Do you know the meerkats...?

Yesterday, I shared a non-fiction book with the Grade 3 class. I chose a book from the Nature's Children book series called Meerkats by Tim Harris. It is just the right amount of information for this particular grade level. The meerkat is a very interesting animal and the children were intrigued by them and learned a lot from this read aloud.

Here are a few facts that we learned: these animals get a babysitter for their pups when they go out (responsible parenting)! Meerkats take care of each other, and they even eat SCORPIONS. As the boys were signing out their own book choices, I asked many of them if they would like a scorpion for dinner?

Sharing a non-fiction book about an unusual animal fires up curiosity, and that was the intention of this book choice. We listened, we laughed and we shared our own stories with each other. Now when we see the meerkats at the zoo we will already know something about them.