Your diverse classroom deserves books that celebrate all the wonderful things that make us similar and different. That’s why I was so excited to find “Our Favorite Day of the Year” by A.E. Ali. Using beautiful illustrations and a simple story line, this diverse mentor text invites students to share about their families and themselves. I know you’ll love it too!
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How I found this diverse classroom text
Last year, I was looking for the answer to some questions: “How should I celebrate holidays in my diverse classroom? Should schools celebrate holidays at all? What are some diverse classroom activities my students and I can do?”
I kept coming across A.E. Ali’s Our Favorite Day of the Year and was immediately drawn in by the beautiful cover. Just like that: I put it in my cart and was soon swept away by all of the possibilities this read-aloud holds.
Why I love this diverse classroom text
Simply: I love this book because my students love this book. Like L-O-V-E. It is hard for me to get through a complete reading of it because students kept calling out with connections and ideas. They could hardly help themselves from immediately responding to the colorful pages and relatable content.
That said, if I had to choose the top three reasons I love this mentor text, they would be:
- That it’s set in the coziest, happiest, more diverse classroom I could imagine. Seriously, it’s the stuff of dreams. The children are engaged and kind and interested and it’s SUCH a great model for my own multilingual classroom, especially in the nervous first weeks of school.
- The illustrations are so colorful and warm that I want to hang the art itself all over my classroom (and I have).
- The simple structure: Students take turns sharing about their favorite days and traditions, then comes the repeating line: “Everyone could tell why ___ was ____’s favorite day of the year.” So easy to follow, allowing students to deeply engage with the rich content.
How I use this book in my own diverse classroom
The possibilities with this mentor text are just about endless; there’s so much you can do! Here are some of the ways I’ve used “Our Favorite Day of the Year” in my own bilingual classroom.
Practice comprehension skills!
Are your students practicing retelling the beginning, middle, and ending of a story? Perhaps they are tracking characters’ perspective changes? Are they working on comparing and contrasting? They can practice all of these standards-based comprehension skills while also digging into this beautiful diverse classroom text.
Create a class book!
Invite students to draw and write about their own favorite holidays! This can take the form of a simple draw on the top, write on the bottom 1-page-per-child format. Inviting more creativity, you could also encourage students to create poems, word art, or visual art to tell about their favorite day of the year.
Conduct a class project
If your students are like mine, they’ll be SO excited about sharing their favorite days of the year. Harness this energy with a class project! Send home a simple note to parents and guardians letting them know that students will have a chance to share about their favorite day of the year. Invite them to send in decorations or other special items that will assist their child in teaching about their celebration. Take turns sharing out as a whole group or in smaller groups!
Launch an inquiry!
Take things to the next level by extending this diverse classroom book beyond your classroom! Kickstart a full-blown inquiry into holidays, traditions, and celebrations around the world! Conduct research to learn about all kinds of holidays and festivals. Explore essential questions like:
- Why do people celebrate?
- How are others’ celebrations the same as or different from your own?
- What can celebrations teach us about a culture?
- What connections can we make about celebrations from around the world?
- and more!
Are you looking for more diverse classroom books like this one?
Check out my ever-growing list on Booksource.org!
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