The Animals Speak: The Lakota Way (Wamákashkaŋ’iya: Lakhól Wichóh’aŋ Kiŋ)

by S. D. Nelson (with Lakota translation by Dakota Goodhouse)

In this bilingual English–Lakota picture book, S. D. Nelson explores what animals can teach people about living thoughtfully and relating to the natural world through the Lakota Way. Nelson’s illustrations and the Lakota translation by Dakota Goodhouse invite readers to consider animal wisdom while recognizing the importance of language, community, and cultural perspective.

Big Idea

Careful attention to animals can inspire reflection on how we treat one another and the natural world. The book presents a specifically Lakota perspective, not a single set of beliefs shared by all Indigenous peoples.

Discussion Questions

1.Choose an animal from the book. What do its actions, its picture, and the accompanying words help you understand?
2.What does the book suggest about how people and animals are connected? Which page supports your thinking?
3.Which teaching in the book could help our classroom community? What might practicing it look like?
4.What do you notice about seeing English and Lakota together? Why might it matter for readers to encounter both languages?
5.Where did you want to stop and look longer? How did that pause help you notice something new?

Lesson Plan

⏱ 45 minutes: introduction, 5 minutes; read-aloud, 12 minutes; passage discussion, 8 minutes; creating, 13 minutes; sharing and reflection, 7 minutes.📦 A copy of the book, drawing paper, pencils, crayons or markers, chart paper, and an optional document camera; optional Lakota pronunciation audio from the publisher or a trusted Lakota language source.

Learning Goals

Use words and illustration details from a selected passage to explain an animal-related teaching.
Recognize that the book presents a Lakota cultural perspective and includes English and Lakota.
Create a drawing and a dictated or written response connecting reading to a thoughtful action.
Use a purposeful pause during oral sharing to give listeners time to consider an idea.

Activity Steps

1.Introduce the book and credit S. D. Nelson and translator Dakota Goodhouse. Locate Lakota and English on a spread, explaining that Lakota is a living language used by people today.
2.Read the book aloud, pausing to examine illustrations. Use a reliable, speaker-supported pronunciation resource if reading Lakota aloud; do not ask children to guess pronunciations.
3.Revisit two or three animal passages. Chart the animal, an observable detail, and a teaching supported by the text, distinguishing the book’s message from students’ additional ideas.
4.Have each child choose a passage and fold a sheet into two panels. In the first, draw the animal and write or dictate: 'In this book, the ___ helps me think about ___.'
5.In the second panel, draw a related classroom action and complete: 'I can practice this by ___.' Support younger children with dictation and invite older children to add a supporting detail from the book.
6.Partner-share the panels, pausing between them. Close by discussing how a pause changes listening and how children’s responses connect to, but do not replace, the book’s Lakota perspective.

Standards Connections

ELA: CCSS RL.K.1, RL.1.1, RL.2.1, or RL.3.1 — Ask and answer questions about a literary text, using developmentally appropriate textual support.
ELA: CCSS RL.K.7, RL.1.7, RL.2.7, or RL.3.7 — Explore how illustrations contribute to understanding a text.
ELA: CCSS SL.K.1–SL.3.1 — Participate in collaborative conversations with peers and adults.
SEL: Social awareness and relationship skills — Consider others’ perspectives and identify caring actions.
Visual Arts: Creating and responding — Communicate an idea through images and discuss how illustrations convey meaning.

Pace-Write-Read Study with Pace-Write It!

The Animals Speak offers a way to study pacing beyond a fast-moving adventure plot. Its animal-centered reflections, illustrations, and English–Lakota presentation invite readers to attend, consider, and connect. During a read-aloud, ask children to notice when their eyes move toward an illustration, when a thought needs more time, and when a page turn invites another discovery. The craft lesson is that writers and illustrators can make room for thinking rather than filling every moment with action. Use a Pace-Write-Read cycle: notice how a selected spread directs attention, create a short response with an intentional pause, and read it aloud to test its effect. Examine the actual pages before naming devices such as repetition, dialogue, or groups of three; these are investigation prompts, not claims that every device appears. Keep cultural learning anchored in Nelson’s presentation and credit Goodhouse’s translation. Children can experiment with pacing in their own writing without inventing Lakota teachings, imitating ceremonial speech, or treating the two languages as interchangeable decorations.

Element	How to notice or teach it in the novel
1. Pacing	Read one animal passage, then allow silent illustration-viewing time before turning the page. Ask how the experience changes when the same passage is read quickly instead.
2. Plot	Map what the book actually develops: animal encounters, teachings, or a sequence of reflections. Do not force its organization into a problem-and-solution plot if that structure is not present.
3. Prosody	Model phrasing and gentle emphasis when reading the English text so that an important idea has time to register. Use speaker-supported audio for Lakota pronunciation and phrasing rather than inferring them from English.
4. Word	Select a meaningful English word from an animal passage and discuss how it shapes the teaching. Notice the presence of Lakota without assuming that individual words align one-to-one across the translations.
5. Concept	Help children distinguish an animal’s observable behavior from the broader idea the book connects to it. Ask them to explain that connection using both words and pictures.
6. Voice & Worldview	Discuss how Nelson’s presentation invites readers to consider animals as sources of wisdom and relationship. Identify this as a Lakota perspective presented by this book, not a universal Indigenous worldview.
7. Point of View	Inspect a selected passage to determine who is speaking and who is being addressed. Separate what the narrator says, what the illustration suggests, and what the reader imagines.
8. Setting & Place	Look for landscape and habitat details around the animals. Discuss how those details situate the animals’ lives, naming particular locations only when the book identifies them.
9. Original Characters	Choose an animal presence in the book and identify what makes its portrayal distinctive. Explain that an animal can carry meaning in a picture book without having a name or a conventional character arc.
10. Dialogue	Use the title to ask what it might mean for animals to 'speak.' Check whether a selected passage contains literal dialogue, narration, or a figurative message before discussing how its voice works.
11. Details	Ask children to find a small visual or verbal detail that deepens an animal passage. Give them quiet looking time before collecting answers.
12. Descriptions	Compare what the words describe with what the illustration shows. In their own responses, children can choose one precise detail rather than adding many general adjectives.
13. Firsts	Study the first animal presentation: what does it teach readers to notice or expect? Have children plan an opening panel that likewise establishes a clear focus.
14. Immediacy & Engagement	Project a spread and invite children to identify what catches their attention first. Discuss how an animal image or a meaningful phrase can engage readers without rapid action.
15. Story Scenes, Summaries & Structures	Notice whether a passage presents a particular moment or a broader reflection about an animal. Chart the book’s actual sequence and discuss how that structure supports its teachings.
16. Tension / Suspense / Surprise	Ask whether curiosity about an animal’s teaching supplies the desire to keep reading. Distinguish this quiet anticipation from danger-based suspense.
17. Flashback, Flash-Forward, Cliffhanger	Check for these devices rather than assuming they occur. If they are absent, explain that a reflective picture book can sustain attention through new ideas and images instead.
18. Page Turns and Chapter Breaks	Study page turns rather than imposing chapter divisions. Pause before a turn and ask what readers expect to discover next, then compare that expectation with the next spread.
19. Pace & Creativity	Invite children to test different pause lengths while sharing an animal-and-action response. Discuss which version gives listeners enough time to imagine and reflect.
20. Play	Let children play with the sequence of their own observation and action panels. Keep experimentation focused on composing, not on pretending to perform Lakota traditions.
21. Performance	Practice reading a selected English passage with clear phrasing and a thoughtful pause. Avoid invented 'Indigenous' voices, accents, or theatrical ceremonial gestures.
22. Personality	Ask which qualities an animal’s portrayal brings to mind and what evidence supports those impressions. Distinguish the book’s characterization from assumptions about all members of that species.
23. Humor	Invite children to notice any genuinely playful or amusing detail without requiring the book to be funny. Discuss how warmth can engage a reader while preserving respect for the teaching.
24. Pause	After an animal’s teaching, leave a few seconds of silence for looking and thinking. Children can mark a pause on their own writing with a slash or a small stop symbol.
25. Poetry / Poetic Devices	Listen for imagery, sound patterns, or figurative language in a selected passage and name only devices actually present. Discuss how the idea of animals speaking can invite readers to listen beyond ordinary conversation.
26. Repetition	Search for repeated words, sentence patterns, or visual arrangements across animal passages. If a pattern appears, consider how it helps readers anticipate another idea.
27. Rhythm	Read a short English passage aloud and listen for its natural phrase groups. Explain that Lakota has its own rhythms, which should be explored with a knowledgeable speaker or reliable recording.
28. Punctuation	Examine how punctuation in the English text guides breath and meaning. Explain that marks within Lakota words are part of its writing system and should not automatically be treated as English pause signals.
29. Questions	Turn a teaching into an inquiry, such as 'What could this help us notice in our classroom?' Distinguish teacher-created questions from questions printed in the book.
30. Compare-Contrast	Compare two animal passages using their images, teachings, and presentation. Notice how the two languages share page space without evaluating one as more important or assuming word-for-word equivalence.
31. Objects	Look for a physical feature of an animal’s surroundings that helps readers understand its life. Ask what that detail contributes without assigning cultural symbolism unsupported by the text.
32. Threes	Investigate whether a selected passage or image contains a meaningful group of three. If none appears, let children try three concrete details in their own response without claiming this is the book’s pattern.
33. Lists	Make a class list of animals and text-supported teachings after reading. Discuss how a list helps recall information but creates a different reading experience from the illustrated spreads.
34. White Space & Negative Space	Examine any open areas around text or animal forms, including areas of color rather than literal white. Ask whether those spaces encourage readers to rest their eyes or focus attention.
35. Art & Graphics	Study how Nelson’s color, shape, scale, and composition influence attention on a chosen spread. Invite children to explain how an illustration contributes meaning beyond identifying the animal.
36. Interactives & Gamification	Use a cooperative 'notice, support, connect' routine: notice a detail, support an interpretation, and connect it to an action. This is a classroom extension, not a claim that the book contains game features.
37. Placement	Trace where readers look first, second, and third on a bilingual spread. Discuss how the placement of images and both languages shapes movement through the page.
38. Form	Explore how the bilingual picture-book form combines visual storytelling, language, and reflection. Ask what would be lost if readers encountered only a list of the teachings.
39. Dummy	Show how a folded-paper book dummy lets a writer plan images, text, and page turns. Children can place an animal observation before a turn and their personal application after it.
40. Passion	Ask what the book encourages readers to care about and which details support that interpretation. Invite children to write about an animal or caring action that matters to them while clearly labeling their work as a personal response.

Pace-Write It!

20-minute Pace-Write-It! task: 'Notice, Turn, Act.' Minutes 0–4: Revisit one animal passage from The Animals Speak, identifying its animal, a supporting illustration detail, and the teaching presented in the text. Read the English passage with and without a reflective pause, and ask what changes. Minutes 4–6: Model a four-page folded-paper response: page 1, an animal drawing; page 2, 'In this book, this animal helps me think about ___'; page 3, a drawing of a related classroom action; page 4, 'I can ___.' Explain that the turn between pages 2 and 3 gives the reader time to move from reflection to application. Minutes 6–13: Children create their booklets using writing, drawing, or dictation; older students add a specific supporting detail. Minutes 13–18: Partners read or tell their booklets twice, testing a brief pause and a longer pause at the central turn. Minutes 18–20: Invite two children to explain which pause worked better and why. Close by naming the distinction between the book’s Lakota teachings and students’ personal applications; do not ask children to invent Lakota translations or teachings.

Classroom Activities

Animal Wisdom, Thoughtful Actions

Children create a two-panel response to an animal passage from the book. The first panel shows an animal and a teaching supported by that passage; the second shows a practical classroom action the child connects to the teaching. Children then practice reading or telling their response with a deliberate pause between observing and applying. Present these as students’ responses to Nelson’s book—not as new Lakota teachings.

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