Today I’d like to treat you to a post from our astute editor of digital content, Ashley Kuehl. Without further ado, here’s Ashley!

Ahh, spring. The season of melting ice and growing plants. Weather forecasts of rainstorms and wind. Sidewalk obstacles of mud puddles and worms. What do all these things have in common? They are part of earth science, of course!

Spring is a perfect time for kids to go outside and explore the earth! Lerner has a great new series to get students excited about what’s in the ground. Do You Dig Earth Science?, from our Searchlight Books brand, will pique the interests of budding earth scientists, with books on rocks, fossils, Earth’s crust, erosion, soil, and minerals.

Well, you might be saying to yourself, this sounds like a fantastic set of books, but where can I find lesson plans to help me teach this series to my class? And what standards will those lessons address?

I am so glad you asked! Lerner offers a free series teaching guide, complete with information on how the lessons address guidelines outlined in the draft framework of the Next Generation Science Standards. The guide also highlights how these lessons address the Common Core Reading Standards for Informational Text.

This teaching guide contains lessons on using book diagrams, researching careers in earth science, and understanding and illustrating earth science processes. You can use the lessons as written or modify them to fit your classroom.

Download the teaching guide from a book’s product page on our website: https://www.lernerbooks.com/products/t/12750/9781467707947/studying-soil
If you haven’t registered, you can do that by going to the upper right corner of the web page. Just under the red “sign-in” box, click on “register.” Registration is free! On future visits, you’ll need to sign in to download teaching guides.

Then look for the eSource logo in the right-hand column of the book’s product page. Click on the words “Series Teaching Guide” to download.

Remember that Lerner offers lots of teaching guides for series nonfiction. If a book has a teaching guide, you can always find it on the book’s product page.

Now get out there and play in the mud!