This week 1st Grade traveled to Ireland in honor of St. Patrick’s Day!
The Faerie’s Gift by Tanya Robyn Batt is a wonderful story about a poor man who wants to make everyone in his life happy with just one magical wish. Students loved the challenge of trying to figure out how he might word the perfect wish!
And the Amharic Word of the Week is BREAD (pronounced “dab-bo”).
This week, Kindergarten and First Grade students flew away from South America and headed to a new continent: Europe!
Our first stop: ITALY.
Who better to make us appreciate the lovely Italian folklore than Strega Nona and her sidekicks, Big Anthony and Bambolona? Since Tomie DePaola’s characters are so well-known, we looked at a variety of their stories and voted on which one to share as a group.
Then we got to take a quick video detour to the wonderful city of Venice to see how glass sculpture is made. Check it out for yourself by clicking on the picture below:
And the Amharic Word of the Week is: Bye! (pronounced “chow”)
Our last stop in South America? PERU!
This week First Graders shared the classic Peruvian folktale: Llama and the Great Flood – A Folktale from Peru by Ellen Alexander.
This beautifully illustrated story reminded us a lot of the Biblical tale of Noah’s Ark. It’s interesting to see how the Peruvian story involves the Andes Mountains since they are such an important part of that region of the world.
And the Amharic Word of the Week is: OK (pronounced “ish-ee”).
This week First Grade is staying in South America with a quick jump over to Chile!
A Pen Pal for Max by Gloria Rand is a lovely story about young Maximiliano, a boy growing up on a Chilean vineyard. Max decides to see what might happen when he sneaks a note into a crate of grapes bound for the United States, and a lovely international friendship is born!
And the Amharic Word of the Week is BOOK:
This week Kindergarten and 1st Grade made major moves to a new continent: South America! First stop? BRAZIL!
How Night Came from the Sea is a classic Brazilian folktale, retold by Mary-Joan Gerson and Carla Golembe (the same pair who brought us the Nigerian tale, Why the Sky is Far Away!). It’s a fantastic way to imagine how night came to exist.
We also started talking more about our video project for Ethiopia Reads. One of our first steps before teaching the English alphabet is to learn a bit more about the Amharic alphabet. So this week we began doing the Amharic Word of the Week to see how words are formed using the different symbols.
First word? Hello! (pronounced “seu-lam” in Amharic) Here’s what it looks like if you’d like to practice at home:
Most 1st Grade classes stayed in Ethiopia this week and enjoyed Silly Mammo, a folktale retold by Yohannes Gebregeorgis (founder of Ethiopia Reads).
Students loved hearing about the mishaps of Mammo – a silly boy who can never seem to get things right.
It was also a great opportunity for all of us to start getting familiar with another alphabet; the book is written in both English and Amharic! We can’t wait to start learning the different symbols of the language while we work on a video project teaching our alphabet to friends in Ethiopia. Stay tuned!
On Monday, January 31st, a few library classes had the pleasure of meeting author James Otis Thach. He talked about the process of writing his latest book, The Seal Pup.
It was fascinating to hear how one idea for a story led to the creation of an amazing picture book. Be sure to visit the website to learn more about it!
This week, Kindergarten and First Grade students took a little video detour during our travels through Africa in order to see footage of what real life is like in two countries: Madagascar and Ethiopia.
Our peek at Madagascar was through a wonderful short film: The Big Race.
As the official film synopsis explains: “What do two boys in Madagascar do with a free day? Tulch and Noel, best friends with a day off from school, successfully illustrate that you don’t need fancy toys or the latest technology to have some fun on a beautiful summer afternoon. Maybe all you need is a tin can and a little imagination.”
For the next part of our video journey, we hopped over to Ethiopia by watching a news clip about Yohannes Gebregeorgis and his phenomenal organization, Ethiopia Reads. (click the logo to see the video)
We know his mission is so worthwhile, and we’ve decided to work together in the Dalton community to help. Keep your eye on this blog for more details to come very soon!
Nigeria was the place to be this week as 1st Grade continued traveling through Africa.
Ananse and the Lizard: A West African Tale, retold by Pat Cummings, is a classic story about the mischievous spider, Ananse. In this adventure, Ananse is determined to marry the princess and become Chief but his “friend” the Lizard gets in the way.
This week, First Grade continued to journey around Africa with a trip to South Africa.
Mina Javaherbin’s book, Goal!, is a heart-warming story about how the game of football (soccer) brings a group of boys together. This was fun to imagine, especially since the World Cup was just held in South Africa in 2010.
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