Sunday, December 2, 2012

Dolphins

My favorite animal...

 
 
 
For as long as I can remember, I loved dolphins. Since I was 14 years old have collected dolphin figurines and jewelry. I have even had the pleasure of going to Hawaii where I took a dolphin watch boat ride. To say the least, it was simply amazing!
 
That is why I chose to read the non-fiction book, Dolphins;Amazing Animals written by James De Medeiros. This book was written for children aged 5 - 9 years old but I found it very informative as an adult. For instance, I did not know that dolphins lived in three types of natural bodies of water: open ocean, along the ocean coast and in rivers. I also did not that dolphins stay with their mother until they are eight years old and then go to find another pod to hunt with. Another thing I learned about dolphins is that each one has their own distinctive whistle but they can copy another dolphins whistle when the hear it.
 
I learned a lot from this children's book which makes me love dolphins that much more. I believe that they are highly intelligent animals and deserve to be protected. I think it is wonderful that De Medeiros makes it a point to write that because of humans  pollution and fishing nets that dolphins either get hurt or die. I think it is very important that children know the truth about the conservation of our animals. We have way too many animals on the endangered species list; I hope we never have to add dolphins to that list. This book has a lot of fun photographs of dolphins and gives great details about the life of a dolphin, how a dolphin survives and what we can do to help keep them around. It was a joy to read.
 

Reflective Reading

  • What is your favorite animal?
  • Why is it your favorite?
  • How does your favorite animal communicate?
  • Does it travel in groups or by itself?

Active Reading

  • Draw a picture of your favorite animal
  • After you've drawn your picture write a haiku poem about it on the same page
  • What's haiku? It is a Japanese style of writing poetry.
  • There are 17 syllables written in three lines broken down like this: 5, 7, 5.
  • For example:
Dolphins are the best
They swim and flip and whistle
They'd make a cool pet!
 
 

 Resources

De Medeiros, J. (2009) Dolphins;amazing animals. New York:Weigl Publishers Inc.
 
 
 
 

 
 



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