Raccoons will be our first inquiry unit this September. I wanted to introduce a Canadian animal that all of the students would be familiar with, while also doing a little bit of traditional back-to-school literacy stuff. I am going to kick-off the year with an old favorite...
There are many activities that go along with the Kissing Hand, and several other Audrey Penn books that are stories about Chester the raccoon. While I was researching other raccoon books I came across this one by Jim Arnosky:
It will be a great comparison book for The Kissing Hand (insert Venn diagram here ;0)
It's a simple story of a raccoon that becomes lost in a canoe and is separated from his family. This gave me an idea for an inquiry project for the students to undertake in the first couple of weeks of school. I will provide them with a variety of materials that they could use to build a canoe, and then we will see if they can make them float, and maybe even hold the weight of a toy raccoon! How fun! I will have to post some pictures of our results...
