Bookmaking With Kids

These three books are the work of kindergartners retelling one of the picturebooks that kicked off their year-long study of the alphabet. Can you guess the book?

The handmade books were as basic as a handmade book can get: Just a piece of paper, folded in half. But getting the ABCs from a sheet of stickers onto those coconut trees was quite a challenge for little fingers. And so was writing the book’s title:

Watch for more books made by the kids in Gina’s and Carlos’s kindergarten classrooms at Bryant Elementary School. They’re among six teachers at Bryant who are involving their kids in once-a-month bookmaking. Kudos to all!

I’ve spied a coyote on the golf course in Lincoln Park. A raccoon once walked up my back steps and into my bedroom! Skunks have more than once invaded my backyard. I regularly encounter quail in the Presidio, snowy plovers at Ocean Beach, egrets at Crissy Field. Whenever I’m out walking I talk to people who have binoculars, in hopes of learning to identify whatever they’re seeing. That’s how I was introduced to a fabulously yellow Wilson’s Warbler and a Western Grebe (with chicks!) at North Lake in Golden Gate Park.

But my occasional sightings can’t compare to what Janet Kessler has spotted. On her daily walks, the San Francisco photographer has encountered coyotes, bats, raccoons, rabbits, woodpeckers, quail, hawks, frogs, herons, starlings, dolphins, bees, butterflies and more.

An exhibition of her photographs called Celebrating Our Urban Wildness: Coyotes to Quail will be at the San Francisco Public Library from January 24th through March 26th in the Wallace Stegner Environmental Center on the 5th Floor. There’s also a Meet the Artist program on January 28th from 6:30–7:30 p.m. in the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room on the library’s lower level. Here’s what the SFPL says about Kessler:

Amid the congestion and cacophony of city streets, it can be hard to imagine the vast array of wildlife living among us. San Francisco photographer Janet Kessler provides an illuminating look into the abundant natural life, often hidden, that co-exists in our surroundings.

The photo exhibit, Celebrating our Urban Wildness: Coyotes to Quail, features photographs taken on Kessler’s daily walks within San Francisco during 2008. With her camera, Kessler captures surprising images of wildlife thriving in the midst of a major urban city. This beautiful photo exhibition reveals the remarkable diversity of the urban wildness.

This exhibition may have special appeal to 3rd grade classrooms since California animal life is part of their social-studies curriculum.

Tomorrow is National Handwriting Day. It’s a made-up event, with commercial underpinnings. But ignore that, and it can be an occasion of fun, artistry and discovery in the classroom.

When it comes to bookmaking, of course, a child’s handwriting—whether it’s spindly and tentative, cramped, loopy, sloping or hopelessly smudged—is, to me, somehow a thing of beauty. Today, however, I thought it would be fun to look at the handwriting of a few of the venerable “birthday boys” I mentioned in last week’s post.

Below and to the left is a manuscript page from a Sherlock Holmes story, The Hound of Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. To the right is a page in Charles Darwin’s hand from the manuscript of The Origin of Species. The document below them is so shockingly legible that I scarcely need name it. But I will: it’s President Lincoln’s draft of the Gettysburg Address.

In honor of both National Handwriting Day and Presidents’ Day next month, consider directing students to the Top Treasures of the Library of Congress. This web site offers a fabulous look at the documents of paramount importance in our national history. Thoughtfully organized, well written and illustrated, it’s easy to explore and then look more closely whenever a handwritten flourish, a name, an event or title catches your eye.

The cafeteria at Marshall Elementary School got a makeover as a fabulous showplace for the school’s first Book Publishing Fair last Thursday, and it was a heartwarming sight to behold.

There were books—scores and scores of children’s handmade books—hung over loops of string along the walls … spread over tabletops … tucked into baskets or boxes … closed to tempt readers with beautiful covers … opened to showcase eyepopping illustrations and careful handwriting.

The kids trooped in a few classrooms at a time, most quickly searching out their own handiwork to admire for starters. But as the appeal of so many other books won them over, the kids slowly began making the rounds, examining book after book, reading some silently, others aloud, carrying some off to read in a chair, or settling themselves on thick squares of carpeting scattered on the floor and then reading and reading and reading.

I’m awed by the amount of planning and teach-
ing, writing and revising, folding, cutting and coloring that went into this event. Congrats to the teachers, the students, their parents and
the administration.

And thanks to the PTA for giving me the chance to teach the teachers, suggest book structures and work with kids in several classrooms. With lots more photos of the students’ books on hand, I’ll be showcasing a number of projects in future posts here. Please visit again soon!

Next week is the start of a great many “big birthdays”—150th, 200th 250th, 300th—as well as important anniversaries that will occur throughout 2009. Not all will be of particular interest to children. But some may interest you (and you are entitled to a life of the mind apart from teaching!), and others may suggest classroom projects. What follows is an annotated list including the birthday or anniversary, a comment, and a link or two. For several celebrations, I’ve also suggested when to check back here for a more detailed post. Here goes:

January 19th marks Edgar Allan Poe’s 200th birthday. The best site I’ve found for middle- and high-school teachers and students is Poe Revealed.

February 12th is a double-header; it’s the 200th birthday of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. Hundreds of events and exhibitions are planned, not just on Darwin Day but year-round because it’s also the 150th anniversary of the publication, on November 24, 1859, of On the Origin of Species. Please visit Bookmaking With Kids on February 9th for lots more detail. Studies of both men are a perfect fit for social-studies and science curricula.

April 6th is the 100th anniversary of explorer Admiral Robert Peary planting the American flag at the North Pole. You and your students can read daily diary entries from Peary and his fellow explorers on the Northward: Peary’s 1908-09 Expedition blog. Created by the Arctic Museum at Bowdoin College, the blog started last July with entries from 100 years earlier and will run for 15 months. It’s a lovely, approachable way to introduce your kids to primary source material. Bay Area 3rd graders study Peary, and I’ve got some great book projects that fit the curriculum well. Please check back here on April 2nd.

May 22nd marks the 150th birthday of the man who gave us Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle. I’ll post again about these iconic stories in the spring.

July 21st was the day, 40 years ago, when earthlings first walked on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first astronaut out of the landing module, followed soon after by colleague Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. Armstrong’s now-famous comment was “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

September 18th marks the 300th birthday of Samuel Johnson. What’s this have to do with elementary and middle-school students? Nothing whatever! But I love dictionaries; Johnson was the author, in 1755, of the most famous English dictionary (though not the first) until the Oxford English Dictionary began publication in 1928. So I’ve included him in my list. In honor of his tercentenary (nice word, isn’t it?), there’s a new Johnsonian word-a-day web site from Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Another new word site, Word Warriors, is dedicated to bringing back great words and was created by students at Wayne State University. The words here are not archaic or obscure, just a little bit out of the ordinary. An occasional visit would not go amiss for students facing the SAT.

Ideas abound on the web, this year especially, for making astronomy a regular part of your classroom activities because it’s the International Year of Astronomy and also the 400-year anniversary of Galileo’s first telescopic observances. Here’s what happened: In May of 1609, Galileo learned of the invention of telescopic lenses that could be used to see objects at a distance. Within a month, he created his own telescope. Then during the summer and fall he began using it to observe the night sky. From November 30th to December 19th, Galileo observed the Earth’s moon through his telescope.

The Urban Astronomer is a wonderful blog that’s both locally written and kid-and teacher-friendly, with pointers to other resources. I’ll also have a Bookmaking With Kids post in the future about book projects.

Also watch for a post in days to come listing some ersatz holidays—Talk Like a Pirate Day, for instance—that you may find worth celebrating with your students simply because they’re silly.

And finally, click the link to see an alphabetical list (that I will eventually extend) of children’s authors marking big birthdays this year: more…

More often than not, I’m in on the start of the bookmaking process with kids but not the finish. Days, sometimes weeks, and occasionally months, may go by as students draft and revise their writing, sketch and complete their illustrations. But this fall I made a point of returning to several classrooms to see finished books and snap pictures.

These are some of my favorite pages from Me on the Map books, created by Marcelle’s 3rd graders at Marshall Elementary School. I love the landmarks penciled in on the last two—local museums and the Eiffel Tower—and the sketch of the Milky Way.