After participating in our Keep It Wild workshop, Nature Detectives, grade 1/2 students at Downtown Alternative School read this book by Brian Wildsmith. The book has simple text, and follows a child through the zoo as he imagines being all the different animals he sees. "I went to the zoo and I thought if I were an eagle, I would fly to the moon." The book ends with the child realizing that if the animals were him, they would be free.
One of the biggest problems animals face in captivity, especially in roadside zoos, is the frustration and boredom they experience because quite often they cannot engage in normal behaviours, like flying, digging, climbing, running, and swimming.
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| A raccoon in substandard conditions at a roadside zoo in Ontario |
Here are some of the connections the students made between the book, and wild animals living near them.
If I were a raccoon I would climb the highest tree...
If I were deer I would take a nice long run...
If I were a fox I would run everywhere....
