K & 1st Grade Resources

A is for Activist

by Innosanto Nagaro

Theme: Literacy (ABC read aloud)

Gathering the Sun: An Alphabet in Spanish and English

by Alma Flor Ada

Theme: Literacy (Bilingual ABC read aloud)

The Hard Times Jar

by Ethel Footman Smothers

Theme: Migrant Workers

Description:  Emma Turner loves books and dreams of one day having the store-bought kind, but the Turners are migrant workers and money is tight. That means "no extras," so Emma must be content to make her own stories and books. Emma has a plan, though – she's going to save all the money she earns picking apples and put it in Mama's hard-times jar. Then there will surely be enough for extras. But when Mama tells Emma that this year she has to go to school instead of to work, it spoils everything. Now she will never own a store-bought book! But school turns out to have a wonderful surprise in store for Emma.

Migrant

by Maxine Trottier

Theme: Migrant Workers

Description: The Low German-speaking Mennonites from Mexico are a unique group of migrants who moved from Canada to Mexico in the 1920s and became an important part of the farming community there. But it has become increasingly difficult for them to earn a livelihood, and so they come back to Canada each year as migrant workers in order to survive. And while they currently have the right to work in Canada, that right may be challenged. This book follows Anna as Each spring she leaves her home in Mexico and travels north with her family where they will work on farms. Sometimes she feels like a bird, flying north in the spring and south in the fall. Sometimes she feels like a jack rabbit living in an abandoned burrow, as her family moves into an empty house near the fields. But most of all she wonders what it would be like to stay in one place.

Tomás and the Library Lady

by Pat Mora

Theme: Migrant Workers

Description:  Tomás is a son of migrant workers. Every summer he and his family follow the crops north from Texas to Iowa, spending long, arduous days in the fields. At night they gather around to hear Grandfather's wonderful stories. But before long, Tomás knows all the stories by heart. "There are more stories in the library,"Papa Grande tells him.  The very next day, Tomás meets the library lady and a whole new world opens up for him.  Based on the true story of the Mexican-American author and educator Tomás Rivera, a child of migrant workers who went on to become the first minority Chancellor in the University of California system.

Teaching Resources:

• Lesson suggestions from author

• Publisher lesson plan linked to Kindergarten Common Core Standards