August

INTRODUCTION
Display a light bulb, telephone, phonograph record, scotch tape and other items invented by 19th or early 20th century inventors. Talk about the items with children and ask them to imagine what life was like before these items were part of everyday life. August is National Inventors’ Month honoring the people who have changed our lives so much.

POEM

American Wizard
By Lawrence Schimel

A shout
rang out
in Menlo Park
one New Year's Eve

as people
stepped down
from the train
into dark

and he pulled
the switch--

a flood of light
lit up the night!

What marvelous lamps
without gas
or flame!

The people cheered
Thomas Edison's name
and his marvel
that turned dusk
into
day.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hopkins, Lee Bennett, Ed. 1999. LIVES: POEMS ABOUT FAMOUS AMERICANS. Illustrated by Leslie Staub. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 006027767X

EXTENSION
Pass out interesting pieces of hardware – switches, knobs, gears, springs, clamps, etc. Ask children what kind of invention would they make using the piece they have. What would such an invention do or be called? Look for more inventor poems in Eureka! by Joyce Sidman, Millbrook Press, 2002.

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

The Guinness Book of World Records

INTRODUCTION
People will do some strange things to get into The Guinness Book of World Records. One man came up with an interesting idea; he decided to be the kissing champion of the world. On August 19, 1985, Alfred A. E. Wolfram kissed 10,504 people in eight hours at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Have a variety of record books available for the participants to use.


POEM

The Most Kisses
By J. Patrick Lewis

Wolfram, Alfred,
super-duper
pucker-upper
quicker smacker
lipper-wiper
merry-maker
kisser-swapper
record breaker.
Wolfram, Alfred
couldn’t kiss
just one Min-
nesota miss
went and kissed
10,000 more. (Somebody was keeping score.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lewis, J. Patrick, and Keith Graves. 2008. THE WORLD’S GREATEST POEMS: THE TALKINGEST BIRD, THE TALLEST ROLLER COASTER, AND 23 ORTHER ‘EST’S.. San Francisco, Calif: Chronicle Children's.

EXTENSION
Have everyone daydream a few events in which they might set world records. Then ask everyone to try to describe either one of those events or one from the record books in a poem.

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

August 16: National Tell A Joke Day

INTRODUCTION
Holding a real or imaginary microphone, stand in front of the room and announce, “It’s comedy time.” Tell three or four jokes to the class. Ask the class to rate the poems on a scale of five with one being a groaner and five as hilarious. Then read this poem that critiques a joke:


POEM

The Joke
By Anonymous

The joke you just told isn’t funny one bit.
It’s pointless and dull, wholly lacking in
…….wit.
It’s so old and stale, it beginning to
…….smell!
Besides it’s the one I was going to tell.


BIBLIOGRAPHY
Prelutsky, Jack. 1983. THE RANDOM HOUSE BOOK OF POETRY FOR CHILDREN. Illustrated by Arnold Lobel. NY: Random House. ISBN 0394850106.

EXTENSION
Have an assortment of joke books and books of humorous poems. Announce that the class will be compiling its own joke book. Students will be encouraged to look through the books. They may copy favorite poems or jokes from the books if they include bibliographic information. They may also write jokes or funny poems they hear from friends or ones they invent. When the book is complete, have a comedy hour in class; everyone gets to perform their favorite joke.

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

Hiroshima & Nagasaki Memorial Observances, August 6th and 9th

INTRODUCTION

Display photos of the Japanese cities before the tragedy. Then show a photo of an atomic explosion mushroom cloud and photos of the cities afterward.

POEM

No More Hiroshimas (excerpt)
By James Kirkup

In the dying afternoon, I wander dying round the Park of Peace.
It is right, this squat, dead place, with its left-over air
Of an abandoned International Trade and Tourist Fair.
The stunted trees are wrapped in straw against the cold.
The gardeners are old, old women in blue bloomers, white aprons,
Survivors weeding the dead brown lawns around the Children’s
Monument.

A hideous pile, the Atomic Bomb Explosion Centre, freezing cold,
‘Includes the Peace Tower, a museum containing
Atomic-melted slates and bricks, photos showing
What the Atomic Desert looked like, and other
Relics of the catastrophe.’

The other relics:
The ones that made me weep;
The bits of burnt clothing,
The stopped watches, the torn shirts.
The twisted buttons,
The stained and tattered vests and drawers,
The ripped kimonos and charred boots,
The white blouse polka-dotted with atomic rain, indelible,
The cotton summer pants the blasted boys crawled home in, to bleed
And slowly die.

Remember only these.
They are the memorials we need.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Harrison, Michael and Christopher Stuart-Clark, Eds. 1999. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF POETRY FOR CHILDREN. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

EXTENSION

Tell the children of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who lived in Hiroshima and was only 2 years old when the bomb was dropped. When she developed leukemia, “the atom bomb disease” at age 11, she folded origami paper cranes during her hospital stay, spurred on by an old Japanese saying that whoever folded 1,000 cranes would receive a wish. Sadako died at age 12. A statue of her holding a golden crane stands in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Pass out instructions (found in the back of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr. 1977. New York: Putnam’s Sons) and have the children fold a paper crane in remembrance of Sadako and all of the children who died from the effects of the atomic bomb. Have them join people all over Japan in celebrating August 6 as Peace Day.

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