September 15th - October 15th is Hispanic Heritage Month!
In recognition of this month, for the education of all students, and for celebration of our Hispanic students, Lutherville Lab is taking a few steps this month and we invite you to partner with us.
This week we greeted students with music that has Hispanic roots. We have an initial playlist, and invite our community, and Hispanic families in our community especially, to send in kid-friendly and school appropriate songs with Hispanic roots that we can add. We have been using this playlist to greet students at entry, play during arrival and morning work, and perhaps at other times of the day (indoor recess, quietly during independent work time, as appropriate at the teacher's discretion). We encourage all families to see the playlist as an opportunity to strengthen the home-school connection and consider playing it in the car or at home in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. The McCombs were rocking out to Gloria Estefan's Conga in the car earlier this week.
We also united in the shared experience of reading Island Born by Junot Diaz across all classrooms. Teachers differentiated conversations aligned to learning standards for students, and use the text, which will be a mirror, window, and sliding glass door for different students. Author Junot Diaz, 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner, is a Dominican-American author. If you are interested in an adult novel for yourself that connects to Island Born, the Dominican Republic, and heroes, I recommend In the Time of the Butterflies, a historical fiction novel by Julia Alvarez, which I used to read with my high school English students.
If your family identifies with Hispanic culture, we encourage you to consider sharing your culture with your child's class. You could share family photos, photos from travels, photos, or recipes from your favorite Hispanic dish, family experience story, traditions in which your family participates, traditional Hispanic songs and dance, games, sports, or teams from your home country, a map or flag from your home country.
Please let your child's teacher know if you would like your artifacts back at the end of the celebration. We look forward to learning more about our Lutherville Lab families!
