The government sells a lot of land to big companies. They cut down forests for timber and clear land for coffee plantations. This is a great book for all but especially for girls who have been told over and over that they can’t do what they want to do or be who they want to be for one reason or the other. The book is a testament to what determination, resilience and passion for a cause can do. It is a story with the lesson that giving up is not an option. Of particular value is the addition of a chronology of “The Life of Wangari Maathai” with captions of the historical landscape leading up to her birth and actual milestones in her life. Other additions include a caption on deforestation and the impact on the animal population, quotes from Wangari’s autobiography Unbowed, and a brief paragraph on “Kenya Today.” Tell students that they can use the opinions from the Places People Plant Trees anchor chart and the reasons from the Reasons to Plant a Tree anchor chart to play a matching game.

Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees

Distribute a sentence strip to each student and yourself (e.g., "playground," "beach," "have trunks and limbs to climb," "make shade"). Tell students that the Places People Plant Trees anchor chart can help them form an opinion about where to plant a tree. As needed, remind students that an opinion is what you think about something.RI.K.6 : Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text. With excitement, share with students that they will now get to watercolor one of the places where people plant trees. Donna Jo Napoli tells a story inspired by the life of 2004 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Maathai & Kadir Nelson's collage illustrations honor the spirit of a land & of the woman who helped saved it. (Goodreads summary) I would use this book in a lower elementary classroom (K-2) as a read aloud or mentor text. It could be used in a variety of different units: environment, needs/wants, and community. As a read aloud, "Mama Miti" could be used to encourage discussions about helping people in our community and the connection between communities and their environments. It could be used to encourage students to think of ways they can conserve the environment (i.e. Earth Day or Arbor Day). In the younger grades, students can explore a variety of text structures in this book such as problem/solution, setting, and characters. As a mentor text, this book could be used as an example of descriptive language and details.

feed the soul this World Hunger Day - BookTrust Eight books to feed the soul this World Hunger Day - BookTrust

Donna Jo Napoli is both a linguist and a writer of children's and YA fiction. She loves to garden and bake bread, and even dreams of moving to the woods and becoming a naturalist. This entry was posted on March 5, 2013, in Africa, Earth Day, Education, Picture Books, Teaching and tagged bookreview #kidlit, earthday, kidlit, picture books, YA. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment (Edit)With the expert use of just a few sentences and the wielding of some beautiful, heart-breaking illustrations, Milner’s depiction of poverty seen through the eyes of a child will have everyone wanting to help.

Mama Miti – Mother of Trees – VOICES

the trees are chopped down, erosion carries away the fertile soil, the water in the streams dries up. The land is destroyed and many people go hungry. With excitement, remind students that this is similar to the Module 4 guiding question. Wangari taught her community about why and how trees are important. One early action was a protest against the development of a business centre at a central forest and park in Nairobi. As a symbol of defiance they marched to the park with thousands of trees and occupied the park. She also raised the issue with international media and created a lot of attention and consequently, pressure.What support / training do the teachers at Valley Primary School have to work with children with SEND? After about 15 minutes, invite students to turn to an elbow partner and share their watercolor painting, describing the place. I feel that this is a culturally specific children's book. The story is a true story about woman, Wangari Maathai (Mama Miti) that lives in Kenya. All of the individuals portrayed in the story are people of color. The people are wearing clothing customarily warn in Kenya. In addition there are many words used in throughout the book in Kikuyu (Mama Miti's language she speaks in Kenya) and there is a glossary found at the end of the book, detailing what each of the words mean. Illustration from It's A No-Money Day by Kate Milner “Political affiliations aside, can we not all agree that no child should be going to bed hungry?.” Another biography is Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai , by Claire A. Nivola. In beautiful watercolors and simple text, this book tells the same story as the previous biography, perhaps for a slightly younger audience. It does not include details about her arrest, but does talk a bit more about her journey around Kenyan educating others about planting trees. Both books are wonderful and can be used in tandem to showcase Wangari Maathai and her incredible work.

Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya - Goodreads

In Lessons 2-4, students added ideas to the Reasons to Plant a Tree anchor chart during the focused read-aloud of A Tree Is Nice . In this lesson, they use the anchor chart during the Matching Opinions with Reasons game. She was assistant minister of the environment of her country and became the first Kenyan woman to receive a Nobel prize of peace. The basic design of this lesson supports ELLs by providing opportunities to build their oral language fluency while extending their understanding of where and why people plant trees through the text. This juicy yet rich telling can be the foundation for deep discussions with little people and uncover a genuine gratitude for what we have in 'richer' nations and for the undeniably important work of Mama Miti. It might even spark a bit of investigating as to which trees do what.The forests are, as well a vital component of the livelihood of rural communities, providing them with firewood, food sources and, as mentioned, water. Much of the labour surrounding water and firewood is done by women in these communites. Therefore it was a logical step for Wangari Maathai to connect these issues. To protect the trees meant protecting the livelihhod of these women. To campaign for womens rights meant to protect their environment. A beautiful introduction for children just learning about the Greenbelt Movement.”— School Library Journal Transition students to their workspaces and invite them to begin watercoloring using the same routine from Work Time B of Lesson 5: Echoing the meter of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Ward uses catchy original rhymes to describe the variety of nests birds create. After reading the stories, talk about cause and effect. Have the students make a chart and fill in the missing causes and effects. Another option is to have them cut apart and then match the causes and effects. Here are some you may include: Cause: