Storytime: "I Know the River Loves Me" by Maya Christina Gonzalez

BOOK
Gonzalez, Maya Christina. I Know the River Loves Me. San Franciso, CA: Children's Book Press, 2009.
ISBN: 9780892392339
Copies @ DPL

This is an excellent bilingual storytime read!  The text is not too long or drawn out.  When I am reading the same text in English and Spanish I personally feel that shorter is better.  The little girl tells the story about the river.  She talks about how she spends time at the river and how she knows the river loves her.  The river "cools her down" when she gets too hot in the summer and "jumps and dances" when she comes.  The story also lightly touches on the importance of cleaning up after oneself in nature.  I found this book to have a perfect approach to an eco-friendly attitude without being preachy.  This allowed me to expand on the idea after reading the book with any "okay, we get it!!" looks.

ACTIVITY
In order to expand on the environmental responsibility theme, I created a "river" on a wheeled white board with felt fish, flowers, and...trash!  I had a simple interaction activity with them and asked them to tell me what did not belong in the river.  I used a plastic bottle, some paper, and a plastic 6 bottle holder.  When I do it again, I will try to save some more trash in advance.  The activity was short, but it got the kids thinking which is always the goal.

This is the only picture I snapped; I added the paper and soda rings later.

















I kept the river hidden from view of the kids while reading the story; I got a collective "gasp" from the group when I turned it around!







CRAFT
As an accompanying craft, the kids made their own river with construction paper and tissue paper.

This craft required a bit of prep work.  I cut the tissue strips and paper clipped 9 together.  I free handed a couple fish and made copies on white card stock.  Each child was given a full sheet of blue construction paper.

Instructions:
1. Fold the construction paper in half longways.
2. Cut pop-ups.  Do this by cutting two squares into the fold.  Push the squares through so that when you unfold the paper you have a pop-up.  (This is exactly how we made pop-up cards in elementary school...apparently kids don't do this anymore!!)

3. Color the fish and cut them out!
4. Glue fish onto the pop-ups.
5.  The tissue strips will be the water in the river.  Simply put glue on each end of the strip and attach.
6. Color the land!

I mimicked the illustrations in "I Know the River Loves Me" with my fish and land colors.  In case you are thinking, "this craft reads complicated"-- I agree!  But I will tell you confidently that everyone's came out looking great!