For our last stop in South America, Kindergarten and 1st Grade students are visiting COLOMBIA!
Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown is a beautiful picture book based on the true story of Luis Soriano Bohorquez. He is a beloved librarian who travels to small Colombian villages by donkey to share books with children who do not have access to libraries. Children loved discussing all the different ways people share books all around the world.
This week 1st graders headed to BRAZIL in South America!
The Monkey’s Whiskers: A Brazilian Folktale (by Anne Rockwell) is a hilarious story of a mischievous monkey who causes quite a stir in a small town after getting his first shave. Students loved trying to figure out what this trickster was scheming!
This week we are all taking a break from our world travels to celebrate and share the winners of the 2012 Caldecott Medal – the highest honor given to picture books in the United States.
The 2012 Caldecott Medal winner is…
A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka.
The 2012 Caldecott Honor Medal winners are:
Blackout by John Rocco
Me… Jane by Patrick McDonnell
and Grandpa Green by Lane Smith.
Congratulations to the talented people who continue to make beautiful picture books for people of all ages to enjoy!
We’ve now moved on to a new continent: South America!
Our first stop: PERU!
This week First Graders shared the classic Peruvian folktale: Llama and the Great Flood – A Folktale from Peru by Ellen Alexander.
This beautifully illustrated story reminded us a lot of the Biblical tale of Noah’s Ark. It’s interesting to see how the Peruvian story involves the Andes Mountains since they are such an important part of that region of the world.
Next stop on our journey: the Caribbean!
Tiger Soup: An Anansi Story from Jamaica is an adorable adaptation of a classic Anansi tale by Frances Temple. This time Anansi, always the trouble-maker, comes between a tiger and his stew. NOT a good combination!
After the long holiday break, Kindergarten and 1st Grade students were back in the U.S.A. to chat about Brooklyn’s own Ezra Jack Keats – famed children’s book author and illustrator.
We loved chatting about his books as everyone in Little Dalton prepared to visit The Jewish Museum exhibit dedicated to his amazing work.
This week First Grade had a “Learning Celebration” in honor of earning enough stickers to become Library Superstars! (How do you earn a sticker? By following all the library rules, of course!) As a treat for the celebration, we took a video detour and watched clips from Human Planet: The Arctic. This BBC series does an amazing job of capturing real-life moments from all over the globe.
The Arctic episode has footage from the parts of Canada we had discussed when reading Very Last First Time, and students loved being able to see how elements from the picture book actually look in reality. We watched two clips: a father and son catching a shark to feed their sled dogs and a family venturing under the ice to gather mussels. Quite the chilly send-off for our holiday break!
This week in First Grade we traveled to Mexico!
Borreguita and the Coyote by Verna Aardema is a fun Mexican folktale about how Borreguita, the little lamb, outsmarts a not-so-sly coyote. We couldn’t contain our laughter!
The first stop on our journey around the world is to our neighbors to the north: CANADA!
First we took a look at a non-fiction book – Frozen Land by Jan Reynolds- to see photographs of a real Inuit family living up by Hudson Bay. It was fascinating to see the clothes they wear and how they survive in such a cold climate.
With those real images fresh in our minds, we read the riveting story Very Last First Time by Jan Andrews.
The title alone grabbed our attention! We were on the edge of our seats as we waited to see what would happen to a young Inuit girl walking on the seabed under the ice to collect mussels. Such a page-turner!
It’s the exciting time of year when Kindergarten and 1st Grade students begin our Stories Around the World! From now on when we are together in library classes, we will be reading stories from different countries across the globe. By the time summer arrives, we will have “visited” every continent!
Stay tuned to see where we wind up as the year progresses.
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