Learning Through Literature: Picture Books About Mexico

We begin our learning time each day with a book.  I try to choose stories that encourage learning with materials on the shelf.  Recently, we have been traveling through Mexico and I found a TON of books from Mexico on our library shelves.  Some were better then others.  

                                                                                                                

Adelita by Tomie dePaola was, by far, our favorite of the stories.  This is a Mexican Cinderella Story with a fair bit of Spanish language mixed into the book.  The story line is really fun! 

The Old Man & His Door by Gary Soto is an adorable little tale about a man who doesn't listen to his wife.  In the end, he finds out why he should be sure to pay attention to what she is saying.  But, as the story progresses, you see his kind spirit and his willingness to help others. 

                                                                            

Look What Came from Mexico by Miles Harvey did an excellent job of informing us of things from and about Mexico without boring us in the process.  Just enough info, lots of nice pictures, and not terribly long.  

Tomas and the Library Lady, by Pat Mora, had a neat story to tell about Mexican migrant workers.  It is based on a true story. 

Marimba! Animals from A to Z and Uno, Dos, Tres; One, Two, Three both by Pat Mora were cute books with a little Spanish language.  

P is for Pinata by Tony Johnson was okay.  It had a lot of information, but honestly it was just a tad too much information.  If you choose this one with little people, don't plan to read it all in one setting.  

Snapshots from the Wedding by Gary Soto and Book Fiesta! by Pat Mora were both cute, but I wouldn't recommend them.

I would, however, continue to recommend  Nine Days to Christmas by Marie Hall Ets as my very favorite picture book about Mexico and its culture.  You can read about the lesson we did back at Christmas in this blog post. 

Thanks for stopping by and checking out our recent book list!

God Bless,

We're linking up {our first time!}

Learning Through Literature: Martin Luther King Jr Day Books

While we were 'off' school in December, I made it a point to curl up on the couch with the kids and a book every day or two.  I found out that I absolutely LOVE doing that!!  So, I have made it a point to use good books instead of worksheets and projects to talk about something we are learning.  

Don't get me wrong, worksheets and projects are fun, they just take (for me) so much prep work that we often never got to them.  I've changed over to just a book and discussion and saved my prep work for math, science, reading and writing.  Seems to be going pretty well.

Since Monday is Martin Luther King Jr Day (and I felt the need to tell you as if you didn't have a calendar), we have been reading books on Martin Luther King Jr.  

Happy Birthday Martin Luther King was the first book we read.  Great book!  It gives just enough information to encourage questions from my young children.  Not so much information that it bored or confused them.  Probably the best of the bunch.

Martin Luther King Jr and the March on Washington was our read for Tuesday.  This was also a good book.  Little harder read then the others, but still a nice amount of information.  The pictures were drawings mixed with real photos from the actual march.  I appreciated that the photos contained people of all races, which allowed me to explain that civil rights were something that people from different backgrounds wanted not just African Americans.

A Picture Book of Rosa Parks Very well written, told the entire story of not just Ms. Parks' ride on the bus, but also the bus boycott.  I do have to add that this started a tough discussion afterwards, as Ms. Parks' decision was to disobey the law.  I'm still working through how to address that question.  Any thoughts??  Yes, I agree it was a terrible law, but I think that of some laws currently effect in our country-and think we should still obey them.

Sit-In How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down  I really liked this one.  The story was well written and I appreciated this show of changing a law without breaking it.  The kids, however, did not like it.  It was written with some imagination in addition to fact, just a bit of rhyme, and the pictures were very hard to follow.  I think we will stick to books written more with just straight facts and photos.  There was a photo of the 4 friends in the back of the book and that saved it for my children.  

Speeches that Changed the World  We won't be reading this one :).  It was a gift a few years ago that included a disk to listen to speeches, including Mr. King's.  

Remember: The Journey to School Integration is on the list for Tuesday.  My children, who don't actually attend school, are still having a hard time understanding why they wouldn't be able to go to school with their own cousin if they lived in the same town.  Really, how does anyone understand that??

And that's it.  Might seem a little simple, but it seems to be working and I like it that way :).

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!!

God Bless,

North America Continent Box: First Stop Canada

We are finally taking off on our around the world tour.  We started with North America.  For the most part, we will be just touching on each of the countries, but since I used to live in Canada I wanted to spend a little extra time visiting.

Here are the few items so far in the continent box.  For now, we've just got one box.  I'm leaning towards making bags like Mariann on Counting Coconuts, and then just putting them in one box.  But, for now we only have North America so I don't need to worry just yet.

Our small offerings include some photos pulled from a National Geographic (really just fillers until I have more objects), a mug from my childhood home, a cowboy that reminds me of the Calgary Stampede, and my birth coins.

The really nice thing about the coins of Canada, is that (like many countries) they have pictures of important Canadian things.  There is a picture of the Queen, a picture of a beaver, a caribou, the Canadian coat of arms, the maple leaf, etc, so we were able to talk about the symbols of Canada without having one of every single item.  As I find more things to put in the box, I will add them.  I lived there before loonies and toonies so I don't have any of those :).

I found out our library had a very SAD selection of books on Canada.  I have ordered more, but we just got our card and I didn't realize that it takes at least 4-6 weeks to get a book.  One thing I do miss about big city living :(.  These were the best I could find given the criteria I was working with.

Paddle to the Sea has been our night time read aloud.  It is a GREAT book!  Absolutely love following Paddle's trip down the river and to the sea.  We are about 1/2 way through and we are all enjoying it.  Recommend this one!!

Z is for Zamboni was a fun way to talk about the favorite sport of hockey.  My children have not really watched any hockey, so it was interesting to talk about how you play the sport.

Ulaq and the Northern Lights was cute.  Not terribly moving, but a nice way to introduce the legends of the Northern Lights.  Afterwards we watched this National Geographic video of the lights.

Canada Lynx was okay, but the pictures were great!  The kids really enjoyed thinking of what a huge cat would look like.  They wanted one for a pet.  After reading the story, we checked out the Canadian Kid's National Geographic page and explored the many animals in Canada.

And, how can we study Canada without hearing the national anthem?

I hope you enjoyed your first stop on our tour. Thanks for stopping by!!

God Bless,

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