Incredible Animals by Dunia Rahwan

If you're a frequent visitor to Kelly's Classroom Online, then you know I enjoy writing posts about animals.  So far, I've written about bees, groundhogs, reindeer, and rhinoceros.  I even compiled a list of children's books about animal poop!  If you enjoyed those posts, you will enjoy today's post about Incredible Animals by Dunia Rahwan.  Incredible Animals is a fact-packed, nonfiction book about animals from all over the world.  If you've enjoyed reading my Fun Facts About Animals series, you will definitely enjoy reading this book.  Keep reading to learn more about Incredible Animals and for a FREE animal research printable you can use it with.

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

Authors Summary

In this beautifully illustrated guide, discover fascinating and unusual information about animals from all around the world. A delightfully quirky system of organization introduces the reader to the superlatives of the animal kingdom, from "top predators" to "expert architects." A must-have encyclopedia for any animal enthusiast!

🍎 Title: Incredible Animals

🍎 Author: Dunia Rahwan
🍎 Illustrator: Paola Formica
🍎 Publisher: Barefoot Books
🍎 Date: September 15, 2020
🍎 Pages: 64

About Incredible Animals

Incredible Animals by Dunia Rahwan is a nonfiction book that introduces children to a wide variety of animals, their adaptations, and other unique facts about them. Children can read about well-known animals such as the cheetah, the pink flamingo, and the African elephant... as well as lesser-known animals like the Irukandji jellyfish (the smallest jellyfish in the world), the Motyxia millipede (a millipede that glows), and the red-lipped batfish (a fish that looks like it's wearing lipstick and that can use its fins to walk on the ocean floor). Incredible Animals is perfect for anyone who enjoys learning new info about unusual topics!

Nonfiction Book

When writing Incredible Animals, Dunia Rahwan did extensive research to make sure every detail in the book is correct.  So when you start reading about those millipedes that glow in the dark and those fish that use their fins to walk on the ocean floor, you can be assured everything is for real.  Remember that Incredible Animals is a nonfiction book... not a fantasy book!

A nonfiction book teaches you facts and information about the world around you.  If the book is about something that really happened or something that really exists, then it is nonfiction.  The aim of nonfiction writing is to help you learn about interesting subjects. -DK Findout!

Features of Nonfiction Text

When children start learning about nonfiction vs. fiction, they learn that most nonfiction books have certain features that fiction books don't:

• table of contents
• headings
• captions
• diagrams
• charts and graphs
• glossary
• index

You can find most of these features in Incredible Animals.  There are 14 chapters listed in the table of contents, headings and subheadings throughout the book, illustrations and captions for each animal, an illustrated index organized by animal groups, and a two page glossary.

Animal Research Project

When children reach second and third grades, they start learning how to do a research project using two or more nonfiction books.  Researching a favorite animal is often one of the first research projects children work on.

The worksheet below is a notetaking chart I use with my students to help them with their animal research projects.  It can be used with a variety of nonfiction sources, including Incredible Animals.

To use this organizer with Incredible Animals:

• Let your students go through the book and select one animal to research.
• Then, using the information found in Incredible Animals, have them fill in as much information as they can on their charts.
• After they've written down everything they can from Incredible Animals, encourage them to continue their research with nonfiction books from the library or from teacher-approved articles online. 
• When your students are done with their research, they can either turn in their completed charts to you or continue on with an extension activity... summary, craft, etc... of your choice.

If you'd like to download a copy of this animal research chart to use with your students, go for it.  I'd love to hear in the comments below about how well it worked for you!

To download a FREE copy of this Animal Research project (two pages in all), please click on the image above. Clicking this image will take you to the Teachers-Pay-Teachers third-party website. This is a FREE download-- no purchase necessary.

Did you enjoy reading about Incredible Animals? If so, check out these blog posts for fun facts about some interesting animals:

• Factoids: Fun Facts About Groundhogs
• Factoids: Fun Facts About Reindeer
• Factoids: Fun Facts About Rhinoceroses
• Factoids: Fun Facts About Honey Bees
• Factoids: Fun Facts About Sloths