３月６日（水曜日）２０２４
今年度最後の読み聞かせをうっかり忘れる寸前で思い出し胸を撫で下ろしました。
小３の子供達に選んだ本は「しっぽのはたらき」（福音館書店）。くもざる、にほんざる、いぬ、うし、リス、きつね、カンガルー、かなだやまあらし、とかげ、ガラガラヘビ、いるか、などのしっぽについて子どもたちと謎解きしながら読んでいく本で、大いに盛り上がりました。
読み終わって「皆んなにはしっぽがある？」と聞くと、「ない！」「昔はあった！」と色々な声。どうして今はないのかなとの問いにはしばし沈黙。実は事前に私も勉強しましたが、動物たちの絵もいいし楽しい本でした。
I almost forgot the last day that I was supposed to read a book for the third grader children at the local school but I was relieved because I remembered.
The book I chose was "Function of the tail" (published by Fukuinkan). They introduce the tails of spider monkey, Japanese monkey, squirrel, kangaroo, canadian porcupine, lizard, rattlesnake, dolphin, etc.while questioning about something of the next appeared animal. Children were excited answering the question.
After the reading, I asked the children if they had tails. They responded quickly " No!", others said "we used to have one". Then I asked why they didn't have tails now. This time, they took some time to think. I checked about the book beforehand but I enjoyed the reading very much. The drawings of the animals in the book were very good and it was a fun and nice book.
