How to Host a Book Tasting in Your Classroom

With Read Across America Day coming up, it’s a great time to think about fun reading related activities to do in the classroom. Getting kids to read more and encouraging them to find new books to love is so important, and a book tasting is a fun and easy way to encourage kids to learn more about books they might not otherwise know about.

A book tasting can be done in a lot of different ways. My daughter’s class once did one where each group of kids read a “Who Was?” book and did a little report about it, so each table had biographical information about the person they learned about as well as the book they read.

You could have kids do “reports” on their favorite books, or have them choose a book from the library in a preferred genre that they haven’t read before to read and do a report on.

Or you can do genre tables and have kids (and/or the librarian if you don’t have a bunch of books in the classroom) bring in books they can then sort by genre and explore options they might not have heard of before.

Check out this post at Alyssa Teaches all about how to design a book tasting and how you can use it to teach kids how to determine if they’d like to read a book by scanning the cover, flipping through and reading a little. She also has printables you can use for your own book tasting.

[Photo: Alyssa Teaches.]

Next Plan Idea:

Summer Reading Printables and Tips for Parents

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

Next Plan Idea:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply