Cinco de Mayo

Usually for Cinco de Mayo I show a video to the kids because I have not found a book I enjoy reading about Cinco de Mayo, but this week I took a chance on a book I had never read before. It has turned out to be such an awesome book! I know that I will look forward to reading it year after year. It has made kids laugh and sing along in every grade I have read it to so far. The book is called Ole! Cinco de Mayo by Margaret McMannis.

A young boy Pablo bring his pet cow Rodeo to school for Cinco de Mayo and he causes chaos. I loved how each of the "specials" classes were featured and that allowed for us to laugh as we thought about how the art teacher, PE teacher, and music teacher might react to having a cow visit class. The kids even pointed out that in library the cow did not use his shelf marker! At the end of the book, there is a glossary of the Spanish words used and a recipe for flan. There is also a brief history of Cinco de Mayo that was very kid-friendly. The end of the book has been the most fun because we got to sing R-O-D-E-O. It is like BINGO, but singing about Pablo and his pet cow RODEO.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Tumbling into Learning

Today, we had talent show auditions in preparation for our Bradfield is SUPER Talented Night. I was covering some classes to allow for the auditions and I wanted something to hold the students' attention. My hero was Tumblebooks and Robert Munsch stories. Even my 5th graders were rolling with laughter! Tumblebooks is a great resource and can be accessed from home through Bradfield's (or any GISD elementary school's) library catalog. It is a great way to get summer reading resources because every story comes with online quizzes and other activities. The stories are animated, entertaining, and fun! They even have stories in Spanish. Check it out!