El día de los ninos, El día de los libros - April 30th!

Next Tuesday we celebrate El día de los ninos, El día de los libros! Instill a love of reading to ALL of your students by promoting this happy day!
     Día means "day" in Spanish. In 1996, author Pat Mora learned about the Mexican tradition of celebrating April 30th as El día del niño, the day of the child. Pat thought, “We have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Yes! We need kids’ day too, but I want to connect all children with bookjoy, the pleasure of reading.” She even created a FREE booklet to help your organize YOUR Día celebration (click the cover).
     Pat was enthusiastically assisted to start this community-based, family literacy initiative by REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking. El día de los niños, El día de los libros/Children's Day, Book Day, now known as Día, is a daily commitment to link all children to books, languages and cultures, day by day, día por día. Día is now housed at the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association. Every year, across the country, libraries, schools, and community organizations, etc. plan culminating book fiestas creating April Día celebrations that unite communities. Join us!
     I'm joining in on the initiative by reminding you of my two bilingual picture books Paco and the Giant Chile Plant ~ Paco y la planta de chile gigante and Soap, soap, soap ~ Jabon, jabon, jabon.

     Each title has activity pages you can share (click on the titles or the covers) - including bilingual word search puzzles, which make a great literacy tool. There are also free coloring pages and recipes to share.
     And since we're so close to Cinco de Mayo - some of those coloring pages might be a good fit as well!
     Over at ALSC, find a Día program in your area, register a 2013 program, and download a Día family toolkit, download and print this free poster to publicize an event in your community. Or you can purchase a Many Children, Many Cultures, Many Books! poster and bookmarks.
     Need more ideas? Check out this video!


Many thanks to Cynthia Leitich Smith for getting this on my radar!