Uncover Their True Identity

                                                                     Blue Xerces Butterfly
In Ace Lacewing, Bug Detective: The Big Swat, we meet a few interesting bugs.  Click on the links below to learn some information about the real versions.

Ace Lacewing - green lacewings
The Stinkbugs - stinkbugs
Xerces Blue -xerces blue butterfly
Madame Damselfly - damselflies
The Pillbugs - pillbugs
Roach - cockroaches
Zito Mosquito - mosquitos
The Tigerfly's - tigerflies
Hoppi Leafhopper - leaf hoppers
Mickey Mantis - praying mantis

Choose at least one to reseach using the provided link and summarize your findings in the comments section.  Comments are due by Friday, April 1 (no fooling :).

Extras:  Click on the book cover. 

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A Bull, a Bee and Being True to Yourself

This week we are reading The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf.  Ferdinand is a bull who would rather sit and smell the flowers than fight the other bulls.  A group of bullfighters misjudge him as being ferocious when a bee lands on his back and choose him to be their next challenger.

The book was released just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, and many saw it as a message for peace.  They thought that like Ferdinand, people should stop and smell the flowers instead of being caught up in challenging one another.  Countries who felt the war was necessary even banned the book for a time.

More recently, the book was featured in the movie The Blind Side, the true story of Michael Oher.  Michael was essentially homeless, living among poverty, drugs, fighting and desperation, until a family took him in as their own. The book and the movie both share the same message:

Follow your heart, and just because you're a bull, doesn't mean you have to act like one.

Explain what the message means to you and give an example of how you can apply it to your life.  Posts are due by Friday, March 18.

Faithful Elephants

"Above them, in the bright blue sky, the angry roar of enemy planes returned.  Bombs began to drop on Tokyo once more.  Still clinging to the elephants, the zoo keepers raised their fists to the sky and implored, 'Stop the war! Stop the war! Stop all wars!'"

Earlier this year, we studied the toll that World War 2 took on the Tokyo zoo in the book Faithful Elephants.  For fear that the zoo would be bombed, the animals set free and their people killed, zookeepers chose to put down their own animals.  The author, Yukio Tsuchiya, clearly takes an anti-war stance.  In a short paragraph, use at least three details and/ or from the story to support (agree with) or refute (disagree with) Tsuchiya's point of view. Posts are due by Friday, March 11.

Ueno Zoo Elephant Memorial

 Tokyo, Japan