15 Dia Nuggets: #3 Literacy-focused Programming Día I-días for Educators at libraries, schools, and universities

If you visit this blog or my web site, you know that April 2011, we’re celebrating Día’s 15th Anniversary. My web team and I were so pleased at comments about our first Díapalooza last April that we’re having a second Díapalooza in 2011. To assist those of you planning Día celebrations at your schools, libraries, etc., we’re sharing 15 Día Nuggets, 15 lists of 15 items to assist you in your planning. This list is the third Día Nugget. We’ll post the Nuggets on this blog periodically and archive them on my site as we do the Día Dynamos. During Díapalooza 2011, we’ll showcase the 15 Día Dynamos, 15 Mora Award winners and the 15 Día Nuggets, etc. Send us your I-días!

Literacy-focused Programming Día I-días for Educators at libraries, schools, and universities
 1. Plan a reading carnival with book-focused games such as a book walk instead of a cakewalk, book bingo, and book cover matching.
2. Invite a professional storyteller to teach children how to tell their own stories.
3. Have children and families make and decorate their own books or journals.
4. Decorate school hallways with multicultural book covers, create special displays of bilingual and world language books from the school library’s collection, and ask classroom teachers to include read-alouds with multicultural themes in their classrooms.
5. Have a party to celebrate books. Children can exchange books as party gifts and play games about their favorite books.
6. Hold a book festival and parade and ask children to dress as characters from their favorite stories.
7. Plan bilingual/multilingual story hours featuring readers of various languages spoken in the community.
8. Include poetry in your celebration: invite a poetry slam champion to host a slam event or training; integrate a poetry reading with music; mount a photography and haiku exhibition; fly poetry kites.
9. Use technology: hold a book trailer video contest; schedule an author visit via Skype; plan an April geocaching event ( GPS treasure hunt) with book-related prizes.
10. Plan a creative presentation on Día as a kick-off for the 2011 summer reading theme “One World, Many Stories.”
11. Invite library users to “see the world through books.” Use a passport booklet that is stamped after visiting literacy stations throughout the library. Enter all completed passports in a drawing for free books.
12. Pair readers of different age levels for read-alouds: principals can read a favorite childhood book to elementary students; middle schoolers and teens can help with storytimes and schedule reading time at childcare centers.
13. Set up a photo contest with the theme of people reading.
14. Organize a book drive and deliver books during April as part of a Día celebration.
15. At middle schools, celebrate El día de los jovenes/El día de los libros, Young People's Day/Book Day, and have students plan and perform stories and original work at their own school or at an elementary school or library. Organize a Batchelder Awards (translated books first published in the US) book club.