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Caroline Arnold's Books

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A Day and Night in the Desert A DAY AND NIGHT IN THE DESERT
Common Core Connections
  • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Describe how the passage of time is shown throughout this book.
  • Key Ideas and Details: Explain the similarities and differences between diurnal and nocturnal animals in the desert.
  • Key Ideas and Details:Name three diurnal predators in the desert and their prey. Then name three nocturnal predators and their prey.
  • Next Generation Science Standards
  • 3–LS2-3. Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
  • 3-LS4-2. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
  • 4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
  • Children's Projects

    Make an animal classification chart. Divide a sheet of paper into five columns and label sections for fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. List animals in this book in each of the categories.

    Animal dioramas, mobiles or collages. Choose a theme such as night or day and create a scene inside a shoebox drawing pictures of animals from this book. Or, glue pictures of animals to heavy paper, cut them out, and hang them from a wooden dowel to make a mobile. Or, glue pictures of animals onto a large piece of paper to make a collage.

    Make paper plate masks of desert animals.

    Draw with chalk on black paper to draw pictures of desert animals at night.

    Desert Coloring Pages Desert Coloring Page Here are two coloring pages of the desert you can download.

    Who is awake at 6:00 in the morning? Click here for a printable picture.

    A Gila Monster stores fat in its tail. Click here for a printable picture.

    Gila Monster Coloring Page

    For a desert mammal activity and other suggestions for activities go to this post at the Growing With Science Blog.

    Other Books by Caroline Arnold in the Caroline Arnold's Habitats series
  • A Day and Night in the Rain Forest
  • A Day and Night on the Prairie
  • A Day and Night in the Forest
  • Reviews
    The Horn Book Guide, January 1, 2015

    Double-page spreads feature vibrantly colored collage animals (not to scale) against appropriately colored backgrounds (browns for Desert; greens for Rain Forest). The engaging text describes animal behavior and survival mechanisms. A description of each habitat, a world map, "Fun Facts," and two Common Core-aligned critical-thinking exercises are appended. Reading list. Glos., ind. Review covers these Caroline Arnold's Habitats titles: A Day and Night in the Desert and A Day and Night in the Rain Forest.

    School Library Connection (formerly Library Media Connection), January 16, 2016

    Colorful large cut paper illustrations of animals in their environments fill the pages of this series. The series, geared to early grade readers, describes in a story-like narrative the habitat and its inhabitants. Each spread is about a different hour of the day, a 24-hour cycle. Each time period presents what the animals, diurnal or nocturnal, are doing: waking up, singing, hunting, napping, burrowing, gathering food, interacting, or escaping a predator. There is very brief text on some pages with additional information about the animals; their weight, size, eating habits, and more. A world map showing the location of these different biomes is displayed, and so are fun facts and critical thinking using the Common Core. Glossary. Websites. Index. Recommended Reviewer: Madeleine Zember, Librarian and Special Education Teacher, Midway Jewish Center, Syosset, New York

    Growing With Science Blog, February 13, 2015

    A Day and Night in the Desert (Caroline Arnold's Habitats) by Caroline Arnold reveals which desert creatures are active during which parts of the day and night. Although it centers on animals and plants found in the Sonoran desert, the book also contains a map showing where deserts are located throughout the world.Reviewer: Roberta Gibson

    Children's Literature

    In the hot desert a woodpecker perches on a prickly saguaro cactus and makes a large hole. A long, gray jackrabbit scampers across the desert sands to escape a lurking coyote in the early morning. Activities build quickly in this book formatted to cycle through 24 hours of a desert day. Along the way several animals and creatures are featured. In addition to the woodpecker and jackrabbit those include a lizard, Gila monster, big horn sheep, roadrunner, hawk, ground squirrel, peccaries, pack rats, snakes, spiders, bats and owls, antelope, fox, kangaroo rat, and tortoise. The desert activity is geared to show readers what takes place in the desert, what lives there, and how the desert looks. Pages at the end tell what a desert is and show where deserts are on a world map. Fun facts offer more information about the desert. The facts are in a section at the book's end and also turn up on various pages as fact bars. A section on critical thinking skills is based on the Common Core Curriculum. A glossary, resources, index and internet sites for kids are included. This book is sure to stir up interest about the desert. Its shorts blurbs of text paired with its paper cut illustrations make the book easy to read. Reviewer: Nancy Garhan Attebury; Ages 5 to 8.