The Demeter School

Subject: African Animals - Going to the Zoo

 

1. Anansi and the Magic Stick

By Eric A. Kimmel

1. Health: Students can discuss how talking about other people can make them feel.
2. Writing: Children can create their own magic tricks and what a rhyme to go with it.
3. Art: Students can create their own magic “sticks” or wands using given materials.

 

2. The First Bear in Africa!

By Satomi Ichikawa

1. Social Studies: Review the animals that Meto talked to in the story. What animals are in Africa?
2. Writing: Have the children write something that is very special to them.
3. Writing: Have students write where they would go if they could go on a plane. Ask what special item they would take with them.
4. Science: Meto had not seen “photographic machines” before. Have children create an invention that would be “foreign” to their friends.
   

 

3. I Know a Rhino

By Charles Fuge

1. Writing: Have students add their own pages to the storybook.
2. Social Studies: Have children make a book of African Animals. They could name which animals in the story are not from Africa (ex. Fictional dragon).

 

4. Hippo Goes Bananas

By Majorie Dennis Murray

1. Health: Explain how when students talk about one another, things can get mixed up.
2. Health/Writing: Write about a time when you did not feel good and your friends and family tried to make you feel better.
3. Writing: Finish the sentence “Early one morning…”
4. Math: Use bananas as your manipulative for the day. Figure out how many are in a “bunch”.
5. Writing: Have children come up with a rhyming catch phrase such as “jumping jackrabbits”.
6. Social Studies: Study the Serengeti.
   

 

5. So Say The Little Monkeys

By Nancy Van Laan

1. Music: Create a class song for “work time”.
2. Art: Study Yumi Heo and create pictures that represent pages of the story.

 

6. Water Hole Waiting

By Jane Kurtz and Christopher Kurtz

1. Social Studies: Have a class discussion about the African savanna. Explain the water hole and how the animals thrive off of it.
2. Drama: Allow students to pretend to be animals, using special calls, to act out the water hole or parts from the story.
3. Science: Have children learn about circle of life.
4. Writing: Ask students to choose a favorite animal. Let them explain why using what they have learned.

 

7. Rain

By Manya Stojic

1. Science: Learn about Rain and how the animals know when rain will come.
2. Art: Have students make paintings similar to the ones in the story.
3. Writing: Allow students to add pages to the end of the book. Let them finish the ending sentence “The red soil was hot and dry…”

 

8. A Zebra’s World

By Caroline Arnold

1. Vocabulary: Have students learn to use the glossary in the back of the book and the new words regarding Zebras.
2. Science: Discuss how animals live in herds. Have students use the Internet to find other animals that live in herds or packs.
3. Social Studies: Allow children to discover where the African plains are on a globe or map.
4. Math: Let students use a Venn diagram to show similarities and differences between where we live and the African plains.

 

9. Gladys Goes Out To Lunch

By Derek Anderson

1. Writing: Have children write a story about their favorite food
2. Writing: Allow students to change the story and let Gladys find other things to eat.
3. Science/Health/Math: Make Banana Bread (recipe is in the back of the book).

 

10. Mugambi’s Journey

By John Becker

1. Writing: Ask students to write about a journey they have been on.
2. Science: Discuss with students how animals protect each other in the wild.
3. Health: Cheetahs have spots. What makes you different? Let students write and draw a picture
4. Social Studies: Review Cheetah facts about the Serengeti Plains. Make a fact chart about the area we live in.

Filed under: General, Reading on March 6th, 2007