Cedar City Library in the Park

The DIA event took place in three different rooms at the Cedar City Library and every room featured a different country: Morocco, Asia, and Mexico.  A fourth room was created to decorate chairs using paint, sponges, and brushes.  As families came into the library, they were divided into four different groups and sent to one of the four rooms.  In a room, the presenter would share a story or two followed by a craft. Both the story and the craft were selected to represent or teach something about that culture. Each session lasted for about 30-40 minutes, and then the families would move onto the next class, until they have successfully attended all four classes.

Helper City Public Library

During the month of April, activities were planned for each week highlighting the theme of “Dia de los Niños, Our Heritage, Our Culture.” Our overall goal was to highlight the diverse cultures which built Helper and to celebrate the uniqueness of all.  To summarize, activities will be presented by the week and the objectives we were working to attain:

- Week of April 4 – 7:  Define multiculturalism, how are we the same or different?  The following books were used during the week – Whoever You Are, The Color of Us and poems from Hailstones and Halibut Bones.  Our craft activity consisted of fingerprint art where we could emphasize the uniqueness of each us and was so successful some moms had children make several handprints to take home along with the artwork.  Our main lesson was focused on how we are unique, as well as a celebration of our history and culture.  

- Week of April 11 – 14:  Italian heritage highlight for toddler time, African drumming for teens, Spanish story reading were activities scheduled throughout the week.  The following books were used during the week – The Legend of Old Befana, more poems from Hailstones and Halibut Bones with a repeat of The Color of Us.  Our craft consisted of creating a mosaic of the Italian flag and discussing our favorite Italian foods! The drumming event was a huge success with visiting teacher Bryson Needles drumming and explaining to all the construction of the drum to our attendees and answering questions.  It was very interactive!  A story was read in Spanish and then a piñata activity was conducted to the delight of the children.

- Week of April 18 – 21: Native American heritage highlight for toddler time. For this event we had a visiting teacher, Dr. Tim Riley from the Price Prehistoric Museum present artifacts and discuss the role and impart of Native Americans in our local culture.  He also read the following books to the children – Navajo ABD’s and Trickster.  For an activity the children ground corn and rice grass seed just as the Native Americans did using stone. Each family in attendance was provided a Native American Coloring Book which was educational as well as fun for the children.  

- Week of April 25 – 26: Hispanic heritage highlight for toddler time.  The following books were used during the week – Abuela, Book Fiesta! And again poems from Hailstones and Halibut Bones were shared.  In celebration we had a mariachi parade with the children and the activity was creating a sombrero which the children could take home.   

Tremonton City Library

New library books and resources focused on Native American Folklore were displayed and available for use by the children at the event. They were introduced at the start of the activity. The Brigham City Puppet Museum came and presented a puppet show about Native American Folklore. They specifically used coyote trickster tales present in Shoshone folklore, as well as, several other Native American tribes. Nan Croney from Croney’s Music Garden (a local music education program) came and instructed the children in drumming and dancing to the beat. She used an AmeriIndian cultural music CD used in the Music Makers Around the World Music Garden class. The local Order of the Arrow (scouting group) came and presented 3 dances for the families. They did so using drum beats and dressed in full regalia. At the end of their dancing demonstration, they invited participants from the event up and they taught them a dance and the audience was able to participate in a grass dance. Kerry Able, a local patron whose mother grew up on a Ute Indian Reservation, brought memorabilia and handiwork. Several items were beaded and woven. Her mother was there to talk about and answer questions about the dress items and handiwork presented. The families were able to make Native American talking sticks and a pictograph crafts. Donated refreshments included Native American Feast Day Cookies.  There was information about folklore and music presented at the event and participants were able to take home a recipe to try making the cookies on their own.

Meadowlark Elementary School

We had an open house hosting the local public library (Day Riverside Branch) at our school.  They brought free books in Spanish and English and explained their summer program and gave applications to the library.  We also printed out the materials at the DIA website and had coloring pages at an art makerspace. We also invited parents to join our library for checkout and had treats and bilingual books for reading.  The following week, we spent the library lesson hour reading books about diversity to every class as they came to library and we let each student choose a new, free book on their reading level to continue learning at home.  We had enough funding with the books that Groupon paid for to add 100 new books to the library and give a book to every student!  The librarian also taught students how to write thank you notes and we wrote them for all our sponsors and took pictures to send as well.

North Davis Junior High

Our first activity was “Norseman Día de los Libros Family Night.” As families entered the event and were welcomed by the North Davis Junior High student government, they could participate in a number of activities including:

- Meeting the teen librarians from the local branch of the Davis County Libraries

- See the Art Show from the North Davis Junior High Art Department including photography and ceramics

- Purchase books by our featured authors from Deseret Book

- Get information about Internet Safety from the Netsmartz exhibit sponsored by Boys & Girls Club

- Día coloring sheets and colored pencils available for small children

After awards were presented for the recent Regional National History Day event and Reading awards for participation in library promotions. Our keynote speaker McKenzie Wagner gave an engaging presentation entitled “The World Only You Can Build.” After the keynote speaker, participants could select from a number of workshops available including:

- Chad Morris: author

- Lisa Mangum: author

- Mr. Guerrero and his students showing the Spanish books they have written in class

- Netsmartz presentation about Digital Citizenship and Internet Safety

- McKenzie Wagner: author

After two workshop sessions the authors were available for a book signing.

Our second activity was during a FLEX period in the Norseman Nook Library Learning Center. FLEX is a time that students go to make up work or have the chance to choose an enrichment activity. Ours was an enrichment activity. Since Utah authors lack diversity, we wanted to assure our students had the opportunity to meet an author of color. Thanks to a great interview and recording from the Fairfax network, we were able to host an event with Newbery award winning author Kwame Alexander. The interview included questions from students, reading examples of different poetry from his books, and a short history of his life as an author.

Salt Lake City Open Classroom

Open Classroom librarians read and displayed books that could be pinpointed on a world map. For example, we read The Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova by Laurel Snyder and connected a picture of the cover with yarn to St. Petersberg, Russia on our world map. We read How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle and connected it to the Trail of Tears in Oklahoma. Students were invited to connect a favorite book with the part of the world where the action takes place or where the author is from. Robb "Little Owl" Martin returned to our school and spoke with our 6 and 7 grade students. Mr. Martin is an engaging storyteller and talked about American Indian history and the migration and politics of several tribes. These students have been reading selected books dealing with related social issues. Hearing Mark Pett gave our K-5 graders insight into how picture books and comic strips are made. Mr. Pett demonstrated how he draws and includes his family members as inspiration and characters in his books. During weekly library classes students were invited to think of a favorite book and decorate a 2.5" x 3.5" piece of card stock to represent that book. All cards were collected and are displayed in a binder in the school library for students to learn about books their peers have enjoyed the same way children have shared cards of their favorite baseball players or Pokemon characters.   

Two Rivers High School

Local Spoken Word Poets provided a total of 12 workshops for students at Two Rivers High School.  Throughout the month of April, they exposed our students to a number of poets from a variety of cultures and highlighting numerous styles.  Students then wrote and performed their own Spoken Word Poetry.  These pieces celebrated races, cultures, traditions, hopes, dreams, struggles and so much more.  Then, we took our poetry and performed it at Grounds for Coffee on 25th St. in Ogden.  At this event, we over a 100 people that came in and out during our performances, and we even had community members volunteer to share writing of their own. (This last part was unexpected and awesome!!!) During the event at Grounds for Coffee, a community member who is opening a new restaurant in the fall asked us if we'd be willing to come share our talents for an opening event.

Activities included: