England Week - Industrial Revolution

Like the actual industrial revolution, this book originates in England but then spreads into America. One key to that spreading thing is a man named Slater.

He grew up around the mills of England, and worked in them from the age of fourteen to twenty-one. That is when he finished an apprenticeship and wanted to open his own mill. But coming up with the money was a problem. He’d heard the United States awarded about $500 to the designer of a cloth-making machine and was sure there were opportunites for him there. However, the English, being protective of their healthy profits, made it illegal to send textile machinery, or plans for it, out of England. In Samuel Slater’s Mill: And the Industrial Revolution you’ll learn how young Slater played the part of a farmer to get out of England with all those machinery designs safely tucked away—in his head.

The book goes on to describe Slater’s partnerships, machines, workers (lots of children), and his growing business. It grew so much, in fact, that he was worth the amazing sum of $1,200,000 when he died! The effects of this sixty-year revolution are also discussed from the population’s shift from country to city and from farmer to wage earner as well as the pressure put on the south to produce more cotton with slave labor. 

Ages 9-12
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Acivity: Watch this video and then weave your own textile creation.

England Week - Cathedral

One of the predominate topics from my inspiration for this week’s theme, Sarum: The Novel of England, was Salisbury Cathedral. This amazing structure was built between 1220  and 1258. In trying to find a related book for children, the closest I could come was Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction. It follows the process of building a cathedral in France, so is not based on an English style cathedral (does Westminster Abby come to mind?), but hey, you’ll get the idea.

This book is laden with pen and ink illustrations as is David Macaulay’s custom. He shows us, in amazing detail, 80 years of cathedral creating effort in just about 80 pages. And what an effort it was: design the plans, harvest the wood, quarry the stone, ready the site, build the foundation, erect the walls, hoist the trusses, install the windows and cast the bells and so much more. Like the pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and today’s skyscrapers, Cathedral: the Story of Its Construction will leave you in complete awe of human achievement.

Ages 9-12
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Activity: Create your own stained glass window.

Great Heights Week - From Trees to Masts

Like any human I have my weaknesses. Dove’s dark chocolate-covered almonds are one. I also have a hard time resisting clothing or leather goods that have contrast stitching for some odd reason. And then there’s scratchboard illustrations...which brings me to Giants in the Land. The illustrations are a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Creme da la creme of scratchboard I’d say. This book is as big and beautiful as the trees it documents. And what are those trees, you ask? Thousand year-old, New England pine trees, growing as tall as a twenty-five story building. They grew so tall and straight that they made ideal masts for England’s eighteenth-century navy. The story goes on to describe how the trees were chosen and plucked (not easily) from the forest and transported (forty oxen) to a river. You can’t help  appreciating the ingenuity required to harvest the trees, while simultaneously despairing that the giants are all gone. But the author ends on a positive note, mentioning the promise in today’s woods. Giants are growing.

Ages 9-12
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Activity: Make a tall masted ship out of a milk carton. Here’s what you’ll need:

Milk or juice carton
Scissors (or box cutters or x-acto knife)
Smaller box to put inside milk carton
String
Straw, stick or tinkertoy
Tape
Card stock for the sail
Paint or markers to decorate

An adult should help cut the carton like this:

Paint the smaller box that will go inside the milk carton to hold the sail. We used a medicine box. A soap or make-up box would work too. Punch a hole in the middle of the box with a sharp pencil or cut an x with an xacto knife. Glue the box into the center of the milk carton. Cut out a square piece of card stock about 1/2 to 3/4 of the length of the straw or stick. This will be the sail. Decorate the sail as you like with paint or markers. Punch a hole at the top and bottom of the sail and weave the straw or stick (we used a tinkertoy) through the holes. Wrap a string around the top of the stick and tape each end of the string to each end of the boat. We’re calling our boat the U.S.S. Tropicana. And here she sails:

Great Heights Week - The Empire State Building

During the depths of the Great Depression a majestic symbol of fortitude arose. And it rose high. In fact it was the world’s tallest building for over 40 years. Besides providing a nation with much needed jobs (seven million man hours!), it also provided much needed national pride. In Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building, big pictures and minimal text show the process: from the demolition of the pre-existing hotel to the arrival of the steel and then the methods involved in building the skyscraper. This is an excellent choice for children interested in construction.

Ages: 6-9
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Activity: Build your own Empire State Building with this project from papertoys.com

P.S. Older children working on research papers would be well-served to get their hands on two other titles I found. In Unbuilding, David Macauley masterfully illustrates the imagined demolition of the Empire State Building. A great way to learn how it was built, in reverse. And Empire State Building: When New York Reached for the Skies by Elizabeth Mann is chock full of interesting information.

Gutenberg — The Inventor of Printing

How long does it take to print a book? For Johanne Gutenberg it took more than 30 years! What was the hold up? Well, since it had never been done before he had a lot of problems to work out. Many were related to the invention itself: finding the right metal formula for the type, making an ink that wasn’t too runny or too sticky, figuring out how to space the letters and get them consistently raised off the slug and the designing and building of the press itself. His other problems involved money. He dealt with lawsuits, partnerships gone awry, denied inheritances and fund raising opportunities lost (something to do with selling souvenirs to pilgrims traveling to see remnants of the clothes of Christ).

Fine Print takes you on a fascinating look at the man who was determined to invent mass–produced printing and persevered. It’s a wonderful lesson in persistence and a very interesting glimpse into 15th Century Germany.

Ages 9-12
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Activity: Cut a letter in a potato and then print it:

Okay, this involves a knife, so some parental involvement is probably necessary.  Cut a medium sized red potato in half, then cut away anything that you don’t want to print. Remember, you have to create your letter backwards on your stamp.

Now put some ink or paint on your stamp and press. Viola!

A Spanish American War Hero

Papa Tells Chita a Story is probably the only Spanish American War picture book in existence. In it, a black American shares a tall tale with his daughter about how he delivered a secret message to troops on the other side of Cuba. Some of his story is not true (GIANT snakes, and alligators and eagles, oh my!) but he does have a beautiful medal, so some of his story must be true.

This book is based on the story that Harry S. McCard, who had enlisted to earn money to go to medical school, told his real life daughter, Chita. After the war he became one of Baltimore’s first black doctors. I love how a photograph of this father and daughter is included in the back of the book.

Ages 4-8
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Activity: Earn your own medal. After you read a book, ride your bike without training wheels, go without television for a week, swim across the pool, eat all your vegetables or learn to tie your shoe, you’ll deserve a medal! Print these then cut them out, (I recommend glueing them to poster board and glueing the second gold page to the back before you cut them out) add a hole (I used a hole punch) for a ribbon and wear proudly! Be sure to write the date of your historic event on the back of your medal.

FIRST LADY WEEK - Ladybird Johnson

TITLE: Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America

AUTHOR: Kathi Appelt

WHAT WAS HER BACKGROUND? Claudia Alta Taylor whom we know as Lady Bird Johnson, was born in Karnack, in eastern Texas in 1912. Her nanny proclaimed one day, “She’s as purty as a ladybird,” and the name stuck. A ladybird is another name for a ladybug. She had an enchanted, well-to-do though isolated childhood. Her mother died when she was only five. An aunt came to help raise her, and it is she who inspired Lady Bird to appreciate nature's beauty. Lady Bird enrolled in the University of Texas in 1930, at a time when it was unusual for women to attend college, and earned a degree in journalism.

HOW DID SHE AND THE FUTURE PRESIDENT MEET? While she was attending the university in Austin she met Lyndon Baines Johnson who was working as a congressional aid. He proposed on their first date.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: She had two daughters, Lynda and Luci. She introduced them to gardening but worried about other children playing in concrete parks and having no connection to growing plants. When her husband became president she poured her energy into the Highway Beautification Act. Highway landscapes changed because of that law. Road signs and depreis were better managed and native wildfloweres were planted. Later, when she was seventy, she helped establish the National Wildflower Research Center.

Illustrations filled with rich and vivid colors compliment the copy. This would make a great gift for the child with an interest in flowers.

Ages 9-12

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Activity: Here’s a great mother’s day gift idea. Print out this seed packet template, color it, glue up the sides and fill it with seeds. Your mother will love it!

A 5,000 Year Old Epic

These stories about a part god/part man king named Gilgamesh are reminiscent of ancient Greek mythology, but they are more ancient. In fact, they were originally written on clay tablets some 5,000 years ago. Ludmila Zeman has taken these older than dirt Mesopotamian tales and created a kid-friendly, beautifully illustrated trilogy. Besides the lessons in friendship, loyalty, leadership, love and good versus evil, readers will also be exposed to what life in the long ago city of Uruk, situated in present day Iraq, was like. Titles in this series include Gilgamesh the King, The Revenge of Ishtar and The Last Quest of Gilgamesh.

Ages 9-12
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Activity: Can you put a story on a clay tablet that someone else can decipher? We started by making our own Mesopotamian Mud (home made play dough). Here is the recipe we used:

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water
1 tb oil
1/2 tb cream of tartar
Food Coloring:
Red: 30 drops
Green: 20 drops
Yellow: 15 drops

Stir ingredients together then cook over medium heat. Stir until liquid ingredients become solid.

Here is Shannon's cuneiform. She wrote about two friends finding a bird's nest containing eggs. I read it without even stumbling!

To see and find out more about cuneiforms check out these sites:
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley, California
Horn Museum, Berrien Springs, Michigan
Kelsey Museum of Archeology, Ann Arbor, Michigan
New York Public Library, New York, New York
USC Archaeological Collection, Los Angeles, California
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland

Presidents’ Day

Presidents' Day is a charming book to share with little ones. It is an introduction to the presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore (Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt) in the guise of a school play. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it inspires children to put on their own presidential production. Introduces the election process and provides a little information on each of these four men.

Ages 4-8
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For this age group I also highly recommend the books George Washington and the General's Dog, Abe’s Fish: A Boyhood Tale of Abraham Lincoln and Abe Lincoln's Hat. This last title contains little known facts about our 16th president, including how he stored letters inside his hat! And speaking of his hat, have fun with these activity ideas:

Activity: Make a hat like George Washington’s using this template or a stovepipe hat like Lincoln’s.

My presidential prodigies

King of the Wind

Sea Biscuit, Man o’ War and War Admiral were all extraordinary race horses that could trace their sire line back to one special stallion. That stallion is the origin of the Thoroughbred. Marguerite Henry tells a romanticized version of his life in King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian.

Sham, one of the Moroccan Sultan's many fine horses, is sent as a gift to the king of France with his mute Muslim stable boy and five other prized Arabians. When they arrive in Paris, they aren't much to look at after being starved by a cruel ship captain and then enduring a grueling overland trek. To add insult to injury, King Louis XV mocks the Arabians small size, as the preferred breeds in Europe were much larger. More misfortunes ensue for both horse and boy, including cart pulling for the horse, prison time for the boy, and exile for them both after Sham makes time with a beautiful mare, Lady Roxana, who was intended for a prize stallion at The Earl of Godolphin's Estate. But close to two years later Sham's offspring wins every race imaginable. So Sham and the boy, Agba, are retrieved from their swamp home and Sham is finally prized for the rest of his days. This is an enjoyable story for anyone, but is a must read for all horse lovers.

Awards: 1949 Newbery Medal Winner

Ages 9-12

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Activity: Can you match the breed of horse to their country of origin? To make your own poster, print this link (two legal size horizontal pages), and with color pencils, color the name of the horse breed the same color as it's place of origin. Color all of the horses and the map and cut everything out and glue on poster board. Shannon used a half sheet of standard poster board.

Here is Shannon's poster.

Shannon made the words Shetland Pony yellow and that
breed's country of origin, Scotland, yellow as well.

As stated earlier, the Godolphin Arabian is on Seabiscuit’s pedigree. And speaking of Seabiscuit, what a fabulous movie! It is an incredible yet true horse racing story that happened during the Great Depression. A down on their luck horse, jockey, trainer and owner came together to form an unbeatable team and provide inspiration to a down on their luck nation. Full of heart. I highly recommend it!

The First Dog

When did a wolf become a dog? According to Jan Brett, in her book The First Dog, it was during the Pleistocene. Her darling tale of Kip the cave boy and the first dog demonstrates to children how the human/canine relationship was mutually beneficial. Humans gained protection from the dog's keen hearing, smell and sight and the dog was rewarded with a dependable food supply. The book ends by incorporating a fascinating detail. Unlike wolves, dogs wag their tails.

Jan Brett's works are always a visual treat and this one is no exception. You can practically smell the great outdoors. My daughter is a little old for this book and pointed out how unlikely it was for a cave boy to travel alone and to look like he had just been to Great Clips, but for the younger set, this is a book they shouldn't miss.

Ages 4-8
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Activity: Paint your own First Dog, here's how. First find a suitable rock and make sure it's clean. Sketch your wolf in pencil. We used Jan Brett's sketch from the title page for inspiration. We then drew our lines with a black Sharpie marker. We painted everything but the black lines gray. If you don't have any cave wall paint around you can use craft paint like we did. We added white paint to the gray paint we already used and added some hair details. We painted the eye green and then added a pupil with black paint.