And our August pick is...
I Am La Chiva! The Colorful Bus of the Andes by Karol Hernández & Lorena Alvarez Gómez
August Pick -- I Am La Chiva!
Every morning, a colorful Colombian bus wakes bright and early with an important job to do -- to bring people into town to sell their goods at the local mercado. But when they run into trouble, it's going to take a collective effort to get back on their way. Follow along as the iconic bus, or La Chiva, navigates the rugged Andes mountains, celebrating the rich culture and landscape of Colombia. A rhyming ode with bold, bright illustrations to a colorful South American bus and the collective spirit of its people. To learn more about La Chiva's in Colombia, we encourage you to watch this video with your readers:
Meet Our Creators:
Karol Hernández is an award-winning marketing leader, a faculty fellow at Lipscomb University, a public speaker, a backyard astronomer, and an amateur photographer. Karol was born in Colombia and immigrated to South Florida in 1998 with her family. She is passionate about her Colombian heritage and embraces the cultural mosaic of her life in the United States. She resides in West Palm Beach with her husband, three kids, and two dogs. Her favorite book is The Little Prince & her favorite color is orange. I Am La Chiva! is her debut picture book! You can find her work & learn more on her website: https://karolita.com/
Lorena Alvarez Gómez is a freelance illustrator and artist, based in Bogotá, Colombia. She likes to work with color and experiment with diverse techniques. Lorena likes to approach to each project in a unique way and is always open to learning something new. She has made illustrations for children’s books, independent publications, advertising and fashion magazines. Lorena works from her home studio, surrounded by music and loved ones. She loves to paint, take care of her dog and read comic books. You'll probably recognize a few of the books she's created: The Magical Yet & The Curious Why by Angela Diterlizzi; The City Tree by Shira Boss; Marsha is Magnetic by Beth Ferry; & she's the author/illustrator of graphic-novels Nightlights & Hicotea.
Below you will find our monthly craft; printable activity sheets; and our community outreach activity where we will be discussing & meeting the important farmers & business owners within our own community. For more books to read this month, don't forget to check out book list on transportation around the world:
We really hope you enjoy this month of book club as we continue to keep our nationwide book club free & accessible for all. Each book is intentionally handpicked with each activity and outreach curated to engage and enrich our youth's experiences. Through these diverse and inclusive reads, working and playing together, and giving back to their own community, we hope to instill empathy, understanding, & kindness in our kids. Be sure to sign up for our book club to receive a virtual storytime reading of I Am La Chiva! read by our co-founder, Kara Cecchi, directly to your inbox. Email us at hello@mosskidsbooks.com for this month's story.
Let's Craft: make your own la chiva!
for our little readers -- Tissue paper la chiva
Materials:
White cardstock/Black cardstock
Colorful tissue paper
Liquid glue
Scissors
Modifications:
With this craft, you can modify based on developmental level. We are working on our fine motor skills, visual perceptual skills, & bilateral coordination (using two hands at once).
Easy: Pre-cut shapes for the bus & the wheels. Pre-rip tissue paper into smaller pieces. Place glue dots on paper for child to place tissue paper on.
Moderate: Pre-cut the shapes for the bus. Allow child to rip tissue paper independently. Child may need assistance to pinch & rip. Allow child to independently glue.
Hard: Allow child to create independently.
Instructions:
1. Gather materials. Cut out long rectangle for the bus shape out of white cardstock. Cut smaller rectangle for the front of the bus out of white cardstock. I will have these pre-prepped for our local book clubs.
2. Cut out two black circles for the wheels.
3. Glue the smaller white rectangle to the front of the longer white rectangle to create the bus shape (see below). Glue the wheels to the bottom of the bus.
4. Allow child to begin ripping colorful tissue paper into small pieces to create their La Chiva. You can use white tissue paper to create the "windows" & brown tissue paper to create the top of the bus. Or leave the "windows" it empty like we did.
5. Now this is the fun part. Make small dots of glue on the white cardstock bus where you would like to glue down the colorful tissue paper. Remember La Chiva is bright & bold, so encourage your kids to create with color.
6. You can cut extra paper off the nose like we did, if you want.
Tip: Use white cardstock. Printer paper or white construction paper doesn't hold the weight of the glue/tissue paper well.
Tip: Allow kids to create independently. Try (it's hard, we know) to not correct their placement of the tissue paper. This is their interpretation of La Chiva! -- the only rule is it's supposed to be bright & vibrant.
For our older readers: painted Newspaper la chiva
Materials:
Newspaper
Watercolor paints/paintbrushes/water
Pencil
Scissors
Black construction paper
Glue
Optional: colorful felt pens
Instructions:
1. Draw your La Chiva shape on the newspaper. We used the full page spread in the book (pg 8-9) to draw inspiration from. Make sure to draw the wheels on so you have something to glue the construction paper wheels to.
2. Draw 2 circles on the black construction paper approximately the same size that you sketched out. Cut out the circles.
3. Paint your La Chiva with bright vibrant watercolors.
Tip: It's best to paint your shapes, then use felt pens to outline & add embellishments. We attempted to add some embellishments with the watercolors & lost definition. Adding after the paint is dried with felt pens is best!
4. Allow to dry (only takes a few mins max). Add embellishments with felt pens/markers.
5. Glue wheels on.
6. Cut out La Chiva!
Remember: Since we are no longer sending out free copies of the book, we encourage you to request your local library purchase the title for your community to share. It's easy to request. Head to your local library's website. On the site, there will be a "Suggest A Title" tab (see below). Just add this book I Am La Chiva! by Karol Hernandez & Lorena Alvarez Gomez & submit. You can even share this blog with them.
printable activity sheets:
Our author, Karol Hernández sent over a beautiful activity kit to pair with I Am La Chiva! for our book clubs. This is perfect for classrooms! Included is pre-reading prompts on making predictions, post-reading discussing the heart of the story, & a writing activity imaging what they would take on a bus trip & where they would go. Download the kit below:
We also created an activity sheet for our readers. Below you will find -- a matching sheet with items you can find in our story for our youngest readers; a tracing sheet of La Chiva's routes to work on fine motor control & visual motor skills; & a word search for our older readers to promote visual scanning as well as isolation of letters and words within a bank of letters. Download the activity sheets below:
Community Outreach: Meet your community makers
We are encouraging our kids to meet their local community makers. If you're able, schedule a visit to meet the makers in your area -- farmers, artists, bakers/chefs, baristas, even booksellers. We're making a video of the local makers in the counties we serve to show at our book club meetings. You could even invite a few to join your book club. It's vital that our youth know & understand the importance of these community makers. The neighbors who help keep their community thriving by sharing their specialities & providing their services.
By making a commitment to shop local or support small businesses, you cycle money back into your community. If you’re like most Americans, you shop at large chain stores. You may even feel like it’s an obligation to shop at these places because they have the best deals and you can find whatever you’re looking for. However, by shopping local, you can help stimulate your local economy through sales taxes that are reinvested back into your communities. Studies show that when you buy from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned business, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community. Now more than ever, it’s time to encourage our youth to incorporate thinking globally, shopping small, supporting local businesses and ultimately funding a better tomorrow.
supplemental books:
We're also reading The Wheels on the Tuk Tuk, My Daddy is a Cowboy, Room For Everyone, & Grandad's Camper to celebrate & educate on different ways of transportation in different countries!! There is a few great activity kits for some of our supplemental books, check them out below:
Please do not skip this activity. We truly believe this outreach activity is a vital part of childhood & an opportunity to raise kind kids. Teaching our youth the importance of community. A community that can help create more empathetic, accepting kids who understand that power of coming together. To learn the importance of transportation in different countries & the community makers that transportation aids. To shop local, shop small, & support growth within your own neighborhoods.
YAY! Another MOSS Kids Book Club pick, craft, printable sheets, and community outreach activity. We would love to see all the La Chivas your kids create. You do not need to share kid's faces. Please be sure to tag us on Instagram @mosskidsbooks & use #mosskidsbookclub. Sharing about MOSS Kids Book Club is a way for your community to learn more about what MOSS Kids has to offer & for them to know about brand new diverse & inclusive books. By doing so, we can reach & help more kids across the country. We'd also love to hear any feedback you may have, please email us at hello@mosskidsbooks.com. We appreciate you all so much for taking the initiative to bring kids together to read diverse books & hopefully learn vital life skills to help make our world a better place.
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Don't Forget: We Have Local moss kids book club locations in eastern north Carolina!!
Tuesday, 8/13 at 11am: MOSS Kids Book Club at Elm City Branch Library in Elm City
Monday, 8/19 at 430pm: MOSS Kids Book Club at Wilson County Public Library in Wilson
Sunday, 8/25 at 2pm: MOSS Kids Book Club at Larema Coffee House in Rocky Mount
Saturday, 8/31 at 10am: MOSS Kids Book Club with Drag Story Hour at Boxyard RTP with reader queen, Stormie Daie
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