Jingle Dancer
by Cynthia Leitich Smith, Cornelius Van Wright, & Ying-Hwa Hu
Description:
Publisher description (Morrow Junior Books, 2000):
Tink, tink, tink, tink, sang cone-shaped jingles sewn to Grandma Wolfe's dress.
Jenna's heart beats to the brum, brum, brum of the powwow drum as she daydreams about the clinking song of her grandma's jingle dancing.
Jenna loves the tradition of jingle dancing that has been shared by generations of women in her family, and she hopes to dance at the next powwow. But she has a problem—how will her dress sing if it has no jingles?
The warm, evocative watercolors of Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu complement author Cynthia Leitich Smith's lyrical text as she tells the affirming story of how a contemporary Native American girl turns to her family and community to help her dance find a voice.
Author biography (Morrow Junior Books, 2000):
Cynthia Leitich Smith has worked in law, public relations, and journalism. She is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Ms. Smith lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and a gray tabby.
Resource format: Picturebook
Age recommendation: Grade 1 - 4
Keywords: dancing, dancer, jingle, traditional, grandma, pow wow, drum, generational, sing, story, community, dance, family, oral storytelling, oral practices, sun, representation, America, cousin, four directions, personification, Ojibway, Anishinaabe, watercolour, learn, teachings, Muscogee Creek, traditional food, regalia, repetition, dance, regalia, Oklahama, bannok, metaphor, kinship, community
Year of publication: 2000
Publisher information: Morrow Junior Books
Teaching and Learning Ideas
Our team collaborated with new teachers, alumni of the Werklund School of Education’s Bachelor of Education program, to create teaching and learning plans for texts in this website. With audiences ranging from Pre-Kindergarten to Post-Secondary, lesson plans across this resource address a wide range of school subject areas, inclusive approaches, and Indigenous education topics, such as the revitalization of Indigenous languages. As this website was designed with Undergraduate Programs in Education instructors, as well as teachers in mind, connections to UPE courses have been flagged on each lesson plan. These lessons are intended as a starting place for educators, to help you envision ways in which you might bring Indigenous literatures, as well as ways of knowing, being, and doing, into your teaching contexts. Please adapt, use, and share these lessons in ways that are generative for your teaching practice. We offer our sincere thanks to the dozens of new teachers who gifted us with these creative ideas!
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