New Year's Reading

Culminate your New Year activities with a story of sharing.

• The After Christmas Tree by Linda Wagner Tyler tells of a young boy who is sad to see the family Christmas tree taken down. But instead of throwing it away, his family turns the tree into a treat for the wild birds and animals.

Treat your local fine-feathered friends by making a bird feeder to hang outside. Set up a center with a pinecone for each of your club members, a jar of peanut butter, plastic knives, and a bag of birdseed. Each youth spreads peanut butter on his pinecone, and then rolls it in birdseed. Help attach a wire or ribbon around the pinecone so that it can hang from a tree branch.

• Ring Out, Wild Bells by Lee Bennett Hopkins -- This collection of poems honors many seasons and holidays, and features several about winter and New Year's Day.
  
• We Celebrate New Year by Bobbie Kalman -- Explore New Year traditions around the world with this collection of stories, and activities.
  
• Santa Cow Island by Cooper Edens -- The Santa Cows are on their way to an after-Christmas vacation. They invite the Schwartz family to accommodate them on the trip, which concludes with an outlandish New Year's Eve celebration.
  
• The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles -- This moving story portrays the hostility of segregation seen through the eyes of a six-year-old girl named Ruby Bridges. Ruby was the first African-American girl to integrate Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960. After sharing this story, discuss the following questions with your club members:

-- How do your think Ruby felt at first about moving to New Orleans?
-- Why couldn't Ruby go to any school she wanted?
-- How did Ruby's parents feel about her going to a new school?
-- Describe Ruby's first day at her new school.
-- Compare Ruby's first day of school to your first day of school.
-- How did Ruby's teacher feel about her?
-- Describe Ruby's character.

• Martin Luther King, Jr. by Kathie Billingslea Smith -- This biography gives the details of Martin Luther King's interesting life – presenting them so children in the primary grades can understand.
  
• The Whaler's Song by Dyan Sheldon -- This moving story tells about a girl named Lilly who longs to hear the song of the whales as her grandmother had years before. Grandma says a gift of a perfect shell or a beautiful stone might entice the whales to sing. After reading the story ask your club members to think of what special thing they would offer the whales to hear them sing. Then, if possible, play a tape of recorded whale songs. Ask youths to think of words to describe these unusual sounds. Whales makes sounds that have been described as whistles, clicks, gurgles, squeaks, moans, and groans. A humpback whale can make over 1,000 sounds. It's song can be heard underwater 100 miles away.
  
• Ibis: A True Whale Story by John Himmelman -- Ibis is a humpback calf who, like most youngsters, is very curious. Unfortunately her inquisitiveness lands her in trouble. After reading this story, discuss shapes that a whale might see underwater. Brainstorm a list of different shapes. Provide each child with a large sheet of art paper and have them draw a large whale shape. Next add several underwater shapes. Have them transform the shapes into underwater scenes by painting over the crayon illustrations with watercolors or watered-down blue tempera paint.