September 15th – October 15th is Hispanic Heritage Month, a monthlong celebration of Spanish or Latin American ancestry, and an opportunity for educators to explore and celebrate Hispanic, Latino, and Latinx cultures and traditions.

Why September 15th? Hispanic Heritage Month starts on the 15th of September because it’s the national independence day of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Three more Latin American countries celebrate their independence later in September: Mexico on the 16th, Chile on the 18th, and Belize on the 21st.

Did you know…

• The United States has the second-largest Spanish-speaking population in the world? (The largest is in Mexico.)

• More than 62 million Americans identify as Hispanic — nearly one in five in all and one in four children.

• While sometimes used interchangeably, the terms Hispanic and Latino have their own meanings and origins. Hispanic describes a person of Spanish-speaking origin, while Latino, Latina, and Latinx describe a person of Latin American origin, regardless of language. 

• Hispanic and Latino cultures are diverse, including the foods, celebrations, and traditions of many different countries and indigenous cultures.

For some great lists of books, videos, and other resources, check out the resources at the Seattle Public Library, New York Public Library, and NYC Public Schools.

Book Bag

Extended by popular demand, Baboon’s Nest is a lively and humorous big book for whole-group reading, with rhythmical, rhyming text and an engaging story that explores resolving conflicts and learning to share.

A five-day lesson plan and built-in teaching panels minimize preparation time and support a variety of reading skills and social-emotional competencies, helping everyone get the most out of the shared reading experience.

Poetry Power

We know it takes time to get into the “swing” of classroom routines—so we’ve extended “Clever Monkey” to give you another month to share it with your students. The quick and easy ten-minute lessons activate the language center of the brain, making them the ideal warm-up activity for your literacy block. Reading the poem every day for five days supports a variety of literacy skills while building a classroom community of readers.

Pocket PD

With many years of experience as a classroom teacher, administrator, and trainer of thousands of educators around the world, Jill Eggleton knows firsthand what a difficult job teaching is and how hard teachers work to help every one of their students become skillful and proficient readers. 

Jill created JillE Literacy to reduce the burden on teachers by giving them easy-to-use tools for implementing the principles of reading instruction that have been validated by decades of scientific research. 

Our downloadable report — JillE Literacy and the Science of Reading: Bridging the Gap from Knowledge to Implementation — gives a quick and helpful overview of these principles, including how reading develops over time and what the research says about effective instruction across every strand of reading. 

The guide also shows exactly how JillE Literacy supports teachers in providing research-aligned and evidence-based reading instruction with explicit and practical guidance in every whole-class and small-group resource.

Gratis Gifts

Check out our Samples and Downloads page for these free resources and more!