Every Thursday on the blog we bring you teaching tips or news about resources you can use in your classroom

Every Engineering is Elementary (EiE) unit starts with a storybook that sets the context for the hands-on engineering design challenge. And every storybook has 15 or more illustrations. During a read-aloud, you can show pictures to your students the conventional way, by holding up the book for everyone to see, or by having students follow along in their own copies. Did you know that storybook illustrations are ALSO available to download on our website? You can use a computer/projector or Smart Board to show illustrations on the big screen as you read the story.

Beyond the convenience and excitement of this approach, storybook illustrations are a terrific teaching tool for English Language Arts, and especially for the English Language Learners in your class. Stories appeal to all kids, regardless of cultural background, interests, or learning style. Instead of reading a storybook word for word, project the illustrations while you retell the story at a language level that’s appropriate for your students. Or, print them out to use in classroom activities.

You'll find helpful tips for teachers every Thursday on the EiE blog.

Each Engineering is Elementary curriculum unit integrates with the science you already teach . . . starting with a storybook. For example, if your elementary students are learning about plants or insects, they'll read a storybook with an agricultural engineering theme, about a young girl who wants the exotic plant in her garden to bloom and makes a device for pollinating it by hand.

There's a good reason to start with stories: they provide an age-appropriate context for the engineering activities that follow. But you don’t have to stop with the “official” EiE storybooks. We have another terrific set of resources to support literacy instruction and reading in your classroom. Check out our Literacy Resources lists—there’s one for each of the 20 EiE units.

Each Thursday on the EiE blog, we answer your questions about classroom engineering.

Q: I know that each Engineering is Elementary Teacher Guide comes with one copy of the storybook for the unit. Do I need to buy additional copies for my students to read?

A: The answer is, it depends on the ages and abilities of your students.

EiE storybooks are written at about a 5th-grade reading level; they're classified this way because of all the science and engineering vocabulary words in the stories!

If you teach upper elementary students (or students with advanced reading skills), a class set of storybooks allows each student to read independently. Or you might have your students read in pairs, or small groups.