Monica from MommyMaestra

Hola, Everyone! This is Monica from MommyMaestra.com. I'm a Latina homeschooler and freelance education writer. A sixth generation Latina who lives far from my familia and community, I struggle everyday to pass on my heritage to my children. Homeschooling provides me that opportunity.

When I started on this journey five years ago, I discovered there were no websites for Latino homeschoolers to help me get started or support me over the course of the school year. MommyMaestra began as a way to share my experience in homeschooling, but it quickly expanded into a site that shares bilingual resources for parents and educators who are teaching children in a bilingual setting. These resources include printables, books, websites, programs, product reviews, and other opportunities - some in English and some in Spanish.

I'm also the co-founder of Latinas for Latino Lit, and am the creator of the L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program. We offer a basic free subscription with materials in English and Spanish. This year's program has expanded to include a DIY Summer Reading Camp that I designed with my own children in mind. It is also available in English or Spanish. You can download free sample pages both on MommyMaestra and on Latinas4LatinoLit.org.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to participate in this group and look forward to sharing resources, as well as discovering other awesome materials from my fellow educators.

Un abrazo,

Monica

Bilingual Activity Pack for San Patricio

Better late than never! Here's a 15 page bilingual activity pack for Pre-K, Kindergarten, English & Spanish learners. You can download it here.

Happy weekend!

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Dr. Seuss!

Yesterday was the big day- Dr. Seuss Bday that is! We had so much fun, and I am looking forward to even more Seuss-filled activities throughout the month of March.

In my classroom we have been taking part in a biography unit during social studies and our Writer's Workshop time. Thus, I thought it perfect (seeing as it was Seuss' bday) to incorporate a biography on this fantastic author into the mix. While I read, the students had to fill out three facts they learned about Seuss on a birthday cake activity sheet I created. After writing their facts, the students colored their cakes (Seuss style) and we used little tissue paper balls as candle flames. See more Seuss activities we did throughout the day by heading over to my blog!

Using Audiobooks in Your Classroom

For years using audiobooks in class to help teach children learn how to read was frowned upon by teachers. But today, that outlook is changing and more and more teachers and parents are now realizing the value of these "talking" books. No longer considered "cheating," the memorization process that inevitably takes place when using an audiobook with children can now be seen as a powerful strategy for word recognition - especially sight words. If used correctly, this memorization process can benefit many emergent readers.

I have really come to appreciate the these books in our own class time. I use the books to teach new vocabulary, develop attention span, and improve reading comprehension. Teachers with larger classes, especially, could benefit from audiobooks. An assigned story time during the week is a great opportunity. While I feel strongly that students should be read to by parents and teachers, occasionally providing them with a beautifully "acted" audio is a wonderful educational reward.

Some excellent sources for bilingual audiobooks include:

• LoritoBooks.com - High quality, word-for-word audio book read-alongs for young readers and second language learners. Titles are carefully chosen for their culturally relevant content and values.

• BarefootBooks.com – A beautiful line of books and audio books by a company dedicated to using the power of stories to nourish the creative spark in everyone and strengthen connections with family, the global community, and the earth. Be sure to check out their growing collection of Spanish titles.

• DelSolBooks.com – A small, independent bookseller of Spanish, English, and bilingual books & CDs by the acclaimed authors, Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, and songwriter, Suni Paz.

• HeritageLanguage.com - A new company with books in English and Spanish for children in grades K - 5th.