Power Poems for Giraffes
Power Poems for Giraffes
A Book with an Impact: Promoting Social Emotional Growth and Learning for Grades K-5
WHY GIRAFFES? Wouldn’t you like to talk to a giraffe? Be a giraffe? Play with a giraffe? These are all thoughts that passed through Katie Benatovich’s mind when she was thinking about how to make multilingual and social emotional learning fun, accessible, and meaningful. Katie noted that giraffes are gentle, graceful creatures. They rarely make noise, preferring body language and scent to communicate amongst their herds. They’re also a bit misunderstood. Everyone knows of earth’s tallest land creature, but much less is known about the intricacies of their behaviors. Within the last decade, researchers have uncovered more about the social-emotional behaviors of giraffes than they ever could have expected. Giraffes express emotions like grief and happiness; they also have complex social networks that contribute tremendously to their health and longevity. A giraffe that can balance their physical, emotional, and social well-being is a healthy, resilient giraffe! The idea of writing poems for giraffes to hear was born!
WHAT IS SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING? Like with giraffes, social emotional learning (SEL) is a crucial component of human development. According to CASEL (the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning), SEL is the “the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.” These skills are relevant to everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, family income levels, learning abilities, home language, immigration status, gender identity, sexual orientation, and more. SEL trainings have become increasingly popular, especially in schools. Understanding and dealing with our own emotions is difficult at any age, and increased awareness of its necessity will hopefully create better learning environments for students and better life outcomes.
ABOUT THE BOOK: For lifelong poet and author Katie Benatovich, the giraffe became the symbol of a greater mission - to promote social emotional growth and learning through books. Power Poems for Giraffes isn’t just a beautifully illustrated collection of poems; it’s a collaborative effort between experts, artists, designers, translators, educators, and changemakers. The book and its accompanying web resources are designed to be used as a multilingual social emotional learning resource for grades K through 5.
“When new to the world, giraffes' necks seem preposterously long,” Katie writes, “yet, as they grow, they learn they are perfectly fitted to their unique purpose and place. This book wishes to help children tap into their “inner giraffe” and is a celebration of the resiliency and grace we all have inside.”
Power Poems adopts a marvelous three-pronged approach:
Power Poems: Power Poems for Giraffes focuses on poems as narrative therapy - thinking about the way poems make us feel. Poetry is a way to interpret and process what we experience as humans every day. Exploring emotions and ideas through poetry is a way to work through the difficulties of life. It is an incredibly powerful tool. In celebration of the diversity in WNY and beyond, every poem in Power Poems has an English version and a version in another language. Ten home languages are represented in this book; a home language is the first language a person speaks before adding any second languages - from French and Spanish to Hawaiian and Sinhalese (spoken in Sri Lanka). Thanks to a marvelous team of translators from all over the world, the poems can be used as a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) resource. A recorded version of many of the poems can be found at treetopspublishing.com. Magical illustrations by Carey Welch bring the poems to life. Her skillful use of traditional acrylic paint and computer-based graphic design lend an incredible richness to every page. It is impossible not to get lost in the colors and the fantastical imagery. She makes you wish you could jump into her world.
SEL Activities: Charity Burlingame, a licensed school counselor, designed SEL activities for each of the book’s ten poems. They’re crafted for teachers, parents, and mentors to try with their students, children, and mentees. Targeting specific emotions like sadness, jealousy and anger, the activities (often involving tactile components like coloring or paper-cutting) open new avenues for communication. The SEL activities can be used in different group sizes: one-on-one, small group, or whole class, lending themselves to in-person and remote learning experiences.
Connection Cards: Designed by Neal Steward, the Connection Cards correspond to each Power Poem and help the user understand the key emotion being explored in each poem. The two key emotions are printed on matching shapes - hearts, squares, circles, triangles. The cards are a tactile representation of the SEL activities. Thoughtfully designed by Katie, Neal was able to combine Carey’s illustrations, making the Connection Cards an adventure all on their own. Though evolving a negative emotion to a positive one isn’t as easy as flipping over a card, the Connection Cards are an additional support to the book and SEL activities to help users explore and understand their emotions. They also incorporate the many languages present throughout the book which makes learning new languages fun and accessible.
MEET THE TEAM
Known as the Giraffe team, Katie Benatovich, Charity Burlingame, Carey Ann Welch, and Neal Steward worked together for over a year to make Power Poems happen.
“The most rewarding part of this whole process has been bringing together such a talented team and making a tool with our combined skills to help others in meaningful ways,” says Katie. “As the first book in a series, Power Poems for Giraffes starts a ripple effect of spreading peace and world love. This is a vitally important message to spread and remember anytime.” Katie holds a master’s degree in TESOL and a Mental Health First Aid Certificate. She loves to read, write poetry and songs, walk in nature, swim, practice yoga, and cook with her children.
“I hope more attention on social emotional learning is sparked through this project,” says Charity. “The importance is huge, and unfortunately the need is equally huge. Society needs to be aware of both the need and the available resources to address and support the need.” Charity lives in Western New York with her husband and two kids. She holds a master’s in education and is interim assistant principal under the title Intervention Behavior Support Specialist in Buffalo. She loves to spend time with her family in nature - that is where her heart is content.
Carey not only illustrated the book, she designed it and the accompanying website (treetopspublishing.com). “From my earliest memories, my mom, Ann, inspired a true love of creativity by patiently sharing her time and artistic talent with me,” says Carey. “She dreamt of publishing picture books and wrote and illustrated a story called “Carey of a Thousand Dolls” for me. Devastatingly, she lost her battle to cancer before getting to fulfill her dream. I decided when I got published I would use my middle name, Ann, as a tribute to her. Seeing my name and my mom’s intertwined on the cover of “Power Poems For Giraffes” is our shared dream, realized, the impact of which is so validating.” Carey’s daughter, Simone, has been her biggest cheerleader during the year it took to create the art and design of the book. “She contributed art, ideas, and even her voice to the project, and to see her pride and confidence blooming is inspiring,” says Carey. “I feel like what I’ve gained through this project is the ability to fill a space of loss with seeds of hope.” In her free time, Carey likes to hike with her daughter, create Halloween costumes, and eat sushi (while traveling, of course).
For Neal, the dream is to put Power Poems for Giraffes and Connection Cards in every elementary classroom for children to have fun while exploring different languages and feelings positively. He first stumbled across the project thanks to his wife Angela, who is a member of the Wondrous Womens’ Writers’ and Illustrators’ Group (led by Katie). He designed the “WorldLove” logo that fit the project perfectly, oversaw the production of the prototypes of the Connection Cards, and personally hot foil stamped them at home. “I have developed a wonderful relationship working with the Giraffe team, especially during these trying times of Covid and having to work remotely with each other,” says Neal. “I have also gained a tremendous amount of insight into the many specialized tasks of taking a project from initial concept, design, imposition, printing, laminating, die cutting, foil stamping to final collating and packaging. In his free time, Neal loves to brew beer, make wine, cider, and mead. He also loves hiking, cross-country skiing, photography, electronics, program microcontrollers, and fixing things.
READ TO GIVE
"Read to Give" is the motto of this SEL poetry book. Every time a book is purchased, two things happen: a) the reader experiences poetry in a new way - a magical journey, and b) money is donated from the sale of every book to an organization that supports the Giraffe Team’s "WorldLove" vision mission. $1 from each Power Poems for Giraffes book goes to sk8evl.org - an organization seeking to provide skateboarding scholarships to local youth. Another dollar goes to carefortheneedycharity.org - an orphanage in Uganda. These funds will help with the supplies needed for the 54 children under Mbuubi Daniel's care. The impact from just 100 books is $200! Imagine the power of giving through reading in this way. The book will retail for $33 and be available on the treetopspublishing.com bookstore in the fall. By using TreeTops Publishing's own web bookstore, the Giraffe Team can use the dollars to benefit the local and world community that would otherwise be lost to marketing or other middle corporate activities. Watch this space for updates and preorder your signed copy by the Giraffe Team as soon as they’re available.
On Thursday, July 7th, the Giraffe Team will be hosting a workshop from 3:00-4:00pm at the Ellicottville Memorial Library. This year's theme of "Oceans of Possibilities" is one not to be missed. For more information, please email info@treetopspublishing.com. The Giraffe Team can also be found on Instagram and Facebook.