I always try to use great books, stories and materials that are relevant to the season when I work with kids. Right now I look for books around the theme of snow (yes, we did just get a foot and a half of snow last night in the northeast!), winter, Martin Luther King Day and Valentines Day.
I wanted to share the recent 2011 Coretta Scott King Award Winners for books that you might want to share with your kids or use in therapy while working on language goals:
- One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia.
- Dave the Potter, Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill
- Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow by Gary Golio
- Dave the Potter, Artist, Post, Slave is most interesting to me because it is geared at the kindergarden- Grade 4 age. According to the School Library Journal, this is a story of a 19th century South Carolina slave whose skilled pottery was enhanced by his addition of his original poetry on the pots. “A lengthy author’s note fleshes out what is known of the man’s life story and reproduces several of his two-line poems. A photograph of some of Dave’s surviving works cements the book’s link to the present and lists of print and online resources encourage further exploration.” Sounds like a great resource for launching projects to learn more and link the past to the present–learning language in the process!
