Lists of books and crafts for Black History Month

Things have been hectic lately but I still wanted to drop a short post today highlighting some great  lists I found. I like lists as they usually enable me to pick and choose items. Even the worst list has at least one valuable tidbit. So here goes...

This PBS list provides a short summary as well as some themes the book explores. The books are written from a variety of perspectives and thus are a wonderful tool to help young ones of all ethnic origins.

It's not always easy to find books about Black heroes so this buzzfeed list is timely and very useful. I will be the first to admit that I don't frequent buzzfeed's website (the few times I have, I found it to be frivolous) but this list has made me view the editors in a different light. Activists, ball players and chefs are just some of the folks featured.





                    




Do you have a middle grade reader?  How about this list featuring middle grade books that feature the black experience- from slavery to civil rights to life in the so-called post racial era. I've read the excellent One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia but I need to add more of the books here to my to-read list. I would like to see some more boy friendly titles added to it as well.


If you are teaching at a preschool, after school center or simply want some crafts to celebrate Black History month, this site has 29 crafts (one for every day and one extra). I would add that several of the crafts reference Pinterest so that may be another resource to find similar things.


Last but not least, one of my go-to sites, education.com has compiled a comprehensive list of activities for Black History Month (everything from making a Jackie Robinson baseball card to making a shekere). Check it out here.

STEM on a Budget- Things that Move

 Budget cuts affect everyone and the climate since the turn of the year has not been friendly to libraries to say the least what with threats to various funding sources and the like. Conversely however, STEM and STEM-based programs have gained traction in schools and libraries as educators seek to make science fun again.

These programs however cost money and a single magnetic set for example can cost well into the hundreds on Lakeshore and similar sites. This post  is  snapshot of a recent STEM program for babies and toddlers that I put on at my library. I work in a multi branch system and we have a library of materials available for check out so this enabled me to use materials free of charge. I did make some simple ramps using some cheap posterboard I got at the dollar store.

I did not want to forget babies since they often are the furthest ones from our mind when we think of every program except baby storytime. However if we provide simple directions to the parents and caregivers and provide an inviting space, the little ones can indeed have a great time. One thing I would change for next time is to make a few small 3x 5 laminated cards with simple instructions for activities parents can do at home with their little ones.

In the next few months we will do Texture, Size and Shape. That should provide lots of fun learning opportunities for families.

School's in!

  The summer is over, leaves have started turning yellow and here in Denver the temps are already dipping into the sixties. That can only mean one thing, school's back in!  Parents and caregivers fear not, I have scoured the interwebs for resources to help your little ones with even the most obscure assignment.


I love abcya, there are sections devoted to each grade level and the site is optimized for use on mobile devices which is a big plus.

Starfall has lots of great math activities and they are aligned with Common Core standards. Speaking about said standards, teachers now have to teach math concepts in very different ways. It helps to be able to have a reliable video that can show both parents and caregivers how to work out those sums. This is why I like Khanacademy's early math page.

Coolmath has lots of math and math-based games that provide good extension activities for kids who have mastered their basic math operations and want to move on to pre algebra and so forth.

Do you have a kid who loves to spout random facts all day long? Fear not, I have a site that can satisfy even the most voracious reader-Factmonster.  There are also online quests and handouts for homeschoolers and classroom use.  Infoplease has a trove of information about the US and the links on the top of the page have info on the world at large.

Most readers will recognize the name Scholastic from the many book fairs they put on at schools. Their website also has excellent resources on all sorts of topics.  Time for kids is another one that I highly recommend as well, as it has relevant content and accessible articles on current world events.

World languages are becoming more and more useful and with the ease of global travel it helps to be able to speak a language or two or three. I like to use Noah as he is a funny, well-meaning kid who because of his struggles with Spanish gets into all kind of scrapes. He repeats words and phrases just enough so that they stick. The site has practice activities as well.  Onlinefreespanish is another site that I have used for years and it is fun for younger language learners.  Charlotte Mecklenburg Library's fantastic Storyplace is another good resource for early learning in Spanish.  The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has some excellent resources for a variety of languages for example French and Mandarin.

Learning to work with computer code is a good skill for young ones to have and there are some sites I have used with my young'uns. Code.org's site has several great resources to help kids learn the basics of coding. For those who want something that explains things in more detail try Khan Academy's Hour of Code.

Have a great school year!!

Olympic-themed crafting for kids

For those who love crafts with an athletic theme this summer is something that they have been eagerly awaiting. The Olympics start in early August but I have already seen a nearby library with a craft program based on the Olympics. At our branch we are fortunate to have a big green space in the front of the building which is perfect for games such as running tic tac toe and so forth.

For me, I love to see the Olympic flame enter the stadium. Crowds line up on the streets just to cheer whoever is carrying it.  The craft below allows any child to pretend that just for a moment they are the ones with all the glory. How cool would it be to have kids make this in a program and then parade through the library.

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Whenever we see images of Greek gods they are often wearing a toga and one of those cool wreaths. Little ones may well want to put one of these on after gluing and sticking it together.

                                                              

The Olympic rings are iconic symbols known the world over. Here are some ideas I found across the web to represent said rings.

 

Instead of the rings perhaps little ones can use hand prints (be careful with the mess!)

                           Cool glasses that the kiddos can use to show their Olympic spirit.

These are just a few of what's out there but they are a good starting point. The Olympics only come around once every four years so it's perfectly fine to be hyped about them!

A Librarian's Summer of Reading pep talk

Here in the city of Denver the Summer of Reading program gets underway today and I wanted to pause for a moment before the craziness starts (besides the increased numbers of folks at the branch and the adjustments made to schedules, one of our prizes is a ticket to Elitch Gardens and this can cause people to line up outside the library on the day we start distributing them).

With all that going on it's easy to lose sight of the reason for a summer reading program in the first place- to help combat the summer slide, to foster a love of reading etc etc so I have been searching for some vids, blogs and so forth that can be a source of hope and encouragement for librarians young and old for the inevitable low points this summer.

I love TED talks and I keep telling myself that I need to watch one of them a day and in some cases watch some every day in order to fully gleam what the talker is trying to convey. Check out these talks that accurately convey the importance of libraries- one of them talks about why books are like secret doors.

I love feel good stories about the library helping people. I follow this blog on tumblr and this story made me swell with pride. Sometimes it takes someone from a different country to help us see what we have here in North America.

A library without books?!?!  Yes! It has 3-d printers and powerful pcs and free access!  This is the future of libraries right here. The Denver Public Library's idealab already provides a space space for kids and teens.

Libraries are fun places to work most of the time but this town takes it a step further. I have always wanted a red car but I guess I may have to settle for a red library cart.  It sure beats the dull beige all our carts are painted.

Have a great summer!!

 

Seuss celebration!

Last week was Theodore Seuss Geisel's (better known as Dr. Seuss) birthday. Libraries across the country if not the world.  Most libraries start planning these events months before and at our branch this was the case. Thank goodness for Google Drive and Pinterest. In our library system we use Drive to create documents for programs and share with each other. One of my coworkers has been almost begging us to use Slack as well so perhaps we may start to use this platform in the future.


The actual celebration was a bit more low key than in other years but I still wanted to share some of the pictures. This was not the best picture I could find of the Seuss hats we made but kudos to our volunteers who cut and cut and cut to get all these pieces ready.  If you are reading this and you work in a library and don't have volunteer help, try to get some as soon as you can. They take some of the load off you and your staff.

My sons enjoyed themselves at the Seuss silly photo booth. We had a variety of props that have accumulated over the years and we store these in a big storage box.  We thought about using the curtains you see in the picture as a backdrop but decided not to. The library system has a green screen that could be used for a program such as this so that may be an option to pursue in the future.

These thing 1 and 2 stick puppets were my favorite thing on the day itself. What surprised me was that kids young and old made them. I think the cuteness must have factored into it. Googly eye clean up afterward wasn't too bad either

Til next time!

A-maze-ing winter crafts

     First, before I say anything else I must give props to my colleagues in the Children's department of the Denver Public Library and in particular Amy Forrester. She was the mastermind behind a huge family friendly Harry Potter-themed maze made of cardboard. After the event she generously allowed staff at other branches to recycle the maze however they wanted.

     My colleagues and I jumped at the chance and we decided to make the maze winter-themed. The timing was right since area schools are on winter break until the first week of January and we are also on a story time break. Whenever we are on a story time break we usually try to have other events for families to do when they come to the branch.  This maze could never have come together without the help of a small army of coworkers, volunteers and helpers. Thank you!!



Here are some of the crafts that my colleagues Melody and April came up with.


This bird feeder uses chenille sticks and cheerios. Kids can twist the sticks into whatever shape they want. We saw some wacky shapes!










 







 Kids will use a penguin template, cotton balls, googly eyes and other little pieces to make their own creation.












This activity was actually on the back of the maze itself. For some reason it reminds me of the old Price is Right game Plinko. I know my own sons enjoyed it very, very much.

 These last few crafts were some simple things that I may use this year after we take the maze down or use next holiday season. I am blessed to have a very artsy teen volunteer, the reindeer came out looking even better than the picture online!   (She also drew the Yeti in the maze)

Last week I had my volunteer make some example tree ornaments for me to use with our weekly craft hour.

















Finally here is a short vid that I put together of the maze itself. Enjoy!  Happy Holidays!

Canciones para storytime

 At my library we have to do read alouds and since I speak Spanish I am responsible for a class of Spanish-speaking students. Prior to doing this I did a Spanish (not bilingual) storytime and over time I developed a repertoire of engaging songs, rhymes and finger plays to use. I will share some of them in this blog.

A classic in many languages is the Itsy Bitsy spider. This is a cute version and I like how the singer is very engaging as she sings the song, with silly sounds and hand movements galore.  For a bit of a twist on the song I could see one using a spider puppet or prop to really provide a good visual.

Jose Luis Orozco has cd after cd replete with songs for every occasion. Los elefantes is one of my favorite rhymes for children and I like it because you can use it as an action song to get kids up and moving around. Feel free to use some of these elephant prop masks or make some yourself with paper plates for example.

Another action rhyme that never fails me is El chocolate. Use the cd version or sing it yourself. I like to do exaggerated movements for the songs as the kids really get into it. The version I linked to is just one version and I know that Mr. Orozco has several. It is good to be able to switch things up as necessary so try to learn as many versions as possible.

 Back in my teaching days one of my colleagues swore that her older students would ask her to do this song that they learned back in kinder and 1st grade, such was their affection for the song.  Juguemos en el bosque is a good song in that it builds suspense, can be used to teach various vocabulary words (clothes, body parts etc.) and is just plain fun. The version here is a bit slower paced but as usual feel free to modify and adjust.

This next song is called El loro Tico Tango and to me it is more appropriate for preschool aged kids especially if you are going to use it as a flannel board as I have done. The actual cd (which comes as part of a book) has the song. The song may be a bit long so feel free to modify, skip parts etc. I found an excerpt here.  I like how the overall message of the song is sharing and caring for ones friends.

I will finish this blog with my personal favorite, Mi cuerpo as done by my namesake Josh Levine. It is a simple song to get kids up and shaking their hips and is a good break especially if you are in a storytime an the kids have been sitting for a while. Here is another bilingual version of the song. I find however that the English part lacks a little bit of the catchiness but it is still good nonetheless.

Hasta luego!!

Bilingual books and books in Spanish for children

As the holidays draw near, some of my friends have asked me about books in Spanish or bilingual English-Spanish books that are suitable for children. It is always hard to find good books that fall into that category so I have spent the last few weeks browsing the catalogs of various library systems here in the Denver metro area to see what I could find. Here I will highlight some of the better ones that I found.



Elephant and Piggie are always hilarious, heartwarming and tender (sometimes on one page) and I was glad to see that this transferred into Spanish. Debo Compartir Mi Helado by Mo Willems centers around Gerald the Elephant's hardest decision ever- whether or not he should share his ice cream.










What if there was a cute dog who was made even cuter when he put on a sombrero and then lived the most fantastic life imaginable? That is the premise of Derek Taylor Kent's El Perro con Sombrero: A Bilingual Doggy Tale. Pepe is adorable but just when he thinks he has it made in the shade he has to look out for the age old enemy of dogs- cats. This is a really fun book that is very family-oriented and culturally appropriate as well.







René Saldaña Jr is the author of books such as and in this  book, Dale, dale, dale, Una fiesta de números we are transported to a birthday party that could be taking place in any Spanish-speaking country (or in anyone of a thousand barrios across the U.S. for that matter) and at the end of the book we see the kids getting to crack open the pinata. What fun!

Another counting book that also manages to incorporate the cultural phenomenon known as lucha libre is written and illustrated by Xavier Garza and is called The Great and Mighty Nikko. In it a young boy imagines that his toys are real life luchadores and he then goes on to count them as they tussle with each other much to his mom's chagrin. The illustrations in this book arent the most professional but they lend a certain charm to it. It is a bilingual book so there is the Spanish and English text side by side.




At times I feel that the beauty of curly or kinky hair is not as appreciated as it should be and so I was happy to see a book called Dalia's Wonderful Hair /El cabello maravilloso de Dalia by Laura Lacamara. This traces the adventures of a young Cuban girl whose hair magically sprouts one night attracting a plethora of insects and other creatures. This book is as much a Cuban Alice in Wonderland as it is an ode to the beautiful land of Cuba and a celebration of the unique cultural heritage of Cubans and by extension Latinos.

This next book is perhaps better suited as a read aloud in a classroom or for a parent or caregiver to read to a little one.  Franciscos' Kites/Las cometas de Francisco by Alicia Z. Klepeis  is a story about missing home, moving away and is a book that can help a child deal with moving away from people and places that they love.  Other themes such as social responsibility and the entrepreneurial spirit are also touched on as well.

Some of these books can be read in story times and read alouds and some of them cannot. Mango, abuela and me by Meg Medina is in the latter category as I think it is a tad bit too long for a story time. It can though be used as part of a lesson to talk abut a variety of topic as it manages to cover topics such as family, migration and language. We see a little girl who lives in a land far way from her grandmother but one day the older lady comes to live with the girl's family and she bonds with her despite them both not having enough language to communicate well.






Adivinanzas con beso para las buenas noches by Sofia Rhei is the first nonfiction read on this list. Riddles are a great way to develop language fluency and these can be read by a parent to a child or by an older child on their own to help practice fluency. These riddles are a great way to teach culture as well.

This last new book by Julie Paschkis is called Flutter & Hum Animal poems and it is one that I like not only because I love introducing kids to poetry but also because unlike a lot of bilingual books the Spanish translations are excellent. (Read the first poem about the snake and you will see for yourself). It also has a gorgeous cover image that just draws you in.







Till, next time, hasta luego!

National Hispanic Heritage Month crafts

National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15th through October 15th and during this time we recognize the many and varied accomplishments Hispanics and Latinos have made to American culture, politics and life in general. If your city has school groups that do folkloric dance I bet those groups would be willing to perform at community events or at libraries and other community places. Such a program would be excellent and a craft would be the icing on the cake. If no such group is available then crafts are an excellent way to celebrate the month.

Some of these crafts I have done and some I am yet to try. This first craft is one of my all time favorites because it is easy and it allows for an explanation about the tradition of lucha libre in the Spanish-speaking world.




I like recycle crafts because I can teach the kids a simple lesson without being too preachy. This particular craft involves using old paper grocery bags to make sarapes.  Kids can be as creative as they want too and I usually have some made before hand as well as pictures of some so the kids can get an idea of what they're supposed to look like.




Another cool craft that is easy to make and that can be part of a craft/music program is a shaker or maraca. These can be used in a small ensemble and kids usually enjoy shaking the life out of them. Toilet paper rolls, empty tin cans, plastic cups and paper plates can all be used to make these.

 


Learning a language is learning a culture and part of that is knowing what certain words are and their significance. A small picture dictionary is a fun way for kids to increase their vocabulary as well as solidify their letter knowledge. 



Ojo de dios are classic crafts and kids of all ages can complete them with a little help and a short demo.




Addtional resources:

Scholastic's Hispanic Heritage Month site has games, information about famous Latinos as well as a teacher's guide.

Time for kids is another excellent site with crafts, activities, printables and profiles of influential Hispanic Americans.

Here are some fantastic books to share with children about Hispanic Heritage month.

The National Education Association (NEA) has a trove of lessons, activities and other ways to celebrate the month.

Kids Paint at the Library

      For the longest while I have been itching to do some painting at my branch's weekly craft activity for kids. We have washable tempera paint in abundance so I didn't have to buy any paint.  I wanted to combine a recycle activity with some STEM-related activity so I used some tp rolls and some paper towel rolls which a great teen volunteer and I then made into shapes. I will say from now that the heart shape was the hardest to make and I ended up making two variations of those.  Inclement weather meant that the turnout wasn't as great as most weeks but I was able to save the materials for the next time I do this activity probably in six months or so.

   Here is how I ended up setting up the room. I thought about putting the drop cloths on the tables but decided not to. Some paint ended up spilling on the table and I was able to use clorox wipes to clean the mess fairly quickly. If you look closely you will see some small dixie cups in which I placed small amounts of paint. The kids then dipped the shapes into the paint to make various patterns. I started with red and black paint and then poured more as requested. Going forward I will pour less paint in the cups (just a dot not a lot!) because I had too much left over and I will also wait and see how many kids turn up before I set material out.

This is the cart that I used to wheel all the materials into the room.

Here is a sample pattern I did just to show the kids what they could do.

I could not take pics of any of the actual participants at the branch but I was able to get one of my son when I reproduced the craft at home with my son. We discovered that dollar store paints aren't the best quality (big surprise!)

Dance Party at the Library! pt. 1

     Dance Parties are all the rage now at libraries as a fun way to get kids in the door (thereby boosting entrance numbers). You would be surprised how many people who normally do not frequent libraries would attend these programs.  I wanted to find some songs that would work for kids of all ages. Most libraries advertise these parties for ages 5 and up but sometimes a parent may bring a  ten or eleven year old too who might be rolling their eyes at the baby stuff.

This song is repetitive and rather silly but kids love it! Who would think that a buck-toothed gummy bear jumping around and being silly would be attractive to the little ones eh.  If you have not heard this song before I give you the Gummy Bear song.

   


     The Wiggles' lineup has changed somewhat in the twenty plus or so years they have been active. Their new songs are as catchy as ever and work well in you have a projector or smartboards creen as the little ones can see how to do the songs. actions described. Propeller is a fun interactive song

This Wiggles song is called Say the Dance and is one of those songs that says the name of the dance and kids can do the actions described. This song has statue, belt buckle shine and so forth.

   This is one of the older Wiggles songs called Do the Monkey. This one is catchy because it has the actions and the sounds as well. I have listened to this song countless times in my car and I still am not tired of it. 

   Laurie Berkner is performing here in Denver this weekend and I think it is a testament to her great musical style and fun demeanor. I have been rocking out to her songs for some time now and I fondly remember her vids on the Nick Jr channel before they modified their format.

  The Minions movie comes out today so I thought I would include this song. Unlike some of the other songs above kids are free to dance however they want or if they want they can just look at the crazy antics of the Minions.

    Kidz Bop cds are another excellent dance party option. They feature kids doing clean cover versions of popular hits. Sometimes they even make videos for their versions of songs as is the case with  Uptown Funk. On the whole I would recommend Kidz Bop videos for older kids who might not want to do Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and that sort of stuff. The Kidz Bop cds come out pretty fast and a major plus for me is that all songs are clean.

There is freeze dance and then there is a Jim Gill freeze dance. I have listened to Dance Anyway You Want To probably about one hundred times and in a variety of settings ranging from story times to read alouds at preschools in the area and I am yet to see this song flop. It is that good.  Try as I might I could not get a good vid of his but any of his many cds would be good for a dance party as he is an incredibly consistent artiste.

That's all for now.  Till next time!

Summer Paper Crafts

Summer officially started several days ago but most kids have been out of school for almost a month now and if they are anything like mine boredom is setting in. Here are some crafts that can be done with any combination of paper, paper plates, chenille sticks,glue, markers, craft sticks a wee bit o glue and a little ingenuity. Crafts are good because not only do they help beat boredom but they also develop fine motor skills in little ones as well as help kids to think creatively.


This fan is not only visually stunning but it is also a perfect way to beat the heat. I would recommend using tempera paint due to the fact that this paint cleans fairly easily. Be warned though that as with many paints when it dries it may cause paper to get a tad stiff.   For the melon use some green paint (you may have to use more than one coat since the paint may dry very light) and then stick the various colored paper on the plates.



The directions for this and for others can be found here.

Summers are hot because of the sun so how about making a cool paper plate sun. Paint or color a paper plate yellow and if you have a hole puncher punch some holes around the edges through which you will thread the chenille sticks (you can slip some plastic decorative pieces over those) and if you'd like glue some decorative jewel pieces on the plate.



This next craft is really easy to do and you will need a few different kinds of construction paper which you will then cut in small strips and then fold them and stick them to the craft sticks. Then cut another piece of paper in a circle and stick that on top of everything. It comes out looking very nice.





 The above crafts are perhaps a bit too involved for a preschooler to work on independently so I am including two crafts that are perfect for this age group. In this first craft a grown up will have to cut the fish shape first or perhaps cut the circle before the little one sticks the triangle onto it. Little ones can then stick on little pieces of construction paper to serve as the scales of the fish.





This next craft is one that I like because there are many ways to do it. If you have more than one child you can have them use their hands only or you can do the craft as shown in the pic below and use everyone in the family's hand. If you want you can use plain construction paper and have the child color it, write something on it or even stick something on it to decorate it. When completed you can stick it up somewhere in the house that way you can keep a ready visual of how small the child's hands were at one point.



Till next time, keep crafting!

Father's Day crafts

Father's Day is around the corner so here are some of the cool crafts I found that I plan to add to my craft session this year at my library.


This one uses a paper plate and some cut outs that can be made with construction paper. Both cutting the cutout saw and writing the message may be a little difficult for young ones so I would advise grown ups to handle those portions of the craft.


Another paper plate craft that I like is this one which uses the outside of the plate to write a heartfelt message to dad. Some colored or construction paper can be used to make the design piece at the bottom.



This tie is a cool craft as well. I am thinking that 8 1/2" X 14" paper might be good for this due to the length of the tie. I found a template here that can be adjusted as need be. I am also thinking that most baby and little kid hands would fit on there.  This tie is after all a decorative thing that most (all) dads will hang proudly in the office.



For the father whose little ones(s) are good with words, this card is a nice way to tell him how much he means to them. A simple construction paper folder in a card shape and then decorated as needed.



This last craft I found on this site and I like it a lot because it is perfect for the modern connected dad. You can use a recycled drink tray or similar sturdy recycled material. Some craftiness is required to paint and decorate it but I am thinking once it says "dad" on there most dads will be pretty pleased.



Happy Father's Day!