Written by: David Elliott
Illustrated by: Holly Meade
Recommended for: Children Ages 4-8
Themes: Fiction, Science, Poetry
Summary:
In the Wild is a wonderful collection of poems about wild animals. They will find poems about: the lion, the elephant, the giraffe, the zebra, the rhinocerous, the sloth, the jaguar, the panda, the tiger, the orangutan, the kangaroo, the buffalo, the wolf, and the polar bear.Each poem gives the reader more details about each animal using rhythm and rhyme.
Children will love the symplistic and wonderful illustrations of each animal and their habitat. They will be interested in learning about the natural habitats of these animals that they are used to seeing at their local zoo. They will enjoy looking for and finding the rhyming patterns and reading the poems aloud to one another.
Suggestions for the Classroom:
This would be a wonderful book to share with students when discussing poetry as well as for discussing the habitats of animals and making distinctions between domesticated animals (pets) and wild animals. This book would help children to understand that a zoo is not the natural habitat of these animals, but is instread used as a tool to teach us about these animals and to protect and preserve their species for future generations.
*Pre-Reading Activities: Discuss with students the term habitat; explain to students that a habitat is the natural home environment of a plant or an animal. Explain that we describe animals that live outside of homes and farms as wild animals. Tell them that we will be visiting the zoo, where we will be able to see some wild animals, that are kept there so that we may learn more about them and to keep them safe. Explain to the students that the zoo tries to make the homes for their animals as close to their natural habitat as possible. Tell them that we will be reading today about some of the animals that they may see at the zoo and ask them to listen for words that describe their habitat within the poems.
*During Reading: Have students tell you what words they can use to describe the habitats of the different animals using what they heard in the poem as well as through the illustrations.
*Post-Reading Activities: Give the children an opportunity to draw a picture of their favorite animal from the sotry and to write a sentence about their habitat in their writing journals. Use the story starter: ____________ live where it is____________ (ex: Lions live where it is warm and grassy).
About the Author:
David Elliott originally wanted to become an opera singer, but after many years of practice and schooling her realized that he just wasn't that good at it. He has worked as a singer in Mexico, an English teacher in Libya, a cucumber-washer in Greece, and a popsicle-stick-maker in Israel. These days he works writing children's books, something he came about by chance as everytime he sat down to write his character always seemed to be around nine years of age. He states that his work is usally funny and imaginative and he hopes to inspire and transport children to new placesby sparking their imaginations through his work.
About the Illustrator:
Holly Meade has provided the illustrations for over 30 children's books. She enjoys attending workshops in areas such as: drawing, painting, printmaking, basket making, and fabric design. Over the past seven years she has been working with woodcuts, a medium that she became interested in after attending a workshop at Haystack Mountain School in 2002.
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