We started the month with books about rabbits. We read
- The Black Rabbit by Philippa Leathers;
- Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming, illustrated by G. Brian Karas; and
- Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Zacharia OHora.
Wolfie the Bunny was huge hit. One boy, in particular, laughed at almost every page turn. That's a keeper!
We read Native American folktales:
- Rabbit's Snow Dance by James and Joseph Bruchac, illustrated by Jeff Newman and
- Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest by Gerald McDermott.
We had a spring snowstorm which seemed like the perfect time to share Rabbit's Snow Dance, and the Native American folktales dovetailed nicely with what the students were learning in class.
We talks about ocean animals by reading
- "About the Teeth of Sharks" by John Ciardi;
- Humphrey the Lost Whale by Wendy Tokuda, illustrated by Richard Hall; and
- Trapped! A Whale's Rescue by Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Wendell Minor.
I'm not sure the shark poem entirely fit with the whale theme, but I love sharing this poem during National Poetry Month. The two books about whale rescue provided an interesting contrast, not just because the rescue methods were different, but because Humphrey trapped himself by swimming up the river, and the whale from Robert Burleigh's book was trapped by human-made nets.
