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For all you folks who want a fabulous way to spend a hot July day… consider this: http://www.thewritersplot.com/ I’ve posted some of the info from their website below (hope that’s okay, Pam!) and I hope some of you can go. I want to hear Harold Underdown speak so badly! He is a fab presence on [...]

Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute

My daughter’s 4th grade class is celebrating Black History Month in the most wonderful way by creating a version of Kente cloth.  While it’s traditionally made with silk and cotton interweaving threads, her class used pens, paints, and colored pencils to create theirs.

Kente cloth is believed to have originated from the Akan people in West Africa*.  The designs are traditionally bright, geometric, and bold.  Additionally, the colors and shapes are usually symbolic of historic events, family trees, the seasons, and proverbs.  (The Smithsonian Institute has wonderful information online about their “Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity” exhibition)

Making Kente cloths in your library is just one of many ideas to celebrate Black History Month.  Texas Library Club has a wonderful list of books, songs, and activities – including a way of making Kente cloths by weaving strips of paper together.

We’d also love to recommend these books for your Black History Month displays:

• BARACK by Jonah Winter, illustrated by AG Ford
• BLACK IS BROWN IS TAN by Arnold Adoff, illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully
• BOYCOTT BLUES by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney (download the Teacher’s Guide)
• THE GREAT MIGRATION by Eloise Greenfield, illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist
• SHE LOVED BASEBALL by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Don Tate
• THIS IS THE DREAM by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander, illustrated by James Ransome
• WE TROUBLED THE WATERS by Ntozake Shang, illustrated by Rod Brown

And you can also download our Black History Month Classroom Kit.

What are you doing at your library to celebrate Black History Month?  We’d love to hear your ideas (or even photos of any displays you’ve created)!

* As a former librarian, I have to share this disclaimer: I got my information from Wikipedia.

Sometimes when we talk to kids about issues going on in the world, like I wrote about on Monday with my stepson and the visiting priest from Africa who needs money for his church, it is hard for them to understand what we mean by freedom–especially if they live in a free country like the United States. It’s hard for them to imagine that there are places where children don’t have the freedom to go to school or church or the doctor when they are sick. Young children, especially, need concrete examples of what freedom means, especially if they are taking part in any type of donation activity (like collecting pennies for an organization like Loose Change to Loosen Chains).

This book, This is the Dream written by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander and illustrated by James Ransome, is a great picture book that can illustrate the concept of freedom. What I especially like about this bright and colorful book is the way it shows the United States before the Civil Rights movement, then some of the Civil Rights leaders, and then the way the country is now–with freedom for everyone. In the year 2010, the fact that black people used to drink from a separate fountain or ride at the back of the bus might be particularly shocking for our children since less than 50 years later, our president is black.

Here are a few verses from this great book:

“These are the fountains that stand in the square, and the black-and-white signs say who will drink there.”

“These are the leaders whose powerful voices lift up marchers demanding new choices.”

“This is the fountain that stands in the square and the unwritten rule is to take turns and share.”

Love it!!

In order for children to understand what it looks like when there’s not freedom and what it looks like when there is, you can use a picture book like This is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander. Then you can explain to them how around the world in the 21st century, there are still people living without freedom, and we are collecting pennies to try and help them. The Civil Rights leaders helped in the United States, and now it’s our turn!