Books To Help Teach Kids Appreciate Different Cultures

Hi friends, it's been a while, and I am glad to have a moment to form some sentences.

It's been an interesting few months, we've been on the road, and have had a few family tragedies.  In the last 4 months, I have lost two of my grandparents.  It has been tough, and we've had to work through many different emotions.  At my Gramps' funeral, the latter of the two, my Uncle John gave a heart-warming eulogy about him.

Some things I knew, others I must not have heard before, or did not understand the significance of.  

My great-grandparents moved from Hungary to Canada.  They then moved to Buffalo, New York, where my Gramps was born.  My Gramps was the first one of his family members to go to and graduate from college.  He met my Gran (who passed 3 months before he did) shortly before going to Korea.  When he came back, they got married, had three sons, he worked for the Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, was an active member of his church, a coach, and beloved by many.

He lived the American dream.  He was the son of immigrants, and by working hard, he made a better life for his family, and generations to come.

I am a third generation Hungarian American.  I am the descendant of an immigrant. Not only that, but I have BEEN an immigrant.  The definition of an immigrant is a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.  That's what I did when I moved to Hungary.  On top of that, we are planning on doing that again, by moving to Slovenia.

I think this explains why books about different cultures speak to me.  I am interested in different cultures, love the significance given to certain things, and how it all ties into the "human family".

So, I am going to raise Aidan to appreciate the things that make us all unique.  I will teach him to love his own culture(s), as well as find the beauty of those he encounters.  These books will help me with that, and I'm hoping they will help you too.

Across the Alley by Richard Michelson is a book about two boys, one who is Jewish, and one who is African American.  It's about how they aren't allowed to be friends out and about, but their windows open up to each other - where they can become friends.  They each teach the other something they're good at, and eventually affect the people around them.  It's a great way for kids to learn about making friends, and that they can make a difference.

My Name Is Yoon by Helen Recorvitz is a book about a young girl whose family moves to America from Korea.  She loves how her name looks in Korean - it dances and looks happy.  But she doesn't like how it looks in English.  She refuses to write it for a while, but with the help of an encouraging teacher, is able to write it, and in time learns to love it too.  This is a great book for talking about different languages, and meanings of names.  You could even find out what your child's name would look like in a different language.

The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco is one of my all time favorite books!  I've talked about it before, and I will keep talking about it forever!  As the daughter of a quilter, it has special meaning to me.  It's about a Russian Jewish immigrant community, and how they preserve their traditions, as well as how those traditions change over time.  We all have family traditions, so this is a great way to start talking about those too.  If you know your own heritage, or even better, if you have any family heirlooms, this would be a great time to bring them up.

 

Tea with Milk and Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say.  Grandfather's Journey was one of my favorites growing up.  I think the reason I liked it was because the man in it misses Japan when he's in America, and misses America when he's in Japan.  As someone who dealt with a similar conundrum, it was nice to have a story to relate too.  Reentry can be hard on kids growing up cross-culturally, so knowing that other people feel the same way, can be encouraging.  His other book, Tea with Milk is about the man in the first book's mother, who deals with some similar emotions.  She's a strong female character who makes her own way in the world, which I also really like.

The Sound of the Bell by Penny S Anderson is about refugees.  They have to flee their home, but always know where to go, because the children can hear their mother's bell ringing.  However, they get separated from her, and have to figure things out for themselves for a while.  (Don't worry, it has a happy ending.)  I would recommend this for older, more mature kiddos, since it is a little heavier topic.  It's something I think we need to talk to our kids about, because there are children their age, around the world who are facing these things, and it's important to be aware of it.

The Thanksgiving Door by Debby Atwell is a heartwarming story about a couple who burn Thanksgiving dinner, and decide to try to eat out instead.  They think a restaurant (The New World Cafe) is open, and so they take a seat.  What they don't realize, is that they have just sat down in the middle of an immigrant family's Thanksgiving celebration.  I love this, because it captures what I think the essence of Thanksgiving is, and what has made our country great - being thankful to God of course, but also thankful for each other.  

Well, I guess you can take the teacher out of school but not the school out of the teacher.  This is the first time in many years, that it is August, and I'm not writing lesson plans, setting up my classroom, buying school supplies, laminating, and getting headaches from sharpie fumes.  Instead, I'm at home with a rambunctious 2-year-old, building train sets, kissing boo-boos, and reading lots of books.  It's a different adventure, and I'm enjoying it, but writing about things like this helps keep me sane.

I hope you got something out of my ramblings, and enjoy these books!  If you know of any others I should add to this list, please let me know!

Reading Street Kindergarten "Smash! Crash!" Week

Yay for Smash! Crash! week!  The boys always love this week - trucks and tractors galore!  So, let me show you what we did in our centers this week:

1. Math Center

I really went all out in the math center this week.  In math we're learning about one-to-one correspondence, and I wanted to tie in the trucks and tractors.  I found this great free bundle on vehicles at homeschoolcreations.com.  One of the games was these cards that had a certain number of vehicles, with three numbers at the bottom, then the kids put a clothespin on the correct number.  It reenforces one-to-one correspondence, number recognition, and fine-motor skills.

I caved, and actually bought a packet on teacherspayteachers.com.  It was totally worth it!  It had a few different games.  The first one was a domino game, using tractors instead instead of dots.  Big hit!

It came with a matching game too.  Again, great for one-to-one correspondence!

I also used a game from the first game, where the kids put numbers 1-10 in order.  They used orange and green train cars, which was also great for reenforcing patterning.

2. Literacy Center

I found some great sight word practice sheets.  

I used part of the first packet to practice sequencing (which could've gone to math also, but I thought it might help visual learners, when we're talking about sequencing our stories).

I made a fun sight word practice.  (One of our words this week was "a", so it was super easy, but it'll get more interesting.)  You'll need an old cookie sheet, some tape, sight word cards, magnetic letters and white board markers.

 

I made a great, differentiated CVC word practice game.  You'll need a picture of a Weiner dog, and a clip art of a bone.  For your below- or on-level students, you can cut the bone into three pieces. This way it'll help them know it the letter is a beginning, medial or ending letter.  For your advanced students, you make the bone smaller, and they have free range of the order they put the letters in.

3. Science Center

I found a worksheet on motion; where the kids had do decide if the action in the picture was "pushing" or "pulling".

4. Complementary Books

We read Little Blue truck one day, and Little Blue Truck Leads the Way the next.  We then compared (what's the same), and contrasted (what's different) them.  THE KIDS HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!  And, we were using our vocabulary words.  Score!!!

Compare:

- Same main character.

- Same author.

- Same illustrator.

- Someone was rude to Blue.

- But he showed them kindness.

- Same opening line,

Contrast:

- Little blue is a lighter color (haha, my artistic kiddo).

- Different setting (country vs. city).

- Different supporting characters (animals in first one, vehicles and people in the second one).

That's all for now, folks!

Next week is Dig, Dig Digging, so some of the center games will stick around for one more week.  

Hope I was able to give you a few ideas for your own kiddos.

Let me know if you have any thoughts, ideas or questions!

Reading Street Kindergarten "Plaidypus Lost" Week

Happy Sunday, all!  As I'm thinking ahead to this week's theme, I'm also thinking about last week's theme, one of my favorites - Plaidypus Lost.  It's about a little girl, whose grandma sews her a "plaidypus" out of her grandpa's plaid shirt.  Throughout the course of the book, she loses the plaidypus, and then finds it.  It's a great book for teaching about what a poem is, and there is a lot of repetition.  Your kids will be reciting the whole book by the end of the week!

Let me show you what I did in my centers for this week!

(I took in Aidan's special quilt from his grandma, that has squares from his daddy's shirt.)

1. Literacy Center:

I found this free Literacy Center worksheet at teacherspayteachers.com.  It's simple, which is great, because then the kids can do it on their own, but it reinforces the letters we're working on.

I made a word family game, using paint chips.  I wrote the ending on a white rectangle with a window, and the beginning letter on the paint chip, with the idea that they can slide it up or down to read CVC words.  I drew a colored dot in the corner of the white rectangle, to add one more element of matching the colors.  The kids really enjoyed it!

Our reading curriculum also comes with these great sequencing cards for each story.  The kids had fun putting them together!

2. Math Center

This week we are learning about patterns, which works out perfectly for the idea of "plaid".  I found two different "plaidypus" cliparts, which I printed out, and made a pattern chart for.  I differentiated it for on-level students, and below-level students.  For on level, the instructions just say "make an AB pattern".  For the below-level students, each box says "A" or "B", to help them out a little.

I also found a good adding worksheet that was platypus themed.  My kids haven't learned adding yet, so I wrote in 1+1, 2+1, 3+1, etc.  I also gave them manipulatives to help them.  This was my above-level activity.

3. Science center

I love when the theme leaves room for science, which is actually pretty regularly.  This week I had a platypus coloring sheet here, that showed their natural habitat.

4. Listening Center/Media

As I explained last week, I combined all the audio for the week into a playlist, which the kids then listen to.  We also watched the Octonauts episode that featured platypus.  It's on Netflix, or you can find it on Youtube.

5. Craft.  So, this wasn't a center, but we made a pretty cute craft this week.  I drew the outline of the Plaidypus, which the kids cut out.  Then, I gave them each a few squares of scrapbook paper with different patterns on them (tying back into the math unit).  They glued them on, cut back down around them, glued on button eyes and a beak, and voila!

We had a really fun week, and hopefully the kiddos learned something along the way!

See you next week, for Miss Kindergarten Takes a Field Trip!

The Kissing Hand Kindergarten Welcome Week

Welcome back to school!

Going back to school, especially for kindergarten-age children can be very scary, and can cause separation anxiety.  That's why I like to spend the first week of school on the Kissing Hand books, and talking about emotions.

In case you aren't familiar with the book, it's about a young raccoon who is anxious about going to school, until his mother shows him a secret.  She opens his hand, gives him a kiss in his palm, and tells him, that whenever he's missing her, he can press it against his cheek, and he'll know that, "Mama loves you, mama loves you!"

It's the perfect way to introduce a child to a new, and seemingly scary situation.

We read the story, and then I asked each child how they felt today.  Then, I had each of them draw a picture of how they felt, and helped them place it on a chart.

Their very first graph!

There are a couple other books in the series, none of them quite as good as the first, but still worth a read.

I found this great, FREE packet on teacherspayteachers.  It has a couple math center activities, a few literacy center activities (upper/lower case matching, missing letter, letter sound bingo, etc.) - any of which can be modified for small group or large group activities.  Yay!

I printed out the flashcards in color and laminated them for my center, and also printed them out in black and white to send home for at-home reinforcement.

It was wonderful to see the kids working together as a team, and having fun while learning.

Although it may seem simple, one of the best items in this packet is a "Color Book".  Each page has a picture of Chester (the raccoon), and the name of a color below it.  The kids then have to color the raccoon the correct color.  This is wonderful for teaching them to follow directions!  It's simple, but they have to be listening, and paying attention.

 

On the first day, we also made the parents a little something.  I printed out this cute poem I found:

I traced each of their hands on brown paper, had them cut it out, and then had them glue a heart in the middle of it.  It turned out very cute!

Finally, on the end of the last day, I also gave each child a Hershey kiss to take home.  In retrospect, I should've just let them eat it in class, as we live in Florida, and chocolate melts.  But regardless, it was a hit!

Yay for back-to-school!