Marti the Hammerhead Shark: Guided Reading Sessions for Teachers, Parents and Carers
Storytelling is a fantastic way to engage people of all ages in science and conservation and can inspire them to be more environmentally conscious. That’s why Galapagos Conservation Trust is launching a free six-part guided reading session for teachers, parents and carers based on Marti the Hammerhead Shark: A Galapagos Journey.
Our Education Officer, Sarah, who is also an experienced teacher, has developed this fantastic set of reading materials. The downloadable pack will give you all the resources you need to teach, inspire and discuss Marti’s story with children. Guided reading forms an important part of Literacy teaching and learning in schools, and with these comprehensive resources, it can be replicated easily at home. Together you can learn about the animals that call the waters around Galapagos home as well as the conservation threats that these species face. You don’t need any previous knowledge to help your child as you will be able to learn along with them through these fun and engaging sessions.
Here are a few tips on what guided reading sessions are and who these resources are aimed at:
The sessions are aimed at parents, carers and teachers. The book is designed for readers aged between 7-11 years with some guidance where necessary.
There are six sessions with resource materials provided. You could do one session a day, one session a week or at any pace that suits you and your child.
There is no time limit on completing the sessions. We would recommend you give yourself 15 minutes to prepare beforehand by reading the notes provided and then 45 minutes to an hour to complete the activities with your child.
You can buy a paper copy of the book on our shop here, or it is available in a digital format to download below. There is also a separate presentation of the book being read aloud by our Education Officer, Sarah.
Each session pack contains session notes for you to follow. These highlight the session focus, key vocabulary and also new species found on each page. Each session is split into a pre-read/warm-up, guided/independent read of some of the book and a post-read review, with a few fun extras including games and drawing sheets!
We would love for you and your child to complete a short 3-minute questionnaire before you start, and once you’ve finished all the guided reading sessions. If you have any drawings of pictures that you would like to share with us, please email them to us with any feedback, ideas, questions that you may have to projects@gct.org. Your feedback is important to us so please send any reviews, ideas or questions to projects@gct.org.
We also have a pack in Spanish for use in Galapagos, Ecuador and South America. Or you can use this as a fun way to practice Spanish! Click here to find it on our Descubriendo Galapagos site.
