THe Lorax by Dr. Seuss
A little boy comes upon a place where the Once-ler still lives, and where Lorax once was. He questions the Once-ler about where the Lorax went and why, and then he begins the story of what the Lorax was. Explaining that there was a place where the grass was still green, ponds where still wet, clouds clean and overall it was a glorious place with fantastical creatures. As the Once-ler goes on he explains about his Thneed business and how the Lorax came to tell him his factories where putting out to much smoke. This book has a environmentally feel to it, but some of the major controversy came when loggers said the book was unfair to loggers and put Lake Erie into a bad light. Eventually the comment about Lake Erie was take out many years latter after the lake was cleaned up, but this books still continues to create controversy for some. I like this book and the ideas you could teach behind it, being the environment is good and how to keep it clean.
The Lorax is a wonderful book and I agree that you could definitely teach environmental issues to young children using it. If I were going to use this book in my classroom I would probably do a unit about pollution and how humans impact the environment. It would also be good to talk about water and air pollution as well as forest destruction since these all occur in the story.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest spending a little more time talking about how you felt about the book instead of summarizing the plot. Talking about how the Thneed business could represent different corporations and what they do to the earth in the real world outside the book would be interesting.