A place to share books, music, techniques, and all things related to bilingual storytime!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Incorporating las ciencias into Bilingual Storytime

Some of you may be familiar with the Vermont Center for the Book's Mother Goose programs.  These programs are intended to help increase kids' school readiness - a personal passion of my own.  The Lexington Public Library uses the Mother Goose math and science resources to incorporate math and science skills, along with early literacy skill development techniques, into our storytime programs.  Bilingual Family Storytime is no exception.  So far this summer we have had a hands-on science activity for parents and kids to work on together after every program, and they have loved it!

The first week we had a water theme to kick off our Summer Reading Program - Make a Splash at your Library.  As promised in a previous post, I used I Know the River Loves Me / Yo sé que el rio me ama by Maya Christina Gonzalez, along with Salpicar / Splash by Flora McDonnell, Bebé Goes to the Beach by Susan Middleton Elya, and "Vamos a la mar" by Jose-Luis Orozco.  Our science activity also used water - various objects were spread out and kids had to examine them and predict which objects would sink and which would float.  They marked their predictions on a chart and then it was time to experiment.  When I saw how much the parents and the children enjoyed interacting together to make the predictions and conduct the experiment, I knew I would have to keep trying this type of activity.  I'm sharing the bilingual directions you can print out and use with this activity via Google Docs along with the bilingual chart we used to mark our predictions.  Sample sink or float activities are available on the Mother Goose site, along with other resources.

Last week our program was about colors.  The last story we told was Pinta ratones, also known as Mouse Paint, by Ellen Stoll Walsh.  This story introduces the concept of primary and secondary colors.  We followed this with our science activity.  Using color paddles available from Oriental Trading, the kids were able to mix primary colors together (mess-free!) and make secondary colors.  They had a lot of fun looking through the paddles and seeing Miss Katie turn green and purple!

Tonight we are talking about the weather.  One of my favorite things about the summer is growing my own food in my garden, so we are starting off with A sembrar sopa de verduras by Lois Ehlert (Growing Vegetable Soup) to talk about seasons.  To reinforce narrative skills, we will retell what happened first, middle and last in the story after we read it.  Lexington is a rainy town, so we'll follow up with "Que llueva" by Jose-Luis Orozco, Un día de lluvia by Valeri Gorbachev, and (of course!) "La araña pequeñita."  We'll come back to seasons with Oso bajo el sol by Stella Blackstone.  The change of seasons in our climate produces a clear pattern.  Every year we move from spring, to summer, to fall and winter.  So our science activity tonight will be identifying patterns.  I've set out one easy and one hard pattern using foam shapes.  Kids and parents will work together to find the pieces that continue and complete the pattern.  This is a school readiness skill, and it also reinforces narrative skills by helping children identify sequence.  The Mother Goose site has a number of professional articles about the effectiveness of incorporating math and science into storytime, including this one about recognizing patterns.

Do you incorporate science skills in your programs?  Do you have some other kind of hands-on activity for kids and caregivers at the end of storytime?  Let us know what you are doing!

Friday, June 18, 2010

International Latino Book Awards Winners


I am reposting the following from the SLHW Literary Notes blog available at http://slhwnotes.blogspot.com.  This was mentioned in the most recent American Libraries Direct.  Way to go winners!  There are a number of books on this list that I have not yet seen that I look forward to checking out.


International Latino Book Awards Winners

Here is a listing of the 12th Annual International Latino Book Awards Winners announced last night. I am so proud to see some local authors on the list! Congratulations to everyone!!


12th Annual International Latino Book Awards Winners Announced

In recognition of the many positive contributions being made to Latino literature by publishers and writers worldwide, Latino Literacy Now, a non-profit organization that supports and promotes literacy and literary excellence within the Latino community, created the Latino Book Awards in 1999. The awards were presented during BookExpo America on May 25, 2010, at the Javits Center. This year we are introducing a new designation for those entries that swept the judges 1st place ballots: Triple Crown Award Winners.

The Winners (Title - Author(s) or Illustrator (s) - Publisher):

CATEGORY A – CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULT BOOKS
Best Educational Children’s Book - Spanish
Cambio Climático: Los Gases de Efecto Invernadero - Daniel R. Faust - Rosen Publishing
2ND Place: Andy Warhol - Patricia Geis - Combel Editorial
Honorable Mention: Mitología Mesoamericana: Quetzalcóatl - Tom Danish - Rosen Publishing

Best Educational Children’s Book - Bilingual
Chiles- Inés Vaughn - Rosen Publishing
2ND Place: Fun With ABC's - Loteria Style - Luciano Martinez - Lectura Books
Honorable Mention: Chocolate - Inés Vaughn - Rosen Publishing
Honorable Mention: Corn/Maiz- Inés Vaughn - Rosen Publishing

Best Children’s Picture Book – English
What Can You Do With A Paleta? - Carmen Tafolla - Trycycle Press2ND Place: Diego: Bigger Than Life - Carmen T. Bernier-Grand - Marshall Cavendish
Honorable Mention: Lom and the Gnatters – Kurusa - Groundwood Books

Best Children’s Picture Book – Spanish
¡Al Galope! - Rufus Butler Seder - Workman Publishing
2ND Place: Cocinando cuentos de hadas: Alicia en el pais de las delicias - Maria Villegas & Jennie Kent - Villegas Editores S.A.
2ND Place: Cocinando cuentos de hadas: Hansel y Gretel y la casita endulzado - Maria Villegas & Jennie Kent - Villegas Editores S.A.
Honorable Mention: Cocinando cuentos de hadas: Caperucita roja y el lobo glotón - Maria Villegas & Jennie Kent - Villegas Editores S.A.

Best Children’s Picture Book – BilingualMy Papa Diego and Me/Mi papa Diego y yo - Guadalupe Rivera Marin - Children's Book Press
2ND Place: I Know the River Loves Me/Yo se que el rio me ama - Maya Christina Gonzalez - Children's Book Press
Honorable Mention: Rene Has Two Last Names/René tiene dos apellidos - René Colato Laiñez - Arte Público Press
Honorable Mention: What Can You Do With A Paleta?/¿Que puedes hacer con una paleta? - Carmen Tafolla - Trycycle Press

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Las seis habilidades de pre-alfabetización

Posts have been few and far between lately, but such is the nature of May.  Final purchases are being made with end-of-year budgets, and, of course, all energy is going into planning for Summer Reading.  Our program started last week, and the Village branch staff have been doing an amazing job at making sure all families are signed up and participating in this year's program.

For a quick post, I thought I'd share a video that LPL just added to our YouTube channel.  I worked on this a few months back.  It is our first all-Spanish video, and it is about the six early literacy skills and library services.  Enjoy!