Celebramos César Chavez

Librarians and teachers working with elementary students have several wonderful picture books available to celebrate César Chavez Day, which is celebrated as a state holiday in California, Colorado and Texas on March 31.  César Chavez was an important Latino leader who, along with his partner Dolores Huerta, helped migrant farm workers organize to demand decent working conditions.  This movement and Chavez are associated with the rallying cry, "¡Sí, se puede!"  "Yes, we can!"

Here are some ideas of books, activities and more that can be used in the classroom or in library programs.

César, a 2006 Pura Belpré honor recipient for both text and illustration, presents the life and work of César Chavez in brief, English-language poems.  Written by Carmen Bernier-Grand and illustrated by David Diaz.

A Picture Book of Cesar Chavez by David and Michael Adler and illustrated by Marie Olofsdotter presents a biography appropriate in length and depth for younger elementary students.

Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez (also available in Spanish) is an excellent biography, and a recipient of the 2004  Pura Belpré illustration honor.  Written by Kathleen Krull and illustrated by Yuyi Morales.

César Chavez: The Struggle of Justice / La lucha por la historia presents a biography of César in a bilingual format.

Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers celebrates César's partner, who fought alongside him and was a fearless leader herself.

Perhaps my favorite, Side by Side: The Story of Dolores Huerta and César Chavez / Lado a lado: La historia de Dolores Huerta y César Chavez presents the story of each of these important leaders and their work together.

A biography of César Chavez followed by printables and other activities from Enchanted Learning.

Many resources, including booklists and video, for parents and teachers of migrant students from Colorín Colorado.

How will you celebrate the legacy of César Chavez?

Learn Bilingual Storytime with Katie! New Online Course

Hi everyone!  I am really excited to share with you that "Bilingual Storytime at Your Biblioteca," a new course I am teaching through Library Juice Academy is now open for registration!  Through this course I teach participants to design bilingual and culturally inclusive storytime programs, even when they do not speak Spanish.  The course features video demonstrations of bilingual songs, rhymes and stories, but like the one that I shared in Flannel Friday: Owls! Lechuzas! Búhos! I love teaching this class, so I hope to see many of you there!  The description and registration information is below.  Please share!  Also, please don't hesitate to be in touch if you have any questions.

If you'd like to learn a little more about me and my experience as it pertains to serving Latinos and Spanish-speakers, feel free to visit the Connected Communities website, or read this interview from Library Juice Academy.

Bilingual Storytime at Your Biblioteca

Instructor: Katie Cunningham
Dates: April 1-28, 2013
Credits: 1.5 CEUs
Price: $175

Description: This 4-week, online course teaches participants how to present bilingual storytimes (English/Spanish) for various ages, regardless of their own language skills. Video demonstrations, articles, online resources and course discussions direct students as they learn how to successfully deliver the various elements of bilingual storytimes, either on their own or with a bilingual community partner. Participants will discover new books, rhymes, songs, plans and resources that they can immediately put to use in their bilingual storytime programs.

Learning Objectives:

• Students will learn how to select and use the following components in bilingual storytime: books, songs, rhymes, fingerplays, and stories for telling aloud.
• Students will experiment with incorporating bilingual materials into their existing storytime programs.
• Students will select books and other materials they can use to increase inclusion of Latino culture and the Spanish language in their English storytime programs.
• Students will develop strategies for working with bilingual community partners to present and market bilingual storytime.
• Students will gain an increased understanding of the early literacy and school readiness needs of Latino children.
• Students will articulate how bilingual storytime supports the early literacy and school readiness needs of Latino children, and identify online resources for sharing early literacy and school readiness information with Spanish-speaking parents.
• Students will each develop two bilingual storytime plans.

Rhyme Time en Español

Serving on the 2013 Pura Belpré award committee was easily one of the greatest honors I have experienced thus far in my career.  However, now that my term is over and our winners were selected, I am thrilled to be able to blog about books again!

Yanitzia Canetti has been on my radar for a long time due to her excellent translation work.  I have always been particularly impressed by how well she maintains rhyme, making changes to literal content when necessary in order to preserve the context, rhythm and intention of the story.  Some examples include La llama llama rojo pijama, Cerdota grandota,and Cha-cha-cha en la selva.  So I am especially thrilled that she has recently published her own book of Spanish children's rhymes, Uno, Dos, Tres: My First Spanish Rhymes.

This title presents dozens of Spanish rhymes organized by topic, such as "Let's Travel / A pasear" and "Let's Play / A jugar."  The rhymes are all in Spanish, but the end pages in the back provides some explanation and English translation.  The title also contains a CD so you can hear the rhymes in addition to reading them.  I know for me this is always useful, as I like to use traditional rhymes in my storytime programs but did not grow up speaking Spanish, so I'm always looking to learn new rhymes that will resonate with the families I serve.  The rhymes aren't titled in the book, which makes their presentation at times a little unclear.  I also wish that the notes at the end included information about in which countries the various rhymes are common. Overall, however, this is an excellent title, a must-have for libraries and definitely one that any librarian offering Spanish/bilingual storytimes and/or serving Spanish-speaking families should know.