At the tale end of Read Across America week celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday and the beginning of Women’s History Month, we shared stories of girls who defied convention, worked hard and followed their dreams.
(Relates to Dr. Seuss’ book Oh the Places You’ll Go)
Amazing Grace – Mary Hoffman Grace loves acting out stories. Told by her classmates that she can’t play the part of Peter Pan because she’s a girl & black, she learns that she can do anything she puts her mind to.
Asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. Women often were told they couldn’t be what they wanted to be.
Every-Day Dress Up – Selina Alko – A girl ditches her princess duds in favor of daring dames – Amelia Earhart, Ella Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Marie Carie & more. Briefly discussed each woman presented. When we discussed Stanton, mentioned women couldn’t even vote in the US until a little less than 100 years ago – had them figure out how old the US is (240 years) so for most of that time, women couldn’t vote. Long battle, Stanton and others spent their whole lives (70 years!) trying to get women’s voting rights.
“It is fun to dress up in princess skirts for dress up or a party, but how would they like to wear long heavy skirts (as heavy as a box of books!) everyday? They couldn’t bike, or climb a tree, or run and play…”
You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer! --- Shana Corey – Delightful biography of the suffragist & newspaper founder who founded a movement to get women out of long limiting skirts.
Nobody Owns the Sky: The Story of “Brave Bessie” Coleman – Reeve Lindbergh (youngest daughter of Charles) – No American flying school would teach Bessie because she was black so she sailed to France for lessons then returned to the states with the dream of starting her own school for African American pilots.
Movement – “Stretch High, Bend Low, Reach to the Sky, Then to Your Sides, Spread Your Wings, Turn around , then sit back down.”
Sky High: The True Story of Maggie Gee – Marissa Moss – Maggie Gee, who dreamed of flying from the time she was a girl, finally gets her chance during WW2 when she becomes one of only two Chinese-American WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots).
(did a variety of stretches and chants encouraging the kids to dream high & work hard to achieve their dreams)
Some other great titles:
My Name is Not Isabella: Just How Big Can a Little Girl Dream? – Jennifer Fosberry
To the Stars: The First American Woman to Walk in Space – Carmella Van Vleet
Wilma Unlimited – Kathleen Krull
Elizabeth Leads the Way:Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote – Tanya Lee Stone
I Could Do That: Esther Morris Gets Women the Vote – Linda Arms White
Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor – Robert Burleigh
many more here: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/03/celebrating-women-history-month.html
and here: http://www.whatdowedoallday.com/2013/03/women-in-history-best-books-for-kids.html
Arrived too late: To The Stars: The First American Woman to Walk in Space by Caremella Van Vleet & Dr. Kathy Sullivan
More on early pilots: https://nobodyownsthesky.wordpress.com/