In recognition of Women’s History Month, Cottage Lane Elementary School Library Media Specialist Kristine Wagner is hosting a variety of activities to encourage students to learn more about prominent female historical figures.
As part of a year-round project, Find Herstory, Wagner helps students discover books about women who have made a difference in the world. “CLE readers are celebrating women all year long with picture books telling the stories of women who soar through the sky, navigate the stars, swim with sharks, dig up dinosaur bones, code computers, paint portraits, design buildings, solve mathematical equations to send rockets into space, construct monuments, sew dresses, write bestsellers, sing and dance across stages, lead nations, fight for the right to vote, and stand up for all that is good and right in the world,” said Wagner. “Even though we are currently celebrating Women’s History Month, we really do focus on these important figures every day and this is a time to remind students about people they may have learned about and help them re-learn their stories.”
Today is International Women’s Day and this afternoon, fifth graders learned more about the life of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Students followed a tutorial to create a drawing of her before Wagner read excerpts of the book, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of R.B.G. vs. Inequality,” which described her childhood, her interest in law at a young age and her journey to the Supreme Court of the United States. Wagner had students write down key facts they learned along the way that they found interesting. “I thought it was cool that even though women traditionally didn’t go to college when she was younger, she still wanted to. Then when she was in the Supreme Court, she always said what she believed in,” said Nirvana B.
At the end of the lesson, Wagner encouraged students to do their own research on other influential women in history such as Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony and Eleanor Roosevelt.
