Elephant Appreciation Day Round Up

September 22nd is a big day.  An elephant-sized day, in fact.  As the week lumbers ahead to Saturday, take the opportunity to share these large animals with your students.

Don’t be limited to Dumbo and Babar.  Those are great classics, but don’t miss the newest loveable elephant in fiction from Mo Willems.  Emily posted about the Elephant and Piggie books a few weeks ago, and you won’t want to miss an opportunity to introduce your beginning readers to Elephant Gerald (say it fast… get it?)

Count your way through ten elephants with an increasingly overwhelmed little girl in I’ve Got an Elephant by Anne Ginkel.  Preschoolers through first graders will be hooked by the simple, catchy rhymes and the cartoonish elephants engaged in all sorts of un-elephant-like activities.

Immerse your audience in another era by reading aloud The Elephant’s Ball.  This 19th century poem has been brought to young audiences accompanied by rich and detailed illustrations of Elephant’s glorious ball for all the animals of the land.  As the world’s biggest land mammal, the elephant is not to be outdone! 

Your nonfiction fans will gravitate to the photographs in African Elephant: The World’s Biggest Land Mammal by Kirsten Hall and Travels With Tarra by Carol Buckley.   Take on the subject of responsible animal care with Just for Elephants, also by Carol Buckley.  Even if you can’t take a trip to Buckley’s Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee this Elephant Appreciation Day, you can read all about it and even watch the elephants roam free in this natural refuge online via the “elecam.”