Growing Multicultural Children’s Book Day #ReadYourWorld {Resource}

January 25, 2019January 25, 2019 | acraftyarab

Today is Multicultural Children’s Book Day, created to bring attention to all of the amazing children’s books available that celebrate diversity. Check out the hashtag #ReadYourWorld to see a wide variety of kidlit.

I am excited to be a co-Host for another year for this important initiative.

My job duties include receiving a diverse book to review from a publisher or author. I also enjoy making a craft or activity to go with the book review:

Last year, I asked my daughter’s school library to get involved by adding READ YOUR WORLD letters to their walls. We added diverse books to the top of the shelves to make them easier to find.

This year, I contacted the same librarian again and she immediately said yes. I went back to cut out more letters.

I spent a lovely afternoon in a children’s library, decorating the walls to get them ready.

I also went a step further and cut out extra letters for a few schools in my city. I added the letters to a personalized note that explained what MCBD was, and included a few copies of 2019 poster.

I went to seven schools and six welcomed the information.

At one office, the woman sitting behind the secretary started to get physically gitty with joy, when I was describing what I was dropping off, for their school librarian.

I hope to be able to start earlier next year and also go to a few public libraries.

Baby steps!

Visit A Crafty Arab on Pinterest to see more resources.

Be sure to check out the Multicultural Children’s Book Day party to see more diverse books from bloggers all over the world.

This page prevents Inlinkz Widget from loading correctly

Visit Link Party

Celebrate Diwali Word Search {Printable} Let’s Celebrate 5 Days of Diwali {Book Review}

January 24, 2019January 24, 2019 | acraftyarab

I made this free Celebrate Diwali Word Search to learn new Hindi words with my children.

We learned all about Diwali because we received a beautifully illustrated book called Let’s Celebrate 5 Days of Diwali! from Culture Groove to review for Multicultural Children’s Book Day.

The story starts with meeting Maya and Neel, who live in Chicago, and their squirrel friend Chintu. They all travel to India to learn about Diwali, India’s biggest festival, also called the Festival of Lights.

They meet their mausi (Hindi for aunt), who shares the origins of Diwali. She then shows them the five days of how this special event is celebrated. As each day is shared, Hindi words are italicized. Hindi is a language of Indo-European origin spoken widely in India.

One of the things I appreciated was having a Hindi pronunciation guide right at the front of the book. This allowed us to practice a few of the words before my daughter and I read it together. Usually such information is placed in the back of the book, but it was a great idea to change it up.

The back of the book has a story recap, along with blank pages for kids to fill out. There is a lined sheet for them to write their own Diwali story, as well as a number of pages for drawing some of the new things the kids saw.

I shared the book with our neighbor, who celebrates Diwali, and she was excited to help me put together a special word search. My daughter and I hope to continue to practice these words so we can use them when Diwali occurs at the end of the year.

You can download the Celebrate Diwali Word Search here.

Be sure to check out our other Multicultural Children’s Book Day Reviews

Stop by A Crafty Arab on Pinterest to see more of our free downloads.

Be sure to check out the free Diwali Activity/Classroom Kit with Lesson Plan from Culture Groove!

Type in #ReadYourWorld in your preferred social media outlet to see more diverse books for M ulticultural Children’s Book Day.

Children Books About Palestine {Resource}

January 3, 2019January 17, 2019 | acraftyarab

Today is a big day in the United States government as a Palestinian woman & Somalian woman are sworn into office.

All over social media, people are celebrating this historical achievement from Rashida Tlaib (Democrat – Michigan) & Ilhan Omar (Democrate – Minnesota).

They are using the hashtag #TweetYourThobe and posting photos of themselves & family members in hijab or a thobe, the Arabic word for garment. also known as a long tunic:

ثَوْب

These articles of clothing are worn all over the Arab world, by men and women. They are traditionally ankle-length, and usually have long sleeves.

Rashida Tlaib wore a Palestinian thobe to the swearing in ceremony, while Illhan Omar wore a hijab, a type of head cover, both firsts in the House of Representatives.

Due to my job as an Arab cultural educator, I own a lot of Arab traditional attire for my appearances, including 4 thobes from Palestine. Be sure to follow A Crafty Arab on Twitter to see the photos of them.

I also see a number of them in the stories I read to children during my storytelling sessions at the public library.

Fresh off my book list two days ago of upcoming 2019 Arab & Muslim books, I thought I’d keep the book lists going with this compilation of books where children can find Palestinian thobes.

I’ll be putting one up about women in hijab soon.