Literacy Café: Tortilla Sun Redux

Last July, I discovered Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes.  (To read my review, click here.)  There truly was something magical about this book.  When I finished reading it, I just knew that I had to share it with my students.  As I read the book aloud to one of our fourth grade classes, I became excited about the connection the students were making to the characters in the story.  I then started giving copies way to teachers and parent volunteers who in turn became excited about the book.

Of course, one thing led to another and before you knew it, we were planning a Literacy Café.  Our Café first opened it's doors on Monday, November 1, 2010.  We welcomed 34 fourth graders into our Café.  We were well prepared and had many enthusiastic volunteers to assist us with the activities.

Our hosts led children through activities that pulled out key concepts in the book and allowed children to interact with those ideas at a different level.  Children used their senses while nibbling on apple empanadas to talk about sensory adjectives.  At another table, children played with the symbols in the story in order to create a visual representation of the book.  And at yet another table children wrote poems about the characters.  When they finished, each child received a homemade tortilla with butter and honey just like Izzy eats them.

However, we weren't through with Tortilla Sun or with Literacy Cafés.  We learned so much from that first experience and have since put on over a dozen more Cafés centered around different books.  When word got out about the success of Tortilla Sun, I had requests from other teachers to read the book aloud to their classes and to hold another Café.  While I read to the students, my Literacy Café partner Angie busily revised activities.  We discussed other ways to explore the themes.  Tweaked activities that didn't work as effectively and tried to add in some other ways to work with the concepts in the book.  This time we even added in a session of folklorico dancing.  And of course our bakery bought apple empanadas became homemade empanadas, and Angie perfected her tortilla making.  Nana would be proud.

What we also learned through the experience is that paying attention to details is critical.  When children arrive in the Café, we want them to be transported into the book.  A piñata hanging from the ceiling or black crepe paper hanging from the door or even the smell of tortillas warming help children feel more a part of the story.

Was this Café better than the first one?  Yes, and no!  Both were wonderful on their own.  Both inspired children and helped them see books in a new way.  And also both times we learned things that would help us make another Café even better.  Take a look at this short video to get a better feel for the whole event.



Here is Jennifer Cervantes reading from Tortilla Sun at an author event in Glendale, CA.  I had a blast meeting her and telling her how much I loved her book.

For more information about our Literacy Cafés, you can check out my blog post here.  To visit Jennifer Cervantes website, click here.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: RODRICK RULES opens in theaters this Friday, March 25th.  

In anticipation of the release, 20th Century Fox brings you all new WIMPY KID features and games: Wimpy Wonderland, Wimp Yourself, and Rodrick's Band Challenge.  Check out more information about these exciting new activities below

Wimpy Wonderland:
Visit the Wimpy Wonderland Island on Poptropica! Join Greg, Rowley, Rodrick and the rest of the Wimpy Kid characters for a snow-capped adventure. Help find Greg's little brother Manny before the rotten Whirley Street kids do. 

Play the game now at: http://www.poptropica.com/ 

Wimp Yourself

It's time to get Wimpy!  

Join the two million wimps who have created and shared their own wimpy characters  on the newly relaunched site www.Wimpyourself.com. Wimp Yourself today!

Roderick's Band Challenge:

Calling all bands!!! 

Rodrick and his band Loded Diper are challenging YOU to a Rock Duel!  To accept the challenge, simply post a video response to Rodrick's Band Challenge video.  Grab your band, friends or big brother and give it your best shot.  The winner, as selected by Loded Diper will receive a special copy of the "Rodrick Rules" book, signed by Jeff Kinney. 


Hot Off The Press! New Picture Books (5)

This is a feature that I do weekly called Hot Off The Press!  based on my visits to Vroman's Bookstore and checking out their wall of new picture books.  This week there were so many recent releases that I was unable to get through them all in one visit. Here are the 5 new releases that stood out from the pile this week:

Me...Jane
Author/Illustrator: Patrick McDonnell
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers (April, 2011 - available now)
Audience: Ages 4 to 8 years

Creating a picture book biography for young children is not an easy task.  Some contain such little information that they are not helpful and others too may for younger children.  However, Patrick McDonnell finds just the right balance with simple but informative text and soft pastel illustrations that tell the story of Jane Goodall's life. This book would be wonderful for both National Women's History Month as well as Spring/Animals/Biographies. This is my top pick for the week.

The Honeybee Man
Author: Lela Nargi
Illustrator: Kristen Brooker
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade (March 8, 2011)
Audience: Ages 6 to 9

This was another book that really caught my eye today.  The end notes provide the reader with great facts about bees and honey making. I liked how the facts about bees and honey making are woven into the story (which you discover at the end is based on a true story) of a man living in New York with several bee hives and makes honey for friends. Illustrations support the text.


Pond Walk
Author/Illustrator: Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Children's Books (February, 2011)
Audience: Ages 4 to 8 years

This mixed media picture book was very fun to read. The story is a common tale of a mama bear and her little one spending time together.  In this case, they are spending the day out on a walk and around a pond. I enjoyed how the text and the illustrations supported each other and this was a stand-out for this format.  A perfect read for Earth Day or Spring.


Bug And Me
Author: Ann Bonwill
Illustrator: Layn Marlow
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Children's Books (April, 2011 - available now)
Audience: Ages 4 to 8 years

Some books have very similar formats or themes.  A friendship theme is very common in books for preschoolers.  However, I couldn't tell with this one if I loved the text or illustrations more.  This story is about a grumpy little bear and a persistent bee. Bee wants to play with bear and continues to try and get bear to engage in games. Bear just wants to be left alone. When he finally gets to take a nap, he can't. Bear then thinks about how he treated his friend Bee. A sweet story of friendship, and how to repair a friendship when it is broken.

Ferret Fun
Author: Karen Rostoker-Gruber
Illustrator: Raul Rátz De Tagyos
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Children's Books (March 2011)
Audience: Ages 4 to 8 years

Some books are just fun and this is one of those books.  In Ferret Fun, two ferrets have a new arrival to deal with - a cat who thinks that they might be more of a tasty meal than friends. Finally the ferrets discover a way to handle this new arrival. Quirky illustrations and a fun story was a winning combination for me.

CHALK - Bringing the Book to Life


If you follow this blog with any regularity, you will know that I happen to be a BIG FAN of Bill Thomson's wordless picture book CHALK.  It was released a year ago and though I would have selected CHALK for a Caldecott, the committee members obviously didn't agree with me.  Since I am unable to decorate this book with any gold medals, I will have to be content with what I can do. Which has looked something like this...

Emailed the illustrator -
Yes, I have completely been a fangirl when it comes to this book.  When I first discovered it, I immediately hunted down an email address so that I could gush about my love for CHALK with the creator/illustrator. This YouTube interview/video shares a little about how complex it was to create the book. (And how did this not get an award?!)



Bought lots & lots of copies for giveaway:
I was just so in love with this book that I gave it to several children for Christmas and to all of my teaching staff as their holiday present.

If I didn't giveaway a copy, I told everyone to buy it:
I am pretty certain that I have told every bookseller, librarian, and teacher I know about CHALK and that they should buy it. We also featured it at our school book fair in December.

Plan a school-wide Literacy Event around CHALK:
In chatting with Angie (parent volunteer, Literacy Café developer), we decided that it would be wonderful to do something school-wide with the book.  (I suggest that you plan this out several months in advance especially if you are doing something on a large scale.)

Mid-Winter ALA, stop by the publisher's booth:
While wandering around the exhibit hall, I passed by the Marshall Cavendish booth. I had that funny feeling like "I know this name".  I looked at the display of books...and then it hit me, CHALK is published by Marshall Cavendish.  Of course, I blurted out to the staffer my shock that he wasn't displaying CHALK but he appeared to forgive my "foot-in-mouth" moment, when I proceeded to gush about the book and tell him about our plans for a school-wide event centered around it.  (Note: I am not advocating that you tell publishers what books to display, but I do know they really love hearing about the books that you really like.)

Plan out the event:
This included picking a date, creating an invite (thank you Karen), sending out invites, putting out a press release, notifying local law enforcement (we held the event right in front of the school), working with volunteers on all the details (thank you to all my volunteers), and working with teachers on ways that the book can be used in class.
 


It also included ordering 1,000 pieces of chalk (thank you to the PTA for funding this).

And decorating little bags for the chalk so it would look like the book. (Noeleen, Jon, Irene, and any others I owe you big time.)

Sorting out posters, so that every child would have one.  (Thank you Marshall Cavendish for supporting the event by sending posters for the children.)

Notifying the police for possible crowd control.  Always interesting when you have 350 kids in the front and side of the school.  But everyone did wonderful and the police enjoyed watching the children draw.

We also invited local chalk artists to come to the event and we worked with our local Indie bookstore, Vromans, to provide a way for families to order copies of the book.  The Children's Manager even came over to help out. (Yay to Indie Bookstores and supporting local businesses.)


There were also lots of special visitors who stopped by.  A rep from our local Assemblymember's office and heads for various departments in the District including our Chief Academic Officer, our Director of Elementary Education, Director of Special Education, Coordinators of Visual and Performing Arts, and Language Development.  And toward the end a couple of our Board Members popped by for a visit.  Though we didn't see the local paper, our District's TV department also came out and interviewed staff, children and parents.

Of course, this student kind of says it all:




For more information about Bill Thomson and his incredible book CHALK, check out his website here: http://www.billthomson.com/ 

I also need to extend a huge thank you to Bill Thomson for his continued enthusiasm for what we were planning and his support of this event by contributing items for the school to use in a Silent Auction to raise funds for Literacy.

Though I don't have a picture of this, my favorite moment of the day was hours later when nearly everyone was gone.  The Children's Book Manager and I were chatting in her car and we watched one young student bring her father all the way over to the side of the school in order to show him her drawing.  You could tell by the gestures and actions that she was sharing all about the event with him.  Dad was beaming and clicked a few pictures with the camera on his phone.  It was definitely one of those "awww" moments, but one where you realize how significant the event actually was to the children.

Thank you Bill for inspiring all of the children and staff at San Rafael School.  Come visit any time you are in Southern California.  I can promise you that you will be treated like a Rock Star.