Books with author Bruce Koscielniak

“[An] impressive history of timekeeping.”—Horn Book Bruce Koscielniak, in this Common Core text exemplar, tells the intriguing story of the many years spent tinkering and inventing to perfect the art of telling time. When time itself was undefined, no one knew the difference between a minute, an hour, and a day. Then people started creating tools to measure time. First they used the sun, the moon, and the water, but soon after people began using their knowledge about the natural world to build clocks and to create calendars made up of months and years. Centuries later, we have clocks and calendars all around us! This title has been selected as a Common Core Text Exemplar (Grades 4-5, Informational Texts)

Time to read a book.Time to wash dishes.Time to do this or that.You say things like this every day, all the time. But there was a time when time itself was undefined—no one knew the difference between a minute, an hour, or a day.Then people started creating tools to measure time. First they used the big stuff around them—the sun, the moon, water. Soon after, using the knowledge they got from their natural time-telling tools, people began to build clocks—huge clocks unlike the ones we use today. They also used their knowledge of the sun and moon to create calendars made up of months and years.Now, centuries later, we have clocks all around us. We can easily figure out how long a month is. But it took many years of tinkering and inventing to perfect the art of telling time. You could take a few moments now to read all about time. If you have a minute, that is. This title has been selected as a Common Core Text Exemplar (Grades 4-5, Informational Texts)

“[An] impressive history of timekeeping.”—Horn Book Bruce Koscielniak, in this Common Core text exemplar, tells the intriguing story of the many years spent tinkering and inventing to perfect the art of telling time. When time itself was undefined, no one knew the difference between a minute, an hour, and a day. Then people started creating tools to measure time. First they used the sun, the moon, and the water, but soon after people began using their knowledge about the natural world to build clocks and to create calendars made up of months and years. Centuries later, we have clocks and calendars all around us! This title has been selected as a Common Core Text Exemplar (Grades 4-5, Informational Texts)

If a book was published 600 years ago, it would have been copied out by hand by a scribe in a monastery and probably would have taken months to produce. But thanks to Johann Gutenberg in the fifteenth century, modern printing was born and nowadays it can take only a few seconds to print a book. Gutenberg invented the printing press as well as a new type of ink and a new way to cast type. Learn the incredible story of Johann Gutenberg and the history of early printing and publishing.

Have you ever seen an orchestra perform? What are all those different instruments and how do they all play just the right note at just the right time? In this fact-filled and entertaining picture book, Bruce Koscielniak gives us a lively look at the history of the orchestra and all the instruments that make up this wonderful gathering of sound. From the "tooter, strings and beaters" of the 1600s to the keyboard synthesizers of today, this playful exploration follows the developments and trends of music and instruments over the past four hundred years.

Geoffrey Groundhog has become a local celebrity for successfully predicting how long winter will last. Everyone awaits his prediction each February 2, when he emerges from his burrow to look for his shadow. But Geoffrey’s fame has grown out of control—and so has the commotion surrounding his burrow! With television lights and cameras crowding him, he can’t even see the ground, much less his shadow. How will he make his spring prediction? How will anyone know if they should wax their surfboards or their skis?

Look around you! Glass is everywhere: the mirror where you brush your teeth in the morning, the test tube in your science class, and your cup of juice on the dinner table. But what do you really know about it? Where did it come from?To find out, you have to travel all the way back to ancient Egypt, where glass was first in use. Beautiful illustrations give a sense of the time and place as you span the globe and thousands of years to see glass’s use expand from small pots, to bottles, to cathedral stained-glass windows to telescope lenses and more! Lots of diagrams detail the step-by-step processes of glassmaking through the ages.Another vivid and informative book from a master of explanation, Bruce Koscielniak.

Geoffrey Groundhog is famous for predicting how long winter will last, and each February 2, everyone waits to hear what he has to say when he emerges to look for his shadow. But as his fame grows, so does the commotion surrounding his burrow. Finally, one February things get so bad that when Geoffrey makes his appearance he can't even see the ground, much less his shadow, because of all the lights, reporters, and cameras. How's anyone to know when spring will arrive? Predicting the weather isn't easy, not even for a groundhog. Readers will laugh aloud at Geoffrey's clever solution to his predicament.

Have you ever seen an orchestra perform? What are all those different instruments and how do they all play just the right note at just the right time? In this fact-filled and entertaining picture book, Bruce Koscielniak gives us a lively look at the history of the orchestra and all the instruments that make up this wonderful gathering of sound. From the "tooter, strings and beaters" of the 1600s to the keyboard synthesizers of today, this playful exploration follows the developments and trends of music and instruments over the past four hundred years.