Q: As a first year teacher of third grade, I am looking forward to a positive experience. One of the biggest themes for this grade is "communities". As a kick-off to this theme, I would like to begin with creating a classroom community. Can you help me with literature ideas that will promote working together, caring, and sharing?
Kim Christie Desert Sun Elementary School P.O. Box 426 33606 N. 60th Street Cave Creek, Arizona 85331
A: Community is a theme that darts in and out of curricula at all academic levels and well it should, for children are fascinated to learn the ins and outs of the world that surrounds them and to find their places in the global community that grows ever more connected.
Ann Morris takes a thematic approach to showing communities of the world in her seventh and eighth books, Weddings and Shoes (Lothrop, $15.00; ages 4-8). Morris, an expert at writing meaningful non-fiction for early learners, includes informative photographs, sparse writing, broad representation, and lots of room for children to theorize about how different customs differ in communities. In the early grades, children can interview their parents/grandparents to complete research on their families' traditional wedding garb. Photographs of their elders' weddings could also be shared for comparative study of customs and history. Extend Shoes with a math activity by involving students in graphing the variety of shoes (or other types of apparel) worn in their class, grade, school, or community.
For older students, subject-centered views of the world in the Traditions Around The World series from Thomson Learning bring the world closer in terms of Food, Costumes and Musical Instruments ($15.95; ages 8-12) with maps, colorful photographs,concise information, readable text, and directions for recreating some of the traditions in the classroom. Invite musicians and costume designers from local or regional theaters into the classroom as guest speakers and performers. Find additional culinary extension activities in Gloria Lesser Rothstein's From Soup to Nuts: Multicultural Cooking Activities and Recipes ($12.95 ; ages 5-9 which also lists literature connections in its comprehensive bibliography.
Communities exist in nature as well. Madeleine Dunphy offers a cumulative, lyrical view of the wet, green community in Here is The Tropical Rain Forest (Hyperion, $14.95; ages 4-8). Rich paintings by Michael Rothman show how the bromeliad, sloth, rain, and rivers make up this "lush and wet world." Children will want to imitate Rothman's artwork by creating their own images of the rain forest or other environments using watercolor paints and/or pastel chalks. Use large plastic drink bottles for planting miniature terraria simulating rain forests in your classroom. Unite community and conservation by involving students in recycling playground litter or taking on the responsibility of monitoring roadside refuse.
Community crosses curriculum in Sky Tree, part of the new "Seeing Science through Art Series" by Thomas Locker (Harper Collins, $15.95; ages 5-9) Noted illustrator Locker unites art with science and shows how one tree embodies a sense of community. Each page ends with focus questions interjecting a thoughtful, feeling tone. Link this objective and artistic view of the tree with Shel Silverstein's classic, The Giving Tree, and give literary voice to the concept of support and sacrifice between generations in community and family. Put this theory of giving into practice by creating a "buddy reading" program that pairs older students from one class with beginning readers in another, forming a community of readers and learners within your school.
City Green by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan (Morrow, $15.00; ages 5-9) shows a young protagonist who sees a building demolished in her neighborhood and thinks her block looks like "a big smile with one tooth missing." When the empty lot fills with junk, Marcy and her neighbor, Miss Rosa, organize their community to lease the land, clean up the trash, and plant a communal garden. The book's last page gives steps to follow in creating a community or classroom garden. Involve children in such gardening activities as planning, digging, planting, watering, etc. that require cooperation and collaboration to develop their sense of community responsibility and interdependence.
Dandelions by Eve Bunting (HBJ, $15.00; ages 7-10) shows a family moving west and the mother's sadness at missing the sense of community she left behind. Zoe and her sister, aware of their mother's longing, surprise her by planting dandelions on their new soddie roof. Students will readily write comparisons of Zoe's experiences with those of Laura Ingalls Wilder's family in Little House in the Big Woods or Sarah in Patricia Maclachlan's classic Sarah, Plain and Tall. Another heroine of westward expansion for discussion can be found in TV's currently popular Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
The Kid's Address Book (Perigree Press, $9.00; ages 7 to adult) lists 2,000 addresses of celebrities, athletes, and entertainers. In addition to the addresses of TV, movie, and sports, game show stars, there are also addresses of organizations ranging from The Academy of Model Aeronautics to Young Concert Artists. There are business addresses to help kids write to everyone from Adidas to Wrigley. There are addresses for magazines, comic books, publishers, and museums. There are helping organizations like the ABA Center on Children and the Law and twenty pages of political listings. Levine sees his book as more than a collection of addresses, but as a tool of pleasure and empowerment for a generation of children who often don't feel heard and seldom take the time to communicate their thoughts in a way that will get results. Encourage students to correspond with a celebrity or service organization of their choice. What a great way to link writing with developing a sense of community and citizenship. These encounters of the literary kind may result in students' assuming active roles as community volunteers. They might even venture to compile an address book of philanthropic organizations in their own community as a clearinghouse for other volunteers.
Mary Watson's The Butterfly Seeds (Tambourine, $16.00; ages 5-10) finds Jake newly immigrated to America at the turn of the century and welcomed by community of newly arrived citizenry.
Peter Chang learns much about culture and community when he barters his skills with people in Chinatown who help him refurbish The Last Dragon in a book by Susan Miho Nunes (Clarion, $14.95; ages 7-10)
Kathleen Krull's series Bridges to Change (Lodestar, $15.99; ages 8 and up) focuses on children growing up in different communities. Titles include, for example, How Kids Live on a South Carolina Sea Island.
Janice Cohn's The Christmas Menorah: How a Town Fought Hate (Whitman, $16.95; ages 8 and up) shows how a community unites to fight the prejudice of some of its members.
Richard Orr's Nature Cross-Sections (Dorling Kindersley, $17.95) reveals the communal workings of twelve different habitats.
Jean Craighead George's short novel, There's an Owl in the Shower (Harper Collins, $13.95; ages 8-11) shows the difficulty in one family where a lumbering community is effected by attempts to save the spotted owl.
Candida Gillis' The Community as Classroom: Integrating School and Community Through Language Arts (Boynton/Cook, $19.50) serves as a useful resource for teachers to generate ideas for integrating all areas of the curriculum.
Mary Burke-Hengen's and Tim Gillespie's Building Community: Social Studies in the Middle School Years (Heinemann, $22.50) provides excellent reference material for teachers planning and implementing interdisciplinary studies.
Katharine Davies Samway, Gail Whang, and Mary Pippitt's Buddy Reading: Cross-Age Tutoring in a Multicultural School (Heinemann; $16.00) provides practical suggestions on setting up and maintaining a community of readers and peer tutors.
Alfie Kohn's Choosing Community: Classroom Strategies for Learning and Caring (Developmental Studies Center in cooperation with Phi Delta Kappa, Set of four video tapes, book, and facilitator's guide; $475.00) These tapes for school faculty, staff, administrators, and parents provide an alternative to conventional discipline by creating caring communities within the classroom that give children more opportunities to exercise choice and responsibility in their own learning.
Students can learn about communities of the past through the eyes of those who lived in them through four wonderful new books: Michelangelo and His Times, Alexander and His Times, Ramses II and Egypt and Caesar and Rome. All have playful graphics, a text written with immediacy, and detailing that turns history into story. (All books from Holt, $19.95; grades 4 and up)
Anne Millard helps children understand Pyramids from around the world (Kingfisher, $14.95; grades 3-6) from all angles; construction, symbolism, history, and the communities that created them.
Ifeoma Onyefulu's third book, Ogbo: Sharing Life in an African Village (HBJ, $15.00; grade 3-6) uses vivid photographs and the voice of a young Nigerian girl to explain the age-old African tradition of ogbo, which makes community of children born within a five year period and together all ogbo support their village.
David Schwartz's photoessay Yanomami: People of the Amazon (Lothrop, $16.00; grades 2-6) reveals with vibrant pictures and vivid text the life within one Amazon rain forest yano, an enormous doughnut-shaped hut that is home to more than twenty families.
Specific situations can make community of different people as seen in Shelly Tanaka's On Board the Titanic: An I Was There Book (Hyperion, $16.95; grades 3-6 ).
Christopher Curtis' The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963 (Delacorte, $14.95; grades 4-8) is not just a superb read aloud, but through humor and drama reveals history through characters who make the Civil Rights Era real.
Evelyn Coleman's White Socks Only (Whitman, $15.95; grades 3-6) tells the story of a young black girl whose innocence amid racial injustice inspires those around her to support her actions.
Juan Herrera's Calling the Doves (Children's Book Press, $14.95; grades 1-4) is a lyrical look at the life of a migrant farmworker child.
Jane Kurtz's Miro in the Kingdom of the Sun (Houghton, $15,95; grades 2-5) tells the story of a courageous young Inca girl whose determination saves the life of her kingdom's prince.
Patricia Polacco's Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair (Philomel, $15.95; grades 2-5) takes place in a fantastical community which has forgotten about reading until the children rediscover books and reeducate the adults.
Elinor Sisulu's The Day Gogo Went to Vote: South Africa, April 1994 (Little Brown, $14.95; grades 3-6) shows how a community celebrates and supports a woman who is one hundred years old and leaves her home for the first time in many years to vote.
Erika Tamar's The Garden of Happiness (HBJ, $15.00; grades 1-4) shows one urban community, made up of people from many cultures, unites to create a community garden.