English Teacher Marie Snyman

  There is no better topic than “The Pets You Get” for our second assignment in Grade 1. The students had so much fun with this assignment because, let’s be honest, who does not love animals. After reading the three stories, Lin’s Fish, Ox Helps, and The Fox and the Kit, the students had a very good understanding about the different kinds of animals that you get. Some animals we can call pets and other animals we can’t. We talked about why we can call some animals pets and why we can take them home and what are their needs when we take them home.

  To make it much more fun we asked the students to imagine taking home an animal that could not be a pet, for example a lion. The students had to think of the different problems that might occur when they bring a lion home. One student said: “When I bring a lion home I need to have a lot of meat for it to eat.” They also had to come up with different solutions for these problems. Then another student replied: “I will buy a lot of meat for my lion at Costco.” The students had a lot of fun trying to think of different solutions for their problems when taking these wild animals home.

  The last step for this assignment was making their own book about the animal they chose. It was a book that they could take home and read as a bed time story to Dad and Mom. The students did really well in their writing. Not only did they enjoy writing about the animals that they chose, they also enjoyed drawing the pictures.

  This was definitely a great assignment for our Grade 1 students and we are looking forward to what is waiting for us.