School Age Storytimes: Black History Month

 

Standing Up (or Sitting Down) for Equality!

 

Opened by asking kids with blue eyes to raise their hands, then kids with brown eyes – asked would it be fair if all the kids with blue eyes had to go to school in an old building down the street with no heat, broken down desks, old torn textbooks? That happened right here in the US, not color of eyes but color of skin --  called “segregation” = separate (vs. “integration” = mixed together) – not so long ago (when I was a little girl),  changed because of many brave people who worked to change laws and people’s minds.

 

Read Sister Anne’s Hands – Marybeth Lorbiecki – Beautifully-written & illustrated story of a black nun who comes to all-white school to teach – history, heart, and humor – the classes loved the idea of counting buttons on underwear!  If your class wants to have funky math problems, check out the website www.bedtimemath.com.  Also talked about possible handprint art project:

Followed up by showing pictures from The Story of Ruby Bridges – Robert Cole – a six year old girl is the first student to de-segregate a school. She has to be accompanied by federal marshals because angry crowds shout nasty things.  Empty classroom – all the other kids are pulled out of the class – she and her teacher brave it out alone.

 

Sang: “Black & White”  -- Song Lyrics: http://tinyurl.com/singalong-black-history-month

Read Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney  323.1196 PIN – Splendid writing filled with food metaphors telling the story of the  4 college students who inspired a movement with their patient wait at a Woolworth’s lunch counter for their order of “doughnuts & coffee & cream on the side.”  (With some classes, sang “We Shall Overcome” when the protagonists are singing in jail; other classes sang this after We March (below))  Emphasized the line on the SNCC page: “We are all leaders” – asked did it mean only grown-ups?  Whether age7, 17, 47,  or 107, if they see something not right in the way we treat people, animals, environment or anything in our world, they can work to change it…

Showed Rosa by Nikki Giovanni (Caldecott-award winning profile of Rosa Parks) --mentioned she was another person who stood up by sitting down. Asked kids who could tell me what she did…then mentioned that many other people stopped using busses to protest and walked instead…compared the length of their walks to the distance the kids who lived at the top of The Hills might have to walk to school.

Speaking of walking…

Read We March by Shane W. Evans – simple account of getting ready and then marching in Washington D.C. – which the kids identified from the illustration of the Washington Monument -- ending with a picture of people watching a speaker at the  Lincoln Memorial – asked if anyone recognized the building and then why Lincoln?  (ended slavery) Who are they listening to?  (MLK)

Read selected pages from I have a Dream – Martin Luther King’s speech illustrated by Kadir Nelson (book comes with a CD so teachers can share MLK’s actual speech with students.)

Read This is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander – summarizes in verse and magnificent paintings by James Ransome segregated America and the changes brought by activists and the resulting civil rights legislation.

Book/Song: This Little Light of Mine illustrated by E.B. Lewis – with hand motions

Finished with book Be A King: Dr. Martin Luther King's Jr.'s Dream and You by Carol Boston Weatherford, illustrated by James E. Ransom -- urges kids to emulate MLK telling kids "You can be a King" in their own lives -- fighting bigotry, feeling empathy,  banding together against bullies, stamping down hatred, seeking justice, walking tall, having a dream "great enough to grow into," closes with "Set your sights on the mountaintop. Climb a little higher every day."

Some classes: departed singing “We Shall Overcome”

Booktalked (some classes):
The Other Side – Jacqueline Woodson
Freedom Summer – Deborah Wiles
Ruth and the Green Book – Calvin Alexander Ramsey

Great new booklist: https://mailchi.mp/13927f00bfe4/17-new-picture-books-about-black-history, http://www.notwiddletwaddle.com/2013/02/picture-books-for-black-history-month.html 

Favorite booklist site with lots of ideas: https://www.whatdowedoallday.com/books-for-kids/

2.2016 Bedm.
2.2018 left off We March & I Have a Dream

 

 

"Taking the Initiative"

Storytimes incorporating non-fiction and fictional titles sensitizing kindergarten through third-graders to this country’s history.  Sensitively introducing slavery, the underground railroad, discussing separate but not equal, the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King and the many other black Americans who’ve overcome prejudice and made a difference.

Book: Henry's Freedom Box -- Ellen Levine (Kadir Nelson's illustrations won the Caldecott Silver) -- depicts how a slave shipped himself to freedom in 1849.  Also discussed what "underground railroad" was; homophones (mail/male).
Song: "Follow the Drinking Gourd" (lyrics to all songs below)

Book: All Aboard: Elijah McCoy's Steam Engine -- Monica Kulling  -- tells how the clever, mechanically-minded son of slaves (who escaped via the underground railroad) became a mechanical engineer and invented the device that oiled a train engine while it was in motion, revolutionizing train travel.  Also notes that the term "the real McCoy" comes from the fact that no one wanted an imitation -- his was so good.
Song: "Dr. Martin Luther King Had a Dream"

Book: The Other Side -- Jacqueline Woodson -- the story of two girls, one black and one white, who overcame segregation  (represented by a dividing fence in their town) to cleverly find a way to play together.
Sing and march as they depart: "We Shall Overcome."
One class only: Wind Flyers -- Angela Johnson (picture book about the Tuskegee Airmen)
2/14 K-2

Song Lyrics: http://tinyurl.com/singalong-black-history-month

Previous years:   Black History Month 2/13

Book: Show Way - Jacqueline Woodson - follows generations of a family from slave days through the Civil Rights movement to today.
Song: “Follow the Drinking Gourd”

Book: Rosa's Bus: The Ride to Civil Rights -- Jo S. Kittinger -- one of many excellent tellings of Rosa Parks story
Song: “We Shall Overcome”
Book: Sister Anne's Hands --MaryBeth Lorbiecki -- Seven-year-old Anna has her first encounter with racism in the 1960s when an African American nun comes to teach at her parochial school.  Alternative: Freedom Summer – Deborah Wiles (In 1964, Joe is pleased that a new law will allow his best friend John Henry, who is colored, to share the town pool and other public places with him, but he is dismayed to find that prejudice still exists.), White Socks Only -- Coleman or Goin’ Someplace Special – McKissick
Song: “Black And White”
Some other books to consider: These Hands -- Margaret H Mason,  Giant Steps to Change the World - Spike & Tonya Lewis Lee

 

Black History Month 2/11:

Book: Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold or Under the quilt of night – Deborah Hopkinson or Follow the Drinking Gourd – Jeanette Winter
Sing:  "Follow the Drinking Gourd" (after we talked about what it was - North Star/big dipper) or “Harriet Tubman”
Civil War ended slavery 150 years ago but 50 years ago black men and women still didn’t have equal rights – not so long ago I was their age then.  Book: Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney  323.1196 PIN
K-2 sang "We Shall Overcome" as they left the library
Book: (3-4 only) This is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore 811.6 SHO. 

Black History Month  2/10:
Most Loved in All the World -- Hegamin
Henry Aaron's Dream -- Tavares
Back of the Bus -- Reynolds (illustrated by our guest illustrator -
Floyd Cooper)
Finding Lincoln -- Malaspina
Our Children Can Soar -- 973.0496 COO

Other books read over the years:

Night Running – Carbone, Crossing Bok Chitto – Tingle, Good Night for Freedom – Morow  (Underground Railroad)
Teammates -- Golenbock (Jackie Robinson & Pee Wee Reese)
Granddaddy's Gift – Mitchell (voting rights)
Pink & Say -- Polacco (4th grade only – powerful story of a black and a white soldier during the Civil War)
Amazing Grace –Hoffman (black girl learns she can do anything she sets her mind to)
More Than Anything Else – Marie Bradby.  Fictionalized narrative of Booker Washington’s childhood and dreams -- Nine-year-old Booker works with his father and brother at the saltworks but dreams of the day when he'll be able to read.
Africa Books: Kente Colors – Chocolate
Africa Brothers & Sisters – Kroll
Boundless Grace – Hoffman
Galimoto – Williams
It takes a Village – Cowen-Fletcher
I Love My Hair – Tarpley
Masai & I – Kroll
Friends for Freedom: The Story of Susan B. Anthony & Frederick Douglas by Susanne Slade (J303.484 SLA)
I, Too, Am America -- Langston Hughes poem beautifully illustrated by Bryan Collier

http://www.slj.com/2015/01/standards/curriculum-connections/changing-the-world-new-books-about-african-american-history/

New books:
Seeds of Freedom: The Peaceful Integration of Huntsville, Alabama by Hester Bass Somewhat long but well-written look at a city that desegregated peacefully: Kids will be astonished by the small things in the book, such as a black girl who has to use paper pictures of her feet because she is not allowed to try on shoes in the store, and the 3 black women plus baby who are arrested and go to jail for eating out at a restaurant along...introduces the other non-violent protests, school desegregation lawsuit...and first black students in Alabama to go to a formerly white school. Separate But Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family's Fight of Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh Mexican American struggle to be allowed to attend white schools.
The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage by Selina Alko Kids will be astonished to learn that not so long ago black and white people weren't allowed to marry each other.

Josephine : the dazzling life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell, Little Melba and her big trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown, The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marion Anderson and the Struggle for Civil Rights by  Russell Freedman and  When Marian sang : the true recital of Marian Anderson : the voice of a century by Pam Muñoz Ryan tell the stories of talented and determined black girls and women who wouldn't bow down to discrimination's limitations.
Lillian's Right to Vote by Jonah Winter http://www.kidlitfrenzy.com/kid-lit-frenzy/2015/8/5/voting-rights-act-50th-anniversary-lillians-right-to-vote

Harlem Renaissance Party by Faith Ringgold (a boy is introduced to many of the “greats”
Dinner at Aunt Connie’s House by Faith Ringgold (twelve portraits of famous African-American women “speak”)