Overview and Outcomes:

This is a three-week Writing Root for The Journey Home by Frann Preston-Gannon. The text explores issues of conservation and starts to explore whether we can escape the issues that endangered animals face on a day-to-day basis. Children create fact files on endangered animals as well writing short persuasive pieces on why we need to save a particular endangered animal. Children will be able to identify how a sentence is formed by its grammatical structure as a question, a command, a statement or an exclamation. Children will be encouraged to edit work, being aware of tense and word choice. Word classes (nouns/verbs/adjectives) will be referred to throughout.

Synopsis of Text:

The ice is melting so Polar Bear sets off in search of a new home. Join him on his adventures across the seas and discover the many friends he meets along the way. This beautifully illustrated story has a powerful message of conservation and is full of things for parents and children to talk about. Frann was the winner of an amazing Sendak Fellowship and spent a month living with the great Maurice Sendak himself at his home in Connecticut, USA. She worked on The Journey Home during her stay there.

Text Rationale:

This beautifully illustrated book tells the poignant story of a group of animals who set out to look for new habitats. This text is a powerful springboard into discussions about global warming, the environment and conservation with children – it is a call to action. This text can be accompanied by There’s a Rang-Tan in My Bedroom by the same author. Frann Preston-Gannon is a prolific and significant author-illustrator who has won many awards, including the ‘Sendak Fellowship’ and was able to spend a month learning from the great Maurice Sendak.

Links and themes:

Environment, environmentalism, conservation, conservationism, extinction, endangered species, activism, geography, science, global warming

Date written: December 2015