Colores de la Vida

Colores de la Vida
Mexican Folk Art Colors in English and Spanish
Cynthia Weill
Folk Art by Artisans from Oaxaca
2011

If possible, I love this book even more than Count Me In. The layout and color scheme of this book is perfect. If a page is dedicated to pink/rosa, the work of art and the background are both shades of pink, but it is never too much pink. The different shades work well together. The borders match with the letters used to spell the colors, and there is so much detail in the works of art, that once you are done reading the colors, you will want to stare at the folk art all day. These are pieces of art I would love to have in my own home, or at least to hang prints of. I also love that the folk art pieces are animals, and I love the inclusion of gold and silver as well as a beautiful multi-colored set of pigs. This book is a treasure: a clear, crisp way of learning the colors in English and Spanish, and a gift for our eyes as we look upon all of the fine works of art made by artists in Oaxaca.

Fabergé Eggs

If you are searching for an activity for April, why not go with Fabergé Eggs? I had been wanting to do a fabergé egg craft for some time; when I visited a nursing home, I took some large oversize books about the eggs and the jewelry created by the House of Fabergé, and I thought, why not have a craft for kids during April, when it's egg season?

For those of you in the Houston area, if you have a chance please visit the Houston Museum of Natural Science, where the McFerrin Collection is currently on display. There are two fabergé eggs in this collection, and as a big admirer of Peter Fabergé, I was ecstatic that they allowed photography!

The Fabergé website has a beautiful gallery of the eggs, and the Examiner has a good article that touches on the history of the eggs. I also made sure to mention to the kids that a man recently purchased one of the eggs thought to be lost at a sale, and was trying to sell it for about $500 (to be melted down into gold). No one was offering him any money, and a Google search soon led him to the discovery that it was a very valuable ($33 million dollar) Fabergé egg.

One of the handouts I had available was a Martha Stewart Crystal Egg Geode handout; I'd wanted to do this with the kids also, but it takes about two days with drying time, so it was not possible. But I made sure the handouts were available so they could try it at home. A very beautiful and scientific craft! Additionally, the Houston Museum of Natural Science has a really awesome Fabergé egg craft on their Beyond Bones blog, which gave me the idea to use tiny dinosaurs as a special surprise to go inside of the egg.

For our eggs we used: plastic Easter eggs, pipe cleaners, self-adhesive jewels, and tiny dinosaurs. I had some foam eggs and tissue paper as back up in case we ran out of plastic eggs.

The dinosaurs went inside the eggs, which were decorated with the self-adhesive jewels. Kids then made an egg stand out of pipe cleaners, and they could choose from two designs which I found at Spoonful.com: the Egg Pedestal  and a smaller stand that also has instructions on creating a Fabergé Egg.

These are the foam eggs with tissue, above the Martha Stewart Crystal Egg Geodes handouts. There was a really big turnout for this craft, probably the biggest I've had. I talked a little bit about the history behind the eggs, and used the book Masterpieces from the House of Faberge because it has beautiful, large photographs of many of the eggs.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez Passes Away at 87

It was reported today that Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author, has passed away at age 87.

CNN: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Prize-winning author, dies at 87

NPR: Writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Who Gave Voice To Latin America, Dies

Mexican Katniss

Diversity in Young Adult Literature: "Where is the African-American Harry Potter or the Mexican Katniss?" 

An interesting article featured on CNN.

Craft Site: Kizclub.com

I was trying to think of a theme to go with for May outreach story times, and I decided to go with farms/farm animals, and to do dinosaurs in June. I was looking for a nice craft to go with the theme but having a difficult time finding something that could just be cut out. Most of the things I was finding required paper plates, a lot of gluing, etc.

I stumbled upon the website Kizclub and I love it! I have bookmarked it and will be going back to it often. It has really great crafts; I immediately went to the animal crafts and found some amazing farm animal finger puppets that were just what I wanted (in black and white as well as color).

Everything is so well organized and there are so many resources: crafts, flash cards, items dealing with nursery rhymes, booklets, and a huge database of props that go with specific stories. I even found props for Bark, George!, one of my favorite books to use for both English and Spanish story times. Definitely one of the most well-organized and creative websites I've visited, with easy navigation and adorable crafts and learning materials.

Arroz con Leche

Arroz con Leche: un poema para cocinar / Rice Pudding: a cooking poem
Jorge Argueta
Fernando Vilela

Just as with Tamalitos, Jorge Argueta takes us through the steps of cooking a traditional dish in English and Spanish. These books almost make one want to dance. Everything about the illustrations exudes joy and happiness. What I love most about these books is that the instructions are so easy to follow; you can create these delicious dishes in your own home in no time. Arroz con leche is one of my most favorite things to eat in the world, this book has reminded me that I have not had it in a long time. I better get cooking!

New Nancy Drew Book Covers

Stumbled upon these beautiful new Nancy Drew book covers at my local Target.