Review:
“When the elephant walks”
Author: Keko
Kasza.
The
entertaining book “When the elephant walks”, written and illustrated by Keko
Kasza, tells a short story in which an elephant starts to walk, apparently
through the woods, unleashing a funny chain reaction that affects other
animals. The story has many didactic uses and an important message that
teachers might find very useful in their lessons.
In
the story, all the animals are influenced in a certain way by an action
performed by another animal. As a consequence, they all react in the same way,
running away from another bigger animal. In the story’s ending, we find
the first character again, the elephant and at this point is very interesting
to see how it reaches its climax but now using only illustrations. The author
tries to show that everybody gets scared of something and reacts as a
consequence. No matter how old or big we are, the point is that fear is one of
the most natural feelings. Teachers can take an advantage of this message,
using it in their lessons, helping children to work in their own fears and to assimilate
them as something natural.
This
book is a good tool for teachers giving lessons in fourth and fifth grade. They
can work with the vocabulary about different animals and the repetition of 3rd
person-singular structures to help students to incorporate them. Besides, the
illustrations are colorful and expressive. As a recommendation, teachers can
read the story aloud while students see how the animals perform each action.
This will provide a suitable anchoring about the new content.
Don’t
miss this wonderful book, it will change the way in which you deliver your
lessons, giving them a more dynamic perspective. The students will enjoy and
have fun as they learn.
In my first draft I used dashes between “written and illustrated by Keko Kasza” and the teacher asked me why I didn’t use commas. So, I have to explain the differences between them. Well, here they are:
ReplyDelete- When we put commas between an statement, we are adding extra information BUT this still make part of the same sentence.
- Dashes, on the other hand, are sudden interruptions to the sentences. Adding an extra comment BUT it's not part of the sentence. It could be a personal opinion, thought or feeling.
Hi Mariana! This is a lovely story! I believe that´s why many people used it.
ReplyDeleteIn the first sentence of the 2nd paragraph I believe an "s" is missing in animals but that must have been a typing mistake. In addtition, in the same paragraph but now the second sentence ( hahaha quite wordy my explanation) there is a comparative that I would change. Instead of "running away from another bigger animal" I would change the word "another" for a "much" or just "a". For example: ... running away from a much bigger animal. It is just a suggestion, it just doesn´t feel right hahaha
Great review!
Thank Mariela! Yes, I didn't notice those mistakes when I was typing.
DeleteGreat review! Mariela is right. This story is fantastic. That is why many of us chose the same book. I was one of them. Candela and I wrote the pair review about it.
DeleteThank you so much for the explanation about commas and dashes.
I like the way you tell what the story is about!!! Great review!!!
ReplyDeleteI like the way you tell what the story is about!!! Great review!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ceci! Very kind of you. I choose your second post to answer you, hahaha!
DeleteThanks Ceci! Very kind of you. I choose your second post to answer you, hahaha!
Delete