Light a Candle

This week Melissa is back reading "Light a Candle" by Godfrey Nkongolo and Eric Walters, illustrated by Eva Campbell and published by Orca Publishing. This online recording was made with permission through the Read Aloud Canadian Books program. "Light a Candle" is part of the Forest of Reading program and has been nominated for a Silver Birch Express Award. If you read this book be sure to fill out the tracking sheet for the Forest of Reading!

As always, once you have listened to the story there are some questions below to get you thinking about the story and a few activities that you can do at home. If you are interested in participating in the Forest of Reading; voting is still open, you can find recordings of all the Blue Spruce books here, when you are ready to vote fill out the tracking form here.

Thank your for participating! We would love to know what you think of this program as well as your suggestions for improving this program. If you have a few minutes to fill out a brief survey, your feedback would be greatly appreciated! To fill out the survey click here.

Enjoy the story and activities! Have a great week!

Questions

1. At the beginning of the story Ngama sees a car, this is unusual it his village. Do you think this suggests that this story takes place in the present or the past? Why do you think that?

2. Would you go with Ngama to climb the mountain? Why would you go?

3. What would you bring if you were to climb Mount Kilimanjaro? Remember that it is very hot at the bottom of the mountain but there is ice and snow at the top!

4. How do you think Ngama felt climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, even though he knew his father asked him to stay in the village?

5. Why was Ngama's father angry and proud that Ngama climbed the mountain?

Fun Activities:

1. Learn some Swahili: Learn some Swalhili words from this short video.

2. Check out Mount Kilimanjaro: Click here for to learn more on Mount Kilimanjaro, there are some great pictures of the mountain, which I learned is actually a inactive volcano!

3. Take a hike: With the help of an adult plan a hike, make sure you look at a map first so that you have a good idea of where you are going. Make a list of everything you will need for your hike and pack your stuff in a backpack. Pretend you are Ngama hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro.

4. Paint or draw a picture of Mount Kilimanjaro: After looking at some of the pictures of Mount Kilimanjaro on the website link above, create a picture of Mount Kilimanjaro, be sure to add Ngama and the men of his tribe hiking up to the top and the fire that they lit at the top of the mountain!