And our March picks is...
When Isaac Hears the Rain by Julie Thompson & Leah Giles
March Pick -- When Isaac Hears the Rain
When the rain starts to fall, others may dash, yelp, and dodge, as their smiles turn into frowns. But not Isaac. Isaac embraces the rain with curiosity and wonder, grateful for its renewing power and grounded in the world around him. Written with equal parts heart and whimsy, and with a nod to Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day, this environmentally conscious narrative makes a fantastic read-aloud for readers, young and old. Author Julie Thompson wrote this sweet celebration of Black Boy Joy as an ode to her two sons. The lyrical text will encourage readers everywhere to cherish those unexpected moments of joy that provide a welcome respite from the challenges of life.
Celebrate the unexpected joy of a rainy day with this quietly exuberant book about a young boy who delights in the rejuvenating power of rain.
Meet Our Creators:
Author: Julie Thompson
Julie Thompson creates stories that reflect and celebrate the lived experiences of children everywhere. As a mother of two boys, she is especially drawn to books that honor Black Boy joy. Julie is inspired by the people, places, and experiences that have shaped her 27-year career in youth services, community outreach, and law enforcement, and she hopes to encourage open dialogue within families and their communities. She lives with her two sons in Toronto, Canada, where she teaches yoga, mindfulness, and meditation. She's the author of Timeless Love, illustrated by Daria Lavrova, & newly released: Just Kickin' It. Learn more about Julie & her work on her website, here.
Illustrator: Leah Giles
Leah Giles grew up in Toronto, Canada, where she studied film, animation, and illustration. She moved to Brooklyn to pursue studies in illustration and art education. Leah loves any and all things bright, bold, and radically lovely. She currently paints, draws, and collages in a noisy little apartment near the park. Leah has illustrated some of our favorite books, The Belly Song by Mother Moon & Showing I Love You by Mother Moon; & a few upcoming realeses that we are really excited for: The Fig Tree by Costantia Manoli & Downtown Doors by Natasha Tripplett coming later this year. Learn more about Leah & her work on her website, here.
Below you will find our monthly craft; printable activity sheets; and our community outreach activity where we will be exploring composting & learning how our worm friends can help. For more books to read this month, don't forget to check out our supplemental book list:
This is also the perfect opportunity to read books celebrating Black joy and Black creators because we read Black stories all year long. Check out that booklist here. Spring is just around the corner so if you'd like to add some stories to welcome in the new season, check out this booklist.
We really hope you enjoy this month of book club as we continue to keep our nationwide book club free & accessible for all. Each book is intentionally handpicked with each activity and outreach curated to engage and enrich our youth's experiences. Through these diverse and inclusive reads, working and playing together, and giving back to their own community, we hope to instill empathy, understanding, & kindness in our kids.
Let's Craft: magical watercolor rain storms with optional umbrella
We remember when we first learned how to make this magical watercolor activity & seeing the kids' expressions when they found the surprise message we had left them. Awe. We need a little bit more magic in the world these days & after watching the children's reactions to the marbled shaving cream art, we knew we would have to do another surprise reveal craft. This month, we wanted to correlate our craft with our community activity. We will be making homemade watercolors. You do not need to do this. We wanted the materials we used to be compostable so we would not waste & show children how we can use recycled items for new uses. Then compost when we have no more use for them. Again, you did not need to go the extra mile to make homemade watercolors, you can use the ones I've shown in the photo examples. But, if you're like us & want to create this into a lesson: watch this.
We've included an extra activity to create an umbrella for our weather scene. This is dependent on the time you have. Some of our school visits have less time so depending how long our reading & watercolor activity take, we may not be able to include it. Seeing the watercolor surprise is great, but we wanted to include an activity to work on hand strength, specifically pincer grasp. So many young children these days struggle with grasping writing utensils, opening/closing scissors, opening snack packages. These types of crafts can help. We also hope you'll add a little worm friend to your art piece with a little pink yarn.
Materials:
Watercolor paper
Watercolors (we are making our own watercolors, so that we can compost afterwards)
Compostable egg cartons (to hold our homemade watercolors, not shown)
White crayons
Water
Paintbrushes
Umbrella template (see below)
Scrap construction paper/tissue paper/newspaper/old magazines
Scissors
Glue
Pink yarn
Modifications:
Easy: May need to assistance to draw with the white crayon, as it will be hard for child to see what they're creating & some frustrations may occur. Allow child to paint independently. If adding an umbrella, cut out the template for them. Allow child to independently rip & glue construction paper to template.
Moderate: Allow children to create, may need occasional assistance, including reminder to use two hands when cutting & to turn paper, not scissors.
Hard: Allow child to create with no modifications.
Instructions:
1. Gather materials. Have children draw with their white crayon on the watercolor paper. We'll start with a horizontal line across the the page to separate the ground from the rest of the sky. Have your child draw vertical lines to represent long rain drops falling. Make some short & some long. Underneath the horizontal line they drew, have kids draw mini swirls or circles where their rain droplets would splash.
*Note: We are using white crayon on white watercolor paper. It will be difficult to see what they have drawn. Frustrations may happen. This is the perfect opportunity to talk about art & how imperfections make them unique.
2. Once all the drawing is done with the white crayon. It's time to use watercolor.
3. Grab your watercolor paints, water, & paintbrushes. This is another great teaching opportunity to listen to verbal instruction -- water, then paint, then paper -- and remembering those steps.
4. Allow child to paint freely.
*Note: If you are making homemade watercolors like us, we are choosing to use old cardboard egg cartons as our watercolor containers because they are compostable. Again, we will be demonstrating composting activities following the craft so this is why we are choosing to use these specific materials.
5. Once the whole watercolor paper is painted, and if you have time, you can make the umbrellas. You can create your own template out of cardboard & have kids trace the umbrella on cardstock or you can print the template for kids to rip construction paper & paste onto. We will be printing the template for each student & then having them (or their adult) cut the template out.
6. Kids will chose scrap construction paper/tissue paper/newspaper to rip into smaller pieces and glue onto their template. Once completed, they can cut out & glue their umbrella to their watercolor painting if it is dry.
7. Add a piece of pink yarn to the painting as a worm friend. Look how cute it is!
Remember: We encourage you to request your local library purchase the title for your community to share. It's easy to request. Head to your local library's website. On the site, there will be a "Suggest A Title" tab (see below). Just add the book When Isaac Hears the Rain by Julie Thompson & submit. You can even share this blog with them. After reading or listening, we encourage you to please review the books on goodreads, on Amazon, & on your social media platforms. Reviews will help get the word out about these incredible books!
printable activity sheets:
Worthy Kids marketing team has created an activity kit with discussion sheets for educators and activity sheets for readers to go with our story, When Isaac Hears the Rain. The educator guide includes information on: vocabulary, reading comprehension strategies, STEM connections, & further learning with video links. The activity kit includes: a word search (with an answer key), a couple coloring sheets, & a writing activity about how they'd spend a day in the rain. Download the kits below:
Community Outreach: Composting with worm friends
Let's talk about composting! As the weather starts to warm & Spring is sprouting soon, it's important to discuss composting & how we can help our local communities. A local nonprofit in our area, Freedom Org, is developing two community gardens in our area. One is opening in April (Princeville) & one is opening in May (Tarboro). We will be discussing how composting can help create nutrient-rich fertilizer for our community gardens & demonstrate by watching worms at work. Like our friend Isaac, we will be bringing worm friends to each location to show how worms can help break down various everyday items/food scraps. We purchased this enclosure to help show kids, but you can create your own worm habitat (instructions are in the educator kit above). If you don't want to show real worms at work in your library, classroom, or home, you can watch this and maybe encourage kids to save their scraps from lunch & snack to create a classroom compost bin. Here's a fun video about how compost is made! We encourage you to reach out to your local organizations (community gardens, gardening clubs) to see if they could use your compost to create their own fertilizer. We'll be saving all our scraps to share with Freedom Org. This is a great opportunity to discuss recycling & sustainability too -- Earth Day is just around the corner. Check out our Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle book list, here.
This doesn't need to be extravagant. This is a way for us to celebrate & educate with our kids -- learning about the importance of rain, of worms, of composting, & creating a sustainable present & future for us all.
supplemental books:
We're also reading Thank You, Rain; Chirri & Chirra: The Rainy Day; A Place for Rain; & ¡Lluvia! Rain! to celebrate & educate on rain -- the joys, the troubles, & the sustainable way to use it if we collect it!! There are a few great resources for some of our supplemental books, check them out below:
Please do not skip the community outreach activities. We truly believe this outreach activity is a vital part of childhood & an opportunity to raise kind kids. Teaching our youth the importance of celebrating & educating sustainable practices to maintain the health of our planet. To learn the importance of understanding the consequences of our choices when we don't recycle. To learn kindness, empathy, acceptance, & understanding of others & choose to gift that to our planet.
YAY! Another MOSS Kids Book Club pick, craft, printable sheets, and community outreach activity. We would love to see all the rain art & composting practice your kids create. You do not need to share kid's faces. Please be sure to tag us on Instagram @mosskidsbooks & use #mosskidsbookclub. Sharing about MOSS Kids Book Club is a way for your community to learn more about what MOSS Kids has to offer & for them to know about brand new diverse & inclusive books. By doing so, we can reach & help more kids across the country. We'd also love to hear any feedback you may have, please email us at hello@mosskidsbooks.com. We appreciate you all so much for taking the initiative to bring kids together to read diverse books & hopefully learn vital life skills to help make our world a better place.
Don't Forget: We Have Local moss kids book club locations in eastern north Carolina!!
Tuesday, 03/11 at 1030am: MOSS Kids Book Club at Wilson County Public Library in Wilson
Wednesday, 03/12 at 7pm: Picture Books on Tap at Larema Beverage Co in Rocky Mount with special guest, Gabby Bryson the city of Rocky Mount's stormwater engineer
Friday, 03/14 at 1030am: MOSS Kids Book Club at Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount
Saturday, 03/29 at 10am: MOSS Kids Book Club with Drag Story Hour at Boxyard RTP, with queen reader Lil Dumpling
We're continuing our SCHOOL POP-INS! We have plans to visit 4 local elementary schools across two counties bringing our MOSS Kids Book Club right to them & then donating the book to their school library for all to enjoy. We're hoping to expand & add more later this year!
We're continuing Lunch Bunch! We will be popping in every week this month to a local school to read with a small group of third graders, to diversify their bookshelves (they get to keep the books!) & to develop a love for reading. Our Lunch Bunch pick is -- The Kids in Mrs. Z's Class: Rohan Murphy Has A Plan
Special Creek Week Event on Saturday, 03/22 at 11am & 2pm: Celebrate Creek Week and World Water Day with a storytime & craft presented by MOSS Kids Book Project in conjunction with the city of Rocky Mount & Braswell Memorial Library. We'll be reading two picture books, A Place for Rain & We Are Water Protectors, in the Battle Room before meeting Gabby, the city of Rocky Mount's stormwater engineer. Gabby will talk with us about how we are a part of the watershed & how we can help keep our streams clean. She'll demonstrate using an interactive enviroscape & after, we will be crafting jellyfish & turtles out of recycled materials. Each attendee will be able to take home activity kits & more information about our creeks & waterways.
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