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There is much more to explore in our calendar. Find other important events in literary history, authors' birthdays, and a variety of holidays, each with related lessons and resources.
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Home › Classroom Resources › Calendar Activities
April 30
Celebrate El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros (Children's Day/Book Day)!
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| Grades | 3 – 8 |
| Calendar Activity Type | Holiday & School Celebration |
Developed under the leadership of author Pat Mora, El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros focuses on providing children with books in many languages and making reading an integral part of their lives. El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros is supported by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), and REFORMA, an ALA affiliate that provides library and information services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking community.
Celebrate El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros by having students write and share their own multilingual stories:
- Read a book with parallel stories with the class, such as La Llorona: The Weeping Woman or The Day It Snowed Tortillas / El Dia Que Nevaron Tortillas, both by Joe Hayes. With students, examine the way that the books tell the story in two different languages.
- Arrange students in mixed multicultural groups and explain that together the groups will compose an illustrated, bilingual, or multilingual children's storybook to share with younger students.
- Return to the parallel stories read by the class to model how students will compose their own stories.
- Spend time exploring and creating the different parts that make up a professional book: title pages, acknowledgements, and dedications.
- Use the Book Cover Guide to discuss covers and dust jackets. Have students design these additional parts of the book.
- Students can use the Book Cover Creator to make the polished covers.
- Once the books are assembled, students can deliver them to their intended readers for a celebration of Día!
- El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros
The official ALA site for El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros includes a state-by-state list of Día events, library programming ideas, a Día fact sheet, and downloadable Día brochures.
- El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros -A Day for Bilingual Literacy
Pat Mora, founder of El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros, provides background and celebration suggestions on her personal website.
- National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking (REFORMA)
This Día-sponsored website features bilingual story time resources, a Spanish story time plan for preschoolers, and online resources for librarians working with Latino children. The site also includes guidelines and information on the Estela and Reforma Award, established to promote El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros.
- Pura Belpré © Medal Winners
This is the webpage for current winners of the American Library Association's Pura Belpré© Award, which is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.
- Parent & Afterschool Resources in Spanish
ReadWriteThink.org offers a collection of tips and activities translated in Spanish to support literacy learning at home.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Unit
My Family Traditions: A Class Book and a Potluck Lunch
After analyzing Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia by Carmen Lomas Garza, students create a class book with artwork and information about their ancestry, traditions, and recipes, followed by a potluck lunch.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Color of Silence: Sensory Imagery in Pat Mora’s Poem “Echoes”
Pat Mora’s poem “Echoes” demonstrates that our senses are powerful tools for literary analysis and comprehension as students use their senses to discover new ways to read and write.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Nature Study Outdoor Treasure Hunts (with Spanish language option)
Students take a walk on the wild side when they research an animal and create a scavenger hunt activity for their classmates.
Grades K – 2 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Let's Read It Again: Comprehension Strategies for English-Language Learners
Help Spanish-speaking English-language learners unlock the mysteries of their new language by using a bilingual book to recognize unfamiliar words and construct meaning from the text.
