Artist Michelle Stitzlein visits Our School

We have a great art teacher at our school. He is always busy doing great work with kids and is always thinking about big picture. This year, he organized a visit by a local artist, Michelle Stitzlein. She visited our school for two days last week and kids were able to work together to create pieces that will be put in our school courtyard.

Much of Michelle Stitzlein's art is art with recycled materials. We began the two day visit with a whole school assembly where Michelle shared her own art. It was amazing to see the creative process and the places she gets her ideas. As part of her slide show, she talked about her travels and the inspirations she finds for her art in different areas of the world. She also shared examples of other things she's found in her travels that have been created from recycled materials. Shoes, houses, etc. created from things that once had a different use. It was a fascinating presentation for both children and adults. She had so much to say about art, creativity, inspiration, taking care of our world, and more. All in such a short time.

For months, to get ready for the visit, our kids have been bringing in plastic bottle caps. Creating sculptures with children, using bottlecaps is one of her specialities. And her book LITTLE BOTTLECAP BOTTLECAP gives families lots of ideas for more projects they can do at home. It was amazing to see how many bottlecaps we collected at our school over the course of the last few months. And it was amazing to see how many sizes and colors bottlecaps come in.

For the two days that Michelle visited, each class was able to join her in the gym to work on one of the community pieces that were made. Before her visit, classes painted the pieces. During her visit, the kids worked in small groups to choose the best caps for each space, decide on the placement of the bottlecaps, and use drills to secure the caps to the pieces.

We ended up with several great large pieces, many of which will be placed around our courtyard and other places in the school.

This was a great visit. Michelle was amazing with the students. I am sure she opened up lots of possibilities for our students in terms of creativity. I love community projects and the focus on recycled art was a great theme, I thought. I think her work with kids will have a lasting impact in so many ways. We are lucky to have such an amazing local artist to work with our students.

January Mosaic

Eleven of this month's pictures feature food or a food-related event. (hmmm...)

Ten are about the cold and dark of winter.

Four pictures are of animals. One dog is peeking out of the curtains. Only the cat is ours.

Three were taken at school.

Which one is your favorite?

A Great New ABC Book--My New Favorite Baby Gift

I loved Margaret Wise Brown's SLEEPY ABC the second I saw it at Cover to Cover. The book is illustrated by Karen Katz. What a great duo. And what a fun book. The illustrations of the babies and the colors make it such a happy book! The themes around all of the pages is a good-night theme with many ways to look at it. A few favorites are:

"B is for Baaaaaa

When the lambs

close their eyes"

"F is for Feet that

won't fall asleep"

You can't tell by my examples but this is also a rhyming books. Every double page rhymes so it has a rhythm that kids will love. This book is my new favorite baby gift. I also think primary kids would love it. And it could serve as a mentor text to anyone writing his/her own ABC book--as a model of writing or as a way to think about a topic, such as bedtime.

Poetry Friday -- Swimming

photo by gabyu

SWIMMING

First it's about the shock of the cold

and the strength of the first five laps.

Then, for the next howevermany laps,

it's about the rhythm

and the breathing

and the black line below me.

It's the rhythm

and the breathing

and the black line below me.

It's the cardinal outside my window this morning

and the things I need to do this weekend

and the things that didn't get done today.

It's the rhythm

and the breathing

and the black line below me.

It's the girl in the purple bikini in the lane next to me.

She swims so fast it seems like she's on top of the water

instead of in it,

like I am.

It's the rhythm

and the breathing

and the black line below me.

It's the smell of the chlorine

and the push off the wall.

And the rhythm

and the breathing

and the black line below me.

Finally it's about the deliciously hot water of the shower

and the sting of the cold air on my damp head.

It's about

the drive home and

the late dinner and

the falling asleep.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2010

This is a poem about what it's like to swim laps. While it might look tedious from the deck (back and forth, back and forth), there's actually a lot going on inside my head while I swim. Besides working to keep track of my lap count, I think about my day, plan what needs to get done tomorrow, and make up stories about the swimmers around me. The counting keeps me focused, though, and makes my swim a 30 or 40 minute meditation. And no matter what else my mind is doing, the swim is always about the rhythm and the breathing and the black line below me.

Anastasia has the Poetry Friday round up today at Picture Book of the Day.

As you can see in the sidebar, we only have a month of hosts left for the Poetry Friday round up. If you'd like to host, pick a Friday in March, April, May, June or July (except July 16 -- I'm taking that one) and leave a message in the comments or send an email to me at mlhahn AT earthlink DOT net.

CitizenKid: Thinking in Terms of a Village

This is the final post about the Kids Can Press series, CitizenKid. CitizenKid is "A collection of books that inform children about the world and inspire them to be better global citizens."

We're featuring the CitizenKid series because one of the CitizenKid authors, David J. Smith, author of the books reviewed in this post, will be at the February 20, 2010 Dublin Literacy Conference.

The theme of this year's conference, our 21st, is "Celebrating 21st Century Literacies." From the NCTE Position Statement on 21st Century Literacies, we know that "Twenty-first century readers and writers need to

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments"

There will certainly be authors and presenters at the conference whose topics deal with the tools of technology, multi-media texts, and information management. Just as important, there will be a focus on relationships, cross-cultural collaboration, and the global community.

We hope you'll consider joining us for the day on February 20 at the Dublin Literacy Conference. Come meet David J. Smith and hear him speak! You can find registration information here.

If the World Were a Village

by David J. Smith

illustrated by Shelagh Armstrong

Kids Can Press, 2002

Cross-cultural problem solving and global information sharing are among the 21st Century Literacies we need to help our students (and likely ourselves) to develop. Yet how to impart in our students an understanding of the world when it is so huge and varied and incomprehensibly complex?

David J. Smith has one answer: reduce the world's population of 6 billion and some to a village of 100 that mathematically represents the world in a more understandable way.

Nationalities: Of the 100 people in the village, 61 are from Asia; 5 are from Canada and the United States.

Languages: More than half the people in the village speak just 8 languages, even though there are almost 6000 languages in the village of 100. "If you could say hello in these 8 languages, you could greet well over half the people in the village." That sounds like a fine place to start!

Food: Along with sheep, goats, cows, pigs, camels and horses, the global village has 189 chickens -- nearly twice as many as the people in the village!

But here's where some really hard discussions can start to take place. Although there is plenty of food in the village, it is not distributed equally. 60 of the 100 people in the village are always hungry. Only 24 always have enough to eat. Whoa.

Other "whoa" moments are likely to occur when you read about the air and water, school and literacy, money and possessions, and electricity. We (in the United States) have so much, and yet we represent such a small part of the village.

Smith includes notes for adults about teaching "world-mindedness." A strong sense of world geography is the starting place, and he recommends connecting learning with doing.

If America Were a Village

by David J. Smith

illustrated by Shelagh Armstrong

Kids Can Press, 2009

If you want to start a little closer to home helping your students to think about where they fit into a bigger picture, this is the book for you. The "chapters" or "topics" are a bit different than those in If The World Were A Village, and they are presented as questions: "Who are we?", "Where do we come from?", "What do we own?", etc. In lots of the sections, interesting historical comparisons are made.

For example, in "Where do we come from?" we learn that "If the America of today were a village of 100: 15 would be of German ancestry, 11 would be of Irish ancestry, 9 African, 9 English, 7 Mexican, 6 Italian, 3 Polish, 3 French, 3 Native American, 2 Scottish, 2 Dutch, 2 Norwegian, 1 Scotch-Irish, and 1 Swedish." In 1790, those numbers would have been very different. At that time, "53 would have come from England, 19 from Africa (most of them slaves), 11 from Scotland and Ireland and 7 from Germany." We teach about immigration trends in American history, but thinking in terms of the village of 100 makes history come to life.

As with If The World Were A Village, reading this book with your students will bring up hard realities and hard questions. We are a rich nation -- how do we share our wealth? We use more energy and water than any other nation -- how can we slow this down and be more responsible world citizens? We have a great variety of cultures and religions and lifestyles in our country --how can we be more accepting of others? A new immigrant to the United States arrives every 27 seconds -- what are we doing to make them feel welcome?

We hope you've enjoyed this week's posts on the CitizenKid series from Kids Can Press. What a great collection of books to have in your classroom and to use to open the walls of your classroom and let the world in.

One Hen

How to Build Your Own Country

Tree of Life

One Well

Ryan & Jimmy

If the World Were A Village

If America Were A Village

CitizenKid: One Well

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the Kids Can Press series, CitizenKid. CitizenKid is "A collection of books that inform children about the world and inspire them to be better global citizens."

We're featuring the CitizenKid series because one of the CitizenKid authors, David J. Smith, will be at the February 20, 2010 Dublin Literacy Conference.

The theme of this year's conference, our 21st, is "Celebrating 21st Century Literacies." From theNCTE Position Statement on 21st Century Literacies, we know that "Twenty-first century readers and writers need to

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments"

There will certainly be authors and presenters at the conference whose topics deal with the tools of technology, multi-media texts, and information management. Just as important, there will be a focus on relationships, cross-cultural collaboration, and the global community.

We hope you'll consider joining us for the day on February 20 at the Dublin Literacy Conference. You can find registration information here.

One Well: The Story of Water on Earth

by Rochelle Strauss

illustrated by Rosemary Woods

Kids Can Press, 2007

Of all our natural resources, it is perhaps our water that we take most for granted. At least in our part of the world.

We should remember that there is a finite and discrete amount of water on our planet. The water we have is the same water that has been here for billions of years. We should think of our water as one global well.

This book has short articles with gorgeous, detailed illustrations and fact boxes that tell about the water cycle, how plants and animals need and use water, water as a habitat, and the human impact on the water we share.

This is a great book to share along with...

Ryan and Jimmy: And the Well in Africa That Brought Them Together

by Herb Shoveller

Kids Can Press, first paperback edition 2008

In 1998, a Canadian first grader named Ryan Hreljac learned how difficult it is for people in other parts of the world to get fresh water. His teacher told him it only cost $70 to build a well for an entire village. He went home and asked his parents for the money, but they made him work to earn it. And work he did. One chore at a time, a few dollars at a time, Ryan earned the whole $70.

When he went to deliver his donation, he found out that the $70 would only buy the hand pump; he needed $2000 for the whole well. That didn't stop Ryan. Between his determination and the ripple effect caused by his story, he built a well in a village in Uganda. He also became friends with Jimmy, a boy from the village, visited the village, and went to school there for a day.

Ryan's family remained close to Jimmy even during a resurgence of the rebel war in Uganda. They managed to get Jimmy a flight out and a visa to visit Canada so that he could attend a conference with Ryan and tell the story of the well in his village. While he was in Canada, the fighting in Uganda got worse and he applied for and received refugee status. First, Ryan's well changed his life, and then Ryan's family accepted him as their fourth son, giving him a chance at a kind of life he never even dreamed existed when he lived in Uganda.

This book is further proof that anyone, even children, can make the world a better place, one small change at a time.

CitizenKid: Tree of Life

This is the third in a series of posts about the Kids Can Press series, CitizenKid. CitizenKid is "A collection of books that inform children about the world and inspire them to be better global citizens."

We're featuring the CitizenKid series because one of the CitizenKid authors, David J. Smith, will be at the February 20, 2010 Dublin Literacy Conference.

The theme of this year's conference, our 21st, is "Celebrating 21st Century Literacies." From the NCTE Position Statement on 21st Century Literacies, we know that "Twenty-first century readers and writers need to

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments"

There will certainly be authors and presenters at the conference whose topics deal with the tools of technology, multi-media texts, and information management. Just as important, there will be a focus on relationships, cross-cultural collaboration, and the global community.

We hope you'll consider joining us for the day on February 20 at the Dublin Literacy Conference. You can find registration information here.

Tree of Life: The Incredible Biodiversity of Life on Earth

by Rochelle Strauss

illustrated by Margot Thompson

Kids Can Press, 2004

This is a fascinating book that makes taxonomy, the classification of living organisms, accessible to young readers by using the metaphor of The Tree of Life. On The Tree of Life are 5 branches -- the 5 kingdoms of living things: the Kingdoms of Monera (bacteria), Fungi, Protoctista (paramecia, amoebas, algae, etc.), Plants, and Animals.

The metaphor is further extended to the leaves on the tree: "If each species were represented by a leaf, there would be 1,750,000 leaves on the Tree of Life."

On each double-page spread about a Kingdom, there is information about the specifics of that Kingdom and about the way the rest of the Tree of Life depends on it. And there is a visual that shows how many of the 1,750,000 species (leaves on the Tree of Life) come from that Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Animals has 1,318,000 species, 1,265,000 of which are invertebrates. Of the 52,500 vertebrates, only 4,640 of the species are mammals. Of the mammals, humans are one of the 233 species of primates. "Humans -- 1 leaf on the Tree of Life."

Humankind's place in the "Incredible Biodiversity of Life on Earth" is so small, and yet so much depends on the ways we do (and don't) care for our planet. I know that last bullet point on NCTE's list of 21st Century Literacies refers to the ethical responsibilities required by the complex environments we have created with the tools of technology, but I can't help thinking they refer to the ethical responsibilities required by the complex environment of the Earth, too.

CitizenKid: How To Build Your Own Country

This is the second in a series of posts about the Kids Can Press series, CitizenKid. CitizenKid is "A collection of books that inform children about the world and inspire them to be better global citizens."

We're featuring the CitizenKid series because one of the CitizenKid authors, David J. Smith, will be at the February 20, 2010 Dublin Literacy Conference.

The theme of this year's conference, our 21st, is "Celebrating 21st Century Literacies." From the NCTE Position Statement on 21st Century Literacies, we know that "Twenty-first century readers and writers need to

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments"

There will certainly be authors and presenters at the conference whose topics deal with the tools of technology, multi-media texts, and information management. Just as important, there will be a focus on relationships, cross-cultural collaboration, and the global community.

We hope you'll consider joining us for the day on February 20 at the Dublin Literacy Conference. You can find registration information here.

How To Build Your Own Country

by Valerie Wyatt

illustrated by Fred Rix

Kids Can Press, 2009

As it turns out, there are just three simple steps to building your own country: 1. Stake our your identity, 2. Run the country, and 3. Meet the Neighbors.

Author Valerie Wyatt leads the reader through the details of these three easy steps with lots of humor (the example country is Bathmatia, with a population of 3 [including dog] and a capital city of Lintbourg) and plenty of real-world examples, such as the annexation of East Timor by Indonesia in 1975 and the motto of the African countries of Chad and Burundi ("Unity, Work, Progress.") There's a template for creating your new country's passport, and for writing a National Anthem (to the tune of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm"). Since you're going to have to set up a government, you might as well learn about a few of the most common forms, and in the likely event that you choose a democracy, you can find out about holding elections, writing a constitution, making laws and money, and serving your citizens.

You probably have to teach a unit on government at some point during the year, right? Why not grab a copy of this book and see how much your students can learn by creating their own countries!

CitizenKid: One Hen

This is the first in a series of posts about the Kids Can Press series, CitizenKid. CitizenKid is "A collection of books that inform children about the world and inspire them to be better global citizens."

We're featuring the CitizenKid series because one of the CitizenKid authors, David J. Smith, will be at the February 20, 2010 Dublin Literacy Conference.

The theme of this year's conference, our 21st, is "Celebrating 21st Century Literacies." From the NCTE Position Statement on 21st Century Literacies, we know that "Twenty-first century readers and writers need to

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments"

There will certainly be authors and presenters at the conference whose topics deal with the tools of technology, multi-media texts, and information management. Just as important, there will be a focus on relationships, cross-cultural collaboration, and the global community.

We hope you'll consider joining us for the day on February 20 at the Dublin Literacy Conference. You can find registration information here.

One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference

by Katie Milway and Eugenie Fernandes

illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes

Kids Can Press, 2008

review copy compliments of the publisher

This is my review from March 31, 2008:

Based on the true story of Ghanian Kwabena Darko, ONE HEN tells the story of the difference that microfinancing can make to an individual, a family, a community, and ultimately, a country.

In the story, Kojo and his mother live in a community that pools its resources and allows the families to take turns borrowing the money for a project that will help them to make a profit before they pay back the loan. Kojo's mother uses her turn to buy a cart so she can carry more firewood to market. With a part of their profit, Kojo buys one hen. The hen provides them with eggs, but also generates more profit. Kojo buys more hens, realizes he needs to finish school to better run his business and eventually gets a scholarship to an agricultural college. When he returns from college, he expands his poultry business, providing jobs for the community and paying taxes that help his country.

ONE HEN is beautifully designed. The illustrations, by Eugenie Fernandes, are bold and colorful paintings. Each double page spread is one third or one half text on a rich (pun intended), luminous gold background. On each illustration is a line reminiscent of "The House That Jack Built":

This is Kojo.
This is the loan that Kojo gets.
This is the hen that Kojo buys with the loan he got.
These are the eggs that Kojo sells from the hen he bought.

The book includes information about the "Real Kojo," Kwabena Darko, and sections titled "What you can do to help?" and "Making changes in the world, on person, one family, one community at a time..." There is also a glossary of African and economics terms.

ONE HEN was featured on the NPR story, Child's 'One Hen' Lays Microlending Success.

Be sure to check out the ONE HEN website.

Poetry Friday -- Sweet

Joy
by Julie Cadwallader Staub

Who could need more proof than honey—

How the bees with such skill and purpose
enter flower after flower
sing their way home
to create and cap the new honey
just to get through the flowerless winter.

And how the bear with intention and cunning
raids the hive
shovels pawful after pawful into his happy mouth
bats away indignant bees
stumbles off in a stupor of satiation and stickiness.

And how we humans can't resist its viscosity
its taste of clover and wind
its metaphorical power:
don't we yearn for a land of milk and honey?
don't we call our loved ones "honey?"

all because bees just do, over and over again, what they were made to do.

(the rest of the poem is at The Writer's Almanac)

I've posted some heavy-duty "gettin' through the rough times" poems in the last couple of months. (Thanks for your patience, Regular Readers.) When I saw this poem on The Writer's Almanac last week, I knew I wanted to use it. Partly for a change of mood, partly because I knew I had taken that great bee-on-a-sunflower shot last September (click on the picture to fill your screen with JOY), and mostly because my class has (finally) come together and I know again that I am doing what I was made to do...and the world is sweet.

The round-up this week is at the blog of the author whose book gets to wear the shiny Caldecott Honor Medal: Liz in Ink is the blog, Liz Garton Scanlon is the author. (Marla Frazee made the winning pictures, but couldn't have done it without Liz's fabulous words!)