A Special Thank you to Mrs. Goldstein's Class at CP

A recent, hasty and quite productive book drive at CP and LB had some wonderful results (more on that in the next post). This movie is a special thank you to Mrs. Goldstein's class at CP who collected about 40 books for the children of Akony Avoko. They sent along a nice letter with some wonderful questions and this is a video response to that letter.

Note: 

Why didn't Victor mention lemurs? 

Well, for the same reason you wouldn't mention polar bears as an animal you see in America. Polar bears don't live in New Jersey, but there are some in America. Lemurs do live in Madagascar, but not where Victor and the other children of Akany Avoko live, so they don't see them unless they go to the zoo.

Madagascar Morning Meeting: Part Deux

Welcome back to the Madagascar Morning Meeting. We have a few hundred new visitors this time, because the wonderful students and teachers at CP are joining in this time too. Glad to have you all here. Follow along and have a good time. 

Greeting and Activity:

Normally, the greeting and the activity are two different things. But we will dare to combine the two and see what happens. Language is a tricky thing here. Very few people speak English. A lot of people speak French. Everyone speaks Malagasy. But they don't all speak the same Malagasy. There are over 20 different versions. Some are only a little different. Some are like a whole new language. All this means there are a heap of ways to say hello. 

Here are five different ways people say hello in Madagascar (not the only five, but five). Click on the movie below for help pronouncing these little mouthfuls:

Salama (sa-lam-a)

Bonjour (bon-jure)

Akory be (a-kor-a bay)

Tonga soa (toon-ga soo-a)

Salut (sa-loo)

And here's the game. Two versions actually.

K-2 Version: 

Play the telephone game using one of the five ways of saying hello. The teacher starts to make sure it pronounced correctly (or close to correctly). Pass it down the line and see what comes out the other end. Try again with a different way.

3-5 Version: 

If you are not in a circle, get yourselves in one and stand up. One person starts and turns to a neighbor and says hello in any of the above five ways. Easy so far. Now that neighbor has to turn to her neighbor and say hello in a different of the five ways. That's it. If you repeat the word the person just said to you. You are out. If you say hello in any way that is not one of the five ways, you are out. Keep playing until there is only one language lover left.

Sharing:

Well, the whole darn blog is about sharing, so scroll on down and have a look see. The last two posts have lots of cute animals, some furry, some not. There is even a little homemade movie of some fascinating lemurs. There's a post about food. One about skeletons. Oh, who am I kidding? You just want to see lemurs, so just go down a bit and enjoy. 

Goodbye:

Last time we learned how to say hello in Malagasy. This time we will learn goodbye. But why learn to speak Malagasy from some vazha (Malagasy for "white guy") when you could learn it from an actual Malagasy. Click on the video to get a short but proper language lesson from my friend Dr. John (just for the record, he is not an actual doctor, but it is a great nickname). 

Have a wonderful summer. I miss you all very much. The blog will be up and running all summer (your summer, our winter), so please check back in for life and lessons from Madagascar.

Take care and veloma.

The Free Lemur (Photos)

"Admit it. You want to pet me don't you?"

I'm a science teacher of my word, so here are your free lemur photos. 

I won't bore you too much with words this post. However, there is a brief but quite informative movie at the end you should most certainly watch. For now, here are some wonderful lemurs and just a few words to go with each. Enjoy.

Lemurs have territories and they don't always like to share those territories. This golden sifaka is wearing a very fashionable radio collar, so scientists can keep track of what territory he and his family are in.

You might like a tasty hamburger, but lemurs are vegetarians. And most of them love fruits most of all. This one is quite literally going out on a limb for some delicious juicy fruit.

And when the fruit is all gone, they simply leap from limb to limb until they find some more.

Look, Mom! That teddy bear's alive! 

This brown wooly lemur is a night owl. Well, not an actual owl, but you get the point.

Like most lemurs, the brown wooly lemurs live in a group. Their groups are small though: just mom, pop and the kids.

These indri lemurs are special for lots of reasons. For one thing, instead of long tails, they have stubby thumb-sized tails. For all the other things, play the movie at the bottom of the post.

"Wait! I think I hear humans." 

"Where are they?"

"Ah, ha! Found them."

"All their cameras and funny-colored button-up fur make me nervous. I'm out of here."

Click the play button to see and hear the indri lemurs in action. And free vanilla beans for life if you correctly pronounce the word that comes before Madagascar. Good luck with that.