As elementary students think about cards and gifts for Mother's Day. engage them in a reference activity which focuses on the many ideas surrounding the word "mother" as a means of developing research skills. Have them work in pairs so they can help each other. After the first search, no directions are given as to how to find answers. Don't provide any specific instructions. You can make suggestions if they ask but, in general, wait until they have completed the sheet.

When all students are finished, discuss with them how they approached the various tasks. Let them evaluate which group's strategy was most effective. You might be surprised at some of the solutions. While you probably would have gone to the catalog to locate authors whose initials spell out mother, some students might choose to go directly to the fiction shelves. The object is for them to recognize that there are many ways to find answers, and that some are better or faster than others.

Click here for the worksheet.

Answers will vary considerably, but these are some possibilities (nos. 4 and 5 are briefer than what students will do). Mother Carey's chickens; mother-in-law; mother-of-pearl Milne, Okimoto, Thayer, Hurwitz, Ehrlich, Rockwell There was a crooked man. Koalas are marsupials so the mother carries the newborn (about 3/4 of an inch in length) in her pouch to nurse and grow. After the baby is large and strong enough to leave the pouch, it clings to its mother's back until it is about one year old. Automobiles came about as part of a series of inventions. They enabled the growing population to connect more easily with markets and family even if they moved to more distant locations. Italy has produced some of the world's greatest artists including Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo. It was not unified into a single country until 1879. Three great volcanoes--Vesuvius, Etna and Stromboli_are located there. The Alps, including the famous Matterhorn, form its northern border. She was nicknamed "Grandma" because she started painting when she was 78. She trained herself by copying old Currier and Ives prints and then making original oils based on memories of how life used to be. By the time she died at 101 she had produced over 1,000 paintings in the "primitive" or "naive" style. Eight presidents were born in Virginia (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, William Henry Harrison, Tyler, Taylor and Wilson), seven were born in Ohio (Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, McKinley, Taft and Harding). While Virginia wins on numbers, the argument can be made that most presidents born there held office when there were few other states.

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Activity Extra: March 2001

Women's History Month: Dining with Greatness

Celebrate Women's History Month with a well-researched dinner party. While middle and junior high school students are still some time away from writing college application essays, they can live the traditional one describing dinner with famous personages---in this case, notable women.

The end product, which has students taking on the persona of the woman they researched, gives a new twist to an old project. It is not always necessary to reinvent the wheel for these annual units. In March 1993 the School Librarian's Workshop featured "Woman's Work," in which students created a color-coded timeline based on the different areas in which women made a contribution. The categories and a modified list of luminaries as well as a slightly revised version of the Information Sheet can be used as a basis for this research and for creating the dinner party.

Selecting the Guests

Divide the class into groups of four. Have them select four women from different categories in the list. They may have a scientist, a risk taker, a sports figure and a political leader, or any other combination. Be sure to have enough names so that there are no duplications. Feel free to add or delete from those suggested.

Have each group member take one woman to research (using this sheet or one like it. Once students have identified some basic facts about their person, provide time for groups to talk about their findings, comparing and contrasting them. The discussion will get them accustomed to reflecting on various aspects of the life they are investigating so they can better understand the forces that motivated her and begin to recognize what they need to know to take on her personality. (The boys may have some difficulty with this idea but remind them that this is just make-believe. You can also tell them that until the seventeenth century, since women weren't allowed on stage, boys took on the roles of females.)

Notable Conversations

For the dinner party, you can serve real or pretend food. Put two groups together for a table for eight and have the remainder of the class be observers until it is their turn.

Select one person to act as hostess for the party. Prepare a series of questions and put them in a bowl. After the hostess draws out one and reads it aloud, the dinner table discussion begins. The object is for students to demonstrate how much they know about their woman by recognizing when it is an appropriate moment to chime in with "my life was almost the same" or "my case was just the opposite of what happened to you."

The Dessert

At the conclusion of your dinners, have the class discuss the various table conversations. Which gathering had the best table talk? What was it that made it so interesting or funny or enlightening? Which woman did they admire the most? What made her life so special?

While some students may remember this project when they are ready to write an essay for their college application, all will take away lasting impressions of the struggles and accomplishments of women throughout history. You have given them food for thought.

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February 2001: All That Jazz

In an age when advertising has turned many children into insatiable consumers always wanting the current fad, few know what it means to yearn for something because it's the one thing that will fill your soul. And while poverty is ever-present, opportunities for young people to earn a little money are rare. Alan Schroder not only recounts the early years of one of the greatest jazz trumpeters but also presents a tale of character building. Although the story is an excellent addition to Black History Month units, it will work equally well for music, or family relations, or as a wonderful book in itself.

Schroeder, Alan. Satchmo's Blues. Ill. by Floyd Cooper. Doubleday, 1996, unp. 0-385-32046-9. Living on Perdido Street, a tough neighborhood in New Orleans at the turn of the century, young Louis Armstrong is drawn to the sound of horn playing. He peeks under saloon doors and joins parades just to get closer to the magnificent music. More than anything else he wants to play like Bunk Johnson and blow a cornet until the roof trembles. But money is scarce, and even the beautiful horn in the pawnshop costs $5. By running errands, selling rags and coal, and reselling old onions he almost reaches his goal. After he reluctantly contributes a needed quarter to his sister's birthday dinner, his mother gives him a silver dollar, taking him over the top. Joyfully, he purchases his horn and, as he plays his first notes, aims it at the moon.

Activities

1. Louis Armstrong
   • Find out what happened to Louis Armstrong when he grew up.
     
   • Where did his nickname "Satchmo" come from? Do you think it is a good name for him? Do you have a nickname?
   • Listen to recordings he made. Is there a particular one you like?

2. New Orleans and Jazz
   • Where is New Orleans located? Why did its location make it important?
   • Mardi Gras is a special New Orleans celebration. What is Mardi Gras and how is it celebrated?
   • What does "rag" mean in the song "Panama's Rag" or "Rag Night at Sister Leola's"?
   • Bourbon Street, where Satchmo sees his horn, is an important place in the history of jazz. Find out more about it.
   • What is jazz?
   • Who were some other famous jazz musicians and what instruments did they play?
   • Read Libba Moore Gray's Little Lil and the Swing-Swinging Sax (Simon & Schuster, 1996, unp. 0-689-80681-7) illustrated by Lisa Cohen. How is it like Satchmo's Blues How is it different? What is "swing"? Present a skit in which Lil and Louis meet and talk about music.

3. Into the Story
   • What does the title mean? Make a blue collage that illustrates the "blues."
   • What is "jambalaya"?
   • Why was laundry so complicated? What is lye?
   • Why do you think Louis' mother asked him for a quarter? Do you think she was right?

4. Segregation
   • When Louis Armstrong was growing up, New Orleans was segregated. What does segregation mean? How are people still prejudiced today?
   • "Apartheid," an even more extreme form of segregation, was the law of South Africa until recently. Read The Day Gogo Went to Vote: South Africa, April 1994 by Elinor Batezat Sisulu and illustrated by Sharon Wilson (Little Brown, 1996, unp. 0-316-70267-6). Why is voting so important?