A Girl Named Rosita and other Hispanic Heritage Month Read Alouds

It's Hispanic Heritage Month. Have you read about any notable people of  Hispanic heritage? One such celebrated person of Puerto Rican descent is Rita Moreno, an actress born as Rosa Dolores Alverío. This book chronicles her struggles to be treated fairly as a Spanish speaker who faced stereotypes and discrimination in roles available to her throughout her career.

A very talented woman, Rita won many awards, including an Emmy, a Tony, a Grammy Award, and an Oscar. as well as a Presidental Medal of Freedom.

Check out the read aloud here. 

>View PBS's timeline of Rita Moreno's life here. Challenge students to add multimedia to it using Sutori, or view mine here.

Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez Neal 

This book is part of what inspired me to create several Donors Choose projects to diversify my classrom. I came across a book called Always Anjali and thought, "Wow! I don't have many books with my students' names in them... let me see what I can find!" I wasn't super successful at finding their exact names, but I did find some from their varying cultures and religions. 

Alma is embarrassed by her long name, but she quickly learns her culture's naming tradition of being named after Spanish speaking family members. She hears stories about each person and identifies with their best traits. Then she learns that "Alma" belongs to her and the story it will tell to her future family members. Check out the read aloud above, which is read by an Argentinean legislator.

Soldier for Equality: Jose de la Luz Saenz and the Great War

This one is a biography. José de la Luz Sáenz (1888-1953)--or Luz--believed in fighting for what was right. Although he was born in the United States, he and his family experienced prejudice because of their Mexican heritage. When World War I broke out, Luz volunteered to join the fight. Because of his ability to quickly learn languages, he became part of the Intelligence Office in Europe. However, despite his hard work and intellect, Luz often didn't receive credit for his contributions.

We have so many more to share! For now, check out Scholastic's list of must-read books for Hispanic Heritage Month. 

Here is another non-fiction biography, Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez. This book is included in the Journeys and Making Meaning reading programs, and for good reason. An advocate for migrant farm workers, Chavez became well-known in an industry that was, and still is, notorious for exploiting workers. He helped them unionize and fight for better conditions. 

Here is the read aloud video.

Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family's Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh

This is a story you've probably never heard. Seven years before Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the Mendez family fought segregation in California. An American by birth, but a member of a bilingual Mexican family, Sylvia was forced to attend a different school than her white counterparts. A lawsuit changed that, and within a decade schools all over the country were being desegregated.

Want more Women's History Month resources? Click here.

See my posts about diverse literature here. 

One Monday, and Other Days of the Week Books

Today is Monday. That's both a true fact and the name of an Eric Carle book about the days of the week and food. If only getting toddlers to eat was as easy as getting them to sing along with this book!

Snag this free tracing printable here or by clicking the image above.

Here is the read aloud set to music!

We also read One Monday by Amy Huntington.

We are learning to read and write numbers and days of the week, so this book was perfect for that. We see what Annabelle goes through on one week of interesting weather at her home. If you can't grab a copy of the book, here is the read aloud.

We also spent some time last week learning about biomes, including mountains and rainforest, so I added a drawing page for this story's setting, a farm. 

My son has had a good grasp of  "real and make believe" for quite some time now, but I want him to start using the words "reality and fantasy," so I created an activity for that using events in the story (which can be a bit confusing in the book, so I used slightly more clear words here). 

Grab a free printable here, or click the images above.

We'd love to know... What did you think would happen the next Monday? Please leave us a comment below!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

This book is an all-time children's favorite. Despite the idea of a caterpillar actually eating the foods listed in the book, the days of the week format is a winner for kids. There are so many printables!

Here is a read aloud video by Eric himself.

When is Saturday? by Deborah Kovacs features the Sesame Street Muppets.

This is another oldie, but goodie that you may have to buy used or check out the read aloud here. Grover is very impatient when he hears from his mother that Uncle Georgie will be coming to visit in a week. She helps him create a calendar countdown and keep busy until his uncle arrives. 

Here is the poem that Grover writes to recite the days of the week.

Listen to a few of our favorite days of the week songs!

Have you ever used Live Worksheets? Kids can do this cool live days of the week word search and send their results to their teacher. If your classroom is paperless, this is a great resource. What's great about it is that some of the already created activities can be done in different languages.

Here is a Google Search for days of the week activities!

Counting on Fall and Other Number Books

 My son is learning to read numbers, so we have been hunting down books with numbers in the titles and text. Here is a list and review of a few of them! 

Counting on Fall by Lizann Flatt 

This isn't your typical counting book. It poses questions about things you can count in nature, like leaves, nuts, fruits, seedpods, and animals who migrate, like whales and geese. When we couldn't possibly count something, we could talk about math using terms like "more" or "less" instead. It's a fun way of making things open-ended while encouraging little ones to stop and look around at nature during autumn while building number sense. This book was written and illustrated by two Canadians, so my son learned new animals including pronghorn antelopes, pikas, and grackles. There are other books in this Math in Nature series, Sorting through Spring, Sizing Up in Winter, and Shaping Up in Summer.

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox

Mem Fox is a well-known picture book author. Her books feature text that is simple to read and often repetitive. This one has a special message that as much as we are different, we are alike. It is a neat way to subtly show children that our backgrounds may vary, but we are all humans. Here is a simple (free) number writing activity I made:

Two Peas in a Pod by Annegert Fuschuber

We chose this partly because of the title and partly because I have two daughters who were born on the same day. We are working on reading numbers and my son also finds it fun to read about twins. It teaches two facts about each animal - how many babies they have, and something special about them. I made a free printable for you to use with or without the book. It helps with reading a simple chart.

This one is similar to a counting book we recently read about the Blue Ridge Mountains (see below for the link). Both books include animals and the number of babies they typically have, counting from 1-10 (and beyond in this book). The theme here, like in Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, is that sometimes babies may look alike, but there are ways to tell them apart and celebrate them as individuals. It was originally written in Austria and now appears to be out of print. 

Cowgirl Rosie and Her Five Baby Bison

This book is great for PreK and K students. If you're working on the letter B, Rosie's five baby bison have letter B names. She takes them on an adventure and then loses one or two each time. Like Two Peas in a Pod, there are twins in this book! Them being twins doesn't affect the plot, other than them getting lost at the same time, while the singletons disappeared individually. My son and I enjoyed subtracting and saying number sentences that went along with what was happening on the pages. Download the free activity printables here.

Sixteen Cows by Lisa Wheeler

This one is a good one to pair with the one above. It's a great lesson in cooperation and a fun way to do some math.

One of Each by Mary Ann Hoberman

Olive Tolliver is an introvert who prefers to spend his time alone, but he comes to realize life can be a bit lonely when there's no place for friends. Peggoty Small shows him a different perspective and realizes that sharing is caring.

Three Pigs, One Wolf, and Seven Magic Shapes by Grace Maccarone

This book was so much fun for my son. We've been doing a shape hunt Google Slide book and this helped us wrap it up. He has been into making images out of shapes ever since he was given the Melissa and Doug shape puzzles and then he discovered my pattern block design cards, which added more shapes beyond the squares, ovals, rectangles, and triangles from the M & D kit. What we liked most was the tangram twist on The Three Little Pigs as the Big Bad Wolf has a twin brother named Big Brad Wolf. We are all about twins in our family as I am one and I have a set, too. 

Grab the free tangram tracing and drawing printables here.

Ten Pigs: An Epic Bath Adventure by Derek Anderson

This is a nice easy read when you're working on sight words and numbers. My son laughs out loud at the silly pigs and easy rhymes.

Here is the read aloud.

Five Little Penguins Slipping on the Ice by Steve Metzger

This book follows the plot of Five Little Monkeys. It varies a bit in that it has different rhyming lines, but it's repetitive enough for a young reader to predict or read what comes next.

Here is the read aloud video.

See full posts on other number books:

Fourteen Monkeys: A Rainforest Rhyme

Blue Ridge Babies 1, 2, 3: A Counting Book

13 Days of Halloween (and other Halloween books like Six Creepy Sheep)

 Ten Orange Pumpkins

20 Hungry Piggies

Fourteen Monkeys: A Rainforest Rhyme

Do you have students who are interested in monkeys or the rainforest? Did you come across this post while looking for research resources? We came across the book Fourteen Monkeys: A Rainforest Rhyme because it had a number word in its title and my son was interested since we had just visited Rainforest Cafe, where we got a book called Night, Night Jungle. Visit Manu National Park in Peru, a rainforest about the size of New Jersey, where 14 species of monkeys live, through this book.

I wouldn't exactly consider this one a good read aloud story, or even a very good story for preschoolers, simply because it contains a lot of information...UNLESS you only read the short bolded sentence for each set of pages. 

I would, however, recommend it to my fourth graders when we focus on non-fiction text features. I'm happy to have both options for my more curious readers who may want to pick up the book after I've introduced it and read the shorter version.

It's also great for organizing information and taking notes. I created a Google Doc to do this, and you can snag it for free to use for practice. Just complete together as a class, in small groups, or as individuals. It has a bookmarked table of contents for easy navigation as well as answer keys. Remember to make two copies - one for yourself with answer keys and the other to share with students.

Click the image or here to make a free copy of the Google Doc.

I strongly suggest visiting Manu National Park in Peru via Google Earth. The pictures in the book are beautiful, but it's important to actually locate its place in space. At first you'll notice a blurry green screen. Ask your student(s) why! It's the rainforest canopy!

For a challenge, students can create their own games or worksheets, such as:

• true/false statements
• Bingo boards
• board games
• word searches
• crossword puzzles
• Venn diagrams

Want to incorporate math? (included in the Google Docs)

• Graph number of babies
• Graph lifespan

Get artsy! Make these 3D monkeys and create your own rainforest diorama!

Want to learn about another biome? Check out this post about the  Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Interested in more science projects and posts? Look no further.

Searching for more number books or counting books?

This is the Pumpkin, and Even More Halloween Books

This is the Pumpkin by Abby Levine is a new favorite Halloween book! 

Told in verse, the story of Max's Happy Halloween Day unfolds as he dresses in his scary green costume, goes to a party at school, carves pumpkins at home, and finally gets to walk around the neighborhood saying "Trick or Treat" and collecting candy.

What makes it great for a read aloud is that every couple of pages, it repeats lines and adds to it.***  What makes it a great lap book is that a new reader can start each set of lines by reading, "This is...."

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Colandro is one of them!

My son loves this series. We read all the books, buy them when we see them, and even watch them on video. 

***Books written in similar style with choral rhyme include

The House that George Built

There Was an Old Lady series

Bear Stays Up for Christmas

Good Night Goon  by Michael Rex 

is pretty awesome if you like the book it parodies, Good Night Moon. It's got claws and jaws and hats and bats! You can watch it on video, but your child may want a copy of their own. We read it year round, and my son is a scaredy cat who still loves it!

Trick-or-Treat, Smell My Feet! by Lisa Desimini

What a surprise we had when we saw this book included twin sisters Delia and Ophelia! The two sneaky sisters perform a spell with the help of stolen stinky socks, and the neighborhood kids are denied their precious trick-or-treat candy when all they can say is, "Smell my feet!" Read the book yourself or watch the read aloud video to see if Halloween is saved!

Trick-or-Treat on Milton Street by Lisa Bullard

This story has a heartwarming ending! Charley's mom is sick on Halloween, so he has to spend his first Halloween in his new house in an unfamiliar neighborhood with his embarrassing stepdad. He wishes he had friends nearby to trick-or-treat with because he imagines the old people in his neighborhood wanting to carve green peppers, losing their dentures while bobbing for apples, and giving out vegetables as treats. Charley notices some familiar voices in the costumed adults he visits, and ends up with a nice surprise at the end. His only question is why Dave didn't dress up, aside from his goofy hat. His response? "It's the same one my dad wore when he took me out to trick-or-treat on Milton Street. I thought the best costume I could wear tonight was to dress up like a dad." <3

Pete the Cat: Trick-or-Pete by James Dean

We own the paperback version of this book and love it, but the board book one with flaps to lift is even more fun! We are big fans of Pete the Cat in our house, and we even have a daughter named Callie. She loves hearing her name in stories, so she loved this one. Our son Austin is a big Halloween fan, but also a bit nervous about the scary side of it. This book helps him remember that there are people wearing the costumes, and usually it's someone he knows! Here is is in read-aloud form.

Check out more Halloween posts here.