Thursday, March 31, 2022

School Age Storytime: Women's History Month 2022 Hold Fast to Dreams!

(K-1st grade, virtual Bedminster School)
Women’s History Month, sharing real & fictional stories of girls who defied convention, worked hard and followed their dreams.

Amazing Grace – Mary Hoffman Grace loves acting out stories. Told by her classmates that she can’t play the part of Peter Pan because she’s a girl & black, she learns that she can do anything she puts her mind to.

Every-Day Dress Up – Selina Alko – A girl ditches her princess duds in favor of daring dames – Amelia Earhart, Ella Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Marie Carie & more. Briefly discussed each woman presented. (When I read this in person and get to Stanton, I mention women couldn’t even vote in the US until a little less than 100 years ago – had them figure out how old the US is (240 years) so for most of that time, women couldn’t vote. Long battle, Stanton and others spent their whole lives (70 years!) trying to get women’s voting rights.

“It is fun to dress up in princess skirts for dress up or a party, but how would they like to wear long heavy skirts (as heavy as a box of books!) everyday? They couldn’t bike, or climb a tree, or run and play…”

You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer! --- Shana Corey – Delightful biography of the suffragist & newspaper founder who founded a movement to get women out of long limiting skirts.

Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by Tanya Lee Stone -- In the 1830s, Elizabeth Blackwell refused to accept the common belief that women weren't smart enough or were too weak to be doctors. She wouldn't take "no" for an answer, was finally accepted at medical school and went on to become America's first female physician...paving the way for women doctors today.

Nobody Owns the Sky: The Story of “Brave Bessie” Coleman – Reeve Lindbergh (youngest daughter of Charles) – No American flying school would teach Bessie because she was black so she sailed to France for lessons then returned to the states with the dream of starting her own school for African American pilots.

Movement – “Stretch High, Bend Low, Reach to the Sky, Then to Your Sides, Spread Your Wings, Turn around , then sit back down.”

Book: Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty Rosie loves to invent until an uncle laughs at her cheddar cheese hat, but her Great-Aunt Rose (a tribute to the “Rosie the Riviters” of WW2) convinces her that inventions that fail are not failures….your brilliant first flop was a raging success…come on, let’s get busy and on to the next!…The only true failure can come if you quit.”

Fun related book: Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty (2nd grade boy saves the day when his class is stranded on an island and he builds a suspension bridge.)

Speaking of architects, true story of unconventional architect Zaha Hadid
The World is Not a Rectangle by Jeannette Winter

Finished with the new book from our national poet Laureate

Change Sings by Amanda Gorman -- As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes—big or small—in the world, in their communities, and in most importantly, in themselves.

(As needed, did a variety of stretches and chants encouraging the kids to dream high & work hard to achieve their dreams)

Previous years:
https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Women%27s%20History%20Month
http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2014/03/school-age-storytimes-womens-history.html

Some other great titles:

An Equal Shot: How the Law Title IX Changed America by Helaine Becker
She Persited: 13 American Women Who Changed the World by Chelsea Clinton (and others in the series
Sky High: The True Story of Maggie Gee – Marissa Moss
My Name is Not Isabella: Just How Big Can a Little Girl Dream? – Jennifer Fosberry
To the Stars: The First American Woman to Walk in Space – Carmella Van Vleet
Wilma Unlimited – Kathleen Krull
Elizabeth Leads the Way:Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote – Tanya Lee Stone
I Could Do That: Esther Morris Gets Women the Vote – Linda Arms White
Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor – Robert Burleigh