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National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month

National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month takes place each November and is a great way to celebrate the traditions and cultures of the first Americans. ColorinColorado.org salutes the rich history and culture of the American Indian tribes with games, books, activities, and fun!

Explore the following:

Fun activities — Find great books about American Indians that all ages can enjoy. Explore language with fun word games.
Information — Learn many ways to help your English language learners (ELLs) get ahead with our selected resources.
Ready-to-use resources — From webcasts & podcasts to toolkits, these resources help PreK-12 educators.
More resources — Find links to other organizations and resources to help you celebrate American Indian Heritage Month.

Fun activities

Share a great kid's book

Find books about/by American Indians that you and your children are sure to enjoy. A great way to learn about different cultures is to read, so we've compiled a list of books to highlight many aspects of American Indian culture.

Now available in Navajo

Our one-page tips for parents offer easy ways for parents to help kids become successful readers. Although we've divided these tips by age, many of them can be used with children at various ages and stages.

Five fun sheets

Print out these activity sheets to encourage kids to have fun with words and letters! Simply click on the PDF files below to download, read, or print the activity sheets. You'll need Acrobat Reader to do so (most computers already have it installed or you can download it from www.adobe.com.)

Information

Retrospective: Language Instruction in Native American Communities
Strategies for assessing and placing ELLs
Best instructional practices for teaching vocabulary, reading, and content areas
The Colorín Colorado T.ELL.E-GRAM, an e-newsletter especially for educators
And many more resources and ideas to use in the classroom!

Meet Navajo Educator Delores Noble-Parker

Delores Noble-Parker grew up in the Navajo Nation in the Southwestern United States. In this interview with Colorín Colorado she shares some of her current experiences teaching Navajo.

Ready-to-use resources

ELL Starter Kit for Educators with assessment and reading checklists, plus progress forms and more.
Professional development webcasts on teaching ELLs, available for free, anytime.
Author interviews and other engaging videos about English language learners, including clips from Reading Rockets' Launching Young Readers: Becoming Bilingual.
Poet Francisco Alarcón knows three languages: English, Spanish, and Nahuatl. Discover how this trilingual poet incorporates his grandmother's Nahuatl language into his works today.