Design a process poster

Decorate socks

For an educator's guide, click here.
 
More Discussion Questions:

• Mr. Flores and Ms. Cantu are dealing with the loss of a loved one.  How do they handle grief?  How do their reactions affect their daughters?  And how do Lina and Vanessa help their parents deal with their loss?
• What role do books and writing play in the novel?  What role for Mr. Flores?  What role for Lina?
• How are the parenting styles of Mr. Flores and Ms. Cantu alike and different?  Some things to think about are their rules about boyfriends, school, and chores.
• The novel is called “Confetti Girl.”  In what ways are cascarones and confetti symbolic?  What other symbols are present in the book?
• Lina is embarrassed about being tall, while Luís is embarrassed about stuttering.  How does their relationship help them overcome these insecurities?

Personal Response Prompts:

• Lina’s parents often recite dichos.  What proverbs or sayings are popular in your family? 
• Lina and Vanessa are best friends, but they don’t always get along.  Write about a time you experienced a conflict with a friend or sibling. 
• Lina and Vanessa have a lot of school projects.  Write about one of your school projects.  Describe your favorite one, or describe one that was difficult for you.

Creative Writing Prompts:

• Take a scene from the novel and rewrite it from someone else’s point of view.  For example, rewrite the movie scene from Vanessa’s point of view, or rewrite the first volleyball game from Mr. Flores’s point of view.
• Lina creates many different uses for socks.  Take an everyday item (for example, a toothpick, trash can lid, or picture frame) and describe different uses for it.
• Take one of the chapter titles or one of the dichos and use it as a springboard for writing your own poem or short story.

Interdisciplinary Ideas:

• Art:  Make cascarones or design a pair of crazy socks.
• Science:  Mr. Star, Lina’s science teacher, assigns a project that requires the students to use field research in order to learn about some aspect of the coastal environment.  What type of natural environment is near you?  Use field research to complete a project similar to the one Lina and her friends had to do.
• History:  Lina learns a little about the background of cascarones.  Take a family or holiday tradition and research its origins.

If you have any classroom ideas you’d like to share, please post your idea on the message board or contact me at dianalopezbooks@yahoo.com.