Exploring Time

by Gillian Chapman

Projects using simple classroom materials introduce the concept of time, from minutes on a clock to an entire life span, and its relationship to the outside world

32 pages, Library Binding

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[Nancy Kotkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Children's nonfiction book that discusses various aspects of time, and includes projects to explore the concepts presented. I love the premise of this book, but the pages are rather crowded with information. At times, I had difficulty navigating the flow of the text. There are many topics included: clocks, circadian rhythm, time management, ancestry, growth over time, geological time, historical time, solar time, lunar time, seasons, time zones, measuring time, and space time are all covered briefly. The book needs either less subjects included, or more pages to explore the concepts introduced. The project directions are not specific enough; I think many kids would have difficulty following the instructions without adult supervision. I'm a big proponent of experiential learning and think this book is a terrific idea, though the execution is chaotic.

[Michaila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that is not a novel book, but it's also not a lower level kid book It's 32 pages and has lots of information in this book. The book has a table of contents and lists the different topics. Some include changes over time, lifetimes, signaling time, geologic time, solar time, lunar time, measuring time and so on. (All topics are related to time.)

I would use this book in probably a 5th grade class, but maybe with some 4th graders, too. I can find a lot of reasons to use the content in this book, but I'll just explain one. In science, when we learn about geological time, this would be a great book to turn to that chapter and do some reading aloud on it. Or, I could print certain parts and have students read it independently. This is an excellent book to have in the classroom as a resource for students to use when they are working on projects that may pertain to time, and to just have as a teacher when you want to incorporate literature into science or social studies.