{"id":1697,"date":"2009-09-12T19:34:28","date_gmt":"2009-09-13T00:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/archives\/1697"},"modified":"2009-09-12T19:34:28","modified_gmt":"2009-09-13T00:34:28","slug":"teaching-life-science-with-childrens-literature-the-wolves-are-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/2009\/09\/12\/teaching-life-science-with-childrens-literature-the-wolves-are-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Life Science with Children’s Literature: The Wolves Are Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wolves.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Wolves Are Back<\/a>: written by Jean Craighead George, illustrated by Wendell Minor<\/p>\n

In 1926, it was ordered that all wolves living in Yellowstone National Park be killed.\u00a0 This resulted in the wolf population disappearing and the rest of the animal and plant populations in the park being thrown off balance.\u00a0 In 1995, ten adult wolves were put into Yellowstone in the hopes of restoring the natural balance of nature in the park.\u00a0 Jean Craighead George tells the story of these wolves from the perspective of a wolf pup and his father.\u00a0 Not only does the book describe the lifestyle of the wolves, but The Wolves Are Back<\/em> does a great job describing the ways that the loss of one animal population effected the whole animal and plant system in Yellowstone National Park.<\/p>\n

“The wolf pup heard a flycatcher call.\u00a0 The Lamar Valley had not heard this flycatcher while the bison were there.\u00a0 Bison break and trample young trees to keep back the forest so there will be grass.\u00a0 Now the wolves hunted the bison and drove them back from the river.\u00a0 Without the bison, the aspens grew.\u00a0 With the trees restored, there were limbs for the flycatcher to perch on.\u00a0 They sat there and sang.\u00a0 The wolves were back.”<\/p>\n

Curriculum Connections:<\/strong>
\nThe Wolves Are Back<\/em> is a great story to read with students when discussing animals and their habitats, life cycles, plants and animals and their dependence on each other in an ecosystem, food webs, the ways in which habitats change, predators and prey, and population and community.\u00a0 This book could be tied in to lessons dealing with the Virginia Science Standards of Learning 2.5, 3.5, 3.6, and 4.5.<\/p>\n

Additional Resources:
\n<\/strong>Jean Craighead George’s Website<\/a>: This site includes a biography of Jean Craighead George, a complete list of her works, videos of Ms. George as well as sound recordings of animals, tips for writing your own story, and a short Question and Answer section.<\/p>\n

Food Web Lesson Plan<\/a>: This lesson plan includes information about food webs and chains and has a section discussing what happens when there is an imbalance in an animal population (as discussed in The Wolves Are Back<\/em>).\u00a0 A worksheet and answer key are also included.<\/p>\n

Food Web Game<\/a>: Students can choose between a meadow, arctic, or pond food web and must put plants and animals in the correct order to make the food web flow.<\/p>\n

Wolf Habitat Lesson Plan<\/a>: The activity in this lesson plan is geared towards encouraging students to define a habitat, describe what animals need in order to survive, and to discuss factors that may cause a population of animals to increase or decrease.\u00a0 This plan includes a very physical and engaging activity and integrates the use of graphs.<\/p>\n

General Information:<\/strong>
\nBook: The Wolves Are Back
\nAuthor: Jean Craighead George
\nIllustrator: Wendell Minor
\nPublisher: Dutton Juvenile
\nPublication Date: April 2008
\nPages: 32
\nGrade Range: 2-6
\nISBN-10: 0525479473
\nISBN-13: 978-0525479475<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wolves Are Back: written by Jean Craighead George, illustrated by Wendell Minor In 1926, it was ordered that all wolves living in Yellowstone National Park be killed.\u00a0 This resulted in the wolf population disappearing and the rest of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4424,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,758],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-life-science"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4424"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}