suitable for a given subject, or put "Eyewitness SUBJECT" into Amazon's search engine and see what comes up.

 

I'm going to the library today to pick up a few titles, to look at. The library also has TWTM 3rd edition on hold for me and I am interested to see if the 7th and 8th grade science still includes these recommendations.

 

jar, thanks for the link.

 

In the past I found these books too busy and advanced for my students, but I have been getting better at waldorf style retelling, and some other methods that allow me to teach from texts that are more advanced than the level my students are at. As long as a resource fits MY learning style, I enjoy the prep time it takes to prepare sample copywork, and to prepare just to talk to the student. With my new skills I think I might be able to better use these texts.

 

I think the biggest mistake I made in the past was to try and read too much too fast. I didn't TEACH the the material or LEAD the student through it.

[Hunter]

We used some of the Eyewitness Books as a supplement to pull out of the "book basket" and peruse for added enjoyment or filler. Mostly for grades 4-8. By high school, DSs weren't so interested in them. Hard to teach SOLELY out of these, IMO, other than using as the first-day springboard for a topic. Below, I've listed some more resources we've used at various ages. For high school, we switched to straight textbooks.

 

 

For middle school years (gr. 4-8), I also really liked the Reader's Digest How ... Works series (I personally think the most worthwhile of the series are How Earth Works, and How Science Works), and the Usborne Internet Linked Animal World; Plants; and Human Body. Again, all 2-page spreads which make a great first-day springboard for deeper exploration of specific topics.

 

 

You might also look at the Ultimate Visual Dictionary (UVD) (here's the most recent edition). For reading, I'd say this is for gr. 6+ -- the text is small and some of the terminology seemed to me to a bit more advanced than Eyewitness. HOWEVER: DSs each had one of these by their beds as gifts from Grandma when they were about Kinder/1st and LOVED pouring over the pictures at night before lights out. So just for interest and enjoyment, these are GREAT for all ages.

 

We had this older edition of UVD and used quite a lot of the section on Geology / Geography / Meteorology when we did Earth Science in middle school; I first used it as a sort of an index for ideas of topics to cover. Then we would use the UVD one day to launch a topic, and then go more in depth with other resources.

 

Back when DSs were grades 2/3 and 3/4 when we did chemistry and then physics, we used the Dempsey-Parr Science Encyclopedia and an older version of the Kingfisher Young Discovers Encyclopedia, GREAT for gr. K-5, for amount of text and do-ability of experiments. For these grades this was almost enough info to stand alone; we added various books at their age level to go a bit deeper on some of the topics.

 

One last resource I LOVED for grades K-3 is SO hands-on, with great little "bite" of info on "why it works" is 365 Simple Science Experiments with Everyday Materials and 365 More Simple... Between these two books you thoroughly cover all science areas. :)

 

 

The sections in my older edition of UVD are all a series of 2-page spreads with lots of photos, a few paragraphs of text, and then lots of identifying captions. Here are the topics covered in my edition:

 

1. Universe (10 spreads on galaxies, stars, etc.; 12 spreads on solar system items)

2. Prehistoric Earth (12 spreads on earth structure, geologic periods; 14 spreads on dinos, mammals, first hominids)

3. Plants (26 spreads on plant varieties and plant parts)

4. Animals (photo of the creature and then skeletons and labeled parts, 21 animals)

5. Human Body (all the body systems; some extra spreads on important special parts -- heart, brain, etc.)

6. Geology/Geography/Meteorology (physical features; rock cycle; minerals; volcanoes; 3 rock types; fossils; weathering & erosion; caves; glaciers; rivers; lakes & groundwater; coastlines; oceans and seas; atmosphere; weather)

7. Physics/Chemistry (matter; atoms & molecules; periodic table; chemical reactions; energy; electricity & magnetism; light; force and motion)

8. Rail and Road (transportation vehicles through time)

9. Sea and Air ( transportation vehicles through time)

10. Visual Arts (defines various fine arts media)

11. Architecture (defines architecture styles through time)

12. Music (musical notation; families of instruments)

13. Sports (explanation of how to various Olympic sports are played)

14. Everyday Things (exploded views of various around-the-house items)

 

There's also an UVD edition just on science, with 9 topics.

 

 

Just more ideas to help stuff your already overflowing bookshelves. ;) Although, actually, some of these volumes would reduce your shelf load, as the UVD would have multiple topics and it would take 9 Eyewitness Books to cover the same range of topics... Just a thought! BEST of luck in finding what works best for you and your students! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

Lori, wow! Thanks for all the alternative ideas. There is lots here to look at. There are some titles here I have seen in the past, but didn't yet have the teaching skills to use them as effectively as I could now. I very much appreciate these links, and am placing some of the titles on my wishlist.

 

I know this sounds funny, but the UVD sports pages were one of the first things to catch my attention. I like to assign a sport of the month, and those 2 page spreads look like a nice place to start each month.

[SilverMoon]

Wouldn't work with my crew, which currently ranges from preschool through middle school. My kids have never treated them as anything more than a picture book. The books do have pretty pictures, but not enough depth to use as spine IMO.

 

I have used the Dorling Kindersley Science Encyclopedia with various ages. This has meat to work with and good pictures. Also, the various David Macaulay books: The Way Things Work, The Way WE Work, and such. These are best with logic stage kids, or grammar stage with an interest in the topic, but they wouldn't be sufficient for high school.

[Χά�ων]

Wouldn't work with my crew, which currently ranges from preschool through middle school. My kids have never treated them as anything more than a picture book. The books do have pretty pictures, but not enough depth to use as spine IMO.

 

I agree. My DS loves them but does not like it when I try to read it with him.

[aug17girl]

For those of you using Eyewitness books with young and preliterate students, especially those distracted by busy pages, how do you use them?

 

 

I am just an afterschooler, but I use the eyewitness books with my 5 year old. Before we go to the library I ask him what he want to learn about this week and he picks a topic, usually science related. Ex. snakes. Then I help him come up with a question to find the answer to like "what do snakes eat?". At the library we find books related to the topic, usually there is an eyewitness book.

 

Then at home for the reptile eyewitness book, for example, I would find the relevant two page spread. Then we would sit together, talk about a picture that catches his interest, ask questions. Then I say something like "lets read and find out" and one of us will read just the text associated with the picture. We find the answers to the original questions and come up with new ones moving on to other areas of the page. My three year old joins in as well.

 

Rather than reading even a whole page straight through, we use it as a tool for discussion. Because the pictures have lots of variety and detail they invite a lot of questions. There is no prep for me because I don't need to have the answers. We are learning to use books to find answers to questions and getting exposure to different science topics.

 

edited to add content. I first hit submit with just the quote.

[Hunter]

Then I help him come up with a question to find the answer to...usually there is an eyewitness book.

 

I would find the relevant two page spread. ... talk about a picture that catches his interest, ask questions. ... We find the answers to the original questions and come up with new ones moving on to other areas of the page.

 

...we use it as a tool for discussion...There is no prep for me because I don't need to have the answers. We are learning to use books to find answers to questions and getting exposure to different science topics.

 

 

This is awesome! :hurray: Thanks!

 

I got a pile of eyewitness books at the library today. I think I have some Waldorf ideas to try with these. I'm excited to try them.