This week, Grade 1-5 students have recounted the true story of Christian the lion from the book by Ace Bourke and John Rendall. This book created a lot of discussion in classes about the ethics of releasing tame animals into the wild and other animal rights topics. We also learned about the work of George Adamson and the book and film, Born Free.
We then watched the video on youtube which made the story so popular, and you can watch it here:
This week, ELC students have read the timeless story of Corduroy by Don Freeman. We’ll be reading several Don Freeman stories over the next few weeks.
We loved it how Lisa liked Corduroy just the way he was, but she sewed on his button to make him feel more comfortable.
This past week Grade 1-5 library classes have learned about the life of Dr. Jane Goodall. The Watcher by Jeanette Winter is a very simplified version of Dr Goodall’s life, but gave us much to discuss about what distinguishes humans from animals, animal intelligence and emotion, and the importance of preserving natural habitat for wild animals.
We learned about her famous chimp greeting by watching this video:
And some classes learned a bit more about her work from this 60 minutes documentary:
This past week, ELC classes have read a delightful true story from Poland. Little dog lost, by Monica Carnesi, tells the story of a dog that was rescued from an ice flow in January 2010. We discussed how the dog was feeling and appreciated that the crew of the ship that rescued him showed empathy toward another creature.
Thanks to the generous people at WeGiveBooks.org we can read this fascinating book online:
http://www.wegivebooks.org/books/little-dog-lost
Username: bifslibrary
Password: read
This past week, most grade 1-5 classes have looked at a series of very interesting non-fiction books written by the Hatkoff family. These stories captured our attention and showed some really amazing true stories:
Owen & Mzee : the true story of a remarkable friendship, Owen & Mzee : the language of friendship, Leo the snow leopard : the true story of an amazing rescue, Knut : how one little polar bear captivated the world, Looking for Miza : the true story of the mountain gorilla family who rescued one of their own, Winter’s tail : how one little dolphin learned to swim again.
We also enjoyed watching some more of the excellent BBC Super Smart Animals show, and you can watch part two here:
This past week, most ELC classes have looked at several Eric Carle books and then read his book, “Slowly, slowly, slowly,” said the Sloth. We learned a lot about sloths, many other less-known animals, and also several new words from this clever book. We learned about appreciation of differences and how some animals move fast and some move slowly!
We also watched a video clip about sloths and you can watch it here:
This past week, Grade 4 & 5 have read another fascinating biography, this time about diving legend Dr Sammy Lee. Sixteen years in sixteen seconds by Paula Yoo and Dom Lee tells how Dr Lee grew up in California, at a time when non-white people could only use the public swimming pool one day a week. But Sammy Lee, son of Korean immigrants, wanted to become a Olympic diver, so he had to practice in a sand pit in his coach’s back yard!
Despite discrimination and unbelievable challenges he fulfilled his dream of becoming an Olympic champion and he also became a medical doctor. You can watch a documentary about his life here:
This past week Grade 1-3 classes have been amazed by the true story of Jim Key in Wonder Horse by Emily Arnold McCully. This horse, who lived more than 100 years ago, was trained by Bill “Doc” Key, a former slave who became a veterinarian. Professors from Harvard University confirmed that Jim Key could recognise letters and colours and could even count and do arithmetic due to Doc Key’s teaching with kindness.
This story reminds me of the quote by Albert Einstein that we must widen “our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Doc and Jim Key have helped us remember that animals have feelings and need to be treated with respect and kindness.
We then watched a short excerpt from the excellent series BBC Super Smart Animals and you can watch the ABCNews version of the story of Chaser, here:
This past week, ELC library classes have read the very entertaining book Handa’s Surprise by Eileen Browne. This colorful book showing an African girl taking a basket of fruits to her friend helped us learn the names of many different fruits and African animals. We also saw how Handa carried the basket on her head. She really was in for a big surprise when she arrived at Akeyo’s village!
Click on the picture to take you to the library catalogue record to find out more about the book.
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