Overview

Skateboards, roller coasters, and playground slides, all of these are ramps. From award-winning author Michael Dahl, this nonfiction picture book provides an introduction to one of the most important machines humans rely on. With fun facts and bright illustrations, find out how people use ramps every day.

Full Product Details

9781404819092

Table of Contents

Reviews

"Simple Machines are simply fascinating in Michael Dahl's Amazing Science series. They explain how pulleys, wedges, ramps, wheels and axels, levers, and screws help people do work, making them an effective introduction to this key elementary concept. Imagine the front of a ship, the blade of an axe, or a chisel. Cut, Chop, and Stop explores wedges of various sizes. Each of these is a wedge compsed of one slanted side that comes to a sharp edge. Nails and pencil points are wedges that help people accomplish a task. Food, from watermelon slices to a piece of cake, may even be cut into wedges. Nonfiction text features including a table of contents, an index, and a glossary provide structure and guidance for intermediate readers. Dennise Shea's digital images complement the text. Simple machine characteristics are enhanced in these illustrations to provide details that make the ideas clear. The integration of text and images is esstential to communicate the design and function of each simple machine. Each book has a simple investigation, too.One involves a pencil, a piece of paper, and a couple of phone books to provide an activity to reinforce the concept of wedges, another has students are challenged to use a pulley to send a message across a room. With materials, including a spring scale, weight, ruler, shoebox, and a yardstick, students can investigate how a ramp works. Procedures and questions are easy to follow.Marshmallow Madness is an activity at the end of the text that demonstrates how a lever works. Gather a large marshmallow, pencil, ruler, and yardstick to set up your own simple machine, a lever.With an empty spool of thread, string, a paper cup, two pencils, tape, and 20 pennies, for instance, a model of a wheel and axle can be built. Students will follow the simple procedures and explore the working world of the wheel and axle.a student constructsa simple model with a 2-liter plastic bottle, cardboard, pencil, scissors, tape, and a bowl of cereal. This activity will thrill the adventuresome reader as a working screw accomplishes a task!-- ""NSTA Recommends"" These simple concept books are full of pizzazz and wonderfully illustrated with digital graphics that show kids doing typical kid things. The lumberman on the cover of Cut may not be as enticing as the active children depicted on the other titles. The book also has fewer internal pictures of youngsters, although there is a spread of a boy surrounded by wedges of cake, pie, and pizza. Other spreads depict and discuss doorstops, nails, and airplane wings. In Roll, skateboards, playground slides, and roller coasters are used as examples. Best of all is Scoop, which clearly describes several versions of the lever, found in the payground, garage, and kitchen. Tires discusses wheel sizes, gears, cranks, etc. Unfortunately, axles is misspelled on the cover. Each book has an activity and Fun Facts. The FactHound Web sites listed add more information, but don't take kids to any fun, interactive sites. If you have Sally Hewitt's Machines We Use (Children's Press, 1998) or Anne Welsbacher's Understanding Simple Machines series (Capstone, 2001), you may not need these books.-- ""School Library Journal"""

Simple Machines are simply fascinating in Michael Dahl's Amazing Science series. They explain how pulleys, wedges, ramps, wheels and axels, levers, and screws help people do work, making them an effective introduction to this key elementary concept. Imagine the front of a ship, the blade of an axe, or a chisel. Cut, Chop, and Stop explores wedges of various sizes. Each of these is a wedge compsed of one slanted side that comes to a sharp edge. Nails and pencil points are wedges that help people accomplish a task. Food, from watermelon slices to a piece of cake, may even be cut into wedges. Nonfiction text features including a table of contents, an index, and a glossary provide structure and guidance for intermediate readers. Dennise Shea's digital images complement the text. Simple machine characteristics are enhanced in these illustrations to provide details that make the ideas clear. The integration of text and images is esstential to communicate the design and function of each simple machine. Each book has a simple investigation, too.One involves a pencil, a piece of paper, and a couple of phone books to provide an activity to reinforce the concept of wedges, another has students are challenged to use a pulley to send a message across a room. With materials, including a spring scale, weight, ruler, shoebox, and a yardstick, students can investigate how a ramp works. Procedures and questions are easy to follow.Marshmallow Madness is an activity at the end of the text that demonstrates how a lever works. Gather a large marshmallow, pencil, ruler, and yardstick to set up your own simple machine, a lever.With an empty spool of thread, string, a paper cup, two pencils, tape, and 20 pennies, for instance, a model of a wheel and axle can be built. Students will follow the simple procedures and explore the working world of the wheel and axle.a student constructsa simple model with a 2-liter plastic bottle, cardboard, pencil, scissors, tape, and a bowl of cereal. This activity will thrill the adventuresome reader as a working screw accomplishes a task!-- NSTA Recommends These simple concept books are full of pizzazz and wonderfully illustrated with digital graphics that show kids doing typical kid things. The lumberman on the cover of Cut may not be as enticing as the active children depicted on the other titles. The book also has fewer internal pictures of youngsters, although there is a spread of a boy surrounded by wedges of cake, pie, and pizza. Other spreads depict and discuss doorstops, nails, and airplane wings. In Roll, skateboards, playground slides, and roller coasters are used as examples. Best of all is Scoop, which clearly describes several versions of the lever, found in the payground, garage, and kitchen. Tires discusses wheel sizes, gears, cranks, etc. Unfortunately, axles is misspelled on the cover. Each book has an activity and Fun Facts. The FactHound Web sites listed add more information, but don't take kids to any fun, interactive sites. If you have Sally Hewitt's Machines We Use (Children's Press, 1998) or Anne Welsbacher's Understanding Simple Machines series (Capstone, 2001), you may not need these books.-- School Library Journal

Author Information

Michael Dahl is the prolific author of the bestselling Goodnight, Baseball picture book and more than 200 other books for children and young adults. He has won the Association of Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award three times for his nonfiction, a Teachers' Choice Award from Learning Magazine, and a Seal of Excellence from the Creative Child Awards. Dahl currently lives in Minnesota.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available