Lesson Plan - Giraffes on the Go

Watch a Video: The Great Giraffe Rescue

After watching the video, ask: How were the giraffes rescued from the island?

Preview Words to Know

Project the online vocabulary slideshow and introduce the Words to Know.

• peninsula 
• poachers

Set a Purpose for Reading

Point out the As You Read question and challenge students to identify some challenges involved in moving the giraffes.

1. What is the section “Planning a Rescue” mainly about? This section is mainly about how rescue workers used a raft called a barge to transport the giraffes across the lake. 

^{(RI.4.2 MAIN IDEA)}

2. Why did the giraffes need to be rescued? The island that the giraffes were stranded on used to be a peninsula. But heavy rains caused the lake levels to swell, and this cut the giraffes off from the mainland. As a result, they needed to be rescued. 

^{(RI.4.3 CAUSE/EFFECT)}

3. What is the purpose of the map on page 3? The purpose of the map is to show giraffes’ habitat range in Africa and to compare the animals’ current and former ranges. It shows that the current range is much smaller than the former range. 

^{(RI.4.7 TEXT FEATURES)}

FEATURED SKILL: Write a Summary

Use the Skill Builder “Be a Summary Superstar” to have students evaluate a summary of the article using a checklist, then write their own summary