There’s a Babirusa In My Bathtub!
Grades 2 to 5
ISBN: 9781584691181
Dawn Publications, 2009
Authored by Maxine Rose Schur
Illustrated by Michael S. Maydak
Recommended Reading
This book introduces 13 exotic animals using a variety of witty, lively poems that makes learning about these unsung animals fun and exciting. On each two-page spread, the left side features a poem along with a few paragraphs of factual information, while the right side contains a full-color painting of the animal in its natural habitat. The intermingling of fact and fancy makes this a good book for helping children to differentiate between science and literature. Teachers and parents will also appreciate the series of exercises in the back of the book that focus on the basics of reading: fluency, phonics, phonemic awareness, comprehension, and vocabulary.
Readers will see how the author takes some liberties with some spelling and grammar, making the poems a joy to share aloud. Teachers can challenge students to imitate this technique by writing similar poems about other, well-known animals.
In PLT’s PreK-8 Activity 11, Can It Be Real?, students discover extraordinary plants and animals and gain insight on how they are adapted to environmental conditions. “There’s a Babirusa in My Bathtub!” offers a perfect complement to the eight species already outlined on the Who’s Who student page included within this PLT activity.
Check out this book and get ready to make some new – and amazingly unique – animal friends. Try coupling this book with the following activities from the PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide:
- # 5 – Poet Tree
- # 6 – Picture This!
- # 7 – Habitat Pen Pals
- # 10 – Charting Diversity
- # 11 – Can It Be Real?
- # 22 – Trees as Habitats
- # 32 – A Forest of Many Uses
- # 45 – Web of Life
- # 88 – Life on the Edge
Jackie Stallard
Jackie Stallard
