Every year the teachers at all three BECa schools have an event called Libros y Familia. That literally translates to “Books and Family.” We provide a day for the students of all grades and their families to come, read, and do literacy activities together. This is a way to promote literacy and bilingualism in the household. This year BECA partnered with the Chispa Project and we were able to provide one new book, either in Spanish or bilingual, for each child at every school to take home with them.
This year I was in charge of planning Libros y Familia for SJBS. It was no small task, but the ending was worth it. The way the event was set up this year was a little different than years past. We did about an hour of school centers where the students got to choose what they wanted to do. The different rooms had different activities that the students and their parents got to bounce from and engage together. We had a room for the students to make bookmarks, a room where the students made pencil holders, a room where they got to make reading posters to hang around the school, a room with different book characters they could take pictures with, and then an obstacle course to get some energy out.
Our most popular room, of course, was where the students got to pick out a book. The room was set up in the different age groups and each student got to pick out any brand new book to take home. The kids were all so excited, running up too me, saying,“Miss! Miss! Look at my new book!” It was such a joy to see them all getting so excited about having a book at home to read.
After we did whole school, we broke down into our grade levels. Kinder though second grade all read The Lorax together with their parents and then make a truffula tree to take home. Third through sixth grades read a chapter of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and made their own comic strips and played bingo together. I think the grade that had the most fun was middle school. They talked about the author John Green and his different books. They were broken into 5 groups and were sent on a scavenger hunt around the school using quotes from all of his books. When they were finished, they made silly John Green madlibs about his new book with their parents. I loved walking around and seeing everyone so engaged and the parents helping the students.
We closed the day with a presentation by the Chispa Project about how to promote literacy in the home, our SJBS cheerleaders did a routine about how fun reading is, and we had a dedication of the library to Dr. Zelaya and a beautiful bench to Mr. Julio.
It was a beautiful day with a great turn out!
