The Story of Ferdinand - International Literature

The Story of Ferdinand is written by Munro Leaf and illustrated by Robert Lawson. It is a the story of a bull who loves to sit and smell the flowers instead of fighting with other bulls even though he is very large and fierce looking. One day, a group of men show up to find a bull to fight in the stadium in Madrid, Spain. All of the bulls were fighting except for Ferdinand. He went to sit under his tree and smell the flowers when he sat on a bee which stung him. He jumped up and snorted, butted, and pawed the ground. The men thought he was the fiercest bull and took him to the stadium in Madrid. When Ferdinand walked into the arena, people threw flowers into the ring and he saw women with flowers in their hair, so he sat down to smell his flowers. The matador was very angry and made them take Ferdinand back home where he sat under his favorite tree and smelled the flowers.

I would use this in the classroom to teach that everyone has differences. All the other bulls wanted to mean and fierce, but Ferdinand knew that is not how he wanted to be so he did not act that way. I would have the students write about something that makes them unique and share it with the class. I had have all the students embrace the fact that no two people are the same. They can discuss their similarities and differences which helps build a strong classroom environment. They can create a Wordle with the words used in this discussion.