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”)

School Age Storytime - Black History Month (virtual)

Opened by showing cover of Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport - asked "Who is this?" "What did he do?" Ask if anyone knows who Ruby Bridges is? 

Read Sister Anne's Hands by MaryBeth Lorbiecki (beautiful book about a the first black teacher to come to a school - show kids how to form heart with their hands, suggest make cards that way to share with the important people in their lives)  

Sing: "Black and White" 1st verse 

 Read The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson (two girls in a segregated town meet and find friendship atop the dividing fence) 

Sing: "Martin Luther King had a Dream" (lyrics to this and other songs here: http://tinyurl.com/singalong-black-history-month) 

Read: Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport Sing: more verses of "Black and White" 

Read: This is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore & Jessica Alexander (rhyming lines show the unfairness of segregation and the steps we have taken to progress to a fairer society) 

Singable book: This Little Light of Mine, illustrated by E.B.Lewis 

End with book about possibilities: A Girl Like Me by Angela Johnson, illustrated by Nina Crews

More Black History Month ideas: https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2014/03/school-age-storytimes-black-history.html

Additional book suggestons: https://www.whatdowedoallday.com/african-american-history-books-for-children/

School Age Storytime: Martin Luther King Day

A storytime for Kindergarten-3rd grade celebrating the life of MLK

Book: Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport (beautifully illustrated short biography complemented by MLK quotes)

Song: “Martin Luther King” (to “BINGO”) Song Lyrics: http://tinyurl.com/singalong-black-history-month  

Book: The Other Side -- Jacqueline Woodson (fictional account of how two girls, one white and one black, gradually get to know each other as they sit on the fence that divides their town.) Alternatives:  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)   or 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.)  or Goin’ Someplace Special – McKissick

Song: “Martin Luther King had a dream”  or “Black And White”

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…

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. or  

(unavailable 2019) 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”

1/2019 Bedm.  See also: School Age Storytimes: Black History Month

https://kateywrites.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/raisingreaders-monday-martin-luther-king-junior-edition has a great post on Martin Luther King day:

 

She writes "A new study by the Southern Education Foundation (widely publicized by an article in The Huffington Post) shows that over half of American public schoolchildren are living in poverty. According to FirstBook.org, “Most of these children have no age-appropriate books at home, and the classrooms and programs they attend are woefully under-resourced. Approximately two-thirds of these schools and programs cannot afford to buy books at retail prices.”

 

How do we fight the darkness of ignorance and illiteracy? What light do we have to shine for the 51% of American schoolchildren living in poverty, without adequate access to books?

 

I said to my children, ‘I’m going to work and do everything that I can do to see that you get a good education. I don’t ever want you to forget that there are millions of God’s children who will not and cannot get a good education, and I don’t want you feeling that you are better than they are. For you will never be what you ought to be until they are what they ought to be.’  – Martin Luther King, Jr. , 7th January, 1968

Check out her blog post (link above) to see her suggestions on how kids can make a difference.

(Great ideas for libraries as well)

 

If you are looking for great read-alouds for Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month – check out my storytimes: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Martin%20Luther%20King

 

Additional book suggestions and author interviews:

http://www.smartbooksforsmartkids.com/happy-birthday-mlk-jr/

http://www.readbrightly.com/12-books-carry-legacy-dr-martin-luther-king-jr/

Josephine : the dazzling life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell and Little Melba and her big trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown tell the stories of two black girls who wouldn't bow down to discrimination's limitations.

Booktalked: I Have a Dream J305.896 KIN
Other titles to consider:
Rosa's Bus: The Ride to Civil Rights -- Jo S. Kittinger  or Rosa –Nikki Giovanni -- excellent versions of Rosa Parks’ story
These Hands -- Margaret H Mason
Giant Steps to Change the World - Spike & Tonya Lewis LeeGranddaddy’s Gift by Margaree King Mitchell. (In 1965, a law was passed saying Black people must be allowed to vote, but white people in Southern states tried to make it very difficult.)

1/2009 Lincoln, MLK, Obama: 

 

"Take a journey through time -- starting 200 years ago" (with the birth of Abraham Lincoln -- bicentennial next month):

Book: Abe's Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Doreen Rappaport (lots of good writing here, and food for thought)
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation & the passage of the 13th amendment freed the slaves in 1865, but a hundred years later black people still didn't have the same rights as white people even when I (Carol) was their age --  segregation/discrimination-schools, restaurants, buses, water fountains, voting -- until Dr. Martin Luther King & many brave people staged non-violent demonstations. (Younger classes sang "Martin Luther King" before we read the next book) 

Book: Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport

Stretch -- song "We Shall Overcome" In 1965, a law was passed saying Black people must be allowed to vote, but white people in Southern states tried to make it very difficult (tests, threats) -- Booktalked Granddaddy's Gift by Margaree King Mitchell.

Look how far we've come. Today, 40 years later, we are 12 days away from the inauguration of a new President -- from Illinois like Lincoln, black like Martin Luther King: Book: Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope by Nikki Grimes (poet -- wonderful figurative language) (I only read the main story not the secondary one.)

At the core of all three books was each man's passion for education and for making the world a better place through his actions.

School Age Storytimes: Women’s History Month

Storytimes for grades K-3 celebrating women in history and encouraging girls and boys to go beyond their comfort zones, to take risks and make history!

"Do something every day that scares you." -- Eleanor Roosevelt
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized
anyway." -- Eleanor Roosevelt from Eleanor: Quiet No More by Doreen Rappaport. 

Another great biography: 

Unshakable Eleanor: How Our 32nd First Lady Used Her Voice to Fight for Human Rights by Michelle Markel

There was a young woman who wanted to fly.
But the people said, "Kiss that wish good-bye!
The sky's too big and the sky's too high,
And you never will fly, so you'd better not try."
But this woman laughed, and she just said, "Why?
Nobody owns the sky!"
-- from Nobody Owns the Sky: The Story of
"Brave Bessie" Coleman by Reeve Lindbergh

 

Elizabeth Leads the Way (Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote)

by Tanya Lee Stone (JB Stanton)
(some classes) sing/chant: "V-O-T-E (form letters with bodies – tune “YMCA”)-- Women Want Equality!!"

Eleanor: Quiet No More by Doreen Rappaport (JB Roosevelt)

 

 

Nobody Owns the Sky -- The Story of "Brave Bessie" Coleman by Reeve Lindbergh (black woman who became a pilot in 1921 when everyone said she couldn't do that), ...mentioned Amelia Earhart books, Soar Elinor by Tami Lewis Brown, Sky High, The True Story of Maggie Gee by Marissa Moss (WWII women pilots finally receiving Congressional Medals of Honor a couple of years ago) & compared with the fictional picture book "Amazing Grace" by Mary Hoffman).  Other great female pilot books at: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/09/school-age-storytime-to-fly-stories.html

 

Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers -- Kathi Appelt (JB Roosevelt) (just told segments in some groups) (inspiration for Barbara Cooney's picture book "Miss Rumphius"?) finished with quote: ...When asked why she helped found the National Wildflower Research Center, Lady Bird said that it was her way of
"paying rent for the space I have taken up in this highly interesting world!"

 

3/13

 

 

 

3/16  School Age Storytime: Hold Fast to Dreams–Fly High!

http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2016/03/school-age-storytime-hold-fast-to.html

School Age Storytime: Hold Fast to Dreams–Fly High!

(K-3rd grade)
At the tale end of  Read Across America week celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday and the beginning of Women’s History Month, we shared stories of girls who defied convention, worked hard and followed their dreams.
(Relates to Dr. Seuss’ book Oh the Places You’ll Go)

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.

Asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. Women often were told they couldn’t be what they wanted to be.

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 we discussed Stanton, mentioned 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.

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.”

Sky High: The True Story of Maggie Gee – Marissa Moss – Maggie Gee, who dreamed of flying from the time she was a girl, finally gets her chance during WW2 when she becomes one of only two Chinese-American WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots).

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

Some other great titles:

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
many more here: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/03/celebrating-women-history-month.html
and here: http://www.whatdowedoallday.com/2013/03/women-in-history-best-books-for-kids.html

Arrived too late: To The Stars: The First American Woman to Walk in Space by Caremella Van Vleet & Dr. Kathy Sullivan

More on early pilots:  https://nobodyownsthesky.wordpress.com/

Bedm. 3/16.

 

 

Girls Can! Determination Succeeds.

Showed "Boy Meets Girl" from "Free to Be You and Me"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUpLiJfV4_A&feature=related ...discussed how for much of US (and world) history, women have not been allowed to do the same things as men...vote, jobs, even drive (Saudi Arabia)...

Asked children “Who has a woman doctor?” – lots – wasn’t always that way. (Kindergarten only) Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman (black girl told she can’t be Peter Pan in the class play discovers she can do anything she puts her mind to. Booktalked: Boundless Grace and Princess Grace – great book for promoting powerful princesses!)

Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by Tanya Lee Stone
Rough Tough Charley by Verla Kay (one class) – rhyming tale based on true story of stagecoach driver who spent her life disguised as a man

Tillie the Terrible Swede: How One Woman, a Sewing Needle and a Bicycle Changed History by Sue Stauffacher. (no time in Kindergarten) Art in Society: Toulouse Lautrec, The Bicycle and the Women’s Movement  (Background: article (for adults) analyzing the role of the bicycle in the women’s movement.)

On the topic of overcoming personal odds…even disability (talked about this word)…


Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull (The amazing story of a tiny, sickly black girl stricken by polio who ended up winning gold medals in track at the 1960 Olympics!)  (This is a long text so I talk it rather than reading the text aloud to younger classes.) Newer title: Go Wilma Go by Amira Rose Davis & Michael G. Long

Another story about a running race --  "Atalanta" from "Free to Be You and Me" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-77_cVnmUQ

3/14

 

 

“I Could Do That!”

Sybil’s Night Ride (Sybil Ludington) by Karen B. Winnick (The story of young Sybil Ludington, who, like Paul Revere, rode through the countryside to alert the colonists that the British were coming.)

Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret Knight Became an Inventor by Emily Arnold McCully or In The Bag!: Margaret Knight Wraps it Up by Monica Kulling --  both Biography Knight (Each tells the story of Margaret Knight, eventual holder of twenty patents, who fought discrimination and proved that she was just as intelligent an inventor as a man.) Could also use Kulling's Spic-in-Span: Lillian Gilbreth's Wonder Kitchen JB Gilbreth, which tells the story of the world's first female efficiency expert and the first woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

I Could Do That! Esther Morris Gets the Vote by Linda Arms White –JB Morris (In 1869, a woman whose "can-do" attitude had shaped her life was instrumental in making Wyoming the first state to allow women to vote, then became the first woman to hold public office in the United States -- 50 years before women across the country finally got the vote with the 19th Amendment.)

Annie Jump Cannon, Astronomer by Carole Gerber – JB Cannon (Introduces a trailblazer in the field of astronomy, who developed the Harvard Spectral Classification System, a system to classify a star's light, still used today. Also presents insight into the challenges of women interested in science during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.)

Meet My Grandmother: She’s a Deep Sea Diver by Lisa Tucker McElroy  (Groundbreaking marine biologist and diver whose ocean exploration and advocacy have made her known around the world.) Life in the Ocean: The Story of Sylvia Earle by Claire A. Nivola – JB Earle is beautiful but small pictures make it problematic for sharing in a large group.
3/12

3/15: reprised: Sybil's Night Ride (K-3 kids didn't know about Paul Revere or the American Revolution) and I Could Do That! (lots of historical items to discuss along with women getting right to vote (note: both a bit long), added Goldie Takes a Stand by Barbara Krasner (true story of 10 year old immigrant girl (discussed meaning of "immigrant", where families came from) who organized a fund-raising drive so kids in her school could have textbooks -- that girl grew up to become Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel. -- Had kids consider what they might want to do to make the world a better place.  sing/chant: "V-O-T-E (form letters with bodies – tune “YMCA”)-- Women Want Equality!!"

 

Girls Can Do Anything(long…have to pick and choose for 40 min.)

 

Showed "Boy Meets Girl" from "Free to Be You and Me"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUpLiJfV4_A&feature=related
...discussed how for much of US (and world) history, women have not been  allowed to do the same things as men...vote, jobs, even drive (Saudi Arabia)...

Rough Tough Charley by Verla Kay (some classes) -- based on true story of stagecoach driver who was a woman disguised as a man.

Mama Went to Jail for the Vote by Kathleen Krull ...after the vote was achieved, women still not allowed to do many jobs...until WW2 necessitated (booktalked Rosie the Riveter J940.531 PRI)

Sky High -- Biography Gee (Chinese American Woman who became a WASP,
then a physicist)

Overcoming personal odds Wilma Rudolph (shared poem from All by Myself  J811.54 PAU)

Told story Wilma Unlimited (abridged the text by Kathleen Krull)
Finished with "Atalanta" from "Free to Be You and Me" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-77_cVnmUQ
(some classes also got to see a 14 year old Michael Jackson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsRIbyZ5rqE
3/11







Other possible empowering women read-aloud titles include:


History:
The Ballot Box Battle by Emily Arnold McCully
The Bobbin Girl by Emily Arnold McCully
Heart on Fire: Susan B. Anthony Votes for President by Ann Malaspina
Marching with Aunt Susan: Susan B. Anthony and the Fight for Women’s Suffrage by Claire Rudolph  Murphy
A Woman for President: The Story of Victoria Woodhull by Kathleen Krull
The Taxing Case of the Cows by Iris Van Rynbach and Shea Pegi Deitz
Liberty’s Voice: The Story of Emma Lazarus by Erica Silverman
Emma’s Poem by Linda Glaser
Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth by Anne Rockwell
Nurse, Soldier, Spy: The Story of Sarah Edmonds: a Civil War Hero by Marissa Moss
The Daring Nellie Bly: America’s Star Reporter by  Bonnie Christensen 
Patience Wright: America’s First Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy by Pegi Deitz Shea
They Called her Molly Pitcher by Anne Rockwell
Mary Walker Wears the Pants: The True Story of the Doctor, Reformer, and Civil War Hero by Cheryl Harness
Friends for Freedom: The Story of Susan B. Anthony & Frederick Douglas by Susanne Slade (J303.484 SLA)
Brave Girl: Clara & the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel

Environment:
Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World by Laurie Lawlor
Seeds of Change by Jen Cullerton Johnson,
Mama Miti by Donna Jo Napoli
The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever by Joseph Hopkins
Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor by Robert Burleigh

Trailblazers:
Look Up! Henrietta Leavitt, Pioneering Woman Astronomer by Robert Burleigh
Of Numbers and Stars: The Story of Hypatia by  D. Anne  Love
Julia Morgan Built a Castle by  Celeste Davidson Mannis
To The Stars: The First American Woman to Walk in Space by Caremella Van Vleet & Dr. Kathy Sullivan

Sports:
Queen of the Track: Alice Coachman Olympic High-Jump Champion by Heather Lang
Fearless: the true story of racing legend Louise Smith by Barbara Rosenstock
Mermaid queen: the spectacular true story of Annette Kellerman, who swam her way to fame, fortune and swimsuit history by Shana Corey
Players in Pigtails by Shana Corey
Girl Wonder by  Deborah Hopkinson
She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story by Audrey Vernick
The Bravest Woman in America by Marissa Moss

Misc:
Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty
Red bird sings: the story of Zitkala-Sa by Gina Capaldi
The Librarian of Basra : A True Story of Basra  by Jeanette Winter

Looking for many more suggestions?  Check out:
http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/03/celebrating-women-history-month.html

Note, there are a LOT of books about female pilots. Find them at: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/09/school-age-storytime-to-fly-stories.html

There are many more book possibilities for this program – check out the early reader’s section of the annual lists at http://ameliabloomer.wordpress.com for more great suggestions.

And Karen Chace has posted an excellent list of Women's History Sources here:
http://karenchace.blogspot.com/2010/03/celebrate-womens-history-month-women-in.html



Reading Rainbow: Kate Shelley and the Midnight Express
Collective Biography: Amelia to Zora: Twenty-six Women Who Changed the World by Cynthia Chin-Lee

S.T.E.A.M. Storytime/Craft : Valentine's Day & Friendship -- Clarence Dillon Public Library

 

STEAM Story Time & Craft

School Age S.T.E.A.M. Storytime & Craft: Valentine's Day & Friendship

 Wednesday February 5th   4:30-5:30 p.m.

(geared to ages 5-9, but older/younger siblings are welcomed - most of the kids were between 3 & 6 today)

Join us as we share stories about kindness, then create geometric cut paper valentines for our friends and family members.

Opened with a book about a shadow friend (a nod to this week's Groundhog's Day)

Read: I have a Friend by Keiko Narahashi (great figurative language) 
(Science snippet: talk about when shadows are short and long -- midday & ends of day because of the position of the sun.)

Action Song: I Am Your Shadow by Carol Simon Levin (Tune: “I'm A Little Teapot”)

I am your shadow, short and fat,
Lift up your hand, I can do that,
Lift up your foot, I'll do that too,
I do anything that you do.

I am your shadow, long and thin,
Put your finger to your chin,
Then watch me, I do that too,
I do anything that you do!

More Shadow Songs & Stories here: https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Shadows

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.  

Group today was too young for 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 – including counting buttons on underwear!  For more funky math problems, check out the website www.bedtimemath.com.  Includes handprint art project:

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

More Black History Month ideas; https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Black%20History%20Month

Book: My Friend Rabbit – Eric Rohmann (Caldecott Winner - talked about the award, author/illustrator definition)  sometimes friends drive us crazy! - kids loved this silly book

Book: My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall  --> Valentine crafts 

(supplies: construction paper, children's scissors, hole punches, glue sticks, markers)

More Valentine's Day ideas: https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Valentine%27s%20Day

CDPL 2.5.25