Sunday, January 3, 2016

Black History Month Books for Kids

The following are some books for Black History Month and anytime! Some describe our different histories while others show the joys and challenges that are shared by children of all colors as they learn and grow.

The Quilt By: Ann Jonas
Illustrated by: Ann Jonas
Age Level: 0-3
Reading Level: Pre-Reader
Publishers Weekly called this delightful book a “landmark in children’s literature.” Made from her old pajamas and curtains, a young girl’s new quilt inspires a dream adventure. The squares of the quilt become part of a dreamscape she enters into in order to find her lost stuffed dog. An ALA Notable Children’s Book.

My Daddy and I By: Eloise Greenfield, Jan Spivey Gilchrest
Illustrated by: Jan Spivey Gilchrest, Eloise Greenfield
Age Level: 0-3
Reading Level: Pre-Reader
A boy and his father, shown as African Americans in warmly hued illustrations, enjoy doing

doing everyday activities together, from laundry to sharing a book and more. The simple pleasures of family life are conveyed affectionately through easy but flowing language and realistic paintings in a sturdy format.

Bright Eyes, Brown Skin By: Cheryl Hudson, Bernette Ford, George Cephas Ford
Illustrated by: George Cephas Ford
Age Level: 3-6
Reading Level: Pre-Reader
Four African American children interact with one another in a preschool environment, exploring their facial features, skin tones, what they wear, what they do, and how they learn from and enjoy each other. A happy book and nice addition to preschool and kindergarten classrooms.

A Chair for My Mother By: Vera Williams
Age Level: 3-6
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
After a fire destroys their home and possessions, Rosa, her mother, and her grandmother save their money to buy a big comfortable chair. Suffused with warmth and tenderness, A Chair for My Mother celebrates family love and determination. A Caldecott Honor book. Spanish version also available.

Amazing Grace By: Mary Hoffman, Caroline Binch
Illustrated by: Caroline Binch
Age Level: 3-6
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
Grace loves to act, but one day some kids tell her she can’t play the part of Peter Pan because of the way she looks. Grace’s grandmother helps this young girl realize that with effort anything can be achieved. An inspiring and heartwarming story.

Anansi the Spider: A Tale From the Ashanti By: Gerald McDermott
Illustrated by: Gerald McDermott
Age Level: 3-6
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
Have you ever wondered how the moon got where it is? According to this Ashanti tale, Nyame, the god of all things, put it there when Anansi could not decide which of his sons deserved it. Brilliant illustrations accompany this classic retelling of a traditional tale.

Bigmama’s By: Donald Crews
Illustrated by: Donald Crews
Age Level: 3-6
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
Every year the narrator and his family take a trip down to Cottondale, Florida, to visit his grandmother, Bigmama. This autobiographical story recalls the joys of summer and the contrast between the author’s life in the city and Bigmama’s lush, rural home. While the illustrations suggest it was a period of segregation, this thought never overpowers the carefree summer celebration.

Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales By: Julius Lester
Illustrated by: Jerry Pinkney
Age Level: 3-6
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
One of the most well-known of African American folktales is the Uncle Remus tales, originally written down by Joel Chandler Harris over a hundred years ago. This four-book series drops the heavy and difficult dialect of the original tales and adds contemporary language and references to Brer Rabbit’s fun.

Nina Bonita By: Ana Machado, Rosana Faria
Illustrated by: Rosana Faria
Age Level: 3-6
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
This delightful book is set on a Caribbean island and features a little white rabbit who admires a beautiful black girl. He asks her what her secret is and she tells him to drink lots of black coffee and to eat lots of black beans. He doesn’t give up though and in the end finds what change he can make.

Something Beautiful By: Sharon Wyeth, Chris K. Soentpiet
Illustrated by: Chris K. Soentpiet
Age Level: 3-6
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
A young girl learns to find beauty in her sometimes gritty urban neighborhood, showing how the way one sees makes a difference that affects others. Luminous watercolors detail the child, her neighborhood, and suggest what she sees around her.

Bill Pickett: Rodeo-Ridin Cowboy By: Andrea Pinkney, Brian Pinkney, Brian Pinkney
Illustrated by: Brian Pinkney
Age Level: 6-9
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
The most celebrated black cowboy was Bill Pickett, a fearless rodeo star with a knack for taming bulls that brought the crowds to their feet. The closing note in this book provides an overview of the history of rodeos and black cowboys.

Drylongso By: Virginia Hamilton
Illustrated by: Jerry Pinkney
Age Level: 6-9
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
Newbery Award winner Virginia Hamilton describes how Lindy and her family suffer through a long drought. Then a mysterious boy comes and teaches them the secrets of finding water hidden in the earth.

Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. By: Doreen Rappaport
Illustrated by: Bryan Collier
Age Level: 6-9
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
Martin Luther King Jr. grew up fascinated by big words. He would later go on to use these words to inspire a nation and call people to action. In this award-winning book, powerful portraits of King show how he used words, not weapons, to fight injustice.

Stories Huey Tells By: Ann Cameron, Roberta Smith
Illustrated by: Roberta Smith
Age Level: 6-9
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
These five short and funny stories show the mischief that Huey gets into in daily adventures with his annoying older brother Julian. The stories are filled with fun and warmth.

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt By: Deborah Hopkinson, James Ransome
Illustrated by: James Ransome
Age Level: 6-9
Reading Level: Independent Reader
Clara is born into slavery but learns an important skill when she becomes a seamstress. Her quilting ability allows Clara to put together directions to escape north to freedom when she overhears a conversation about a route to Canada.

The Dream Keeper and Other Poems By: Langston Hughes, Brian Pinkney, Brian Pinkney
Illustrated by: Brian Pinkney
Age Level: 6-9
Reading Level: Independent Reader
The great American poet Langston Hughes chose the poems in this classic collection, originally published for young people in 1932.

I Am Rosa Parks By: Rosa Parks, James Haskins
Illustrated by: Wil Clay
Age Level: 6-9
Reading Level: Independent Reader
The famous civil rights activist Rosa Parks has simplified her autobiography for young readers in this Puffin Easy to Read book. She describes how she was arrested for not giving up her bus seat and shows that her personal role was part of a wider political struggle.

The Gold Cadillac By: Mildred Taylor, Michael Hays
Illustrated by: Michael Hays
Age Level: 9-12
Reading Level: Independent Reader
Set in the 1950s, this book by Mildred Taylor is frank in its portrayal of racism. Lois and Wilma are proud when their father buys a brand new gold Cadillac. Only their mother won’t ride in it. On a trip from their home in Ohio to Mississippi, there are no admiring glances only suspicion directed toward the black man driving such a fancy car. For the first time, Lois knows what it’s like to feel scared because of her skin color.

Through My Eyes By: Ruby Bridges
Age Level: 9-12
Reading Level: Independent Reader
Six-year-old Ruby Bridges became the first African American to integrate an elementary school. Her memories of that year, when so much hatred was directed at her, makes for a powerful memoir. A 1999 Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner.

Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/parents/adventures-in-learning/2015/01/black-history-month-books-kids/

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Oriental Trading

Grab those popsicle craft sticks and get ready to make some adorable Halloween characters for everyone's favorite Fall holiday! Create a few fun Halloween characters from Oriental Trading's craft sticks. This is an easy craft, suitable for kids of most ages. Using craft sticks, craft foam, googly eyes and sharpies, you will be able to make a witch, frankenstein, pumpkin, monster and black cat. Get ready to make Halloween memories at home with creative costumes, playful twists and activities galore for all ages. Shop now!

Spring is a season. There are four seasons in a year, spring, summer, autumn and winter. Each season is marked by different weather and hours of daylight.

We have seasons because the earth takes a year to move round the sun, which gives us light and warmth, and because the earth tilts at an angle of 23.5 degrees. In winter we tilt away from the sun and in the summer we tilt further towards the sun. However, on the first day of spring the sun shines equally on both the north and south hemispheres of the Earth. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Spring/WhatIsSpring.aspx?age=ks2

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday in the United States. In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November. https://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving

Happy Halloween

Halloween is the one of the oldest holidays still celebrated today. It's one of the most popular holidays, second only to Christmas. WHICH I LOVE! While millions of people celebrate Halloween without knowing its origins and myths, the history and facts of Halloween make the holiday more fascinating. Some people view Halloween as a time for fun, putting on costumes, trick-or-treating, and having theme parties. THIS IS THE WAY I CHOOSE TO VIEW HALLOWEEN. Others view it as a time of superstitions, ghosts, goblins and evil spirits that should be avoided at all costs. As the Christian debate goes on, celebrating Halloween is a preference that is not always viewed as participating in an evil holiday. Halloween is often celebrated with no reference to pagan rituals or the occult. THIS CAN EASILY BE DONE!!! https://www.halloween-website.com/history.htm

Each year, on the first Monday in September, Americans observe a national holiday called Labor Day. Canadians celebrate the holiday on the same day, although the spelling is slightly different, and known as Labour Day. For some, the Labor Day holiday is a long weekend that marks the end of summer, with backyard barbecues, a final summer getaway, or shopping. Federal, state, and local governments close their offices. Banks and post offices also shut down for the day. However, the foundation for observing Labor Day is to pay tribute to working men and women in the U.S. and Canada.

Happy Fall

The season of autumn is largely associated with harvest time. Various harvest festivals are celebrated during fall. One of these is the Thanksgiving holiday that is widely celebrated in the United States and Canada. The Jewish Sukkot holiday is also celebrated during autumn. Moreover, Chinese people celebrate the lunar Mid-autumn Festival. Some common autumn harvests are pumpkin, apple, and corn. Other autumn holidays include Labor Day, Remembrance Day, Veterans Day, Columbus Day, Halloween, and Patriot Day. https://kidskonnect.com/holidays-seasons/autumn/

Why does the date of Easter change each year?

In Western Christianity, Easter Sunday must always fall on the next full moon after Spring Equinox. Easter can fall as early as March and as late as April or May, depending on the year and calendar used. Christians in the east who use the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar may have a different date. The date of Easter changes because the full moon can fall on different days in different time zones. The Sun

The first Saint Patrick's Day parade (March 17, 1762, was held in New York City before the American colonies declared their independence from England and established themselves as the United States. Historically, St. Patrick's Day was only celebrated by the Irish. Now it is celebrated worldwide - celebrating Irish culture with parades, dancing, special foods and a whole lot of green.

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner, so I thought I'd give you a couple of suggestions for St. Patrick's Day activities.

Historically St. Patrick's Day was only celebrated by the Irish. Now it is celebrated worldwide - celebrating Irish culture with parades, dancing, special foods and a whole lot of green.

Activities:
1. Go outside and search for a shamrock.
2. Sing or listen to an Irish tune - When Irish Eyes Are Smiling or Danny Boy
4. See how many words you can create from Irish words; example, leprechaun.
5. Interview someone who is Irish.
6. Write a story about a leprechaun.

Looking for a leprechaun this St. Patrick's Day? Build the anticipation of the hunt by singing the song below. As you sing, be sure to keep your eyes open for those little green fellows.
(sung to the tune of "Mary Had A Little Lamb")
I'm looking for a leprechaun,
Leprechaun, leprechaun.
I'm looking for a leprechaun.
Do you know where he's gone?
He wears a suit that's made of green.
Made of green, made of green.
He wears a suit that's made of green.
Do you know where he's gone?
If you see a leprechaun,
Leprechaun, leprechaun;
If you see a leprechaun,
Please tell me where he's gone!
Collected from varies websites

Valentine's Day Facts

St. Valentine's Day falls on February 14th of each year. Although the name is Saint Valentine's Day, most people refer to the day as Valentine's Day. It was originally a day to celebrate Saint Valentinus, who performed weddings for soldiers who were not allowed to marry. He was imprisoned for this, as well as for ministering to Christians. Saint Valentinus wrote a letter to the daughter of his jailer before he was executed. His letter was signed ‘From your Valentine'. He was buried on February 14th. Valentine's Day was not associated with romantic love until the middle ages. After St. Valentine was buried, Julia, the daughter of his jailor, planted an almond tree with pink blossoms near his grave. The almond tree today is a symbol of lasting friendship and love.

In 1537, King Henry the Eighth declared that February 14th was a holiday. King Henry the Eighth had most of his wives executed because they did not give birth to a son. By the 1700s in England it began to resemble the Valentine's Day we know today. At this time lovers began to express their love with gifts of flowers, candy and cards, which were called 'valentines'.

Interesting Valentine's Day Facts

The first Valentine`s Day candy box was invented by Richard Cadbury in the late 19th century.

On Valentine`s Day every year, there are at least 36 million heart shape boxes of chocolates sold.

There are enough candy hearts made each year to stretch from Valentine, Arizona to Rome, Italy, and back again. The number of these candy hearts produced is approximately 8 billion.

There are approximately 50 million roses given on Valentine`s Day around the world.

There are approximately 1 billion Valentine`s Day cards exchanged every year in the U.S. alone. Valentine`s Day is the second most popular day of the year for sending cards, second only to Christmas.

Cupid is the son of Venus. Venus was the god of beauty and love.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day in the United States is traditionally a holiday to give thanks for the food collected at the end of the harvest season.

George Washington, the first president of the United States, proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day in 1789. Thanksgiving Day has been an annual holiday in the United States since 1863. Thanksgiving is observed on the fourth Thursday in November.

Activity:
Thanksgiving Dinner Grades 4
A great lesson to apply real-world math skills and Thanksgiving. A lesson you can do with your students is gather food ads from the local grocery store chains around Thanksgiving. First, you can give them a budget and a set number of guests and have them plan a meal. This uses many math skills (especially multiplication, where the prices of turkey are given in per lb.). Also, you can have them compare the meals in two different grocery stores. This is truly real world connections.

The first day of school for many school districts is on the day after Labor Day (first Monday in September) and other of us, mid to late August. Every year students start school and every year parents wonder what to do. Whether it’s your child’s first day at preschool or the start of fifth grade, there are always new challenges. Children as well as parents, often struggle with saying goodbye at the classroom door and hello to the start of a new year. If so, try reading books about starting school like “I Am Absolutely Too Small for School” by Lauren Child and others.

Fireworks Family Activity

Fireworks Family Activities Improve Learning Skills
Go to the fireworks and while you are watching them, be extra observant. Count how may blue, green, red, white, and multi-colored fireworks there are. You can even make a chart for this. Decide which colors were your favorite ones. Was there a style that you liked better than another? This will help you with your observation skills.

You can also look at the different kinds of people that come to view the fireworks. How many little children? How many do you think were school-age? How many teens? How many adults? How many people were dressed in red, white, and blue?Bonnie Terry

On July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers, a Sunday sermon in memory of the 362 men who had died in the previous December’s explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah, but it was a one-time commemoration and not an annual holiday. The next year, a Spokane, Washington, woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents. She went to local churches, the YMCA, shopkeepers and government officials to drum up support for her idea, and she was successful: Washington State celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. Slowly, the holiday spread. In 1916, President Wilson honored the day by using telegraph signals to unfurl a flag in Spokane when he pressed a button in Washington, D.C. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge urged state governments to observe Father’s Day. Today, the day honoring fathers is celebrated in the United States on the third Sunday of June.

Memorial Day Facts

Memorial Day is a patriotic holiday in the United States. It is celebrated on the last Monday in May each year. It began as a day to honor the men and women who died in the Civil War. On Memorial Day we honor all the men and women who have died in all the wars fought by the United States. Memorial Day is celebrated in many ways. Many businesses, schools, and banks close in honor of the holiday. Often, families go to the cemetery to add flags to the grave sites of war veterans. Parades and picnics are other ways this holiday is celebrated.

Vocabulary
remembrance, admiration, appreciation, battlefield, bereaved, bravery, commemorate, commemoration, cortege, courage,
decoration, defense, democracy, devotion, duty, embrace, emotional, empathize, freedom, gratitude, grave, grieve, hero, heroism, history, invocation, legacy, legendary, liberation, liberty, life, march, memorial, meritorious, military, observance, parade, patriot, patriotic, patriotism, patriotism, pride, reflective, respect, sacrifice, salute, servicemen, solemn, sorrow, support, Taps, tribute, uniform, unify, union, unite, valiant, veteran, waving
Book List
Frost, Helen. Memorial Day (National Holidays). Pebble Books, 2000.
Osborne, Mary Pope. Civil War on Sunday. Random House Books for Young Readers, 2000.
Sorensen Lynda. Memorial Day (Holidays). The Rourke Book Co., Inc. 1994.

Memorial Day Sites
http://www.usis.usemb.se/Holidays/celebrate/memorial.html
Read about how this holiday was created to honor soldiers who fought for freedom for the United States.
http://www.schoolexpress.com/
Click on Social Studies, then Holidays, to find great printable worksheets and color pages about Memorial Day.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/1465/memorial.html
This site has great pictures of the military and the Memorial Day celebration.
http://userpages.aug.com/haywire/memday.html
Learn about the origins of Memorial Day and view a picture of the “Unknown Soldier.” This site also contains information about the American Flag.

Maypole dance, with origins in the 18th Century, began as a traditional or artistic dance popular in Italy and France. Eventually, traveling dancing troupes performed it in London theaters, thus bringing this traditional dance to larger audiences. An English teacher training school adopted the maypole dance and soon it had spread across most of central and southern England. The dance became part of the repertoire of physical education for girls and remained popular in elementary schools in both England and the United States well into the 1950s.

Don’t Put Out the Trash

During the week leading up to Earth Day, arrange with the custodian not to remove the trash and recycling from your classroom. On Earth Day, have your students weigh the trash and recycling they generated (weigh trash separately from recycling). Over the next week, challenge your students to toss and use less, plus recycle more. After a week, have students weigh the trash and recycling again and calculate the decrease (hopefully!) in trash weight and increase in recycling weight. Extend the lessen for older students and have them calculate percent increase and decrease as well. Help Teaching Blog

Spring Fever

This time of year, many people develop spring fever. Invite each student to think of a cure for spring fever and then write about it. Put the pages together to make a class book.

The windy weather of March makes it perfect for flying a kite. Set out colorful construction paper and a selection of art materials. Invite each student to use the provided materials to create a kite. Have them to write a description of their kite.

In March 1990, President George Bush publicly declared that he didn’t like broccoli and wouldn’t eat it. Have students write a letter to George Bush telling him whether or not they agree with his opinion about broccoli.

Have students write words that remind them of spring. Then direct them to write a poem about spring that uses several of the words.
(Taken from The Mailbox)

About Saint Patrick's Day

Contributed by Leanne Guenther

Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated each year on March 17^th. In Ireland, Saint Patrick's Day is both a holy day and a national holiday. Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland as he was the one who brought Christianity to the Irish.

According to legend, Saint Patrick used a shamrock to explain about God. The shamrock, which looks like clover, has three leaves on each stem. Saint Patrick told the people that the shamrock was like the idea of the Trinity, that in the one God there are three divine beings: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The shamrock was sacred to the Druids, so Saint Patrick's use of it in explaining the trinity was very wise.

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/patrick/about.htm

Daylight Saving Time

When people first started using mechanical clocks each town/city would set their town clock by measuring the position of the sun. Every city would be on a slightly different time. This eventually became confusing and the railroad wanted a standard time that all of the towns in a certain area would go by. This led to using a standard time in the United States in the early 1900's.

Daylight Saving Time gives us the opportunity to enjoy sunny summer evenings by moving our clocks an hour forward in the spring.

TIP: Change the batteries in your smoke detectors when you change your clocks because Daylight Saving Time provides a convenient reminder.

Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday, March 12, 2017. People will have an extra hour of daylight in the evening.

When to set your clocks forward: Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday, March 12, at 2:00 A.M. Remember to “spring ahead” and set your clocks forward 1 hour. TIP: Do this Saturday night when you go to bed.

When to set your clocks back: Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday, November 5, at 2:00 A.M. Now, we “fall back” by setting our clocks back one hour.

Class Activities
Have students write about how they will spend their extra hour of daylight.

Have students write an essay about how daylight saving time save energy.

Have students write and explain, in paragraph form, three advantages of DST and three disadvantages of Daylight Saving Time.

Daylight Saving Time Quiz
1. Which month does Daylight Saving Time begin?
a. January
b. February
c. March
d. April

2. Which month does Daylight Saving Time end?
a. August
b. September
c. October
d. November

3. In the year 1895, which scientist proposed Daylight Saving Time?
a. Albert Einstein
b. Sir Isaac Newton
c. George Vernon Hudson
d. Charles Darwin

4. Which country was the first to make Daylight Saving Time a law?
a. America
b. Russia
c. China
d. New Zealand

5. What is the main reason to have Daylight Saving Time?
a. to collect bugs in the late afternoons
b. to avoid going to bed too early
c. to save energy
d. to sleep longer

6. Which popular phrase helps us remember how Daylight Saving Time affects our clocks?
a. “Time is like an hourglass”
b. “Time is on your side”
c. “Spring forward, fall back”
d. “Spring up, fall down”

7. Which way do we move our clocks to begin Daylight Saving Time?
a. one hour forward
b. two hours forward
c. one hour backward
d. two hours backward

8. Which way do move our clocks to end Daylight Saving Time?
a. one hour forward
b. two hours forward
c. one hour back
d. two hours back

9. What is the hour when Daylight Saving Time begins and ends?
a. at two o’clock A.M.
b. at three o’clock A.M.
c. at four o’clock P.M.
d. at five o’clock P.M.

10. Who wrote the proverb, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy
and wise.”
a. Benjamin Franklin
b. George Washington
c. William Shakespeare
d. Dr. Seuss

Key: 1-c, 2-d, 3-c, 4-d, 5-c, 6-c, 7-a, 8-c, 9-a, 10-a (readingfriend.com)

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