This distinctly Mexican version of an old fable found in Spain, Portugal, and France is retold and updated by a well-known storyteller. The little red ant has found a wonderful crumb, but she's not strong enough to carry it all the way home. Going from one creature to the next, asking for help, the little red ant is surprised to discover who is the strongest of all. Spanish words add to the text's Mexican flavor, and bold, playful illustrations, hinting at what's coming next, make this story a real "page-turner."

A small red ant finds a crumb in a Mexican cornfield, but she is afraid that she lacks the strength to move it herself and goes off to find an animal that can.

Ready-to-use activities integrate into the daily curriculum to help teachers create a safe and caring classroom

Anything is possible in the world of Latin American folklore, where Aunt Misery can trap Death in a pear tree; Amazonian dolphins lure young girls to their underwater city; and the Feathered Snake brings the first musicians to Earth. One in a series of folklore reference guides ("...an invaluable resource..."--School Library Journal), this book features summaries and sources of 470 tales told in Mexico, Central America and South America, a region underrepresented in collections of world folklore. The volume sends users to the best stories retold in English from the Inca, Maya, and Aztec civilizations, Spanish and Portuguese missionaries and colonists, African slave cultures, indentured servants from India, and more than 75 indigenous tribes from 21 countries. The tales are grouped into themed sections with a detailed subject index.

Celebrating the wealth of quality multicultural literature recently published for children and young adults, this valuable resource examines the fiction, oral tradition, and poetry from four major ethnic groups in the United States. Each of these genres is considered in turn for the literature dealing with African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native-American Indians. Taking up where their earlier volume This Land is Our Land left off, Helbig and Perkins have teamed up once again to identify and expertly evaluate more than 500 multicultural books published from 1994 through 1999. Both considered authorities in the field of children's literature, the two of them personally selected, read, and evaluated all the books included here. Their insightful annotations help readers carefully consider both literary standards such as plot development, characterization, and style, as well as cultural values as they are represented in these cited works. Each entry also indicates the suggested age and grade level appropriateness of the work. With the proliferation and ever increasing popularity of multicultural literature for children and young adults, this sensitively written volume will serve as an invaluable collection development tool. Teachers, as well as librarians, will find the comprehensiveness and organization of this bibliography helpful as a guide in selecting appropriate materials for classroom use. Even students will find this book easy to use, with its five indexes identifying works by title, writer, illustrator, grade level, and subject. Public libraries and school media centers will find much use for Many Peoples, One Land.

Use these 100 handy reproducible book lists to instantly create hand-outs for teachers and parents (as well as for older readers), to add to your newsletter, or to post on your Web site or bulletin board. Based on the most common needs of educators and librarians who work with young readers, these lists focus on new titles, as well as classics that are still in print and readily available for purchase. Fiction and nonfiction titles for ages 5-14 are covered. Bibliographic information and a brief description are given for each title. A dozen bookmarks are also included. This is a great time-saving tool and a good source for finding extended reading lists and read-alikes! Looking for folktales from China for elementary children? An informational children's book for a middle school science class? A list of books on the topic of compassion? A sampling of ABC books? These lists and more can be found in Nancy Keane's treasury of great reading lists for children. This versatile guide provides reproducible book lists based on the most common needs of educators and librarians who work with young readers. There are lists for standard curriculum areas (e.g., math, social studies, science), other areas of study such as character education and values, genres (e.g., pop-up, memoirs, ABC books), themes (e.g., animals, food, sports), and read-alikes (on bookmarks). You'll find 100 reproducible lists of fiction and nonfiction books for ages 5-14 (elementary/middle) that you can use to create hand-outs for teachers and parents (as well as for older readers), put in your newsletter, or post on your Web site or bulletin board. Focus is on new titles and classics that are still in print and readily available for purchase. On each list, titles are grouped according to grade level. Room to customize with your library logo or clipart is provided on each reproducible sheet. Bibliographic information and a brief description are given for each title. A dozen bookmarks are also included. This is a great time-saving tool and a good source for finding extended reading lists and read-alikes! Grades K-8.

This guide contains four books-worth of creative activities for the early years in one bumper-value guide. Perfect to dip into, this gem of a guide features: - Hundreds of easy-to-follow activities that cover 40 of the most popular early years topics - Each topic contains ideas for singing, dance, movement, storytelling, art and design, and drama - An easy-reference key showing which of the Creative Development Early Learning Goals are being explored An essential for anyone wanting new and creative ideas for use in topic work with the early years. This book is a compendium of all the activities from the following four Stepping Stones to Creativity titles: Dance and Movement; Design, Art and Modelling; Stories, Songs and Rhymes and Drama and Role Play.

"Picturebook," spelled as a single word to identify its unique qualities and to differentiate the genre from other books with illustrations, is one that tells a story either in pictures alone or in almost equal partnership with text. The picturebook has great potential for bridging the differences among us; the concept of a story is one common to all, a shared experience that sets the stage for communication. And the goal of multiculturalism is to emphasize the positive attributes of human society, the outstanding, rather than the stereotype. Because children born today will interact with people from different cultures much more than previous generations, it is important that they are taught about other cultures, starting at a young age. Multicultural picturebooks are, therefore, an excellent teaching tool for meeting this educational challenge. The picturebooks profiled are appropriate for children in grades K - 4 but can be used with older children, depending on the curriculum and the students' comprehension level. Books covering Asia and the Pacific, The Middle East, Africa, South America, North America (Native Americas, Inuit, etc.), and books specific to the immigrant experience are profiled. Each book is described in one paragraph that includes an engaging review of the story line, special features of the content, the look and style of the artwork, interior design, and layout of the book. The authors emphasize that the visual qualities of picturebooks affect their ability to tell stories about people whose values and behaviors are different from those of the reader. The analyses, therefore, used in selecting the books include not only the informational content, but also the emotional content--the feelings generated by the text and art. In choosing books for this volume, the authors have used the following criteria: ]Does the book tell an engaging story?]Do the illustrations convincingly portray and represent humans, animals, and objects?]Is the use of the media consistent?]Do the text and the pi

Judy Freeman, author of the Books Kids Will Sit Still For series, gives practical how-to tips on how to tell a story, and write and stage a Reader's Theater script that gets children involved with creative drama. Reader's theater teaches children how to become better listeners, enriches their thinking skills, and encourages their response to literature. Included are ideas on using folk and fairy tales, songs, chants and nonsense rhymes, and a reader's theater script. Also included in this handbook are 400 plus annotated children's books every storyteller should know, 100 great titles for creative drama and reader's theatre and professional books and Web sites for storytelling, creative drama and reader's theater. Grades PreK-6. Judy Freeman, author of the Books Kids Will Sit Still For series, gives personal and practical how-to tips on how to learn and tell a story, how to act out a story using creative drama, and how to write and stage a Reader's Theater script. All are guaranteed to get your children listening, thinking, reading, loving, and living stories with comprehension, fluency, expression, and joy. Once Upon a Time pulls together a wealth of ideas, activities, and strategies for using folk and fairy tales, songs, chants, and nonsense rhymes. Also included in this handbook are the texts of 10 of Judy's favorite stories you can read today and tell tomorrow; a songbook of songs, chants, and nonsense rhymes; and a Reader's Theater script. You'll also find annotated bibliographies: 400+ children's books every storyteller should know; 100+ great children's books to use for creative drama and Reader's Theater; professional books and Web sites for storytelling, creative drama, and Reader's Theater; and a title and author index. Chapters include: ; Getting Started with Storytelling ; Judy Freeman's Songbook: Including Songs, Chants, Riddles, and Plenty of Nonsense ; Judy Freeman's Storybook: Tales You can Hear Today and Tell Tomorrow ; 400+ Children's Books Every Storyteller Should Know ; Getting Started with Creative Drama and Reader's Theater ; 100+ Children's Books Just Right for Creative Drama and/or Reader's Theater

Presents songs and activities to teach children about bugs.