We are reading stories over the next several weeks about what makes people, nature, and animals unique. The students love using this new vocabulary word, which means different and special! Last week we read a wonderful biography about James Naismith, the man who invented basketball. (He was also a lumberjack, preacher, medical doctor, teacher, and sports enthusiast.) Did you know that basketball began with a soccer ball and peach baskets in a YMCA gym full of bored, rowdy boys? The boys were reluctant to try the new game, but became excited about it as soon as they started playing! The students found a lot of cause and effect relationships in Dr. Naismith's life and we had some very lively class discussions about what might have been different if he hadn't had certain experiences in his life early on. Would he have invented a game if he hadn't had to work hard or make his own ice skates? Would he have wanted to study philosophy and become a preacher who worked with boys at the YMCA, if he hadn't lost his family members to disease as a child? Would he have become involved with sports at all if his friends hadn't dragged him along to play football? Click on the picture above to learn a few more facts about James Naismith from a company that sold his original rules at an auction for over 2 million dollars!
