Category Archives: Craft and Structure

Let’s Talk About Race

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“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” – Maya Angelou.

Next Monday we celebrate the birthday of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What better way to honor his dream of a nation where our children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” than with a wonderful children’s book celebrating our differences and our similarities.

Let’s Talk About Race is written by Julius Lester and illustrated by Karen Barbour. “I am a story,” Lester writes. “So are you. So is everyone.” Our race is just one part of our stories. “To know my story, you have to put together everything I am.”

How does your story begin? When were you born, and who is in your family? What is your favorite food, your religion, your favorite color, your nationality? All of these things are a part of our stories. But, “some stories are true. Some are not. Those who say ‘MY RACE IS BETTER THAN YOUR RACE’  are telling a story that is not true.”

Lester goes on to tell a story that is true: if you press your fingers gently below your eyes, you can feel the bone beneath your skin. And if you press gently on a friend’s face, no matter what their skin color, you will feel the bone there, too.  “Beneath our skin I look like you and you look like me…” Instead of focusing on the stories we can make up about each other based on eye color, skin color, and hair texture, we can find out the true stories, the rich and complex stories, of each other.

After you read Let’s Talk About Race with your students, talk about race! And talk about all the other wonderful parts of our stories, from favorite foods to hair color to pet peeves. You can make a questionnaire based on all the elements Lester talks about for students to answer. Next, challenge students to find someone else who had the something the same on his or her list. You can integrate this into a math lesson by graphing some of the answers, like eye color, or get out the art supplies and let students make cool representations of themselves. If your students can “identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe”, you’ll hit the Common Core State Standard of Craft and Structure using a book with a truly worthwhile main purpose.

Got a new device? Play with “Chalk”!

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If you were lucky enough to get an iPad, a Kindle, or some other fun e-gizmo this holiday season, and you’d like your kids to use it for more than just throwing (understandably) angry birds, get yourself some Chalk.

Chalk by Bill Thomson is a visually stunning wordless picture book available as a Kindle e-book. (If you have a tablet or an iPad, you can download the Kindle app for free and read Kindle books – cool, huh?) Three children find a bag of chalk on a playground. The things they draw come to life. When one of the children draws a dinosaur, how will the children stop it?

Wordless books like Chalk are a great choice for young readers, and not just because they can “read” the pictures to get the whole story. When children read a wordless book with adults, typically the language the adults use to describe what is happening in the illustrations is of a more complex nature than the sentences and vocabulary usually found in picture books for young ones. (Want to know more? Read my article about wordless picture books for ReaderKidZ.com) So a wordless book can actually work well to teach the Common Core State Standard of Craft & Structure. I love that Chalk offers a great opportunity for problem-solving. When the dinosaur comes to life on the playground in the story, you can ask your young readers, “What would you do?” Kids can brainstorm how they’d solve the problem and discuss Thomson’s solution – the child who drew the dinosaur draws a rain cloud, which becomes real and washes all the chalk (including the dinosaur) away. Talk through the problem and the solution, the beginning-middle-end, and you’re hitting Key Ideas and Details as well!

After you’ve enjoyed Chalk on your device, pair up students and have them sit back to back. If you have a classroom set of iPads, you can use a free drawing app like My Blackboard, or you can go old-school and use real chalk and construction paper, dry erase markers and white boards, etc. Have each student draw something that, if it came to life, would cause a huge problem. Then, students swap pictures and draw something that can then solve that problem.

So, tech it up with your students with the Kindle book and a fun, free app, or embrace the paper and get the book from your local library, but either way, don’t miss out on Chalk!

For more information, please visit billthomson.com.

 

 

Grace for President

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“Red” voters, “blue” voters, undecided voters, here’s one thing we can all agree upon:  Grace for President written by Kelly DiPucchio and illustrated by LeUyen Pham wins for Most Fun Picture Book for Early Elementary Students to Explain How the Voting Process Works.

This book gets my vote for so many reasons:

1. When Grace’s teacher shows a poster of all the past American presidents, Grace asks the question so many of us have wondered over the years, “Where are the girls?” Grace decides to “be the change” and run for president. Her teacher encourages her by holding a school election. Hooray for encouraging participation in the democratic process!

2. The language is not watered down, even though this book is aimed at early elementary students. We still learn about electoral votes, representatives, constituents, polls, and rallies, all in ways that make sense to kids. The author’s note at the end gives more information about the Electoral College and how it works. Woohoo for working important information into an entertaining story, and for helping us teach the Craft and Structure Common Core State Standard!

3. Grace runs against a boy, Thomas. Nice kid, but when he calculates the electoral votes and sees that the boys hold more votes than the girls, he assumes the race is his. Thomas doesn’t do much campaigning while Grace goes all out. I love that “even before the election, Grace made good on her promises.” (Don’t you wish all candidates were like Grace?) In the end, a boy casts his votes for Grace because he thinks she is the best person for the job, and Grace wins because of her hard effort, not because of her gender. Yay for focusing on what really matters! (Discuss with your class all the things Grace did to win the election and you’ll be working in the CCSS of Key Ideas and Details, too!)

4. LeUyen Pham’s illustrations include kids from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Woohoo for celebrating the diversity of our nation!

After you share Grace for President with your students, you might find one or more of them become inspired to run for office. Consider creating a position (President of the Week, Commander in Chief of the Line, etc.) for which your students can campaign and run. Talk about voting based on credentials vs. popularity. Students can create posters, give speeches, and cast ballots. If you’d rather not have student elections, consider casting votes in other kinds of elections. Our library is encouraging students to Vote for Books and we used SurveyGizmo to build an online poll (check out our candidates here: orionlibrary.org).

If the talk turns to our current presidential race, TimeforKids online magazine is a fantastic resource for nonpartisan information. In fact, I prefer to get my news on the candidates from places like TimeforKids rather than many adult-targeted news sources because there’s no mudslinging! Now that deserves a huge woohoo!

For more information, visit Kelly’s website at kellydipucchio.com and LeUyen’s website at leuyenpham.com. And remember to vote this November!

From Cocoa Bean to Chocolate

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If you’re craving engaging nonfiction to share with early elementary students, I have a book that will satisfy the pickiest readers: From Cocoa Bean to Chocolate by Robin Nelson. It is arguably the yummiest title in the “Start to Finish” series by Lerner (although From Milk to Ice Cream sounds pretty good, too!) Simple sentences tell how cocoa beans are made into candy. I love that each page has basic information in bold letters (“Cocoa beans grow”) and then a few short sentences with more information (“A farmer plants many cocoa trees. Hard pods grow on each tree. Inside each pod are seeds called cocoa beans.”) So if you’re reading to the very young, or those with very short attention spans, you can read just the bold sentences, but you have enough information to share with those who are ready for longer text. Great full-page photos make this book easy to share with a large group. Informational text features like a table of contents, an index, and a glossary make this a delicious introduction to nonfiction.

From Cocoa Bean to Chocolate is terrific to address the Common Core State Standard of Key Ideas and Details in Reading. With your students, use the book to help write out the steps in the cocoa-to-chocolate process on index cards. Students can then shuffle the cards and order the steps correctly on a bulletin board, or you can hang a clothesline for students to pin the steps in order. Include as few or as many steps as suits your class needs. If you have the means, bring in cocoa beans for your students to see and taste (they are a bit pricey, but I found an 8-ounce bag online for less than $10). To incorporate math and graphing skills, taste-test types of chocolate (dark vs. milk, etc.) and graph favorites. From Cocoa Bean to Chocolate makes informational reading sweet!

I’m Not

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Being friends with really cool people can sometimes lead me down the “compare and despair” spiral of gloom. My husband is an artist. I’m not. One of my friends is a belly dancer. I’m not. Another friend is an organic gardener. I grow weeds. *sigh* So when I saw Pam Smallcomb’s book I’m Not with its adorable illustrations by Robert Weinstock, I knew I’d found the picture book for me. The main character (a crocodile? An alligator? A dinosaur with a little pink bow on her head?) is a bit jealous of her friend, Evelyn. “She’s not one single bit ordinary. And she’s a little mysterious. I’m not.” Evelyn is stylish, talented, energetic, and creative. (Most of my friends are Evelyns.) The croco-gator-dinosaur is not. But she makes yummy cookies, isn’t afraid of the dark, and is a good speller. Evelyn isn’t. And Evelyn needs “a true-blue friend”, which our main character most certainly is.

After reading I’m Not, put signs in three corners of your classroom: “I’m not”, “I am” and “I am, sometimes”. Start with a statement inspired by Smallcomb’s book: “If I were a car, I would get a speeding ticket.” Let students sort themselves into one of the three areas. Give more statements for students to sort themselves. You can turn these statements into the ice-breaker game of “Buddy Bingo” for a Self-Smart reading activity. Write the statements in squares on sheets of paper like a Bingo card. (To keep an upbeat vibe going, I’d choose all positive statements!) Tape a sheet to each student’s back, or give each student the sheet on a clipboard. Students can write their names in squares they feel describe them, but they should write only once on any sheet. See if your students can find enough different classmates to fill the squares, and let them choose one to fill in on their own page. Rather than focus on what we are not, encourage your students to focus on all that we are. I am!

For more information, please check out Pam Smallcomb’s site: pamsmallcomb.com and Robert Weinstock’s website: callmebob.com.