Author: Jeanette Winter
Grade Level: 2
Resource: Information about Wangari's life
Summary:
Wangari’s Trees of Peace is a story about a woman who
returns back to her home in Kenya to find that deforestation has devastated the
land. She plants some trees herself, and then tells the other women in the
village to start to do the same. She asks them to spread the word to other
women to start planting trees. She starts providing women with money and
information about planting trees. When the women in other villages see that
Wangari’s village is growing trees successfully, they begin to plant trees too.
Wangari stands up to the men cutting down the trees and is put in jail. She
briefly worries that her work will stop, but she is not alone because there are
so many women planting trees.
This book jumped out at me while I was reflecting on element
5: raising awareness because of the way that Wangari empowers the women around
her to do something about their situation. The women had to collect firewood
from miles away and their land was barren. Wangari’s idea was simple and the
women embraced it. The way that word spread teaches children that an idea can
motivate change. This book teaches students that a lot of little things can
result in big change.
I would incorporate this book into my lessons about earth
day and reflect on the ways that we can make changes to improve our world. I
could also use it to facilitate an activity in which we grow seeds and then plant
them in the ground.
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