La Giraffe and a Paris Menagerie

We read a marvelous story about a giraffe this week.  The best thing about it was the fact that it is a TRUE story!
The book, The Giraffe that Walked to Paris, details the story of the giraffe given to Charles I by the Pasha of Egypt in 1826.  The French ambassador to Egypt suggested the French king might forgive a quarrel the two leaders were having if the Pasha gave him a gift.
The Pasha decided upon his giraffe because the French people had never seen one.
The giraffe sailed across the Mediterranean Sea aboard a ship.  They took three cows along, because the baby giraffe needed THREE pails of milk a day.  This baby giraffe was 11 feet tall!  The journey over water went well, only one cow got seasick.
The ship landed in Marseille.  There was one problem-the King was in Paris!!  The two cities are on the opposite ends of France.  It was decided that the giraffe would stay in the warm weather of Marseille for the winter.  The king was very unhappy.  When spring came he sent for his present.  But they didn't exactly know HOW to get the giraffe to Paris.  Finally, they decided she would walk.
People in France flocked to see La Giraffe!  She was very popular.  Her picture was everywhere-on clothes, dishes, store signs, windows.  Women even styled their hair in her honor (very high.)
The king grew even sadder that everyone saw HIS present before he did.
Finally, the king met the giraffe and was astounded!   He declared her the queen of the animals.
La Giraffe lived in the Paris zoo for the rest of her life.
In honor of La Giraffe, we spent the remainder of our class building a zoo.
We figured out what animals could be displayed together and built them enclosures.  Our zoo was absolutely fantastic.  We had an aquarium that Josh made.  Not to brag, but this aquarium had WHALES!!!   Julian spent his time gathering dinosaurs for his exhibit(yes, our zoo had dinosaurs).  Lily and Eden worked on a fantastical exhibit of unicorns and other horses.
Tayler designed an incredible giraffe enclosure.  She later kicked out the giraffes and let the gorillas move in.  (The giraffes moved to a smaller enclosure next door.) Naomi created the perfect enclosure for her cow and lizard.  They now live in perfect harmony.  Parley built an amphibian/reptile house.  All his creatures looked very content.  Vivian and Damsel spent their time building multiple cute animal enclosures.  There was even a pig with all her piglets.
These creative kiddos did great things.  I loved how they immediately started separating the animals into groups.  Lily made a huge cat family.  The horses found each other.  All the sea animals migrated together.  Our zoo was a smash.  At the end of class, we even found a LIVE caged animal.  We eventually let her go to lunch.
Next week, we will talk about Egypt and make a mummy.

Sent from my iPhone