Sailing

INTRODUCTION
July is a time for water sports including sailing. Or you can sit by the side of the water and watch to boats come in. But imagine if you were trying to describe the scene to your blind grandfather.

POEM

A POEM FOR JIM NAGATAAK’W (JAKWTEEN)
MY GRANDFATHER, BLIND AND NEARLY DEAF
By Nora Marks Davenhauer

I was telling my grandfather
About what was happening
On the boat. My father
And his brother were trying to
Anchor against the wind
And tide.

I could smell him, especially
His hair. It was a warm smell.
I yelled as loud as I could,
Telling him what I saw.
My face was wet from driving
Rain.

I could see his long eyebrows,
I could look at him and get
Really close. We both liked this.
Getting close was his way of
Seeing.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blum, Joshua, comp. 1996. THE UNITED STATES OF POETRY. By Joshua Blum, Bob Holman and Mark Pellington. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0810939274

EXTENSION
Have eye masks and a bag filled with odd objects available. After everyone in the group has been blindfolded, give each person an object. Let them call out descriptive words which the leader writes down. Then remove the blindfolds and let them see if the words made a picture of their object or not.

Photo courtesy of http://images.google.com.

Charlotte Zolotow's Birthday

INTRODUCTION
Today is the birthday of author and poet Charlotte Zolotow, who turns 94 years old! She has written many wonderful stories and poems for children. I will read one of her poems about summer to honor her birthday. You might recognize it as a bit of a tongue twister.

POEM

FLOWERS AND FUN
By Charlotte Zolotow

Summertime is sunnytime
funnytime is sunnytime in
summertime
leaves and trees
flowers and fun
summer breeze
but also
beeeezzzzzzzzzzz

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Zolotow, Charlotte. 2002. SEASONS: A BOOK OF POEMS. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060518545

EXTENSION
Post the poem big enough for everyone to see, or hand out copies of it. Ask the children to recite the poem slowly with you. If everyone recites it smoothly the first time, try it again only faster. Have some tongue twisters on hand to continue the fun. Orangutan Tongs: Poems to Tangle Your Tongue by Jon Agee is a fun new book to use.

Photo courtesy of http://images.search.yahoo.com/.

Juneteenth

INTRODUCTION
This nationally celebrated holiday marks the freeing of slaves, and was first observed in Galveston, Texas in 1865. Though African slaves were freed after the civil war, they faced more than a century of hardship and oppression. This began to shift during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, and continues to improve today as the United States boasts its first African American president. Before and since Juneteenth, many African Americans have enjoyed a variety of accomplishments and significantly contributed to this society. Juneteenth emphasizes education and achievement.

POEM

FREDERICK DOUGLASS
By Robert Hayden

When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty,
this beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as the earth; when it belongs at last to our
children,
when it is truly instinct, brainmatter, diastole, systole,
reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more
than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:
this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro
beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world
where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,
this man, superb in love and logic, this man
shall be remembered – oh, not with statues’ rhetoric,
not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone,
but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives
fleshing his dream of the needful beautiful thing.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adoff, Arnold, Ed. 1997. I AM THE DARKER BROTHER: AN ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN POEMS BY AFRICAN AMERICANS. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0689808690

EXTENSION
As the poem states, Frederick Douglass was a former slave, and a leader in the abolitionist movement to end slavery in the United States. He was a published author and known as a brilliant speaker. Douglass even served as an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War (Thomas). This poem about Frederick Douglass captures the essence of what Juneteenth celebrates – education, achievement, reflection, rejoicing, self-assessment and improvement within the African American community. What do you think? Can you think of anyone else with these qualities?

Photo courtesy of http://images.search.yahoo.com/.

Blues Festivals

INTRODUCTION
During the summer, Blues Festivals are held all over the country. The Blues is a type of music that combines African and European musical forms. The songs are usually about feeling sad or lowdown. Often, there is a call and response in blues music. We experience this in poetry too. Here is a poem that shows what I mean:

POEM

UNTITLED
By Walter Dean Myers

Blues, blues, blues,
blues, what you mean to me?
Blues, blues, blues,
blues, what you mean to me?
Are you my pain and misery,
or my sweet, sweet company?

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Myers, Walter Dean. 2003. BLUES JOURNEY. New York: Holiday House. ISBN 0823416135

EXTENSION
Dim the lights and play some blues music by someone such as W.C. Handy (considered the father of blues music) or any other blues musician of your choice. Encourage the children to discuss how it makes them feel. Is it possible to feel happy while listening to the blues?

Photo courtesy of http://images.search.yahoo.com/.

Hot Air Balloons

INTRODUCTION
June 5th marks the anniversary of the first hot air balloon flight in the year 1783 in France. (Show a picture of an old-fashioned hot air balloon.) Can you imagine what it must have been like to soar that high above the ground or see a hot air balloon for the first time? Remember, that in 1783 there were no airplanes or helicopters – not even cars!

POEM

Balloon
By Sylvia Cassedy

Here, way up here,
in this box sort of thing,
slung in a tangle
of crisscrossed strings,
I dangle,
I hang.

Just over my head,
like a bubble of talk
in a joke-book cartoon,
is a giant balloon.

A moon
is embroidered in red
on its skin.
A hawk-nosed moon
whose single horn
meets, greets
a thorn-sharp chin.

Stars are there, too,
cross-stitched in blue,
and a sun:
a high-noon sun
with gold-spun cheek
and squint-eyed grin.

moon, sun,
a streak of stars:
they are a message I send,
my bubble of talk,
to you,
to my friend far below,
as I go to the end of the sky.

And soon, clung
to a balloon of your own,
you reply:
“mountain, field, sea,”
you say, in a bubble of talk to me.
“ocean, road, stone.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cassedy, Sylvia. 1993. Zoomrimes: poems about things that go. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060226331

EXTENSION
Show the children several examples of concrete poems. Then present a large outline of a hot air balloon. Ask what words children would add to the picture to turn it into a concrete poem. Give each child a stack of small Post-it notes. Have them write words describing either a part of the balloon or a motion of the balloon or a feeling they might experience in the balloon and put their papers on the picture.

Photo courtesy of http://images.search.yahoo.com/.