In 2018, Children’s Day, Book Day, El día de los niños, el día de los libros (often known as Día), celebrates its 22nd anniversary. This is a day when literacy advocates have motivated families in their communities to honor all children and to share bookjoy throughout the year. A way to think of Día:
D elight in Celebrating Children and Bookjoy
I nspire Collaboration To Grow a Nation of Reading Families
A dvocate annual April Children’s Day, Book Day Celebrations in Your Communities
Pat Mora, founder of Día, provides numerous celebration ideas on her website. Here are some of those ideas paired with resources from ReadWriteThink.org so you can bring bookjoy into your classroom and community:
Plant a Poetry Garden: Write poems, paste them on sticks and plant them outside of the school or library.
When you plant a garden, involve children in the process by writing down questions and observations on the garden’s growth in a garden journal.
Make memory books with stories and pictures about reading and books.
Students reflect on their school year, creating a digital scrapbook consisting of images and text to present to their school community.
Create book–themed word search or crossword puzzles.
This online tool allows students to complete crossword puzzles on a variety of grade-appropriate topics, and also to create and print their own crossword puzzles.
Invite family members to write and illustrate favorite riddles, proverbs, or tongue-twisters with examples of culturally and linguistically appropriate books on hand for viewing.
In this lesson, students work with proverbs from home and from around the world, exploring how these maxims are tied to a culture’s values and everyday experience.
How will you spread bookjoy on Día and throughout the year?