Monsoon (India)

In second grade, we read a book called Monsoon by Uma Krishnaswami.  The setting was in northern India, and everyone is waiting and wondering if the monsoon rains will come soon. Everything is dry and dusty, although everyone is hoping for some long awaited rain, they worry too that the area might flood.

We learned some Hindi words from the book's glossary, for instance that a koel is a songbird that is noisiest just before the rains.  We also learned about Ganesh, who is the elephant-headed Hindu god of beginnings.  We were lucky to have two students whose families are from India, and they were able to share about their experiences there including what the weather was like, what type of clothing people wore, and some animals that were commonly seen.  

We noticed that there were differences in the climate and the busy city setting we read about in the story from where we live, but we also realized that children do a lot of the same activities such as playing hopscotch, reading, and folding paper to make boats.