Join us! We're Growing and Learning, Together
by Keila V. Dawson
Many educators, families, authors, and illustrators use the summer to relax and recharge. Like the places people choose for summer vacations, camps, classes, and conferences, this year's NCTE-NCTM Joint Conference 2025 theme—"Gather, Grow, and Learn Together"—emphasized connection and growth.
In the opening keynote address, Charles Waters and Irene Latham used their poetry anthology, Mistakes That Made Us, to deliver a powerful message. Everybody makes mistakes. Mistakes help us learn. Mistakes help us grow. Whether writing a story, solving a math problem, or resolving a conflict, sometimes we struggle, misunderstand, and err. Although frustrating, accepting mistakes we make is an important reminder for adults and children.
I partnered with a Chicago teacher-researcher, Citlali Arroyo, to present a session focused on the value of using culturally authentic and linguistically relevant texts to create mathematical thinkers. In my part of the presentation, I discussed how 3-6-year-olds understand the concept of data used in Yumbo Gumbo so young children can follow the main character's mathematical reasoning. My co-presenter showed videos of her pre-k bilingual students in action explaining how their life experiences, and using appropriate equipment, manipulatives, and lessons that allowed discovery and experimentation strengthened their sense of self and learning. Her classroom is a safe space where mistakes are opportunities to connect, learn, and grow.
We shared books, ideas, worksheets, and manipulatives so attendees could plan activities to help their young students engage with language and math concepts on a concrete level to promote their understanding of abstract concepts.
Our Kidlit for Growing Minds authors are always searching for creative and clever ways to tell stories, and make what we write about relevant for educational use. We're back to publishing monthly newsletters from new and old members and hope you find the content useful. And you’ll forgive any mistakes we make!
Keila V. Dawson is an award-winning author who writes fiction and nonfiction picture books. A former educator, she is the author of Yumbo Gumbo, a 2025 NSTA-CBC Best STEM Book, which is also translated into the Spanish bilingual edition El gumbo más delicioso/Yumbo Gumbo. She's a co-editor and contributor to No World Too Big, No Voice Too Small, the forthcoming No Brain the Same, author of Opening the Road, The King Cake Baby and the forthcoming Annabelle's Beignet Café. A New Orleans native, Dawson has also worked in states across the US, and abroad in the Philippines, Japan and Egypt.
There’s a Book for That!
Celebrate books throughtout the year with us.
August 8: Global Sleep Under the Stars Night
Clouds in Space: Stardust, Nebulae, & Us by Teresa Robeson, illus. by
God’s Little Astronomer by Tina Cho, illus by Marta Álvarez Miguéns
August 19: International Orangutan Day
Peculiar Primates: Fun Facts About These Curious Creatures, by Debra Kempf Shumaker, illus by Claire Powell.
September 4: National Wildlife Day
Freaky, Funky Fish: Odd Facts About Fascinating Fish and Peculiar Primates: Fun Facts About These Curious Creatures by Debra Kempf Shumkaer, illus. By Claire Powell
September 8: International Literacy Day
An Inconvenient Alphabet: Ben Franklin & Noah Webster’s Spelling Revolution by Beth Anderson, illus by Elizabeth Baddeley
September 25: Comic Book Day
The Other Side of Tomorrow ,a graphic novel by Tina Cho, illus. by Deb JJ Lee
September 25: Math Story Time Day
Yumbo Gumbo, a Storytelling Math Book, by Keila V. Dawson, illus. by Katie Crumpton
New Educator Resources
Booktalk Teacher Tip: Using Picture Books to Create Mathematical Thinkers
New! ESPECIALLY FOR EDUCATORS posts on Beth Anderson’s blog:
Creative Collaboration - writing activity from Teresa Robeson
Back Matter Bounty for the Classroom blog series from Beth Anderson:
BONUS!
Freebie for newsletter subscribers: INDEX TO BACK MATTER CONTENT by Kid Lit for Growing Minds Creators!
Hot Off the Press!
God’s Little Oceanographer: Ride the waves before diving into the depths of the sea to uncover the wonders of the ocean—and God’s deep love for you and me!
The Blue Jays That Grew A Forest: This science-based and poetic nonfiction picture book explores the symbiotic relationship between blue jays and oaks and the forests that flourish from this connection.
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