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!

Parade of Literacy - Book Themed Costumes!

I love how creative my students and their parents get every year for the Parade of Literacy!  Here are my top picks for this year!

1. Amelia Bedelia

2. Rainbow Fish

3. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

(Notice the "gum" [gel] in his hair!)

4. Charlie Brown

5. Cindy Lou Who

And of course, our teachers, who go all out every year!

The Adventures of Tintin and Captain Haddock DIY Costumes

It's the most wonderful time of the year... no, I don't mean Christmas.  PARADE OF LITERACY!!! 

It's my favorite day of the year, and pretty much my favorite part thing about being a teacher.  Two years ago I went as Ms. Frizzle, and last year Aidan and I went as Max and a Wild Thing from Where the Wild Things Are.

I totally plan a year in advance.  I know I'm crazy, but at least I channel it into something productive - costume making!

This year, I decided to dress Aidan and I up as Tintin and Captain Haddock.  In case you don't know who they are, don't worry, you're not alone.  If you DO know who they are, I am so happy we are friends!  The Adventures of Tintin is a comic series, created by Belgian cartoonist Herge.  Since Dan and I met, and went to college in Belgium, plus my mom is/was a huge fan, so growing up, liking the comic series wasn't really optional, it felt like a perfect fit!  Plus, while Aidan isn't a ginger, he definitely has some red tones to his hair.  Let the planning begin!

Tintin's costume:

(Especially for Aidan's part, I wanted to get things that he could wear anyway.)

- Khaki pants (found mine at Target)

- White collared shirt (found mine at Old Navy)

- Light blue long sleeved shirt (found mine on Burt's Bee's website)

- Dark brown/black shoes

- Alfalfa-esque hair spike

Optional:

- Stuffed Snowy dog toy

- Light colored trench coat

- Leather backpack/satchel

Captain Haddock's costume:

- Navy pants (mine were ones I already had)

- Royal blue shirt (found at Goodwill)

- Navy blazer (found at Goodwill)

- Captain's hat (found it online)

- Black booties

- Fuzzy craft fabric (found at Michael's)

- Black felt

- Hot glue gun

- Ribbon

- Anchor stencil

Tintin's costume was pretty straight forward.  Captain Haddock's took a little work. 

1. I cut out a beard from the fuzzy fabric, and hot glued ribbon to the corners.  I also cut a long strip of it, and hot glued in to the inside of the captain's hat.

2. I printed out a large picture of an anchor I liked (in the comics, Captain's Haddock's anchor is pretty small, but I wanted it to be noticeable, so I took some artistic liberties.  I cut out the anchor, pinned it to the felt, and cut the anchor out of felt.  I then hot glued it to the front of the blue (Goodwill-find) shirt.

Ta-da!

Then, we took Aidan outside, and got a few pictures.  Because, seriously - he looked way too stinking' adorable not to have photographic evidence.  Besides, he'll need proof when he needs to see a shrink once he's an adult.

 

And... just for reference sake, here are the original Tintin and Captain Haddock:

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!

Reading Street Kindergarten "We Are So Proud" Week

For the second week of school, our unit was called "We Are So Proud".  The book of the same title is about a class working together to create a float for a patriotic parade.  The Amazing Words are: proud, cooperation, float, guide, preparation and creation.  This unit just happened to fall on the week after Labor Day, and this year Remembrance Day (9/11) fell on the same week too.  While I did not discuss Remembrance Day with my kindergarteners, I decided to take the opportunity to do a patriotic-themed week!  Let me share with you a few of the things we did.

1. I found this great free math game on teacherspayteachers.com.  It's a cube game, with a few variations.  Since my kids haven't learned graphing yet, we did it together first, with each student taking a turn to roll the "dice", call it out, and color it in together.  Once they mastered the concept, I felt comfortable putting it in the center.

 

Tip: To make the cube, I color-printed it, and cut it out.  I wanted it to last (we all know how rough kids can be on anything made out of paper), but I also knew laminating would be too strong.  So, I covered the paper in packing tape, and then used the tape also to seal the edges.  It worked out very well!

2. For the Library, I always have a box labeled "Topic Books".  I update and change that box weekly, and put books that have to do with our unit in there.  When we have centers, the kids are supposed to read the books from that box.  Here are a few of the books from this week.

I read the Keeping Quilt aloud to them.  It's one of my all-time favorite books.  I told them at the beginning that our Amazing Words weren't in the book, but the idea of many of them were in it. So we talked about how the ladies used "cooperation" to make a new "creation" out the things they already had.  We also talked about how they were "proud" of their heritage, but also of their new home.  (Also, one of the illustrations has the Statue of Liberty, which was one of the pictures in our cube game - so there! :))

3. At the beginning of the year, I uploaded all the audio for the reading curriculum (read-alouds, songs, etc.) into iTunes, and then onto an old iPod I have.  I sorted it all by unit and then by week.  During centers, I just play the file for the week in my listening center.  It has been a HUGE success, and my kiddos always feel like they're getting away with something when they're in the listening center.

4. I found a couple free worksheets about Labor Day (what do you want to be when you grow up), and our flag which worked well for morning work or center work.  One in particular was a flag coloring page, which I modified into a letter recognition coloring game.  I wrote the key in the bottom (what color to use for which letter), and then wrote the letters in the coloring page.  This was a great reinforcement for some of my weaker students!

 

5. One of my student's dad is an engineer in the Navy.  So on Friday, I asked him to visit the class.  The kids had a wonderful time!  It was great!  He talked about how he has to cooperate with his fellow sailors, how it's important to prepare for what he has to do each day (using our Amazing Words), he asked each student what they wanted to be when they grow up, we got to thank him for his service, and talk about how proud we are of the men and women in our armed forces.  If there's anyway you could do something like this in your classroom, I highly recommend it!  It was a wonderful experience for the kids, and really brought home the concepts we were learning about this week!

We all had great fun in Mrs. Blair's Kindergarten Class this week!  Hope you enjoyed some of the little tid-bits from our "We Are So Proud" week.  Join us next time for "Plaidypus Lost"!