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Exclamations and Zoo's
August 29, 2007

I love student teachers and their questions. One of ours came rushing in to find books to help teach exclamation marks and also zoo animals. Ahhh! The rush of fast thinking as our minds scurry through the tons of picture book titles stored in the recesses and oversized shelving of our brains. Yo! Yes? came to mind for exclamations but it had worn out. Quickly I put that on my reorder list and checked to see who else in our district owned it, but, alas! she needed it early tomorrow so there was no time for inner-district mailing. Punctuation takes a vacation? Every second grade teacher has it checked out.  Exclamation Point by Abdo - ordering, but not in yet. Emma Exclamation Point - ordering, but not in yet. Was I doomed?

Fortunately while I was simultaneously typing frantically in the computer and flipping through the stacks of books in piles of my mind, I was also showing the student teacher how to search our OPAC for zoo titles. While she was rushing back and forth with books, she browsed nearby titles and stumbled across a totally unrelated book that alternated pages with strong emotions (!'s) and facts (.'s). PHEW!

Back to the zoo titles, while we pulled out old favorites, I remembered Henry Holt and Company had sent me a new title in their series of math at the zoo -- Cheetah Math: Learning about Division From Baby Cheetahs by Ann Whitehead Nagda in collaboration with the San Diego Zoo. Aha! Tying in division, repeated subtraction, animal life, extinction, activism and reading for a purpose. I dare you to read one of these titles and resist researching more on the sandiegozoo.org website!  You'll have to check out their catalog or view some of the other titles in the set.

Posted by Diane Chen on August 29, 2007 | Comments (0)