I beg for forgiveness!!!!

Wow, I have seriously neglected you, my bilingual programming blog! Please accept my apologies and know I will try to tend to you with much more care from this point forward!

Finishing my MLIS program and finally getting my degree, landing my first Youth Services Librarian job at my dream library, and moving to Lexinton, Kentucky have kept me very busy this summer. Truly, I feel absolutely blessed. There is so much to share, from the exciting sessions I attended at ALA in Chicago a few weeks ago, to preparing for bilingual storytime which begins in September, to the new and exciting world of programming for school agers, tweens and teens! I will return to the world of blogging to share it all with you soon!

But for today, let me just shout out a few quick thoughts that are on my mind:

I love coming to work and hearing, "Miss Katie, will you read me?" even when I think I'm too busy to read with a kid (I can never say no!).
Open Source Soluntions for libraries is the way of the future...Replace TLC with Koha NOW!
I love the blend of English, Spanish, and all things Spanglish in new environment.
Raising Reader packets is an idea I will definitely be stealing for Village.
Planning bilingual, inter-generational lotería night after Jamie Naidoo's presentation.
Yuyi Morales is amazing for about a hundred different reasons; here is just a little taste:

Día de los niños/Día de los libros

Happy Día everyone! Don't know about it? Check out Pat Mora, founder of Día de los niños/Día de los libros and prolific children's author talking about the origins of this important celebration.

Book Fiesta! My favorite new book of the year!

As if we really need any more reasons to absolutely LOVE Pat Mora! Well, just in case, here it is -
Book Fiesta! Celebrate Children's Day/Book Day Celebremos El día de los niños/El día de los libros. I have been keeping this book on my desk lately for those moments when I just need a smile. It is impossible to read this book without feeling all warm and fuzzy!

This totally bilingual book is all about celebrating the joy of reading, in whatever language, with all children. We read alone, with our friends, with our pets, with our families, wherever we are...even the library! We also exercise our imaginations, reading in submarines and on hot air balloons.

For any "Ready to Read" early-literacy advocates out there, turn to the page toward the end with the big moon and prepare to squeal in delight. This is probably the best example of the use of print awareness in a picture book that I know of. Not only do we have to turn the page vertically to read the text, starbeams across the page spell out "Read Books." Keep looking even closer and you'll see the word bubble is filled with nighttime words, in English AND Spanish. Beautiful!

Rafael López has done a spectacular job with the illustrations in this book. I imagine he will be the illustrator to beat for the 2009 Pura Belpre award. Every child will be able to see him or herself in this book, which makes it truly special. This is on the top of my list along with Martina, the Beautiful Cockroach for my favorite illustrations.

So if you are looking for a great book to share at a Día de los niños/Día de los libros program, this is it! But even more, this is a special book to share with any child, anytime to share the feeling of "bookjoy". Thanks Pat Mora for giving us this treasure!

Phonological Awarenes - My favorite ready to read skill!

As part of our outreach to the Spanish-speaking community here in Columbus, my co-worker Gabriela (from "Proteja a su familia contra incendios") and I have offered to write a monthly article for La Jornada Latina. The first one ran today, and I have to say, it looks great! You can find it on page 6 of this week's edition.

One of the most fun elements of bilingual storytime for me is choosing activities like songs and rhymes that help children develop phonological awareness, the ability to hear sounds, particularly the small sounds inside of whole words. At the recent "Listos para leer" presentation at Centro Esperanza Latina, families were very interested in learning more about music and other interactive activities they could do with their children to develop this skill. Parents of active children who sometimes have trouble sitting down to read a book were particularly interested. As a follow up to this, I wrote our first article on this very topic.

I am thrilled with the support La Jornada Latina is showing to the Columbus Metropolitan Library in helping us better reach the Spanish-speaking community in Columbus!

Homework Help Centers Rock!!!

Check out this video about our Homework Help Centers (HHC) at the Columbus Metropolitan Library!



These are a fabulous resource where students and their parents can find everything they need to get their homework finished, even bilingual staff and volunteers at many locations! Too late to make it to the library for homework help? Check out our homework help website, filled with many useful resources you can use from home.

Cantajuego

I had never heard of this group before today. Cantajuego is a Spanish group that makes children's music. Their songs are very active, like a Spanish Jim Gill. Check it out!



Know any other fantastic Spanish children's music? Share it!

A tiny bit of shameless self-promotion...

I have to share that I am extremely pleased and excited to see that my recent "Listos para Leer" (Ready to Read in Spanish) presentation at Centro Esperanza Latina made the news! La Jornada Latina ran an article about it in their most recent issue, free on newstands now.

This event was easily one of the coolest things I've gotten to do in my job, thus far. We held two presentations, both of which were extremely well attended. All in all, we were able to make a library connection, deliver early literacy information, and provide kits filled early literacy tools such as board books and maracas to over 50 Spanish-speaking families! I have to admit that I was terrified, as this was the biggest presentation I have yet done in Spanish! Things went great however, and I had a lot of help from my colleagues Melinda Moreno, Michelle Garver, and Joy Converse. I am very grateful to the United Way for the grant that is funding such "Listos para Leer" presentations, to the Director of the Centro Esperanza Latina, Ms. Gianella Martinez for all of her help in coordinating this event, and to Ms. Patricia Ruiz for sharing our story through this article. I'm posting a copy of it below for those of you who read Spanish:


Imparten taller “Listos para leer”
PATRICIA RUIZ

La biblioteca metropolitana de Columbus, en colaboración con Action for Children, desarrolló durante los días 23 y 25 de febrero de 2009, en el Centro Esperanza Latina, el taller programa para padres “Todos los niños listos para leer”. A estos talleres gratuitos asistieron numerosos padres de familia de la comunidad, quienes recibieron información sobre cómo preparar el niño para el kinder y qué actividades debe realizar el padre en la casa para que el niño se inicie en el hábito de la lectura. Los participantes recibieron un maletín con libros en español, un abecedario magnético, marionetas y otros elementos útiles para que el niño desarrolle el amor por la lectura y la escritura.

El paquete también incluía una solicitud para obtener la tarjeta de membresía de la biblioteca para los menores de 17 años de edad, la cual es expedida totalmente gratis.