My Heart of a Tiger is often used to inspire and encourage readers to follow their dreams, but Mars Centennial used it in their anti-bullying program. Perhaps other schools would be interested. Here's what was written in their newsletter:
Fifth-graders Meet Author Via Skype
Fifth-graders at Mars Area Centennial School had an opportunity to meet children’s book author Marsha Diana Arnold of California last week via Skype.
As part of the school’s “Planet Peace” anti-bullying program, the students read Arnold’s book, “Heart of a Tiger.” The book is about a cat named Four, who has to choose a name based on his own characteristics and personality.
“The kids pulled a lot from the story,” says Tammy Mitchell, fifth grade teacher. “Some of the responses from our discussion were, ‘Don’t try to be someone else, because you are great the way you are,’ and ‘You can’t judge someone on what they are on the outside; you have to look inside to get to know someone.’”
In their math classes, the students are counting the number of letters, vowels and consonants in their names and are collecting data and writing fractions identifying mean, median, mode and range. All of the information will be displayed on a graph in the classroom.
The students also participated in a “home project” to identify the meaning and origin of their names.
