Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Share History in the Making with Young People

The Democratic Convention Starts TODAY
Connect Kids with This Week's Events Using Engaging Activities and Discussion Topics!


"The White House, the Moon, and a Coal Miner's Son"
(c) 2008 Joe Cepeda
As the Democrats gather in North Carolina and the world looks on, you can help the young people in your life engage in this week's events and learn to think critically about the campaign rhetoric using informative articles, engaging activities, and discussion questions in the NCBLA's Race to the Ballot: Our White House Presidential Campaign and Election Kit for Kids! The Kit is available free and online on OurWhiteHouse.org.  

An easy-to-print version of the Kit is also available for free download on the document-sharing website Scribd.com

Activities!
Ready-to-implement activities to engage with kids included in the Kit are:
  • Watch a Presidential Stump Speech...and Invite Kids to Write Their Own
  • Separate Fact from Fiction: Analyze the Campaign Rhetoric
  • Collect or Make Campaign Tokens and Posters
  • Be an Eyewitness to History
  • Host a Mock Election
  • Visit a Presidential Historic Site, Library, or Website
  • Play a Game of Presidential Trivia 

To check out all these activities, click here.

Articles!
Exclusive, thought-provoking articles, each with its own discussion questions and activities include:
 Some of the ideas and activities provided in the Kit coordinate with the content and illustrations in the NCBLA's award-winning anthology Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out (Candlewick Press), but most of the activities can be used independently of the book. We invite you to print and adapt content from the Kit as needed or to browse the pages using your smart phone, tablet computer, or laptop while on the go.


About Our White House and OurWhiteHouse.org
Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out was created by the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance as a collaborative effort by over one hundred award-winning authors and illustrators. Our White House is an incomparable collection of essays, personal accounts, historical fiction, poetry, and a stunning array of original art, offering a multifaceted look at America’s history through the prism of the White House.  Our White House is available in both hardcover and paperback from Candlewick Press.

The Our White House anthology is supported by a companion educational website, OurWhiteHouse.org, which expands the book content with additional stories, primary sources, articles, activities, and discussion questions related to book topics. The Race to the Ballot: Our White House Presidential Campaign and Election Kit for Kids is the most recent addition to this site, which has been named a Great Web Site for Kids by the American Library Association! Both Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out and OurWhiteHouse.org are projects created by the NCBLA to not only promote literacy, but to also excite people of all ages about our nation’s rich history. Learn more about how parents, teachers, and librarians can inspire young people using the Our White House resources in the online article "For Educators: Using Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out and OurWhiteHouse.org in the Classroom."