Nice surprise! Thanks Mary Lee and Franki from A Year of Reading and also thank you  Lauren and Abby from Authentic Learner for nominating My World-Mi Mundo with this lovely award. Shall we spread the love? I say let's do it...

Here are the rules:

1. Add the logo of the award to your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to  you.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Ad the links to those blogs on your computer.

5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs!

1.Wild Rose Reader

2.Reach for More-Aspira a Mas

3. Poetry For Children

4. Read Read Read

5. Literanista

Columbus Bloggers Meet Again

So you might be wondering...Really? What's so exciting about meeting other bloggers? Well...let me explain...actually...no there is no time for that. Let me sum up with Top Ten Reasons Why Columbus Bloggers Get Together...

1. We always have an excuse to get together. This time it was the Mini-Columbus version of this:

2. We get to expand our bloggers world by adding new member to our family each time. This time we welcome Megan from Read, Read, Read and Kristine from Best Book I Have Not Read.

3. We love a good breakfast. We heart North Star Cafe (in the lovely Clintonville area).

4. We talk about books (of course!!) but we also talk about trips, family, friends, our jobs, our own world.

5. We get along! We do! Conversation just flow in an easy, natural way!

6. We recommend books to each other but we really don't plan that in advance. It just happens.

7. We all HEART Cover to Cover Bookstore in Clintoville. Our fantastic local bookstore is our choice number one after breakfast. Our little reading nook, our safe place run by Sally who is a great supporter of our blogger's world.

8. Sally from Cover to Cover Bookstore always let us browse through the ARCs books. So exciting...this time I got really lucky by getting in my hand a copy of...

and I also got a copy of Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez as one of my book picks for this week! (It's Julia Alvarez! I am excited she has a new book coming January 2009!)

9. We always do a little shopping at Cover to Cover and then do  some show & tell on our shopping at our  favorite corner of the bookstore that looks like this:

10. And last but not least...we get together because it is simply FUN!

And now I wonder...when will all these Columbus Bloggers Get-Together happen again? May be during the Holiday Season for some Holiday Shopping? Anyone? 

And the winners of our Books Giveaway are...

Mrs. V from http://mrsvsreviews.blogspot.com whose favorite Hispanic Books include:

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan (One of the best books ever!) and Becoming Naomi Leon also by Pam Munoz Ryan. 

La Mariposa, The Christmas Gift, The Circuit, and Breaking Through all by Francisco Jimenez.

Among favorite authors, Mrs. V included Gary Soto, Francisco Alarcon, Sandra Cisneros, Gloria Anzaldua and Luis Rodriguez.

And right now Mrs. V and her students are reading the Spanish version of When Tia Lola Came to Town by Julia Alvarez (Good for you Mrs. V!). 

Susan from Chicken Spaguetti  mentions Pablo Remembers from George Ancona (what a fine writer he is!) as one of her favorite!

And last but not least, Alyce from http://athomewithbooks.blogspot.com  mentions a Gabriel Garcia Marzquez's masterpiece: One Hundred Years of Solitude. If you haven't read this book, ohhhhh....you are missing on something great. This is one of Latin America's Finest Literature Piece of all time. Can't recommend it enough. Thanks Alyce for sharing this one out!

Congratulations to our great winners who took their time to share with all of us their favorite Hispanic books as part of our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. Please send me an email (at stellavillalba@yahoo.com) with your address so we can send these fantastic books out your way! Happy Reading and thanks for being team players! We can all learn from each other!

On another happier note....I can't wait to see some of my friend  bloggers from Columbus at our get-together tomorrow! It is going to be a good morning mixed with coffee, books, and friends. It can't get any better! (more details about this mini-Columbus conference on Sunday!)

Happy Friday! Make it a good day!

Free Resource from Teaching Tolerance

Teaching Tolerance has a new free resource for schools! It a new documentary film about the Delano Strike and Grape Boycott let by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. This documentary is targeted for students on grades 7 and up and it supports the standard for social studies and language arts. A wonderful chapter book that will be an excellent companion to this film is Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. This chapter book is appropriate for students on Grades 5 and up. In this book, the topic of Great Depression and the strike is also discussed throughout several chapters. 

Teaching Tolerance is a wonderful project that support educators in their efforts to reduce prejudice in schools as well as improving relations among different groups, especially in school settings. I strongly suggest visiting the website, packed with resources, and information for parents and teachers.

If you would like more information on this new documentary film (which is also very appropriate for this time of the year with the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month) please click here.

If you would like to know of other books about Cesar Chavez which would be excellent companion to this film, you may go back to an earlier post here.

Take advantage of the wonderful opportunities out there to enhance and support our teaching!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

And the celebration goes on...

I found a fantastic, fantastic book about Pure Belpre's life. Many of you know about the Pura Belpre Award, established in 1996, that is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work celebrates and honors the Latino Culture. 

If you would like a list  of all the books that have received the Pura Belpre Award, you will be able to find them here. Some of the Pura Belpre Award winners were mentioned in this blog

Now, let's go back to my finding: The Storyteller's Candle/La Velita de los Cuentos by Lucia Gonzalez. Let me just say how excited I was to find this book at our Columbus Metropolitan Library.  In this picture book, you will learn about Pura Belpre, New York's first Latina librarian who brought language, magic, and stories to the Latino population in New York City.  As an immigrant myself, I can understand when people talk about "missing" home, missing their language, a piece of them that was left behind in their home country. When Latinos found out about a librarian that spoke Spanish, people found an opportunity to reconnect what that piece that they left behind at their home country, and found comfort in stories that talked about their land, their traditions, their holidays, their little world.

Beautifully written, The Storyteller's Candle is another wonderful bilingual Spanish/English book published by Children's Book Press.

And please don't forge about our wonderful book giveaway! All I am asking in order to enter the draw is to share with all of us your favorite book that celebrate Latino Culture. Quick! Share your titles under the comment section. I will be announcing the winners on Friday September 26! Then I will round up those comments in a postings so we can all learn from each other and visit each other's blogs! More details, right here.

A Book Giveaway to Celebrate HHM!

I truly believe that one of the best way to learn is by sharing our knowledge with each other (This is why we are bloggers after all).  So, in honor to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) Hachette Group USA has rounded up a collection of their best books that celebrate Hispanic Americans. So in order to participate in this terrific giveaway, here is what you need to do:

 Post a comment with your favorite book that celebrate Hispanic culture. This book may be a children's book, a poetry book, a young adult book, an autobiography, etc. I am inviting and accepting all genres. The idea is to share the title and the author of your favorite book with each other!

The last day to participate in this giveaway will be Thursday September 25 (On Friday September 26 (right before our Columbus bloggers' day!) , I will announce 3 lucky winners who will receive one copy of ALL 8 books shown below:

So, let the sharing start! 

Let the Celebration Begins!

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!

Today begins the one month celebration in the states to honor all Hispanic people and descendants living in the USA.  As a teacher my message to everyone out there working in education and working with children is that this is a wonderful opportunity to open the classroom doors to families that are either Hispanic or Hispanic descendants. What a great opportunity to learn from your students, and also from the families you are working with! As an individual, my message is that I am very proud to be Hispanic and I am also very honored to have the opportunity to live in the USA, and grow as a human being and as a professional. I hope my contribution as an educator leaves a mark in children's life, but I also know that living in the USA has left a wonderful mark in my life as well. 

This country has a lot to offer, but we also have a lot to offer to this country. During this month, I invite to dust off some books from your library shelf and check out the biography of famous Hispanic people who contributed somehow, somewhere to the USA.  Where to start? How about with Cesar Chavez? if  you don't know much about him, these are some great books to start with...

For teachers: to be used as resources.

Hispanic American Achievers

One my favorite book about Cesar Chavez!

This book is written by Gary Soto (a wonderful author!)

And I really enjoy this book written about Cesar Chavez's life but through poems!

I have used these books before while my 5th grade students were reading Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan since it supports the story line of this novel very well. I hope you all enjoy this month's celebration as much as I will considering it to be a wonderful opportunity to learn a little bit more.

Book Recommendations for Hispanic Heritage Month (cont.)

In an earlier post here, I was recommending two pictures books that not only celebrate Hispanic Families Traditions but books that are also great to use with children when teaching about  writing about "small moments".  Along the same line, you will find the following book equally enjoyable and a wonderful opportunity for discussion and exploration. On My Block: Stories and Paintings by Fifteen Artists, edited by Dana Goldberg. In this book, 15 artists some of which are Hispanics, share a special place either in their house, in their neighborhood, or in another country that hold a special memory to them. On My Block, you will tour a garden in Mexico, an empty lot in Havana, Cuba, even South Brooklyn, NY. The illustrations are outstanding, the narratives are memorable, and each artist's photograph is located in the bottom corner of each page. This book is a must! I can't recommended enough!

Book Recommendations for Hispanic Heritage Month (cont.)

In order to help you get ready for Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15), here at My World/Mi Mundo, I continue sharing great books that can be used during this month's celebration. The following books Family Pictures and In My Family, both by Carmen Lomas Garza are fantastic books to share with children in grades K-5.  These bilingual books are "snapshots" or "small moments" like Lucy Calkins would say, of a Latino family growing up in  a Mexican Community in Texas. These books are a wonderful example of how to write about every day life. Each page has a different painting in which shows the family engaged in a different activity, tradition or simply a different moment in the day. I enjoy reading how the family gets together to make tamales, people walking in and out of the big kitchen, children helping, all family members involve in the chores. Carmen Lomas Garza does such a fantastic job portraying a true picture because while I am reading this book I can't help by nod constantly at the many true pictures she has painted throughout these two books.

I know there are many primary teachers out there right now setting up routines and procedures for writing workshop, talking about topics that children may write, and teaching them to write about small moments. Family Pictures and In My Family are both wonderful resources for those teaching moments!

Book Recommendations for Hispanic Heritage Month

Throughout the next two weeks, I will keep sharing with all of you some of my favorite books that would go right along with the upcoming celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month starting September 15 through October 15. In an earlier post here, I shared with all of your a section in Scholastic web page that includes some ideas and lesson plans as part of this month's celebration. 

My second book recommendation is a book also published by Children's Book Press. I highly encourage everyone to visit their website which includes tons of ideas on how to integrate their books into the curriculum. I honestly LOVE their books!

This book comes in perfect for the season ahead of us. Angels Ride Bikes is a beautiful collection of poems that celebrates the Fall season in the city and growing up in Los Angeles! Franciso Alarcon is a talented poet who has a collection of other poem books that I will be sharing with you in the next couple of weeks. I enjoy reading his bilingual poems which are a combination of simple, small, every day moments! 

Celebrating Hispanic Month with Books!!!

Did you know...?

• That Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated every year between September 15 through October 15?
  
• In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson received authorization from Congress to proclaim a week in September  as National Hispanic Heritage Month?
• President Ronald Reagan expanded the celebration from a week to a month, making 2008 the 20th annual celebration?
• September 15 was chosen as the starting date for the celebration because it marks the independence anniversary of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras.

Now that we all have more background about Hispanic Heritage Month, I would like to celebrate this special month with some of my favorite books. Multicultural Books are a wonderful resource but not fully explored! Let's be the change...let's be the ones who start integrating more multicultural books in our daily read alouds and in our book clubs. Something so small yet so significant can build such a strong connection between you and your ELLs. What are you waiting for? Come on, let's be the change!

If you got some time, I invite you to go to Scholastic's website and watch the special project created by Target called Dream in Color with lessons plans to celebrate all heritages and cultures! I enjoyed watching and listening to designer Sami Hayek talking about his dreams and his challenges. I like his idea of being "an explorer of cultures, thoughts, experiences, people, problems and how to solve them." 

And with this idea of being an explorer, I invite you to explore Children's Book Press as your first stop to multicultural books. Here is the first book I would like to share with you as part of our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month:

This is a bilingual (Spanish/English) story about the author's life, Amada Irma Perez, who was only five years old when her family left Mexico for the United States. The new challenges ahead of her, leaving  Dad behind for a while, moving to a new country and speaking a new language was too overwhelming so she decided to keep a journal as a way to deal with everything. Beautifully written with amazing illustrations, I promised that the ending of this book is as hopeful as a new beginning.  Happy reading!