TAG YOUR DREAMS!!

 

Tag Your Dreams: Poems of Play and Persistence celebrates being active, reaching goals, and learning limits. The poems employ figurative language devices such as alliteration, simile, metaphor, repetition, personification, and onomatopoeia. Each poem tells a story about a young person discovering skills, strengths, and dreams through activity. Team sports are included along with playground games, biking, sledding, swimming, hiking, and simply twirling in the rain.  

To help teachers use Tag YourDreams as a classroom resource, I have developed a teacher's guide with questions to discuss, ways to examine the poetry, and writing prompts. 

To give you a taste, please see the poem and questions below:

TAG YOUR DREAMS

Discuss!

What are your dreams for the future?

Examine the Poem!

Identify verbs which refer to the game of tag, e.g., chase, running, reaching.

Do dreams have strong legs? Is this personification— attributing human characteristics to something that is not human?

Write!

Write about your dreams. Does anything stand in your way? Are you confident you will succeed or are you afraid of failure?

The entire teacher’s guide can be found on my website. 

I am available for virtual visits with students. Please contact me through my website at www.jacquelinejules.com

 

Happy Reading!

 

INSIDE OUT: POEMS ON WRITING AND READING

Do you know how to smell a poem? 

In Inside Out: Poems on Writing and Reading Poems, Marjorie Maddox offers the reader a delightful suggestion. “Keep following the trail of scent to sniff out the meaning.”

Maddox also tells us how to befriend a poem. “Invite him home for dinner but don’t insist on rhyme.”

And she explains that “Much of what he has to say lies between the lines.”

This clever collection of poems and writing exercises begins with verses on how to see, hear, taste, smell, and touch a poem and then delves into poetic devices and forms. Teachers should find ample inspiration to motivate student writing.

For example, these glorious lines from “Fishing for Sestinas.”

“the poems themselves sew together our world,

the way fish in waves thread themselves in and out,

the way dreams swim their own stories”

And this couplet invites writers to try a villanelle.

“To write a villanelle, think like a bird

that sings a song that you’ve already heard.”

 The 27 poems in this collection are followed by 9 creative writing exercises including fun suggestions for writing persona poems, clerihews, and sonnets.

A 3 page glossary provides succinct definitions for every term referenced in the poems. Inside Out by Marjorie Maddox is an excellent resource to jump start creativity in the classroom or at home. 

Jacqueline Jules

https://metaphoricaltruths.blogspot.com/

UNSINKABLE!!

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

It hardly sounds like nonfiction: “From Russian Orphan to Paralympic Swimming World Champion,” but this is Jessica Long’s autobiography written with her sister Hannah. Born in Siberia with fibular hemimelia, Jessica had no ankles, heels or most of the bones in her lower legs. She was adopted by an American family in Baltimore, Maryland, and eventually had both legs amputated below the knee. There were six children in the Long family, including another little boy adopted from Russia. 

            From early childhood, Jessica was “determined to dominate at everything I did,” including climbing on top of the refrigerator! 

            “I made the daily choice to not let anything hold me back, especially my legs.”

            Initially, she excelled at gymnastics: “I walk on my knees. I’m just a little shorter.” By age 10, she discovered water and started beating girls with legs. “It’s all about technique and how you can work the water. Giving up was never an option.”

            Jessica swam her first Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, in 2004. At the games in Beijing in 2008, she felt she had failed because she won “only” four gold medals, along with a silver and a bronze.  But then she added modeling and public speaking to her accomplishments and has now told her own story in a young adult autobiography.

            Jessica’s story is inspirational and often funny. “My high-heel legs, or ‘sexy legs,’ were created using my sister’s feet…they molded her feet at a four-inch arch and used those molds to make my prosthetic feet.” She showed off her new legs on Twitter!

            Jessica challenges herself in and out of the water, but her experiences will tantalize young writers as well.

            She has rituals before every race, including eating a banana, clapping her hands three times and shaking her arms out.

·       What do you do to calm or inspire yourself or give you good luck before a match, game or special event? Why do you think it helps?

Jessica was always willing to try something new.

·       What is something new you tried to do? How did you feel? What did you learn from the experience?

Jessica is rightly proud of her accomplishments.

·       Write about something in your life that gives you great pride – don’t worry about being boastful. This is your time to “show and tell” on a piece of paper!

Jessica likes posing for photo shoots and often did this with her siblings.  “Elle decided to use a picture of me on a couch, posing on my knees without my prosthetics…It was really cool to be part of something that showed how people with disabilities an do the same things as everyone else, including model.”  

·       Have students pair off and take flattering photos of each other. Write an “artist statement” about your photo, explaining why you chose a particular pose or background and what you want people to learn from the photo.

Finally, think about Jessica’s story overall and write your thoughts about what qualities and factors in her life enabled her to overcome great challenges and contribute to her success. Then think about what qualities and factors in your own life could help you be successful – and unsinkable.

https://childrensbookguild.org/index.php/karen-leggett-abouraya

What Does Your Character Want?

Guest Post by Claudia Mills

            One of the most powerful questions for launching a story is: what does my main character want? So simple and obvious - and yet even experienced authors can forget this.

          

            As I was writing my most recent book, Nixie Ness, Cooking Star, set in an after-school cooking camp, at first I focused only on Nixie’s predicament. Now that her mother has a job outside the home, Nixie has to attend an after-school program, which means she’ll no longer be spending afternoons at home with her best friend, Grace, which means Grace will be spending afternoons instead with Nixie’s nemesis, Elyse. But what should happen next? I was stuck until I asked the crucial question: what does Nixie want? Well, she wants her life to be the way it used to be. But this is such a vague and hopeless desire. The story came into focus for me when I gave a different answer: Nixie feels she is losing her best friend, and she wants to get her best friend back again.

            Once we know what our character wants, the plot is driven by what she does to get it. If her first attempt succeeds, we have a very short and skimpy story. But if her first attempt fails, and her second attempt fails, and even her third attempt fails, her ultimate success is much more satisfying.

            If your students are stuck for a story idea, encourage them to think of what a character might want. They might start by thinking about what they want. A bike? A dog? A sleepover with a friend? A special family vacation?

            Then lead them in brainstorming how someone could try to get this thing. With brainstorming, even preposterous ideas are welcome. Remember it’s good if the first ideas end up failing! One of Nixie’s failed friendship-saving ideas is to get fame and fortune by starring in the cooking-camp video. Another is to bribe her friend with yummy camp-baked treats. A third is to pretend to be sick at camp in order to guilt her mother into quitting her job.

            For young writers, simple wants, simple strategies, and simple failures can work best.

            Your character wants a bike.  How could he get a bike?

1.     Find a job and save up money to buy one.

2.     Win one in a contest.

3.     Get a friend to trade his bike for something he wants even more.

Then, the really fun part: How could each of these ideas go wrong? Failure can be one of the most comical things to write about – and one of the saddest. And then the success that follows is sweeter still.

Nixie ends up keeping her best friend, but in the process she realizes Grace can still be her friend even if Grace is now friends with Elyse, too. It’s fine if a story ends with a character coming to a new understanding of what she wants.

But knowing what your character wants is where a story begins.

Claudia Mills is the author of almost 60 books for young readers, including most recently the Franklin School Friends series from Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and her new After-School Superstars series from Holiday House.  In addition to writing books, she has been a college professor in the philosophy department at the University of Colorado at Boulder and in the graduate programs in children’s literature at Hollins University in Roanoke. Visit Claudia at www.claudiamillsauthor.com.

Except When They Don't

by Laura Gehl

Except When They Don’t is written by Laura Gehl and illustrated by Joshua Heinsz. The book is about how girls always love pink and princesses, and boys always love blue and robots…except when they don’t! In other words, it is a book that encourages kids not to worry about gender stereotypes and to just be themselves.

After reading Except When They Don’t out loud, try these writing activities with your students:

1. Make a list of “boy” stereotypes and “girl” stereotypes. Then write a story with a main character who does not fit with these gender stereotypes. Maybe you will write a story about a girl who is a football star, or a boy who has the lead role in a ballet. Maybe you will write about a boy who loves wearing necklaces to school, or a girl whose favorite toys are cars.  Remember: your character should have lots of sides to his or her personality, just like every real person does! A girl who loves football might also love pink and be great at math and have five pet cats. A boy who loves wearing necklaces might also be the president of the school student government and play soccer at recess and play the drums in the school band.

2. Can you think of a time in your own life when you felt like you couldn’t do something because of your gender? Maybe you couldn’t get the sparkly red shoes at the shoe store because they were “girl shoes.” Or maybe you couldn’t sign up for wrestling because “that’s for boys.”  Or if you can’t think of a memory like that, imagine that you have a friend coming to you with a secret. Your friend wants to paint his nails, but he is embarrassed to ask his mom to borrow her nail polish, because nail polish is just for girls. Or maybe your friend wants to cut her hair really short, but she is worried everyone will say she has a “boy” haircut. What advice would you give your friend? How could you help?

3. Imagine that you are the owner of a toy store. There are dolls, tea sets, trucks, trains, markers, robots…every toy you can imagine. What if a customer came up to you and said, “I want to buy presents for a little girl and a little boy. Can you give me some advice?” What questions would you ask the customer? How would you decide which toys to recommend?

4. Starting in elementary school, sports teams are usually separated by gender. There are girls soccer teams and boys soccer teams, girls basketball teams and boys basketball teams. Do you think this is a good idea or a bad idea? Why?

5. Imagine 100 kids (50 boys, 50 girls) growing up with human parents and 100 kids (50 boys, 50 girls) growing up with alien parents. The alien parents just arrived on earth and don’t know about our human gender stereotypes. Do you think the kids raised by aliens would grow up wearing different types of clothes and liking different activities than the kids raised by human parents? Why or why not?

 Laura Gehl is the author of picture books including One Big Pair of Underwear (Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Title, International Literacy Association Honor Book, Booklist Books for Youth Editors’ Choice); Hare and Tortoise Race Across Israel, And Then Another Sheep Turned Up, and Koala Challah (all PJ Library selections); the Peep and Egg series (Parents’ Choice Recommendation, Amazon Editors’ Pick, Children’s Choice Book Award Finalist); My Pillow Keeps Moving (Junior Library Guild selection, NYPL Best Books of 2018 selection); and I Got a Chicken for my Birthday (Kirkus Best Picture Books of 2018 selection). 2019 releases include Except When They Don’t (Little Bee), Dibs! (Lerner), Juniper Kai: Super Spy (Two Lions); Judge Juliette (Sterling); Always Looking Up: A Story of Astronomer Nancy Grace Roman (Whitman); and the Baby Scientist series (HarperCollins). Laura lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband and four children.  Visit her online at www.lauragehl.com

Speak Up! Listen Up!

guest post by Kathy MacMillan

What does it mean to raise your voice? It can be a lot more than screaming or shouting– it also means defending yourself or a cause you believe in. 

The women profiled in She Spoke: 14 Women Who Raised Their Voices and Changed the World, written by Kathy MacMillan and Manuela Bernardi and illustrated by Kathrin Honesta (Familius Press, 2019), faced all kinds of hardships, obstacles, and even violence – but they didn’t let those things stop them from speaking up. The book features activists Dolores Huerta, Suzan Shown Harjo, Leymah Gbowee, scientists Dr. Temple Grandin and Dr. Jane Goodall, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, trailblazers Shirley Chisholm, Abby Wambach, and more. The built-in sound card allows readers to hear the inspiring words of these groundbreaking women at the touch of a button.

The unique audio format of She Spoke makes it an engaging resource for the classroom, but it can be used beyond Women’s History Month! Here are some suggestions:

-After sharing each profile and audio clip, use the accompanying discussion questions to prompt your students to connect the lessons learned to their own lives. The discussion questions could be used as writing prompts or a launchpad for group discussion.

-Discuss how hearing the voices of the women impacts you. How is hearing the person’s original voice different from just hearing someone else read the words?

-Explore more quotes from these women and other trailblazers at our She Spoke board on Pinterest:

-For a more in-depth project, have students write their own profiles in the style of She Spoke. Start by having them find a quote that exemplifies what their subject stood for. (Please see some great research resources we have compiled.) Once they have selected a quote, they can write a brief profile that shows how that quote exemplifies their subject’s life. This exercise is an excellent way to practice thesis statements and supporting evidence. You could incorporate an artistic element by having students create a portrait of their subject to accompany their writing.

About the Authors:

Kathy MacMillan is a nationally certified American Sign Language interpreter,

writer, teacher, librarian, and storyteller. She is the author of the Little Hands Signing board book series (Familius), the young adult novels Sword and Verse and Dagger and Coin (HarperTeen), and nine books for parents, librarians, and educators, including Little Hands and Big Hands: Children and Adults Signing Together (Huron Street Press). She lives near Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Find her online at KathyMacMillan.com

Manuela Bernardi is a film and TV writer based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she was born and raised. She has collaborated on award-winning feature films and has written on shows for TV Globo, TBS, GNT, Multishow, and the History Channel. Her screenplay for the short film The Healing Tree won USC's Peter Stark Special Project grant and went on to be selected for Cannes’ Short Film Corner. With a BA in journalism from PUC-Rio, Manuela got her MFA in writing for screen and television from USC in Los Angeles, which she attended on a Fulbright/CAPES scholarship.

 

The Roots of Rap

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

There is probably a tapper in your home or class: the boy or girl who is constantly tapping, often unconsciously, with pencil or thumbs or toes.  Rhythm pulses through their bodies like strikes of lightening  - like spoken word poetry – like rap – like the poetry of Carole Boston Weatherford’s new book, The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop.

Hip-hop, explains Weatherford, “is a form of youth expression that originated in New York City in the late 1970s and included four pillars: graffiti, break dancing, rapping/MCing, and DJing/scratching/turntablism.” Rap, “the spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics performed to a beat.”

With illustrations by Frank Morrison that jump and jam on every page, The Roots of Rap celebrates the loud, boisterous original culture of hip-hop, giving young people an opportunity to write and contemplate in ways they might not have thought were acceptable in a classroom.

Look at Weatherford’s list of “Hip Hop Who’s Who.”

·       Which musicians do you know and like?

·       Pick two musicians and compare and contrast their music.

·       Create a hip-hop name for yourself and explain it.

Of course read the book out loud. Very loud.

·       What graffiti message would you like to paint on a wall? (Is there a classroom bulletin board for all the student messages?)

·       How do Morrison’s illustrations amplify and strengthen the text?

·       Why makes rap and hip-hop poetry so powerful – and lasting?

Of course you can plan a classroom hip-hop party, with plenty of music and everyone writing a poem that they are proud to stand up and say or sing.

“From Atlanta to Zanzibar, youth spit freestyle freedom sounds.

Hip-hop is a language that’s spoken the whole world ‘round.”

And please celebrate Carole Boston Weatherford as the 2019 Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award winner on May 11 in Washington, D.C.

I Call Dibs!

by Laura Gehl

Dibs, written by Laura Gehl and illustrated by Marcin Piwowarski, is the story of two brothers. Julian calls “dibs” so frequently that his baby brother Clancy ends up saying “dibs” as his very first word. Things get out of control when Clancy starts calling dibs on a bakery, an airplane, and even the White House! But when Clancy gets trapped in space, it is Julian who needs to harness the power of dibs to rescue his little brother.

 After reading Dibs out loud, try these writing activities with your students:

1. If you could call dibs on ANYTHING, the way Clancy does, what would you call dibs on? Why?

2. Julian gets frustrated when Clancy doesn’t follow the “rules” of Dibs. Even though these rules are not written down, most kids know you can call dibs on the biggest cookie but not on a whole bakery. You can call dibs on sitting in the window seat in an airplane, but you can’t call dibs on a whole airplane. Think about rules in your life. What rules at home or school do you wish you could break? What rules do you wish other people followed? Do you have a sibling, cousin, or friend who breaks rules? How do you feel about that when it happens?

3. Some kids who read the book Dibs already know the expression “calling dibs,” and some kids have never heard the expression before. Make a list of expressions that you know. Which of these expressions do you actually use when you talk to your friends?

4. Look at your list of expressions that you know from #3. Can you imagine how a kid could take one of those expressions too far, the way Clancy takes dibs too far in the book Dibs? How could you turn that into a story? For example, think about the expression “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” What if a kid decided that she would eat ten apples—or a hundred apples—or a thousand apples—every day so that she would never, ever get sick? And then she ate so many apples that it actually made her sick! Or maybe she turned into an apple and then her grandma wanted to turn her into apple pie! Take one of the expressions from your list and write a story in which a kid takes the expression too far.

  

Bio: Laura Gehl is the author of picture books including One Big Pair of Underwear (Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Title, International Literacy Association Honor Book, Booklist Books for Youth Editors’ Choice); Hare and Tortoise Race Across Israel, And Then Another Sheep Turned Up, and Koala Challah (all PJ Library selections); the Peep and Egg series (Parents’ Choice Recommendation, Amazon Editors’ Pick, Children’s Choice Book Award Finalist); My Pillow Keeps Moving (Junior Library Guild selection, NYPL Best Books of 2018 selection); and I Got a Chicken for my Birthday (Kirkus Best Picture Books of 2018 selection). 2019 releases include Except When They Don’t (Little Bee), Dibs! (Lerner), Juniper Kai: Super Spy (Two Lions); Judge Juliette (Sterling); Always Looking Up: A Story of Astronomer Nancy Grace Roman (Whitman); and the Baby Scientist series (HarperCollins). Laura lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband and four children.  Visit her online at www.lauragehl.com.

Words Have Power

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

“Let us pick up our books and pens…

One child, one teacher, one pen, and one book can change the world.”

            United Nations, July 12, 2013

The words of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teen shot for defending the right of all children to be educated, have echoed around the world.  She continues to travel and speak out, highlighting the dim future for girls forced to leave school early and children forced to flee their homes.

The new edition of Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words (2019, Lee & Low)  tells Malala’s story from the blog she began writing for the BBC at age 11 to her Nobel Prize in 2014 and the organizations she continues to inspire as a 21-year-old college student.

When she returned from her Girl Power Trip around the world in 2017, she said she “wants every girl and boy to stand up and speak out for the millions of children worldwide who are not yet able to attend school.”  The book includes extensive back matter on Pakistan, the Taliban, the Malala Fund and other organizations young people can join to support the cause of global education for all.

Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words is a perfect launchpad for children from elementary school even through high school to think and write about civic engagement, as well as their own lives contrasted with Malala and the children for whom she advocates. Here are a few suggestions:

·       Malala was forced to flee her own home with just a small backpack when the Pakistani Army began fighting the Taliban.  Aside from whatever food and clothes you could carry, what three things would you take if you had to leave your home suddenly and why? (Give this assignment very carefully if there are children in your class who may actually have experienced such displacement.)

·       Children have an immediate understanding of things that are not fair. Have them write about something in their school or community that is unfair – and what they could do about it.

·       For an art project, have students consider this illustration showing Malala’s family when they returned to their town after it had been heavily damaged by fighting. Illustrator Susan L. Roth says she is not precise in her art, which she makes with paper, fabric and other “found” objects. But the emotions in this illustration are very clear. What is the family feeling? Ask students to use paper and found objects to make a portrait showing an emotion. 

·       Older students may scoff at the idea of reading a picture book, but they too can write about how illustrations help tell the story (visual literacy). Students can also react to the ideas in this Washington Post article about the moral authority of children – including Malala. Why do her ideas resonate? Why do students think protests, marches and other civic action by children have a greater impact than actions by adults (or not)?

·       A long-term project: Identify an issue or cause that is supported by the majority of students in class and talk about ways to make the change they would like to see. Write letters to the appropriate authority, design flyers and write online messages to spread the word.

Malala rarely draws attention to herself when she speaks. When she accepted the Nobel Prize, she said, “This award is…for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.”

Indeed, says the young warrior with words, “our words can change the world.”

Traveling Back in Time

guest post by Deborah Kalb

What would it be like to travel back in time and meet the early presidents and their families? That’s what the fifth graders in George Washington & the Magic Hat and its sequel, John Adams & the Magic Bobblehead, get to do.

Sam and Ava are regular 21^st century kids, living across the street from each other in Bethesda, Maryland, dealing with issues a lot of kids face. Sam and his former best friend, Andrew, aren’t speaking to each other any more. Ava, in a newly blended family, can’t stand her stepbrother, J.P.

And then, thanks to a crotchety hat, in Sam’s case, and a talking bobblehead, in Ava’s, they are transported into a completely different time.

Students can focus on the historical figures--George Washington, John and Abigail Adams, and more. What do they know about the Founding Fathers and Mothers? Is there one that they’re particularly interested in and why? What do they think these historical figures would make of today’s world if the time travel were reversed?

And then there are the contemporary issues. How do the students identify with Sam? With Ava? How do the students try to resolve the issues that bother them?

If they had a magic hat or a magic bobblehead, which time period would they like to visit, and why? Is there a particular person they’d like to get to know? 

Any of these questions can prompt a discussion or writing assignment that will get students thinking about history or today’s issues or a combination of both.

Here are links to George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, in Northern Virginia, and to the Adams National Historic Park in Quincy, Massachusetts.

   

Deborah Kalb is a freelance writer and editor. She spent two decades working as a journalist in Washington, D.C., for news organizations including Gannett News Service, Congressional Quarterly, U.S. News & World Report, and The Hill, mostly covering Congress and politics. Her book blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, which she started in 2012, features hundreds of interviews she has conducted with a wide variety of authors. She is the author of the new children’s book The President and Me: John Adams and the Magic Bobblehead (Schiffer, 2018), the second in a series — after The President and Me: George Washington and the Magic Hat (Schiffer, 2016) Visit http://www.deborahkalb.com/

Book Gardens

Guest Post by Rashin Kheiriyeh

“Nestled in the branches of a tree,

Arlo opened his book and breathed in.

“Beginnings were always the best part.

They smelled as if anything were possible.”

I illustrated The Book Tree, written by Paul Czajak – a wonderful story about a boy who sits on the branches of a tree to read. When one of his books falls on the Mayor’s head, the Mayor decides to tear up every book in town – with disastrous consequences for teachers and their students, chefs and their restaurants, actors and their theatres and of course, libraries.

But then there was a miracle: “a sprout springing from where the page had been buried. It began to open its leaves. It reached for Arlo’s words, begging for more.” Pretty soon, Arlo was imagining and writing stories about giants and swans and fire-breathing beasts.

“People grew hungry for reading again. Some wrote their own stories and became book gardeners themselves.”

Even the Mayor finally shared the wonder of books.

My illustrations feature oil paint, ink and collages. I used natural materials to bring  depth and contrast to my drawings, like using real feathers, pieces of wood, fabrics and metals to make the collages more tangible.

People of the town have different skin tones with blue hair or mustaches. They look funny and whimsical.  The book tree itself is been printed with golden ink to give it a magical shine. The books that actually grow on the tree branches are in different languages.

The Book Tree can inspire student writing and even turn a whole school into book gardeners – limited only by your imagination.

Here are a few ideas to get started:

1 –  Have students draw a book tree full of their favorite books.

2 –  The teacher can draw a tree and each student draw or attach his/her favorite book to it.

3 – Draw the Mayor and Arlo as friends, reading a book together – or have students write a paragraph about what books the Mayor and Arlo enjoyed reading together. Perhaps they could even write a story together.

4 – Look at the illustrations in the book and find places where materials other than paint and paper have been used.  Make your own collage with lots of different materials.

The motto of publisher Barefoot Books is to “step inside a story.”  What stories would your students like to step inside?  The Book Tree celebrates the themes Barefoot Books seeks to highlight: “encourage independence of spirit, enthusiasm for learning and respect for the world’s diversity.”

 www.rashinart.com

Read Africa

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

How often do you make a list for the grocery store and then leave the list at home and have to remember what you wrote down?  That is Fatima’s dilemma in Grandma’s List, a Children’s Africana Book Award winner by Portia Dery, illustrated by Toby Newsome. 

Calling Grandma’s List an excellent read-aloud book, Africa Access Review says the illustrations “show a neighborhood in Ghana that is very typical of many African towns with shops, gardens, small livestock, and many people outside working and playing. Children not familiar with West Africa can learn about palm nut soup, groundnuts (peanuts) and Bissap drink.”

Africa Access highlights the best books about Africa especially during its February Read Africa initiative but throughout the year as well.

Fatima has convinced her grandmother she can help with the chores on Grandma’s list of errands – but she loses the list and has to remember all the details, mixing up just about everything.  Contrary to expectations, Fatima’s family is very forgiving and she concludes that being a child isn’t so bad after all.

This is an excellent book for children to study the illustrations:

·       How does the dinner table look the same as yours? Different?

·       What about the village scene – what looks familiar? Can you draw a picture of your neighborhood on a Saturday morning?

·       Have children write their own list of grocery items or household tasks and imagine they lost the list. Ask them to write a paragraph about how they could help themselves remember items without that list.

·       Encourage children to consider the importance of details. Find out about cornflour – the kind Fatima mistakenly purchased – and write a paragraph about how it is used differently from wheat flour. Try to find a Ghanaian recipe using cornflour (usually called cornstarch in the United States).

·       Fatima doesn’t like her nickname “Fati.”  Do you have a nickname you like – or don’t like? Write about your nickname – or a nickname you would like to have.

There are more classroom ideas in the Africa Access Review of Grandma’s List as well as recommended picture books (Anansi Reads) and chapter books (Sankofa Reads), book marks and reviews of Children’s Africana Book Award winners. 

Children and teachers may add their own comments about the books they read at http://africaaccessreview.org/ - which becomes a student writing activity in itself.  It is also possible for students to submit videos or posters about the books they read, write a letter to the author or illustrator and even request a visit from a Read Africa Teaching Artist. 

 The 2018 CABA awards  will be celebrated with a reception on April 5 and a family festival April 6 at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.  

An Amazing Classroom Resource!

by Jacqueline Jules

Where can a teacher easily find interesting pieces to share in the classroom? Look no further than Issue 8 of Balloons Lit. Journal.

This magazine for upper elementary and middle school students is an amazing resource of poetry, fiction, and art. What’s more, it includes contributions from all over the world and features student work alongside professional adults. Poems are attractively presented in full page layouts sure to inspire the imagination. I am thrilled that one of my poems,  “Egret” appears on page 41.

I wrote “Egret” while I was out on a brisk walk near a body of water and this beautifully immobile creature stopped me in my tracks. Ask your students to describe an animal or plant so enchanting they couldn’t help but pause for a moment to gaze. Better yet, take your students outside and ask them to stand silently for five minutes, watching the natural world. What did they see, hear, smell? How did they feel? Can they make an effort to pay attention to the grass, the trees, the clouds, the insects, and everything else which flutters unnoticed when we hurry too much? Mindfulness can enrich one’s life as well as one’s writing.   

Listening to an author read their own work can be a meaningful experience for students. Balloons Lit. Journal also offers audio clips on selected pieces. Scroll down the page where Issue 8 appears and you will see an audio section and an opportunity to hear me read my poem, “Egret” as well as three other poets in this issue.  

I highly recommend sharing 14 year old Braxton Schieler’s voice reading his work, “Someday I’ll Be—An Autobiography.” Braxton writes about his life from the age of three till an imagined old age, describing emotional transitions with clarity and insight. Hearing a student read his own personal narrative aloud should jump start many a reluctant pen in your classroom.

Other pieces in Balloons Lit. Issue 8, such as the poems, “I Think My Teacher is a Witch” and  “Pillow Problems” could be great models for humorous writing.

Finally the artwork in Balloons Lit. Issue 8 is stunning. Available in PDF form on the website, images could be projected to present the ekphrastic challenge of providing a written response to and/or description of artwork.

Don’t miss this amazing resource for the classroom! Check out Issue 8 of Balloons Lit. Journal today!

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