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Curriculum Activities Index - Click on the titles to go to specific sections of the document.
Agua, Agua, Agua
Abuelos
The Bakery Lady/La señora de la panadería
A Birthday Basket for Tía
Confetti: Poems for
Children
Delicious
Hullabaloo: Pachanga deliciosa
The
Desert is My Mother: El desierto es mi madre
Doña Flor: A Tall Tale About a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart / Doña Flor: Un cuento de una mujer gigante con un gran corazón
The Gift of the Poinsettia: El regalo del la flor de nochebuena
Here Kitty, Kitty/¡Ven gatita, ven!
Join Hands! The Ways We Celebrate Life
Let's Eat ¡A comer! (Book 1 of My Family/Mi Familia)
A Library for Juana: The World of Sor Juana Inés
Listen to the
Desert: Oye al desierto
Love to Mamá: A
Tribute to Mothers
Maria Paints the Hills
¡Marimba! Animales A – Z
My Own True Name: New and Selected Poems for Young Adults
The Night the Moon Fell
Pablo's Tree
The Race of Toad and Deer
The Rainbow Tulip
The Song of Francis and the Animals
Sweet Dreams ¡Dulces sueños! (Book 2 of My Family/Mi Familia)
This Big Sky
Tomás and the Library Lady
Uno, Dos, Tres: One,
Two, Three
Yum! ¡Mmm! Qué rico!
Two Good Ideas!
Plant Poems:
Here’s a good idea from my friends
at the Princeton Day School. When the first graders planted flowers
for the library and teachers’ lounge, they also planted their
poems. They worked with their third grade poetry partners on their
writing. The printed poems were then glued onto wooden sticks and
planted for all to enjoy.
Author
Visits: Deck the Doorways
My friends at Neshannock Elementary
School in New Castle, PA provided the perfect end to an author visit
in 1999: a booklet of photos. What a special gift! Thank you,
Cheryl Massie. Doors throughout the school had been decorated with
children’s art connected to my books. The collages, painting, poems
and stories also spilled over into the hallway walls and into the
library. When the young create their own art prompted by what they
read, their reading experience is enriched and deepened as teachers
and librarians well know.
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Curriculum
Activities
Agua,
Agua, Agua
(Spanish edition: Agua, Agua, Agua)
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Create a science experiment on
water displacement.
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Older students can study fables
in the library and on-line and then write an original fable to
present to the lower grades using very simple text.
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All of these books can be part of
your April 30th, Día de los niños/Día de los libros celebration.
Visit the REFORMA site for ideas of library events. A school in
South Texas some years back had a book parade by decorating A-V
carts with favorite books. Feature bilingual books, books in
other languages or that include other languages, and books about
bilingual children.
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Abuelos
Create scary abuelos masks using white paper bags, crayons or paints or paper mache.
Read the Author's Note in the back of the book. Pat Mora mentions a cultural tradition similar to los abuelos which is practiced in Japan. Find out if there are similar traditions in other countries.
Talk about other multi-generational holidays, festivals, traditions, and activities you know about that are practiced in your family or community.
Locate New Mexico on a map of the United States. Visit your school or public library and research 5 facts about the state and the people.
Act out a scene of los abuelos coming down from the mountains, or for a long-term project, create a class play based on the story Abuelos by Pat Mora. Perform the play for other classes, teachers and families. Serve bizcochitos (see recipe below) and empanadas after.
Share something you're afraid of with the group and talk about scary feelings.
Read a story about another cultural tradition with similar elements to Abuelos that interests you.
PAT'S BIZCOCHITOS
(Makes about 8-10 dozen)
For the cookies:
2 c. shortening (traditional recipes use lard)
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/4 t. salt
1 T. anise seed
4 c. flour
1/2 c. orange or apple juice, any fruit juice
1 T. cinnamon
Topping:
3 t. cinnamon
3/4 c. sugar
Note: This is a recipe for patient cooks. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place parchment paper on our cookie sheets.
Using your mixer or by hand, whip shortening until creamy. Continue beating, adding eggs, one by one. Mix juice, 1 c. sugar and 1 T. each cinnamon and anise and add. Beat until incorporated. Add sufficient flour to make a soft dough. Roll to ¼ - ½ inch. Cut in desired shapes and place on parchment paper.
Bake about 15 minutes or until brown around the edges. Check often to prevent burning. Mix topping ingredients and dredge cookies in this mixture while cookies are still warm.
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The Bakery Lady (Spanish edition: La señora de la panadería)
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Studying bread-making traditions
popular in different cultures can be connected to math
(measurements), science (reactions), social studies (community
helpers), geography (grain production) and history (craft
production).
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Enjoy art-making projects in
which students shape and decorate either traditional breads or
their own creations.
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Visit a bakery willing to have
the students not only tour but also interview the bakers. Have
students discover other community helpers seldom noticed whose
work is both utilitarian and aesthetic.
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A Birthday Basket for Tía (Spanish edition: Una canasta de cumpleaños para tía)
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Introduce children to birthday
customs around the world.
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Enjoy storytelling baskets
created by the children with items brought from home.
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Students could also bring a
favorite book to share.
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Students can create memory gift
baskets for a family member or friend.
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Counting skills and games can be
part of the basket activities.
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Confetti: Poems for Children
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Students could study both
egg-decorating traditions around the world as well as Mexican folk
arts. Students could then make cascarones, dry egg shells filled
with confetti. Mayhem possible!
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Ask students to prepare and share
a Me Bag that contains items about their culture(s). Strive to
help them see that though cultural expressions include food,
folklore, fashion and festival, cultures are complex and reflect a
group’s values, geography, history and knowledge.
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After a field trip to a
neighborhood bakery, for example, students could learn about
bread-making traditions and the connections between food and
culture.
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Using an array of children’s toys
from around the world, let children discuss differences and
similarities.
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Delicious
Hullabaloo: Pachanga deliciosa
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It’s
hard to resist a food activity given the appetites of the main
characters. After learning about the indigenous foods of the
Americas, students can prepare their own pachanga deliciosa. They
could also illustrate and publish their own cookbook of recipes of
the Americas.
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Teach students about Mexican
music and instruments and have them learn a Mexican song.
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Students can explore the
diversity of the U.S. Latino population, the differences and the
similarities such as enjoying a pachanga with friends and music.
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Students can select a kind of
lizard (collared, gila monster, horned lizard) and compare and
contrast what they learned.
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The
Desert Is My Mother: El desierto es mi madre
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After learning about mural art,
students can plan and create a large desert mural.
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Students can create a desert
diorama, art boxes, mosaics, desert animal masks, cartoons of
desert creatures, riddles, bookmarks.
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Students can learn about
protective coloration—camouflage, warning coloration and mimicry.
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After learning about the desert,
students can listen to one of the many tapes available of nature
sounds and write as they listen, and share their work in small
groups.
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Students can practice observation
skills essential to a writer by spending time outdoors and
recording in their small poetry notebook what they hear and see in
preparation for writing.
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Doña Flor: A Tall Tale About a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart
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Introduce the tall tale tradition and have students explore if it is a uniquely American tradition. Have them select their favorite tall tale and illustrate it.
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Have students do a comparison of Flor and another tall tale.
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Of course, have students write and illustrate their own tall tales and, if possible, present them to another class. These could make wonderful dramatizations that could include music and technology.
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The Gift of the Poinsettia: El regalo de la flor de nochebuena
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I love etymology including
horticultural etymology, details such as the origin of the name tulip possibly coming from the Arabic dulband meaning turban.
After learning about the origin of the name poinsettia,
have students read about flower folklore and write a story based
on their research or create a name for an imaginary flower and
write and illustrate that story. The flower could, of course, be
named after themselves or their friends which could lead to some
interesting descriptions.
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Humans enjoy celebrations. Have
students study celebrations around the globe and share a holiday
celebration important to their family.
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Students can learn about legends
and either re-tell a legend, particularly one native to their area
or place of birth, or create their own legends.
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Here Kitty, Kitty/¡Ven gatita, ven! (Book 3 of My Family/Mi Familia)
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Ask the class or group to draw pictures of their favorite hiding places.
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Read aloud some nursery rhymes and poems about pets to the children. Poems are an excellent way to introduce rhythm and rhyme to children, and they enjoy the humor that is found in many poems for the young.
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Guide the class in writing a group poem about a kitten. Write the completed poem on a large sheet of poster board and hang it in the classroom.
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Create your own Kitty Hides math game. Make cut outs of 10 kittens and a "hiding place" pocket. Reinforce counting and introduce subtraction and addition by hiding the kittens and returning them to the group. You can play a matching game by making some of the kittens the same color or with the same spots or stripes.
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Ask the class to create a list of ways to take good care of our pets.
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Join Hands! The Ways We Celebrate Life
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The poem describes "ways we celebrate life." Ask the children to share some of the ways they celebrate life in their family and community.
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Name ways to celebrate life with books. Try starting a Mother-Daughter Book Club; donating "gently-used" books to children's hospital; making your own alphabet book; or acting out a story from a children's book.
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Joining hands is a way of showing togetherness. Name other ways of being together with family and friends.
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Create a celebration collage using students' own photos or photos from magazines.
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Older children can write their own pantoum; it's a fun form to create and illustrates the power of repetition. Use the color-coded lines of the poem in the back of the book as a guide or by numbering the lines to use as a map.
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Let's Eat ¡A comer! (Book 1 of My Family/Mi Familia)
Ask children to share examples of what their family eats for dinner and chat about how different families and different countries have favorite foods. Have children draw a picture of dinnertime at their house. Ask what Dad means when he looks around at everyone at the table and says "Yes, we're rich." Ask the children to define what "grateful" means. Create a morning circle time and ask children to tell one thing they are grateful for. Try to do this regularly. Ask children to bring in the recipe of their favorite food. Create a class cookbook, copy and distribute to families.
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A Library
for Juana: The World of Sor Juana Inés
Teachers, search engines can take you
to many interesting sites on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Here are
ideas for your students:
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Students can contrast life in Nueva
España (now Mexico) with life in the United States in the 17th century: politics, the arts, daily life, etc. Students can create
a time-line of the history of Mexico up to the 17th century beginning with the Olmec.
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Sor Juana loved word games. Students
can create a class book of riddles.
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Sor Juana enjoyed collecting
scientific instruments. Students can prepare group reports on the
instruments available at that time or reports on the scientific
instruments of today that students might like to collect.
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When Juana went to Mexico City, she
was fascinated by the many languages she heard and included one
indigenous language (Nahuatl) in some of her work. Students can
listen to their world and learn about languages other than English
that they or other students around the country might here.
Encourage students to include words from another language in a
poetry project.
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Enjoy a cyber-visit to the Museum of
Spanish Colonial Arts that opened July 2002 in Santa Fe, www.spanishcolonial.org.
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Listen to the
Desert: Oye al desierto
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Students can make desert puppets
and stage a play.
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Learning to make desert sand
paintings provides an opportunity to teach about native cultures
and the art of the Southwest.
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Students enjoy writing group
poems on a theme such as, “Listen to the Playground.”
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Students can research early
musical instruments of the Americas, make their own and use them
to accompany the words.
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Try choral reading with this
book.
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Love to Mamá: A Tribute
to Mothers
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Invite students to read other anthologies connected by theme such
as In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall. Students can create their
own theme anthologies and include original work and poems by
others. The books can be illustrated or enhanced by other kinds
of student art such as collage.
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Students can select
one of the poems in the collection and write a prose piece on the
same theme.
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Using one of the
poems in the book as a model, students can write their own poem
using an existing format.
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Students can
collect compelling photographs of mothers and grandmothers and
write brief poems as captions. This is a good opportunity for a
global photography project.
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Of course, students can write
and/or draw their own poetry gift for their mother or
grandmother.
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Maria Paints the Hills
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Create a “Paint the Hills with Maria” event that encourages young
readers to study and paint their landscape using a variety of
media. This can provide a good opportunity for learning about
local geological features and the names of local flora and fauna.
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Maria Hesch modeled her style after the work of Grandma Moses.
Students can study the work of Grandma Moses and do a comparison
of the work of these two women artists. Students can also select
a visual artist whose style they would like to imitate and create
their own art piece for display.
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Students can learn about the history and crafts of Northern New
Mexico and contrast Maria’s life with their own. Students can
enjoy making adobe or a simple weaving project. For information
about education programs and materials of the Museum of New
Mexico, visit, www.museumeducation.org
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Water is an issue of growing global importance. Students can
learn about the acequia or irrigation system of Maria’s
region and contrast it with our own piped water systems and with
other water systems around the world.
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Enjoy a
cyber-visit to the Museum of International Folk Art that hosted
the Maria Hesch exhibit in 1997, www.moifa.org.
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¡Marimba! Animales A – Z
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Plan a Marimba Fiesta. Work with a music teacher to teach some of your students or a group of older students to play the marimba and have them accompany the reading of the book. Students could also learn a few of the Latin dances mentioned in the book and bring samples of the foods mentioned.
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Students, alone or in pairs or groups, can learn more about the animals they don’t know in the book and share the information with the class. This could include facts, drawings and original work such as a poem about the animal.
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If there’s a zoo in town, ask your students to visit the zoo and write about their visit or select three favorite aspects to share with the class. You might also invite a zoo staff member to visit your class and talk about not only the animals but also about jobs at the zoo.
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Excite your students about writing and illustrating their own alphabet book or create a class alphabet book. You could together create a list of other cognates.
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Explore other musical instruments popular in Latin America and create an art project connected with them—bringing some to class and accompanying music with them, drawing them or making them out of clay, etc., writing haiku about them.
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My Own True Name: New and Selected Poems for Young Adults
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Students can write their own
odes, a wonderful opportunity to introduce them to the work of
Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda.
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Again using “Ode to Pizza” as an
example, students can write a poem using numerous translations of
one word in their poem.
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Read one of the poems to the
students and then have them jot down a few words that appeal to
them or that linger. Then ask the students to use those words to
trigger their own poems.
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The Night the Moon Fell (Spanish edition: La noche que se calló la luna)
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After introducing folktales, ask
students to find other folktales about the moon or have them write
a folktale about a part of their environment.
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Students can study the phases of
the moon and the relationship of the moon and tides.
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Students can research the topic
of endangered languages and report on current strategies for
language revitalization.
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Students can learn about folklife
and folklore studies, the folklore of their area, and then help
document the folklife and lore of their neighborhood or region
perhaps with the guidance of a local folklife expert. For
resources, visit the American Folklife Center at the Library of
Congress at www.lcweb.loc.gov/folklife.
Materials for educators are
available at http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/teachers/index.html
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Pablo’s Tree
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Using branches, have students
create their own tree for a special person or to remember a
specific birthday of their own. Teaching origami or making clay
wind chimes are possibilities.
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A number of my books describe
relationships between children and an older relative. Invite
students to share traditions from their families. Invite
grandparents or older relatives and friends to visit the class and
perhaps to share a memory, game, tradition, or song in their
native language.
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Students can make items for
Pablo’s sixth birthday.
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Using “dress-up props,” children
can stage a scene about an event with an older relative or friend.
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The Race of Toad and Deer
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Since students are interested in
ancient cultures and often don’t know very much about the
indigenous cultures of Mexico and Central America, this book and The Night the Moon Fell provide opportunities to create
large time-lines comparing the major ancient cultures of the world
as well as specifically learning about the advanced civilization
of the Maya.
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Much of what we know about the
ancient Maya comes from the careful work of archaeologists.
Create a digging experiment to teach the concept of
super-position, layering. Older children could help create the
experiment.
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Have students research the
rainforest and its diversity including its people, how and why
rainforests are threatened, and strategies for saving them.
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Students can research Guatemala,
its languages, history, geography, music, its past and its
present.
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The Rainbow Tulip
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Explore the value of oral history
with students. For resources visit the teacher section at
American Memory at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem
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After discussing the value of
oral histories and teaching basic interview techniques, ask
students to interview a family member and create an artistic
response: a story, play, poem, dance, collage, etc.
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Given the many kinds of families,
students can design their own symbol (which need not be the
standard family tree) to illustrate their connections to the
special people in their lives, those who constitute their family.
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Students can take photographs (or
draw) their families and neighborhoods and create their own
books. Some students could even create a video.
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Students could role play a scene
about the discomfort of feeling different.
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The Song of Francis and the Animals
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A good opportunity to explore the complex process of making woodcuts. Perhaps a local woodcut artist or an art teacher could explain the process and devise a safe method for students to create their own art.
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Invite students to discuss the relationship Francis had to each creature. Have students share stories of their own habits of treating animals.
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If possible, invite a veterinarian or veterinary student or a staff member of a humane society, animal shelter, or animal rescue program to do a presentation on how to be a good pet owner.
* As you know, this book is an extended poem. Invite students to write their own poem/song about their favorite animal.
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Sweet Dreams ¡Dulces sueños! (Book 2 of My Family/Mi Familia)
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Ask children to share their bedtime routine. Do they have a glass of water? Does someone read to them? Sing to them? Is a language other than English part of their bedtime routine?
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How many children in the class have members of their extended family living with them? Ask children to name something they've learned from a grandparent or an aunt or uncle.
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Read some bedtime poems to the class. Try to find "classics" and contemporary examples. Ask the children what they like about these poems.
Listen to a selection of lullabies illustrating different musical styles and lullabies from different countries. Ask the children to create a group list of their favorite nighttime words. Write them down and post the list decorated with stars, moons etc.
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This
Big Sky
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Students can create poetry
anthologies of the natural life in a specific region-- theirs, an
area of interest, or an imaginary landscape.
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Especially during April, National
Poetry Month, students can treat one another to a poem a day.
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The poet who shares the poem
receives an apple.
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After discussing “Old Snake,”
students could draw or make their own snakes and write on the back
one of their fears or self-doubts.
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Among the many responses possible
after a discussion of student’s personal dreams, they can make and
then release kites on which they’ve written their dreams.
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Students can study how plants and
animals conserve water in the desert.
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To learn more about the Rio
Grande, visit www.savetherio.org.
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Tomás and the Library Lady (Spanish edition: Tomás y la señora de la biblioteca)
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After exploring with students the
qualities of heroes and why some people such as sports or music
figures are noticed and others like nurses, school bus drivers,
migrant workers or park rangers aren’t, work with students to
write brief biographies or biographical poems about unnoticed
heroines and heroes. They could also draw portraits.
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The discussion on heroines and
heroes offers an opportunity to teach media literacy to help young
viewers assess what they see.
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Few of us know enough about
migrant workers. Students can learn about the history of migrant
workers in this country and about their difficult lives and the
discrimination they encounter.
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Using maps, students can share
their families’ historical journeys and facts about the family’s
countries of origin.
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Students can also learn about the
history of libraries, the library as a career, and the kinds of
librarians and libraries. Further they could study how libraries
are funded and what a library board is.
Fourth grade students at Pattison Elementary School in Milford Ohio who read TOMAS suggested to their teacher, Christina North, that they pretend they were Tomás and write postcards (which they made) to the library lady. They sent their postcards to Pat who enjoyed them thoroughly.
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Uno, Dos, Tres: One, Two,
Three
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Have students draw their own
Spanish counting dictionary or write a story using the numbers
from one to ten in Spanish.
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Students could write and
illustrate counting books using other languages.
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Students can
learn about the folk arts of Mexico and how those traditions are
maintained. Students could then make a simplified or simulated
version of tin work, papier-maché, straw art, piñata making, clay
art, papel picado, etc.
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Yum! ¡Mmm! Qué rico! America's Sproutings
(Haiku)
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Invite students to create an art piece (watercolor, collage, etc.) incorporating the 14 foods in the book.
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Students can visit a grocery store and make a list of how many of the 14 foods they find. They might select one food to prepare in a recipe or as is and share with their family.
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Students could read the ingredients on one box in their pantry and list which of the 14 foods they find.
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Invite students to make a list of 14 of their favorite foods and write a haiku about one.
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Plan a Yum! Party with your colleagues or class. Guests can choose one or a combination of the 14 foods in the book to use in a dish to share at your event.
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See Pat's upcoming books.
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