Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport

Product Description

The Reading Rainbow programs are designed to encourage children to read by transporting them to exciting, real-life settings. The series introduces kids to interesting new people and places, explores social and cultural issues, and offers a close-up look at the world around them. Its dynamic, fast-paced, colorful animation and hip music entertain and reinforce these experiences, and help children embrace positive reading habits, skills and attitudes.

Theme:The best way to dispel fears about the unknown is to find the truth about someone or something.

A New York City boy has some preconceived ideas of life in the West and it makes him very apprehensive about the family’s move out there.

LeVar learns more about the West when he joins a biologist who shows him the Arizona desert and tells him about the plant and animal life – and he learns just what Gila monsters are.
Author: Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Field Trip Segments:

• Do You Know? – Do you know what a Gila Monster is? Kids on the street give their answers
• Meet a Gila Monster – LeVar introduces us to Biologist Lauren Kemper of the Arizona Game and Fish Department who introduces us to a real Gila monster. Lauren also shows us some desert plants including a saguaro cactus
• Desert Scenes – Animation and desert scenes are woven together as we hear “I Used to Think” and “Turtle Song.”

Review Books: Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats; Mitchell is Moving by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat; The Big Hello by Janet Schulman.

Use this episode to further enhance your science curriculum. Science Concepts: evaporation, condensation, adaptation, functions of skin.