Monday 5 November 2012

It was a happy and a sad day!

     Today we finished reading our Global Read Aloud novel, The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate. This story made us laugh, cry and rethink our ideas around animals in captivity. Ivan's story was one of courage and honour. The boys and girls and I looked forward to our Ivan Time each and everyday. He became a friend to all of us. Katherine Applegate made Ivan, Ruby, Stella and Bob come alive in our minds and in our classroom. We all felt a sense of accomplishment and a sense of loss as the end of the book approached. We couldn't wait to enjoy more but hated that the journey would soon be over. Students were both excited and concerned when they discovered a juicy nugget of information:  Ivan was real! The most heartbreaking moment was when we learned that Ivan had died on August 20th of this year. It was like saying good-bye to an old friend. We have decided to let our thinking around Ivan sit in our brains for a few days before we attempt to reflect on what we learned from Ivan and the other characters in The One and Only Ivan.

Here is the link to the Ivan page at the ZooAtlanta:

Ivan Official Page from ZooAtlanta

Ivan Dies At 50: A Gorilla Life, Remembered : NPR | GlobalReadAloud12 | Scoop.it

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.