Sock Creatures

The idea for this little guy is from Fun with Fabric by Annalees Lim.

Materials:
Sock
Ribbon
Buttons
Google Eyes
Pipe Cleaner
Cotton

I found the Halloween socks and ribbon (and the Halloween eraser he's holding) in the Target dollar section.

Crafts for Hispanic Heritage Month

These are great books if you are looking for crafts for Hispanic Heritage month, or to study world cultures, ancient civilizations such as the Aztec and Inca, or to celebrate holidays such as Dia de los Muertos or Cinco de Mayo.

25 Latino Craft Projects

Ana-Elba Pavon, Diana Borrego

Hispanic-American Crafts Kids Can Do!

Fay Robinson

Manualidades con cilindros de cartón

Bernadette Theulet-Luzié

Multicultural Art Activities: From the Cultures of Africa, Asia and North America

Darlene Ritter

This fall I am doing two bilingual story times and for the first time I will be adding on a craft at the end which I am very excited about.

The first craft will be a shaker made out of a toilet paper roll. Kids can put masking tape on one end, put in a little rice, cover the other end with masking tape, and then cover the roll with a colorful paper that they can pick out of a bunch I printed out. This is the example I created along with some of the colorful papers in the background.

The second story will take place at the beginning of November, so I thought a great craft would be a paper sugar skull mask. I found this awesome template over at Spoonful.com (sadly it looks like it's a little more difficult to find now).

Happy crafting!

Moon Festival

I thought September would be a great time to post these two books, since the mid-autumn moon festival falls in September. This year it fell on September 8.

Thanking the Moon
Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival
Grace Lin
2010

A young girl and her family celebrate the moon and give thanks in this book. Beautifully  illustrated by Grace Lin, the book can be read aloud or quietly and maintains a calm, peaceful tone. We are also given background information about the festival and about the many things the family takes to celebrate the moon, such as mooncakes and lanterns. A very beautiful and informative picture book for all ages.

Mooncakes
Loretta Seto
ill by Renne Benoit
2013

A beautiful story about a young girl and her family, this book also shows some of the traditions that families have when celebrating the Chinese Moon Festival. A young girl and her family make mooncakes and hang lanterns and look up towards the moon under its light. Her parents tell her about the woman who lives on the moon, a woodcutter named Wu-Gang, and Jade Rabbit.

These books have lovely illustrations, stories, and cultural information, and would be amazing paired together or read individually.

Hispanic Heritage Month

"Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America." (hispanicheritagemonth.gov)

Check out some of these books we posted about at the library!

Also, happy 1 year anniversary to Libros Rancheros!

Animal Shapes

Great as a preschool activity about animals, shapes, or both! I take advantage of any opportunity to insert facts and science into activities, and here I included facts about each of the animals.

This last image just shows a couple of other possibilities with circles.

La última muñeca / The Last Doll

The Last Doll / La última muñeca
By / Por Diane Gonzales Bertrand
Illustrations by / Ilustraciones por Anthony Accardo
Spanish translation by / Traducción al español por Alejandra Balestra
2000

This book brought the song “La Última Muñeca” to my mind when I first saw it. As a child I constantly heard this song, a very sad song about a father who buys his daughter her last doll, but doesn’t show it to her in the end, because he realizes that his daughter is now a young woman. This book starts off with a doll named Sarita who gets looked over at a toy story. Finally a gentleman buys her for a special occasion – the Quinceañera of his goddaughter Teresa. The party is shown beautifully – mariachis are playing and there is an arch where the dancers walk through, and the cake even has the small staircases that are often used in cakes for a girl’s fifteenth birthday in Hispanic culture. This book is very nostalgic. The writing is well done and the illustrations are very beautiful, with characters portrayed realistically. It makes me wish Sarita was a real doll that was available for purchase for special occasions. I’m very glad this book is around to celebrate the traditions of the 15th birthday in Hispanic culture. A must-have for Spanish collections.

Make sure to check out the lyrics to the song I mentioned earlier:

Nunca nos damos cuenta de cómo un rosal crece
Hasta el día en que florece la rosa una mañana
Quisiéramos que fueran nuestros hijos, niños siempre
Pero de repente, un día, les brotan alas
Hoy le compré a mi niña, el último juguete
No me había dado cuenta, de lo que ya creció
Se acabo el entusiasmo, ya se acabó aquel brete
De a ver qué trajo papi, ahora que volvió
Hoy le compré a mi niña, el último juguete
No me había dado cuenta, de lo que ya creció

Hoy, que me dió el abrazo de bienvenida
Noté que está mas alta, y que se perfumó
Cómo pasaron cosas, en unos cuantos días
Obra maravillosa, se hizo rosa el botón

Hoy le compré a mi niña, la última muñeca
No me había dado cuenta, se está haciendo mujer
Hoy le compré a mi niña, la última muñeca
La última muñeca, y ni se la enseñé

Y ahora se pasa, horas y horas en los espejos
Ella se mira de frente, de espalda, de perfil
Ahora ya ni me dice, papi cuéntame un cuento
Y a veces, ni me besa cuando se va a dormir

Hoy, que me dio el abrazo de bienvenida
Noté que está mas alta, y que se perfumó
Cómo pasaron cosas, en unos cuantos días
Obra maravillosa, se hizo rosa el botón

Hoy le compré a mi niña, la última muñeca
No me había dado cuenta, se está haciendo mujer
Hoy le compré a mi niña, la última muñeca
La última muñeca, y ni se la enseñé

Source: http://artists.letssingit.com/los-baron-de-apodaca-lyrics-la-ultima-muneca-3cj5k7w#ixzz39eQiBGHO
LetsSingIt - Your favorite Music Community

Calavera Abecedario

Calavera Abecedario: A Day of the Dead Alphabet Book

Jeanette Winter

2004

I really love many of Jeanette Winter’s books. Her illustrations, for me, capture the color and vibrancy in Mexican culture. This book is a perfect example of that. Every color on every page, every different calavera and their profession, is perfect. This book reminds me of the books by Cynthia Weill, because it introduces the reader to a Mexican artisan and their body of work. We learn about Don Pedro, who makes skeletons for the Dia de los Muertos celebrations every year. He works tirelessly day after day with his family to make countless skeletons. We are shown an alphabet-full of skeletons, from Doctor to Quimico to Unicornio to Vaquero, all incredibly detailed. At the end of the celebrations, Don Pedro goes back home and wakes the next day to begin his work again in preparation for the next year (reminds me a little of Santa Claus). The end describes Mexican celebrations and tells us about Don Pedro Linares and his famous cartoneria creations. His children now carry on the tradition of creating these festive skeletons. A unique presentation of an artisan and his craft, the alphabet, different professions, and Mexican traditions.