Lion Booklist (and Birthday!)

The main lesson block topic for May is Zoology II and we are on the Lion!

In a stroke of absolutely perfect timing, my youngest student finished knitting her Lion on Thursday. She was extremely proud. 😊

pattern is in A First Book of Knitting for Children

Happy Birthday, little Lion!

Here is my list of Lion books:

On Thursday, we reviewed the biomes of Africa with the Africa Puzzle Map and looked at the three part cards for the animals of the African Grasslands.

Note: Both of these beautiful materials are from Waseca Biomes.

If you are interested in their three part cards with examples of plants, invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals for all of the biomes on all of the continents in the world, here is the list.

After imagining the African Savannah, we read Young Lions by Toshi Yoshida and drew the "Lion" lesson from Drawing Simple Animal Forms.

Note: If you prefer a block beeswax crayon drawing over a pencil drawing, I suggest Teaching with the Fables: A Holistic Approach by Sieglinde de Francesca. And block beeswax crayons in primary colors are on CLEARANCE for $1.57 each at A Child's Dream right now!

On Monday, we will read the "Lion" chapter from The Human Being and the Animal World by Charles Kovacs (chap 13), and add Lion to the MLB.

I also want to do a Dog for our Zoology block, so I've chosen the Rhodesian Ridgeback. In Zoology II, we look at specific animals that serve as pure examples of a highly developed physiological system. The human being also has all of these systems but in a much more balanced way! The Chimpunk was our first animal (Nervous System). The Lion is Cardiovascular System... and so is the Rhodesian Ridgeback, a massive dog bred to hunt lions.

On Tuesday, we will read an excerpt from Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savanna by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton.

What qualities would it take -- physically and emotionally -- to hunt a lion?

On Wednesday, we will brainstorm. If there was a dog that was specifically bred to hunt lions, what attributes would it most likely have? We can talk about the Cardiovascular System more specifically (this will be a review for my students who did the Human Body in Science Club all year), and then learn about the Rhodesian Ridgeback. It is truly a remarkable dog!

Happily, there is a Rhodesian Ridgeback tile in the very lovely Dog BINGO, so we will play that as well.

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