Evaluation of informational children's books for primary school third grade natural sciences Our Five Senses unit

Informational children's books have importance in children's literature. The use of informative children's books by students and teachers in teaching enriches the educational process. Informative children's books are materials used by students at any time, besides reinforcing teaching science, social studies, and mathematics. This study aimed to evaluate the selection of informative children's books for the 3rd-grade science unit "Our Five Senses". Document analysis was used as a qualitative method. The results were obtained using descriptive analysis. The criterion sampling method was used while determining the research materials and the books selected for the "Our Five Senses" unit was examined with the evaluation form developed by the researcher. After reviewing domestic and foreign books in bookstores, publishing houses, schools and classroom libraries, 35 related books were accessed and analyzed. As a result, it was concluded that TÜBİTAK and Telescope Publishing House made the most informative publications, foreign authors wrote more books than domestic authors and informative books became more common after 2015. Most of the authors are experienced and the books are scientific and updated. While the steps of the scientific method in the book were given at a very high rate with respect to the age level, it was seen that the cause-effect relationships in nature could not be established sufficiently. While the rate of including introductory information about the subject is quite low, the rate of including additional information is higher. It was seen that the books are sufficient in terms of interior and exterior illustration features. It was determined that the books do not include all the objectives of the "Our Five Senses" unit. In terms of the difficulty level, the font size, picture-text ratio, and the number of words were examined. It was seen that less than half of the books were completely suitable for 3rd-grade students. Keywords: Children's literature, informative children's books, science course, 3rd grade, five senses unit