Classroom Guide for
Get Set! Swim!

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swished	rival	stilts	salsa
waggled	muttered	surface	thundering
rammed	triumphantly	frothy	gulped

1. How do you think Mami feels about Puerto Rico? Why?
2. Why was Jessenia scared about the swim meet? How would you feel in similar circumstances? Why?
3. How did the neighborhood where Weston school was located differ from where Jessenia and her family lived?
4. On the bus ride, how did Jessenia feel when her mother started speaking about Puerto Rico? Why did she feel this way?
5. hat happened to Jessenia during her first race? How did her coach react? How did her mother react?
6. When it became clear that Jessenia’s team would lose the meet, she started cheering louder and harder. Why did she do this?
7. As she swam her last race, Jessenia felt very connected to her mother. Why was it important for Jessenia to swim well for her mother?
8. Look again at the front and back covers of the book. How do these pictures relate to the story? What about the roles of the items shown on the title page? Were your original predictions correct? If not, how would you revise them?
9. Why did Mami give Jessenia lizard earrings after the meet? How did the earrings make Jessenia feel? Why?
10. What do you think Jessenia learned from participating in this swim meet? How did her feelings about her mother and her Puerto Rican heritage change?

1. Coach Estes gave the girls this advice: "Just keep your eyes on where you’re going." What did he mean by this? How might this advice help you in situations other than sports competitions?
2. What is your definition of a good sport? Does Jessenia meet that standard? Why or why not?
3. The lizard earrings had a special meaning for Jessenia. Have you ever been given something that had a special meaning? Why was it special?
4. Jessenia gained a greater understanding of her mother’s dreams and her cultural heritage during the meet. Describe an experience that helped you better understand something about yourself or your family.

1. Jessenia’s mother grew up in Puerto Rico. Where is your family from? Interview a family member or do some research to find out more about this place. Then write a description of it, trying to use colorful words to create images that will help the reader visualize what you are describing.
2. Imagine you are a reporter for the student newspaper at Jessenia’s school. Write an article about the swim meet for the paper.
3. Think about Jessenia’s feelings when her team arrives at Weston. What might the children on the Weston team have done to make Jessenia’s team feel more at home? Write a list of at least six suggestions.

1. Encourage students who speak Spanish to read aloud the Spanish words in the text. Have them teach the rest of the class how to say these words. Then ask Spanish speakers to share other words or phrases that relate to the story. For example, students might teach the class how to say "swim meet" or "blue sky" in Spanish. Have students make a chart showing the Spanish and English for each word and phrase.
2. Read the story aloud, using normal speech but pronouncing words slowly and carefully. Have ESL students follow along in the book and point to characters, places, and objects in the illustrations. Help students make the connections between the pictures and the words.

1. Have students locate Puerto Rico on a map or a globe. Have students answer the following questions:
   • What kind of land form is Puerto Rico?
   • In what direction is Puerto Rico from the United States?
   • What bodies of water surround Puerto Rico?
   • Is Puerto Rico nearer or farther from the equator than the United States? How does its location affect Puerto Rico’s climate?
   • What is the capital of Puerto Rico?
2. Suggest that students research the history of Puerto Rico to find a topic they would like to explore in more depth. Provide questions to guide students such as:
   • Who were the first people on the island?
   • When was the first European settlement established and by whom?
   • What events led up to Puerto Rico becoming a commonwealth of the United States?
   • The information on the Web site http://Welcome.toPuertoRico.org contains a broad range of basic information about Puerto Rico which can be used as a starting point for further research.
3. Have students research and then debate the issue of whether Puerto Rico should remain a commonwealth of the United States, become the 51st state, or become an independent nation.
4. Explain to students that Puerto Rico is a popular winter vacation destination for people from colder climates because of its warm climate, scenic sites, and sandy beaches. Have students search the Internet or visit local travel agencies to find out more about Puerto Rico’s tourist attractions. Then have students work in small groups to create travel brochures for the island.

Sports
Use this story as an opportunity to spark the interests of the sports fans in your class. Have these students work in small groups. One group might find out about and report on the rules and procedures for a swim meet. Other groups might interview swimmers; learn about the different strokes used in racing and the current records and record holders for these strokes; research the fitness and practice routines necessary for competitive swimming; and develop a list of water safety regulations all swimmers must follow.

Science
Interested students might learn more about the lizards found in Puerto Rico and other warm climates. Encourage students to prepare a summary of the basic characteristics of lizards and then create a fact file card for each specific lizard they identify. A sample card is shown below.



Art

1. Have students analyze some of the interesting details in the illustrations. Direct students to the illustrations of outdoor scenes. At what time of year does the story take place? How do you know? How does the weather in these pictures compare to the weather in Mami’s memories?
2. Next point out the illustration on the two-page spread that shows Jessenia at the edge of the pool for her first race. What did the artist show in the background? Why do you think he did that?
3. Challenge students to use animal motifs like Mami’s lizard earrings as the basis for other designs. Students might create their own versions of earrings or other jewelry. Or they might create animal images for fabric, wallpaper, or wrapping paper designs.

About the Author and the Illustrator
Jeannine Atkins is a former English teacher who now writes full time. She was born in Montclair, New Jersey, and began writing books in second grade, during recess. She received her bachelors degree from the University of Massachusetts and her masters degree from the University of New Hampshire. "I write the way I read," says Atkins, "trying to find out what someone else’s life is like." Atkins now lives in Whately, Massachusetts, with her husband, their daughter, and their pets.

Atkins won acclaim for her first picture book, Aani And The Tree Huggers (Lee & Low, 1995). This book, about a young girl in India who inspires the women of her village to save their beloved forest from developers, is based on the Chipko Andolan (Hug the Tree Movement) that took place in India in the 1970s, as well as on the author’s own experience. Says Atkins, "I remember my shock as a girl when I went to a field where I often played and found stakes driven in the ground. The stakes marked where the land would be divided for houses. A place I loved was taken away. . . . I imagined Aani feeling even more horror as her people’s trees were jeopardized." Atkins is also the author of Mary Anning and the Sea Dragon (Farrar Straus, 1999) and A Name on the Quilt (Atheneum, 1999).

Hector Viveros Lee was born in Calexico, California, and grew up in California’s San Joaquin Valley. He earned his fine arts degree in illustration from the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Lee has been an elementary school teacher since 1986, but he also always wanted to be an artist. He takes pride in drawing from his Latin American heritage for inspiration. Lee currently lives in San Francisco.

Lee made his picture book debut as the author and illustrator of I Had A Hippopotamus, a story about a Mexican American boy who is inspired by a box of animal crackers to imagine what he would do with an array of unique creatures. The book was created for his students who enjoyed its many surprises and unpredictable illustrations. Lee was also highlighted in a Publishers Weekly "Flying Starts" feature, where the book was praised as "a winning spin on the notion that ‘tis better to give than to receive."

Resources on the Web
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Learn more about Get Set! Swim!

Other Books by Jeannine Atkins
Aani And The Tree Huggers

Booktalk with Hector Viveros Lee about I Had A Hippopotamus

Other books written and illustrated Hector Viveros Lee:
I Had A Hippopotamus

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