Say Hello!

Title: Say Hello! 
Author: Rachel Isadora   
Illustrator: Rachel Isadora
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons 
Publication Date: 2010  
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book   
Summary: A little girl stops to say hello to many people who speak different languages on her way to visit her grandmother.
What I Think:  I think it's awesome to celebrate diversity, and this book makes it fun with all the different ways to say hello!  I think this book would be great for a preschool class.  There are so many songs hello and goodbye songs that you could sing with this book, I think I would choose Raffi's To Everyone In All The World from the Baby Beluga CD.  Kids could walk around the room shaking hands and saying hello in different languages.  This book might be a great way to start a discussion about different languages and about how respect others with different backgrounds who speak different languages.
     This could also be used for older students to introduce a unit about studying different countries around the world.  In one of the schools I work in, all the 4th graders have to choose a country and research that country in order to present at an International Fair.  This would be a fun way to start off a discussion about the different languages there are all over the world.
Read Together: Pre-K - 3 
Read Alone: K - 6 
Read With: Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon By Patty Lovell, One by Kathryn Otoshi, Is There Really a Human Race? By Jamie Lee Curtis or Nonfiction about different cultures 
Snatch of Text: "They stop in at the Japanese restaurant to say hello. 'Konichiwa!'"
Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Expository, Personal Narrative 
Writing Prompts: Choose a country and do research about the country, including what language(s) are spoken there and if they have an official language.  Write about the customs in your culture - particularly how you greet others. 
Topics Covered: Diversity, Languages, Culture, Customs, Greeting Others, Acceptance, Differences  
Translated to Spanish: Technically this book is in English, but mostly it's speaking all different languages so I think it could easily be used even if it's in English.