American History for Kids

June 14 – Flag Day

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About the Holiday

Flag Day commemorates the day in 1777 when the “Stars and Stripes” designed by Besty Ross was adopted as the official flag of the United States by the Second Continental Congress. Through early efforts by BJ Cigrand, a school teacher in Fredonia, Wisconsin, in 1885 and George Balch, a kindergarten teacher in New York City in 1889, observances celebrating the flag’s birthday were initiated. Three decades of remembrances followed, and in 1916 President Woodrow Wilson officially established the holiday. It wasn’t until President Harry S Truman signed an Act of Congress on August 3, 1949 that June 14 was designated National Flag Day. Today, people are encouraged to display the American flag. Special events and ceremonies also take place on this day.

Why Are There Stripes on the American Flag?

Written by Martha E. H. Rustad | Illustrated by Kyle Poling

 

The school bell rings and the kids in Mr. Gomez’s class get ready to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Charles raises his hand with a question. Suddenly all the kids have questions about the flag and the words of the Pledge they say each morning. Mr. Gomez is enthusiastic about answering the kids, and the class starts a discussion that includes a bit about the Revolutionary War and how the original 13 colonies became the first states. The new government, Mr. Gomez says, wanted a symbol for the country.

In 1777, Mr. Gomez continues, the American leaders decided to use the colors red, white, and blue. The red stands for courage, the white for goodness, and the blue for fairness. The Flag Act of 1777 decreed that the flag have 13 stripes, alternating red and white, and 13 white stars on a blue field. Stars were chosen to represent the states because the founders believed America was “like a new group of stars shining in the night sky.” Mr. Gomez shows his class pictures of how the flag changed over the years as states were added to the union.

Next, the kids want to understand the wording of the Pledge of Allegiance better. Line by line, Mr. Gomez defines the more difficult words. Allegiance he explains means loyalty or friendship and that in the first line of the pledge we are promising to be loyal to and respect the flag. Respect is shown when we stand and place a hand over our heart while reciting the pledge, obey the rules of raising and lowering the flag, and other requirements. Mr. Gomez then explains what a Republic is and the idea that America is indivisible in that her people live and work as a team, staying together even when we disagree. The concepts of liberty and justice are also defined.

The class is excited with their new knowledge and before heading out for recess, they say the Pledge of Allegiance together.

A Make Your Own Flag activity follows the text along with a glossary of words used in the book and resources for further study.

Martha E. H. Rustad has written a primer about the American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance that will engage kids and teach them about these important patriotic concepts. Words such as symbol, justice, liberty, and more are described through the give and take between Mr. Gomez and his students, using familiar examples from the playground and classroom. Each page also includes facts about the US flag, the Flag Act, the design of early flags, flag etiquette, and more.

Kyle Poling’s friendly and colorful illustrations depict a diverse class where the concepts being discussed are clearly visible. Young readers will feel right at home in Poling’s classroom environment and be excited to learn about the origins of our most familiar symbol.

Ages 5 – 8

Millbrook Press, 2014 | ISBN 978-1467744652

Flag Day Activity

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Star-Shaped Word Search

 

The stars on the American flag represent the country’s 50 states. In this printable Star-Shaped Word Search you’ll find words about the origins of the US flag and the Pledge of Allegiance. 

June 1 – Global Running Day

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About the Holiday

On your mark, get set, run! More than 2 million people in 160 countries have pledged to run on today’s holiday. Global Running Day is the evolution of National Running Day in the United States, which was started in 2009 by leading running organizations and races throughout the nation. It has been held annually on the first Wednesday of June ever since. This year will mark the first-ever Million Kid Run that aims to have a million kids around the world pledge to run with the hope that they will discover the joys of running and will be inspired to continue the sport through life. Participating is as easy as running in your neighborhood, gathering with friends to run, or even playing tag with your kids.

The Wildest Race Ever: The Story of the 1904 Olympic Marathon

By Meghan McCarthy

 

On August 30, 1904 the first United States Olympic Marathon took place at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. Torrential rainstorms in the days before the race had washed away the original route, so a new, more difficult route was mapped out. Some of the 32 racers were:

Fred Lorz, a Boston bricklayer; John Lorden, the winner of the 1903 Boston Marathon; Sam Mellor from New York and the winner of two major marathons; Felix Carvajal, a mailman from Cuba; Arthur Newton; Albert Corey;  Len Tau, a long-distance running messenger from South Africa; William Garcia, the “greatest long-distance runner on the Pacific Coast”; and Thomas Hicks, who had only trained on flat terrain and was not ready for hilly St. Louis. There were also racers from countries all over the world.

At the starting line the racers waited in 90-degree heat for the signal. When the pistol shot rang out, they took off. The early leader was Fred Lorz. As the racers took to the hills outside the stadium so did cars full of reporters, judges, and doctors. Some spectators rode along side them on bicycles. All these vehicles stirred up so much dust that the runners choked on it.

At mile two, Sam Mellor and Fred Lorz were in the lead with Thomas Hicks only a little behind, but at mile 9 Lorz suffered terrible cramps and was driven away in a car. Now Albert Corey and William Garcia were neck and neck, and Hicks was catching up!

And what about Felix Carvajal? He ran and ran—but he also stopped and stopped. He loved talking to the spectators that cheered him on. It gave him an opportunity to practice his English! Arthur Newton, Sam Mellor, and Thomas Hicks exchanged the lead several times. No one knew who would win!

Where was Len Tau? Unfortunately, an angry dog chased him until he was a mile off course. Felix Carvajal also got distracted—not by a dog, but by an apple orchard! He settled down under a tree to satisfy his hunger. Soon, Mellor began suffering cramps and was suddenly out of the race.

Hicks suffering unbearable thirst in the staggering heat, began begging his trainers for water. They refused, instead giving him a concoction of strychnine and egg white. Another name for strychnine is rat poison! What would happen to Hicks after he drank it?Meanwhile who should appear out of the dust? Fred Lorz! He ran through the tape at the finish line and was declared the winner! Cheers erupted from the crowd. But wait! Someone said that Lorz had cheated. The cheers turned to boos, and even though Lorz said it was all a joke, the race committee banned Lorz from racing for life.

Hicks, somehow, kept running, buoyed by the cheering crowds. His trainers gave him more of the “health” drink, which made Hicks sluggish and confused. Nevertheless, he struggled on. When he came to the top of the last hill, seeing and hearing the crowds energized him. He pushed himself to run harder and harder until he broke through the tape. He collapsed on the ground just as he was declared the winner. He was rushed to the hospital, but was well enough to accept his award an hour later.

What happened to the other runners? All, except William Garcia who was overtaken by the clouds of dust, crossed the finish line at various times and with unique comments on their performance. These racers may have been very different, but they all had one thing in common. Each one accomplished an astounding feat: They competed side by side in the “killer marathon” of 1904 while upholding the Olympic spirit.

Meghan McCarthy with wit and suspense brings the story of the 1904 marathon to life for kids used to paved, well-marked routes, energizing sports drinks, supportive running shoes, and comfortable running clothes. Perhaps the only similarities to today’s races and yesteryear’s are the start and finish line and the cheering crowds! McCarthy’s inclusion of the humorous and the near-disastrous will keep readers’ hearts racing until the very end, when the topsy-turvy finish is revealed!

McCarthy illustrates The Wildest Race Ever with verve and comic flourishes that well-represent this extraordinary Olympics event. Kids will giggle and gasp to see what happens to the racers – and even a couple of spectators – during the race.

The Wildest Race Ever is a must-read for sports and history enthusiasts alike! 

Ages 4 – 9

Simon & Schuster, 2016 | ISBN 978-1481406390

Global Running Day Activity

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Sassy Shoe Laces

 

Did you know that having cool shoelaces makes you run faster? Well…that might not be exactly true, but you will definitely look good no matter what you’re doing if you make some unique laces for your shoes.

Supplies

  • Shoelaces in any color
  • Fabric paint or markers

Directions

  1. With the fabric paint or markers make dots, stripes, or any designs you like. You can even paint fish or flowers!
  2. Enjoy them on your run!

May 19 – It’s National Photography Month

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About the Holiday

National Photography Month was established in 1987 by the United States Congress to commemorate the importance of photos to present and future generations. National Photo month gives you an opportunity to consider what you photograph and how you can become more intentional about making photos that will be meaningful decades from now. Look at your subjects and see the colors, people, events, the culture—even the moment that you are documenting. Once you’ve taken your pictures, don’t just leave them on your phone, in the cloud, or on your hard drive. Print them and archive them for the future. Your inspiration, perspective, and opinions will live on in them.

Dorothea’s Eyes: Dorothea Lange Photographs the Truth

Written by Barb Rosenstock | Illustrated by Gérard DuBois

 

When Dorothea Lange opens her green eyes, she sees things others miss. In the shadows, in patterns within the grain of wooden tables, in the repeated shapes of windows on a wall, and most especially in people’s faces. “Dorothea loves faces! When Dorothea looks at faces, it’s like she’s hugging the world.”

When Dorothea is seven she contracts polio. The disease withers her right leg and forever after she walks with a limp. Other kids tease her and make her want to hide. Her mother encourages her, but Dorothea pretends to be invisible. When her father leaves his family, her mother gets a job in New York and Dorothea goes to a new school. She is different and lonely.

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Image copyright Gérard DuBois , text copyright Barb Rosenstock. Courtesy of Caulkins Creek

As Dorothea waits for her mother to finish work, she looks around her, spying “into crowded tenements where fathers, home from peddling, read newspapers, and mothers wash dishes, clothes, and babies in rusty sinks—happy and sad mixed together.” She begins to skip school to wander the city, gazing at it with her curious eyes and heart.

When Dorothea grows up she decides to become a photographer. Her family is surprised—it is not a ladylike profession. She works any job she can find in the photography industry, learning about cameras, darkrooms, negatives, and the printing process. “Alone in the darkroom’s amber glow, she studies the wet printing paper while faces appear in black and white. Dorothea loves faces!”

When she is 23 Dorothea travels west and when all her money is stolen in San Francisco, she stays, gets a job, and starts her own portrait studio. She becomes the sought-after photographer of the richest families in California. She makes money, gains friends, gets married, and starts a family of her own. But she always wonders, “Am I using my eyes and my heart?”

When the stock market crashes and the Great Depression sweeps the country, Dorothea focuses her camera on the desperate and the downtrodden. Her friends don’t understand, but Dorothea sees into these poor people’s hearts. She “knows all about people the world ignores.” For 5 years she goes out into the fields, peers into tents, documents families living in their cars, crouches in the dirt to reveal the stories of the people struggling with the devastation wrought by the Dust Bowl.

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Image copyright Gérard DuBois , text copyright Barb Rosenstock. Courtesy of Caulkins Creek

Newspapers and magazines publish her pictures. “Her photographs help convince the government to provide parents with work, children with food, and families with safe, clean homes. “The truth, seen with love, becomes Dorothea’s art.” Dorothea’s photographs are still known today. Their subjects continues to help us see others with our hearts.

Six of Dorothea Lange’s most famous and recognizable photographs are reproduced on the last page—still as riveting today as they were in the 1930s. Further information on her life and work is provided as well as sources where her photographs can be viewed, resources for further study, and a timeline of her life.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-dorotheas-eyes-kids

Image copyright Gérard DuBois , text copyright Barb Rosenstock. Courtesy of Caulkins Creek

Barb Rosenstock brings Dorothea Lange’s vision to the page with love, honesty, and understanding in this excellent biography of a woman whose photographs defined the Great Depression and Dust Bowl era. Lange’s life-long connection to the poor and often overlooked people of the world is beautifully described and explained in a gentle, compassionate way that will resonate with children. Rosenstock’s language is lyrical with staccato sentences that echo the clicks of Lange’s shutter capturing life’s reality with her eyes and her heart.

Gérard DuBois’s illustrations are arresting and set Dorothea Lange’s story firmly in its historical and emotional landscape. Rendered in acrylic and digital imagery, they feature the muted colors and style of book illustrations from long ago. By placing the images of Dorothea, her family, and her photography subjects against white backgrounds, DuBois emphasizes Lange’s focus on the people she met and faces that inspired her. Distressed textures accentuate the troubled times and the anguish of both Dorothea and her subjects.

Ages 7 – 12

Calkins Creek, 2016 | ISBN 978-1629792088

Discover all the amazing books by Barb Rosenstock on her website!

View a portfolio of art and book illustration by Gérard DuBois on his website!

Here’s a snapshot of Dorothea’s Eyes!

National Photography Month Activity

CPB - New Professionals Picture

News Professionals Clothespin Figures

 

Make one of these clothespin figures that honors the men and women who work to keep the world informed.

Supplies

Directions

  1. Draw a face and hair on the clothespin
  2. Cut out the clothes you want your journalist or photographer to wear
  3. Wrap the clothes around the clothespin. The slit in the clothespin should be on the side.
  4. Tape the clothes together
  5. Cut out the camera
  6. Tape one end of a short length of thread to the right top corner of the camera and the other end of the thread to the left corner. Now you can hang the camera around the figure’s neck.

Idea for displaying the figures

  • Attach a wire or string to the wall and pin the figure to it
  • Pin it to your bulletin board or on the rim of a desk organizer

 

Picture Book Review

May 7 – National Train Day

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About the Holiday

Falling at the end of National Tourism Week, National Train Day honors the history of train travel and its importance to the opening of new frontiers as well as its continued  use for pleasure and business transportation. Train museums and train enthusiasts across the country celebrate with special events, rides, and educational opportunities for all ages. Some celebrations occur today, while others are held on May 14.

Locomotive

By Brian Floca

 

“Here is a road made for crossing the country, a new road of rails made for people to ride.” So begins Brian Floca’s sprawling paeon to the locomotive and its influence on America and the Old West. Amid the Clank Clank Clank of hammers on iron spikes, men from all over toiled from coast to coast to build the rail lines that carried the trains across the country: “Three strokes to the spike, ten spikes to the rail!”

Families who have sold all their possessions to pay for tickets for the week-long trip west stand on the platform in Omaha, Nebraska watching for the approaching train. Suddenly, they hear the clang of the bell and “see a puff from her stack—a puff of smoke, a smudge in the sky.” The awesome train pulls up at the station huffing “like a beast.”

Her crew—the brakeman, fireman, engineer, and conductor—make the train ready. They gather the passengers, stoke the firebox, push forward the Johnson bar, and get the train underway. The passengers sit back, ready for the long journey. The engineer “is the master of his machine, he knows her moods and tempers, where to set her bars and levers….Westward, westward runs the train, through the prairies, to the Great Plains, on to the frontier.”

In the cars the travelers read, play games, meet their neighbors. In winter they are warmed by a coal stove in one corner, while in the other corner a “modern” convenience is provided. Eventually, the train must stop to refuel. The passengers scramble to the railroad restaurant at the station. They have 20 minutes to eat what the menu offers: buffalo steak, antelope chops, or chicken stew (which tastes suspiciously like prairie dog).

As night falls a new engine is carefully attached to the cars by the switchman, who has learned to be quick to avoid the rolling, jumping cars that can take a finger. “Through the night the engine runs. Those up late hear her whistle, her wild and lonesome cry. It echoes on far hills and homes, it sounds in distant dreams.”

By morning the train has reached the mountains. The going is steep and slow. A second engine must be attached to give the train power enough to climb. On the other side of the mountains the terrain is rugged, and the train must traverse long, rickety wooden bridges. Days pass as the train travels through beautiful, mysterious country, skirting land formations such as Castle Rock, The Witches, Devil’s Slide, and the 1000 Mile Tree.

In Utah at Promontory Summit, the train comes to the meeting place of the tracks built from the East and the tracks built from the West. The passengers disembark and change trains, changing train companies also, from the Union Pacific that brought them here to the Central Pacific who will take them the rest of the way. Now the train passes through desolate, dry country, home to the Paiute and the Shoshone.

The mighty Sierra Nevada rises up ahead. A second engine is again required. If the tracks are slick, the “engineers can pull a handle to drop some sand down a tube, onto the tracks. The wheels hit the grit, the traction does the trick!” Closer and closer the train comes to its final destination, puffing through long wooden sheds that keep the tracks clear in winter and into dark tunnels blasted through the mountain rock.

Down, down the train progresses to the end of the line. The weary but excited travelers jump from the train to meet their friends or family or to start a new life in San Francisco!

If you love trains, American history, or the Old West, or if you are simply enamored of travel, you will want to read Brian Floca’s Caldecott Medal Winning and Silbert Honor book, Locomotive. Floca’s lyrical language makes poetry of the steam train’s inception, from the laying of the rails to the inner workings of the engine to the long journey westward. Fascinating facts of the train crews’ work, conditions for the passengers, and the territory crossed make this a page turner that any age will enjoy.

Readers can almost hear the sounds of the clanging bell and huffing engine, as these sounds are represented in a variety of typefaces and sizes, growing larger and larger as the train approaches the station. Every page is a joy. As the train chugs across the country, the paintings are swept in rushing brush strokes and the train whooshes into view from the edges, filling the page. The vast empty plains nearly dwarf the locomotive, and the mountainous regions pose chilling challenges for the iron horse. The nighttime scenes are beautifully lit by starlight and the single headlight of the train, reflecting the dreams of a new nation.

Although Locomotive is a longer picture book, its rhythms, depth of description, and gorgeous language will appeal to even very young children. Make some tea and hot chocolate and settle in for a cozy read of wonderful book!

Ages 4 – 12 and up (adults will also enjoy this book)

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2013 | ISBN 978-1416994152

National Train Day Activity

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All Aboard Maze!

 

Trains travel over intricate terrain, over mountains, across vast plains, and through exciting cities. It’s a little like finding your way through a maze! Have fun completing this printable All Aboard Maze! Here’s the Solution. Choo choo!