Theme: Use the book, Happy Birthday to You to introduce your students to American life during the late 1880s (schools in the south), educating girls and copyrighting.
Background: Two sisters wrote the words and composed the melody for a song called Good Morning to All for their kindergarten students. Initially written as a simple greeting to start the day, the words were changed to suit other occasions: Happy Journey to You, Happy Christmas to You, and Happy Birthday to You. The two sisters were given copyright for the song in 1935 and gained credit for creating it.
Pre-reading: Show the students the cover of the book, read the title and the names of its author and illustrator. Ask them what they think the book will be about. Imagine having a birthday without having people sing Happy Birthday to You. Before the 1900s, that’s exactly the way things were. You might have presents, cake, candles and cards, but there was no Happy Birthday song, because it had not yet been written. Ask the students what they thought people sang back then.
Reading: As you read the book and show the class the book’s illustrations. Ask your students to look closely at the images. What details can they find in the pictures? How do the expressions of the main characters change during the story.
Activities: Ask the students to write a poem or a short story. Then, ask them how they would feel if their work was used by someone else and they receive no credit for creating it. How would they feel?
Geography: When Patty was young, she and her family lived in Missouri. Later after her father died, they moved to Kentucky. Have the students find Missouri and Kentucky on a map. Where is Louisville? How would they travel between the two states? Ask them to estimate the miles. What will they need to bring for the ride – food, clothes, entertainment items, books etc. Have them look at the map and determine what they will see along the way – rivers, mountains, lakes, deserts, plains, farms, factories, cities etc?
Science: Reverend Hill shared with his children his love of the stars. Introduce the class to the use of a telescope and have them look through it at the sky. What do they discover (stars, comets and galaxies)? Introduce the science of astronomy.
Literature: Look for other books by Margot Theis Raven such as America’s White Table, Let Them Play and Challenger: America’s Favorite Eagle. And look for other books by Chris Soentpiet such as Momma, Where Are You From?. If you enjoyed Happy Birthday to You write a review and post it on the book pages at Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com so others can enjoy your reading experience.
Art: After reading Happy Birthday to You, imagine there is no illustration for the cover. Based on the content of this story, have the students illustrate their own covers for this book.
About the Author
The late, Margot Theis Raven, author of such inspiring children’s books as Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot and Let Them Play, relates the story behind one of the most famous and oft-sung songs in the world.
Margot Theis Raven’s award-winning books are often set against powerful historical backdrops such as America’s civil rights period. Her books for Sleeping Bear Press include America’s White Table and Let Them Play, which was named a 2006 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. Margot lives in Charleston, South Carolina. She passed away in 2014 after battling breast cancer.
“Teaching Copyright with Happy Birthday to You!”
-by Diane Chen for School Library Journal, September 8, 2008
Open my mail and what do I see? Happy Birthday to You! The Mystery Behind the Most Famous Song in the World. Okay, I think to myself. This title must be a picture book celebrating birthdays that everyone in elementary can pull out over and over… Wrong! It is far more.
This is the title that I shall read aloud to classes before emphasizing my lesson on copyright and giving credit to the original writers of information. The pages “Footnote to History” take this book beyond a beautifully illustrated celebration of how a song was created to an insightful understanding of the need for and process of obtaining copyright for original material.
If you have ever been frustrated when you are in a restaurant and the staff converges on some poor person to shout out some “altered” version of Happy Birthday, to You, then you need to read this book. I admit being resentful that no one could sing the correct version in public anymore because they were afraid they’d have to pay money. “Who are these stingy, greedy people?” I wondered.
Turns out these simple sisters from Kentucky that helped disseminate the concept of kindergarten in the late 1800’s wrote a song book called Song Stories for the Kindergarten where they included a song of “Morning Greeting.” They had a history of changing the words to that simple tune for all kindergarten events – especially birthdays, so they really were the creators of this tune and words.
It was only when the Birthday Song showed up in a Broadway musical that sisters Patty and Jessica became furious and took their case to court. The song “Happy Birthday to You” was copyrighted in 1935 giving credit to sisters Patty and Mildred. The copyright ends in 2030
