A WORLD OF IDEAS:SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW

FROM PICTUREPEDIA

SLATE

IGNEOUS ROCKSFormed from volcanic material as it cools down, igneous rocks are of two types. Some, such as pegmatites, form deep underground. Others, such as andesite, form when volcanic lavas cool at Earth’s surface.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?Minerals are natural chemical substances that usually form as solid crystals. Each type can be recognized by its hardness, color, and atomic structure. Rocks are a mixture of minerals locked together. For example, granite is made of the minerals quartz, feldspar, and mica.

MEASURING MINERALSA test called the Mohs scale was invented more than 200 years ago to measure a mineral’s hardness. The scale is based on how scratch-resistant one mineral is compared to others.

Rocks and mineralsThe outer layers of Earth are mostly solid rock. This is easy to see where there are mountains or canyons, but much more rock is hidden under the soil and the sea. Rocks are made of minerals. They can be changed or destroyed by weather or water at the surface, or by heat and pressure inside Earth.

MINERALSThere are thousands of different minerals, though only about 30 make up most rocks. They usually form from water solutions and molten rock, sometimes deep inside Earth. Some, such as diamonds, are cut and polished to make gemstones.

AB

SOLU

TE H

AR

DN

ESS

SC

ALE

MOHS HARDNESS SCALE

HARD

SOFT

ANDESITE

PINK GRANODIORITE

RHYOLITE

TALC

GYP

SUM

CA

LCIT

E

FLU

OR

ITE

APA

TITE

OR

THO

CL

ASE

QU

AR

TZ

TOPA

Z CO

RU

ND

UM

DIA

MO

ND

PORPHYRY

MYLONITE ECLOGITE MIGMATITE

GREEN MARBLE SERPENTINITE

SKARNPUMICE

TOURMALINE PEGMATITE

OBSIDIAN

NAILHEAD CALCITECHALCOPYRITE

HEMATITE ORPIMENTCOVELLITESTIBNITE

CHRYSOBERYL

RUTILE

PROUSTITENICKELINE BOTRYOIDAL ARSENIC

HORNBLENDE

GALENA

MAGNETITE

ROSE QUARTZ

BERYL

GNEISS

HALITE

HEMIMORPHITERHODOCHROSITECORUNDUM

AZURITE

BLUE SAPPHIRESULFUR MALACHITE

BROOKITE

SMOKY QUARTZ

PURPLE FLUORITE SPHALERITEDIAMONDTENNANTITEENARGITE

CHALCOCITE

REALGAR

SANDSTONEIRONSTONEOIL SHALEFLINT

CLAYSTONE

CHALK LOESS

DOLOMITE

RED MARL

SHALE

LIMESTONE BRECCIAGRAYWACKE

LIMESTONE WITH FOSSILS

SEDIMENTARY ROCKSThese rocks form mostly at the bottom of seas and lakes. They are made from grains of sand and clay worn away from older rocks by wind and water. Over a very long period of time, the grains settle into layers of mud, or sediment. These layers are buried and eventually harden into new rock.

METAMORPHIC ROCKSIntense heat or pressure deep inside Earth can change the minerals in rocks from one type to another or may rearrange the mineral grains. This process produces what are called metamorphic rocks.

CHRYSOPRASE

MINERAL: QUARTZ

PUDDINGSTONE

ROCK CYCLERocks are made and remade in an endless cycle. Molten rock rises from inside Earth to the surface. Weathering breaks down surface rock into grains. The grains build new rocks, which are buried and then melted by heat.

ROCK CYCLERocks are made and remade in an endless cycle. Molten rock rises from inside Earth to the surface. Weathering breaks down surface rock into grains. The grains build new rocks, which are buried and then melted by heat.

Streams and winds carry away rock grains

Rock grains reach the coast as sediment

Glaciers carry away cool volcanic rock

Pressure turns sediment into rock

Sediment sinksSedimentary rock changes under

heat and pressure

Volcano

Rock becomes molten

Molten rock forced up to

surface

Rain and snow fill streams

GOLD

COCKSCOMB BARITE

ARSENOPYRITE

ROCK: PINK GRANITE

PICTURE CREDITS: Dorling Kindersley: The Natural History Museum, London (Magnetite, Hornblende, Corundum, Proustite); The Science Museum, London (Pumice); The Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Diamond).

FROMPICTUREPEDIA

BERYL

MALACHITE

The Natural History Museum, London (Magnetite, Hornblende, Corundum, Proustite); The Science Museum, London (Pumice); The Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Diamond).

www.dk.com

The eye-catching Picturepedia, with its thousands of color photographs and illustrations, is a gift to any classroom. It provides succinct introductions and visual tie-ins to a wide array of curriculum-related topics in science and technology, nature, geography, culture, and history. Students will also �nd topics with high kid-appeal, from bikes to ballet, that they may want to pursue on their own. Picturepedia supplies “one-stop shopping” for students who need quick facts and visuals on a topic, or inspiration for research and writing projects. Just browsing through Picturepedia is a highly satisfying experience with its color photographs and illustrations, maps, diagrams, time lines, charts, graphs, tables, step-by-step pictures, and intriguing sidebars.

Many aspects of Picturepedia make it an effective companion to the Common Core State Standards with their strong emphasis on informational text, expository writing, and visual learning. Each double-page spread offers an excellent starting point for research and writing, whether the topic is earthquakes or early civilizations. The layout for each topic models clear organization, beginning with a brief summary and expanding the topic with headings, subheadings, sidebars, quantitative visuals, and captions. The engaging volume, which opens with a table of contents and closes with a detailed index, will have students jumping into myriad topics with enthusiasm.

P I C T U R E P E D I A ALIGNED WITH THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS — BY KATHLEEN ODEAN

www.dk.comA WORLD OF IDEAS:SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW

EXPANDING VOCABULARY (Anchor Standard 4)One goal of the Common Core State Standards is for students to expand their vocabularies in academic areas like the sciences and social sciences. Picturepedia layouts are full of specialized terms and their de�nitions, including invertebrate, photosynthesis, hieroglyphics, nebulae, and thousands more. These are typically illustrated with photographs or other visuals to make the meaning clear. Have students collect new terms from sections of interest to them and de�ne the new words and phrases on index cards, adding illustrations. Start a Picturepedia Word Wall in your classroom where students can post their de�nitions. When the wall has dozens of index cards, take them down and have students sort them by categories, based on Picturepedia’s sections. Have students re-create the Word Wall with the new organization.

INTERPRETING VISUAL ELEMENTS (Anchor Standards 7)In learning to analyze what they read, students must “interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively.” Picturepedia offers thousands of high-quality color photographs and illustrations, accompanied by headings, brief paragraphs, and captions. These convey elements of history, science, social science, and culture with visuals that students will enjoy poring over to glean more information. It is important for students to be able to identify and understand quantitative visual presentations like charts, graphs, diagrams, and time lines. All of these features are used extensively in Picturepedia. For example, a time line displays the history of art, a diagram labels the parts of castles, and a chart shows the layout of orchestras. Picturepedia gives students multiple opportunities to explain how such visual information “contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears,” as required. Have each student choose one of the quantitative displays such as a time line, diagram, chart, or graph, and �nd several examples of it in Picturepedia. Then have them apply it in an area they are currently studying, such as creating a time line related to an event in history, or a diagram explaining a science concept, such as metamorphosis. Post these on a bulletin board, grouped by subject area.

RESEARCH & EXPOSITORY WRITING (Anchor Standards 2, 7 & 8)The Common Core State Standards require students to research topics and write about them in expository and informational texts. Students are “to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.” Students will �nd Picturepedia to be a perfect launchpad for such projects, providing an enormous number of research ideas in science, geography, history, and other cultural areas. The clear organization schemes used on the pages—grouping together subtopics, arranging events chronologically, explaining information step-by-step—serve as models for organizing research papers. Have students peruse the table of contents, where they can choose from topics ranging from inventions to insects to the Industrial Revolution. In writing research papers, students need to learn how to expand or narrow a topic to make it workable. Have students choose �ve topics from Picturepedia that are of interest to them. For each topic, the student should list two ways to expand the topic and two ways to narrow it. For example, the topic of thunderstorms could be expanded to the broader topic of extreme weather or narrowed to how thunderstorms are formed.

LISTENING AND SPEAKING TO LEARN (Anchor Standards 1, 4 & 5)A key aspect of Common Core learning involves students participating in different kinds of discussions on a variety of topics. Picturepedia, with its many high-appeal topics and visuals, will prompt students to share interesting facts and processes they’ve read about in the entries. Students will �nd an extraordinary number of topics to pursue that will lead to fascinating oral and multimedia presentations on subjects like spiders and scorpions, stargazing, gems, �shing, the Vikings, and much more. The speaking standards require strategic use of visual displays of data, which are modeled throughout Picturepedia in diagrams, charts, graphs, and time lines. After students have spent some time with Picturepedia, hold a class discussion to brainstorm topics for speaking assignments. Have students work in pairs to pursue their chosen topic, starting with the Picturepedia entry on it, then adding information from other sources. The �nal product should be a multimedia presentation to share with the class.

ENRICHING FICTION (Anchor Standards 1 and 3)Picturepedia provides ways to enrich reading and writing �ction, both of which are required by the standards. If a class is studying a historical novel or a student is reading one independently, the pictures and information in Picturepedia can clarify aspects of a story set, for example, in Ancient Egypt or during World War II. For novels with contemporary settings, students might check the pages on food around the world or see what a certain dog breed looks like. Picturepedia is also a great resource as students compose narratives and want to write a description of a place, animal, or object, which they can base on one of the book’s thousands of photographs. For a �ction writing assignment, have students leaf through Picturepedia and �nd a section that interests them about an unfamiliar time period or place. Have the students then compose a short story that incorporates Picturepedia information into the narrative’s setting. In small groups, have students share their stories and talk about how they wove in facts about the time or place.

DIGITAL TIE-INS Picturepedia pairs well with online media, a key part of Common Core’s requirement for students to learn to use digital media and technology capably. To �nd many highly recommended websites for children in the areas of animals, the arts, social science, science, and more, visit the ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children) Great Websites for Kids page (http://gws.ala.org). One rich online source that expands on aspects of nature introduced in Picturepedia is PBS’s Nature website (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/). Have students look over the choices of videos there and choose one to view. Before watching it, they should read up on the topic in Picturepedia and take notes. For example, students can move from the pages on monkeys and apes in Picturepedia to PBS’s “Mystery Monkeys of Shangri-La.” After watching, hold a discussion comparing the strengths of print and video sources in which students refer speci�cally to the topic they pursued.