Pride and Self Esteem

Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon

David Catrow

Molly Lou Melon may be a little different then everyone else with her buck-teeth but she never lets it get to her because her grandmother believes her in and teaches May Lou Melon to also believe in herself!  However, Molly Lou must move away from the life she is used to and most importantly move away from the grandmother who is her supporter   She will be faced with a bully who will try and break her but it is up to Molly to remember what her grandmother has taught her!

Molly Lou is proud as ever of her buck teeth.

The best part about this book was the authors writing.  I really liked the transition from beginning to end in the book.  I love how he dealt with the young girl gaining confidence in herself, I loved how she handled the bully, and I loved how the bully handled the situations as well.  Ever turn of the page has a learning opportunity through the words and that is not always an easy feat when reading a childrens' picture book.  I thought the illustrations were a little strange but I am sure children would love them!

This book would be a great book to read to students because it deals with self confidence, it deals with bully issues, and jsut had a lot of life lessons placed in this book.  However, something I really saw in this book was a learning experience for teachers, parents, and just adults in general.  It is up to "us" to empower the younger people around us because if we help them find that confidence with us they will have that confidence through the thick and the thin.  

Online reading of Molly Lou Melon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcLmweup7Wo

Spaghetti In A Hot Dog Bun:

Having The Courage To Be Who You Are

Maria Dismondy

A bully putting a crayon in her hair

There is a young girl that is just a little bit different but she doesn't care!  She is happy with who she is and doesn't care if people think it is weird that she puts spaghetti in a hot dog bun and ketchup on toast.  However, some of the other students do care and they decide to make fun of her and she doesn't understand why!  She will have to decide if it is more important to teach them a lesson using their own medicine or stay true to herself and show them what a caring heart can do!

A mean prank being played on her

I loved this book so much! The author did an amazing job writing a story that had so many messages that are worth sharing with students! Its all about being proud of who you are. Empowerment, is something that so many younger children need because it seems these days everyone is trying to be just like everyone else. Children should embrace their differences. I plan on buying this book and using it in my class and the best part is that the author has an amazing read aloud activity sheet to use after reading this book!  

Here is the link for that information:

http://www.mariadismondy.com/uploads/docs/Spaghetti-Readers-Guide.pdf

Here is a link for the read aloud on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cXWrUJlOK8

Everyone go read this book now!

Dear America

Color Me Dark

The Diary of Nellie Lee Love,

The Great Migration North

Chicago, Illinois, 1917

When I was younger I read a lot of Dear America books.  They were my favorites and I read them all the time.  I choose to read this one because it was one I have never read before and it is about a young African American women so I wanted to have some diversity options in my annotated bibliography.  

This book is all about a young African American women in America during the 1919's in Chicago, Illinois.  It is a diary book so the perspectives of what is happening is being portrayed to the readers as if we were reading her diary.  This book was made to empower women through a young womens' eyes as we read her feelings, her thoughts, and her struggles.  These books are great for young girls and even boys to read because it is an easy way to get students interested in history.  This would be classified in the genre of historical fiction and it is very important to tell students that not everything is 100% accurate or true but is based off of real events.

This was not my favorite Dear America book because I feel it could have been written a lot better but nonetheless I suggest  having these books in your classes because they are amazing reads!

List of all books in series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dear_America

I also encourage anyone who is not aware of the history of Chicago in 1919 to research and learn something new!

My Name is Yoon

By Helen Recovits

America is the land of immigrants and this needs to be celebrated and remembered.

This week I read a wonderful story about a young girl from the country of Korea moves to America and absolutely hates it.  She is feeling very lonely and missing her home.  She does not like the traditions in America and is having a very hard time adjusting to America.  Her father tells her that she has to learn to write her name in English.  However, she hates it because she feels it is just lines and circles not beautiful characters like her name in Korean.  She must go to school and struggles with writing her name so instead she chooses to write her name as cat and cupcake and everyday the teacher jsut accepts her and waits patiently until she is ready to write her name.  One day Yoon decides to actually write her name and the teacher is ecstatic!

I thought this book was a great read and I think it would be a great book to read to children that are struggling with moving to a new country, new state, new city, or even a new school.  It is a very hard change to make for many students and even adults.  The reason I like this book is because the teacher was patient with Yoon and waited for her to relax and settle into her new surroundings.  I feel a lot of teachers do not do this for children and force them to try and change before they are ready.  This would also be a great book to introduce to children some cultures around the world and their language, Korean!  Super great book and I would read this book to my students on the first day of school or if I was working in a school where a lot of immigrants were living.

The Hundred Dresses

By: Eleanor Estes

Illustrated By: Louis Slobodkin

"Wanda, tell us.  How many dresses did you say you had hanging up in your closet?" asked Peggy

"A hundred," said Wanda.  "all lined up."

This is a line from the amazing empowering book written for young girls on the effects of bullying; as well as, not standing up for someone that is being bullied.  This "game," which is really Wanda being bullied, started because one girl wanted to fit in with all of the other girls who had nice clothes and new dresses.  However, the girls never let Wanda live it down and would constantly make fun of her.  However, because Wanda wanted to be apart of the group so badly she would continue to play along.  At the end of the book the girls realize how bad they were making fun of Wanda but it may just be too late for them to fix it. 

The Hundred Dresses

In this book a young girl who is never specifically made fun of Wanda struggles with the idea of stopping Peggy from making fun of Wanda and that is what I love about this book so much.  It really goes into the idea that  not stopping a bully and playing a long can be just as bad and damaging as being the bully.  I think this is a great book that every single person can relate to.  At one point or another someone has been bullied, bullied someone else, watched someone get bullied, or played along in order to fit in and it is so sad that I can say "EVERYONE" and feel confident in my statement.  This just does not have to happen.  If teachers and parents show that it is unacceptable to bully others, no matter what the reasoning behind it then it will decline drastically.  There are just too many incidences with bullying now and how much the students are affected by it.  No one should ever take their life because they have been bullied too much.

How the "game" began!

So teachers or parents, if you are having a bullying problem or just want to bring up the issue to educate your students think of this book!  It is a great book to read that has a great plot, is interesting to read, discuses the issues behind bullying on a wide spectrum, and has awesome illustrations.  The book did have a few stereotypes but the author used them in a way that I felt was acceptable to the purpose of the story.  There were also a lot of excellent vocabulary words for the students reading this book to learn!  Overall, I loved this book and am so glad I read it.  It is on the top seller list for a reason!

I Wish I Had Glasses Like Rosa

 

Written by Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook

Illustrated by Bonnie Adamson

This week I read a book that I had a lot of connections with.  As I child I hated my glasses more then anything.  I never wore them and I hated the way they made me look because I felt like I was different.  This story is a little different because it is actually about how a young girl wants to wear glasses and she wants to wear them because her friend Rosa wears them.

There is a young girl, named Abby, who absolutely loves to wear glasses!  Her friend Rosa has glasses and Abby wishes she had glasses like Rosa.  Throughout the book, we are introduced to a creative young girl who finds other types of glasses to wear for very different activities.  This is a wonderful picture book for Children to read or be read to and see what it is like to want to be like someone else, execute individuality, and self esteem through whatever attributes that the children are handed. 

This story is a very easy book to read that has easy sight words and the pictures tell all.  If there were no words in the book the children would mostly likely gain the same story from the pictures.  This makes it great for children of very young ages to read on their own or have them be read to.  The book does have a lot of funny parts so the children would be interested and a lot of great conversation about individuality and self esteem would arise.  What is great about this book is that it shows how everyone is different and even Rosa wants something that she doesn't have that Abby does.  There is also a sequel to this book that would be a great follow up lesson called, "I wish I had freckles like Abby."  It is so important to let children know that it is okay to be happy with themselves and proud of who they are.  They shouldn't want to change to be like someone else but instead embrace who they are!

First Day Jitters

By Julie Danneberg

Illustrated by Judy Love

Scenario:  It is the first day of school for a girl in the 7th grade.  She just moved to a new state after living in the same city for 13 years.  She is extremely nervous because she doesn't know anybody and is not sure if she will make any friends.

Who has been in this situation before? Who has felt nervous about the first day of school or the first day  on a job?  I know I have, because the girl in the scenario was me.  What does this have to do with the theme of the week?  Well this week I read the book First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg. This book is about a girl named Sarah. It is Sarah's first day at a new school and she has first day jitters!  She does not want to get out of bed and has all these horrible ideas about how she will have no friends and what the kids will be like.  She finally makes it to school but is still very hesitant even with the support of the principal.  She will be introduced to the class by the principal but the twist at the end will shock all readers.  This is a great book to read to students on the first day of school!

I really enjoyed reading this book because I think it would be great for kids of all ages to look into the idea about being nervous or shy on the first day of something but better yet it can bring up some great conversation about how to help others that are feeling nervous. It is important to encourage your students to be empathetic and welcoming to new students to help them feel more welcome!  There are so many students that feel alone and if they have no friends.  This can all be prevented by not ignoring this!  This book would be a great opener to those discussions.  I had never read this book before but I think it would be great book to add to a teachers or a mothers library. 

You never know when you will be the person with the nerves!

Stephanie's Ponytail

Story by Robert Munsch and Art by Michael Martchenko

 

“I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.” 

― Rita Mae Brown 

The idea for this week is individuality and self confidence!  When I think back to my time as a Elementary Student I was not a child with a lot of individuality.  I was the person that did what was cool so that everyone would like me.  Sure I was not a follower all the time but I do remember me wanting to be liked by all and when that didn't happen I would get super upset.  Hey, I still do!  However, I now know that people will not always like you so it is important to always be true to yourself.  How many of us have seen students, had friends, or known people that try to hard to be liked?  I'm sure we all know at least one, if not more.  What is the one thing that everyone has to say about all those people? "They are trying too hard." or maybe even "They seem fake." This is because people tend to enjoy a person's company more when the person they are hanging out with is being real with them.  Sure, we all want to be liked but I promise a lot more people will like you for who you are instead of pretending to be someone else.

Students' mindlessly following Stephanie's chaotic ponytails
 in the books' illustrations!

This is why it is so important to encourage individuality and self esteem in the younger grades, because if those two ideas are not expressed or ever learned by the younger students then the older students will probably never learn them and will have a lot of problems when it comes to relationships with themselves and others.  There are so many fun games, activities, and books that can be read to encourage these wonderful traits and Stephanie's Ponytail is one of those books!

 This story is about a young girl, Stephanie, who  went to school and saw that nobody had a ponytail in their hair and Stephanie wanted to be different.  So, her mom put a ponytail in her hair and all the children at school said, "Ugly, ugly, very ugly," but Stephanie did not let them bring her down and just said, "It's my ponytail and I like it."  Strangely the next day everyone had ponytails in their hair, but Stephanie still wanted to be different and kept tying  ponytails in her hair on different places on her head.  Everyday the school would comment on her ponytail saying it was ugly but every time the next day everyone would copy her . This made Stephanie very mad because she wanted to be different then everyone else so she makes a shocking decision to try something very different, but will the other children in the school follow her next idea?  This is a great book to show growth of confidence through individuality!

Students doing activities related to Stephanie's Ponytail!

I had never read this story before but when I did I fell in love with it right away!  It has such a great plot, the characters are so funny, and the idea behind being a proud individual is clear!  The author uses excellent language to help us readers really picture what is going along in the story and of course the drawings also very well done!  In the pictures a lot of different races, genders, and ages are represented and I do not see any stereotyping in the book!  I also think its great that the book continually follows the same pattern of words and plot so that children reading this book would be able to predict what they thought would happen next and of course this book offers up some extremely funny ideas that are certain to keep the kiddos entertained.  

Be proud of who you are and never let any one make you think you are any less awesome!

Chrysanthemum

I have had a lot of thoughts about relationships between girls and how much drama and name calling can really affect a child.  As an adult we hear bullying in schools like , "Oh, your weird " or "I don't want to be your friend anymore," or much worse!  However, these seem  to always get pushed a side in thought because no one believes it will really cause any harm.  "They are just words, we all said them when we were younger!" Am I right? "Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me," is something I remember hearing and saying to others.  Well think about it, what did  those words, the loss of friends, and the loneliness really feel like?  When I look back, it really hurt and my self confidence as a child diminished greatly.  So why is it so acceptable to just allow bullying around schools and young girls?  Shouldn't bullying be just as bad the "f" word or shut up?"

I recently read the childrens' book, Chrysanthemum by Keven Henkes.  This book has always been one of my favorites when it comes to childrens' literature.  It is a story of a young girl named Chrysanthemum who was born perfect in her parent's eyes and so they picked a name they believed to be absolutely perfect.  Chrysanthemum loved her name as much as her parents loved her; until, her first day of school.  At school all of the children laughed and made fun of her because she was named after a flower and her name wouldn't fit on the name tag.  Chrysanthemum and her confidence wilted but the music teacher Mrs. Twinkle  will try and show all the children that a name like Chrysanthemum is absolutely perfect!  

A young girl who had so much confidence and pride in her name lost all of that when one girl made a comment about how it was weird   That comment turned into the whole class making comments about her being named after a flower and continued until one person in the story stood up for Chrysanthemum and put a stop to the bullying.  I encourage all future teachers, future mothers, and girls of all ages to read this story.  Great discussions, activities, and empathy can be learned and practiced after reading this book and it can become a wonderful tool to use when looking at relationships between girls.

If someone is being bullied, stand up for them, and hopefully one day, they will stand up for another person being bullied because YOU gave them that confidence.