Gemina the Giraffe activity

I’ve had Gemina: The Crooked-Neck Giraffe (affiliate link) all month, and kept thinking I was going to turn this into a Science Sunday post, but as we read the book, it became a different post.  Because Gemina the giraffe isn’t about learning details about giraffes, it’s about hope.

Who is Gemina the giraffe?

I’m glad you asked that.  Gemina is a giraffe from the Santa Barbara zoo.  She was born in captivity at the San Diego wild animal park, and at about 3 years old her neck started to grow crooked.  Everyone thought she would be hurting, but Gemina the giraffe was fine.  Children came from all over to see the “Crooked Necked Giraffe,” and she gave hope to many people because of her deformity.

On the end pages of our Gemina the Giraffe book there were copies of many letters and pictures children had drawn for her, showing how she gave them hope, and how she affected them.  After reading Gemina the Giraffe the kids and I wanted to think about how we have hope, and where can we find hope?

 

Gemina the giraffe activity

Because it’s summer time and I’m trying to keep a lot of our activities much simpler, I went for a fun activity.  We grabbed some Card Stock and our Cake Markers (both affiliate links, though I really like the card stock sold at Sams).

I drew a giant heart in the middle of the page and wrote “Who gives us hope” in the middle, and then told the kids to write the name of a person who gives them hope in different marker colors.

Side note, I usually have my kids write in pencil, but sometimes, it’s just fun to write in markers, and today’s activity was more a bit of fun than being super serious.  So markers it was.

Which of course means you have to stack those markers and write with a bunch of them stuck together.  I put a stop to their attempts to write with a wobbling tower of 5 markers as I could just foresee the markers falling everywhere and knocking down tea cups.

 

One final side note that’s rather unrelated to our Gemina the giraffe activity, Sometimes writing isn’t really about an end product.  Sometimes writing is just a quick brainstorming session, or it’s getting your idea out on paper.  I’m trying to get my kids used to the idea of brainstorming and how to make a paragraph before I require a 5 paragraph essay or any other such monstrous writing assignment from them.

 

More Giraffe ideas

How are Ungulates Organized?

Zoo Animal Report Form

Land Animals pinterest board

 

More writing ideas

Vacation Journal

How to write a research paper

How to mind map a story

Teaching how to brainstorm

 

Buy the Gemina the giraffe book

You can buy your own copy of Gemina: The Crooked-Neck Giraffe at Amazon.com (affiliate link).  Super cool bit of information, the author is giving all of her proceeds to the Santa Barbara Zoo.

Other cool bit of information I learned: Karen Winnick also wrote Mr. Lincoln’s Whiskers, which we used to learn about Illinois.

Win your own copy of Gemina the giraffe

You can win your own copy of Gemina the Giraffe book AND the toy.  Right now.

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