{"id":468818,"date":"2010-03-24T23:01:53","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T03:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/archives\/2536"},"modified":"2010-03-24T23:01:53","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T03:01:53","slug":"teaching-civics-with-children%e2%80%99s-literature-a-very-important-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/468818","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Civics with Children\u2019s Literature: A Very Important Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"a-very-important-day.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Very Important Day<\/a>, written by Maggie Herold<\/a> and illustrated by Catherine Stock <\/a>serves as an exceptional introduction to the naturalization process.\u00a0 Two-hundred nineteen people from thirty-two counties around the world travel to the same courthouse downtown New York\u00a0to be sworn in as\u00a0citizens of the United States of America.\u00a0 It was a very important day.\u00a0 Family and friends of the individuals waiting to be sworn in fill the building as the judge begins the oath of citizenship.\u00a0 Upon repeating the oath, the judge declares his congratulations and says to all two-hundred nineteen new citizens, “You are carrying on a tradition that dates back to\u00a0the earliest days of our country, for almost all Americans have come from somewhere else; may citizenship enrich your lives as your lives enrich this country, welcome, we are glad to have you.”\u00a0 They all recited the Pledge of Allegiance and some recieved symbols of this great land, small American flags.\u00a0 It was a very important day.\u00a0 Now, all can vote, serve on juries, compete for government jobs, and travel freely outside of the United States.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Curriculum Connections<\/p>\n

As a tool in the classroom, this book would work well as students\u00a0can easily\u00a0relate\u00a0to the vivid imagery of other children from other countries playing in the snow, eating pancakes with mom and dad, and racing friends outside.\u00a0 In this, American children can see that other children, no matter where they come from, are similiar to themselves.\u00a0 There is only one temporary difference–their home lands.\u00a0 This\u00a0can all change\u00a0through the process of naturalization, which\u00a0students will learn about throughout the course of this book.\u00a0 The child from Mexico, the child from Ghana, and the child from Russia,\u00a0carrying diverse customs from around the globe, are naturalized as they come together to become citizens of this great nation (VA SOL 3.12).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additional Resources<\/p>\n

A Very Important Day<\/a>\u00a0is designed to work hand-in-hand with the actual book, presenting\u00a0a game for children to play matching citizenship terms\u00a0to the correct definitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This site<\/a>, comprised of a unit’s worth of lesson plans and activities,\u00a0is great for teachers to utilize and refer to when teaching citizenship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

C is for Citizenship<\/a>, as part of CongressforKids.com,\u00a0is an informative tool for children to refer to when learning\u00a0about civics.\u00a0\u00a0It is subdivided into several kid friendly categories\u00a0such as becoming a US\u00a0citizen, how to be a good citizen, etc…\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Book<\/strong>: A Very Important Day
\n<\/a>Author:<\/strong> Maggie Herold<\/a>
\nIllustrator:<\/strong> Catherine Stock<\/a>
\nPublisher:<\/strong> Harper Collins
\nPublication Date: <\/strong>August 14, 1995
\nPages: <\/strong>40
\nGrade Range:<\/strong> First-Third
\nISBN:<\/strong>0-688-130658<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Very Important Day, written by Maggie Herold and illustrated by Catherine Stock serves as an exceptional introduction to the naturalization process.\u00a0 Two-hundred nineteen people from thirty-two counties around the world travel to the same courthouse downtown New York\u00a0to be sworn in as\u00a0citizens of the United States of America.\u00a0 It was a very important day.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}