BOCA BETH: One Song at a Time

I really want to get back into the swing of sharing some teaching tips and tools and techniques on bringing Spanish and English together for young children.  Whether you are a stay-at-home mom, a homeschooling parent, an educator of preschool children, a caregiver of various aged children or a grandma lucky enough to be around to watch her grandchildren sprout before her eyes!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to continue to share my journey as well as the teaching tips that make Spanish come to life for all of us!

What Time Is It? / ¿ Qué hora es ? is a song I wrote and recorded back in ( I think ) 2003 for our 2nd CD titled More Boca Beth / Más Boca Beth.  The song is written to the original children’s tune Are You Sleeping?  If you remember the premise on which I put the foundation of my songwriting upon - we use children’s classic song melodies from which to piggyback the new songs that contain English and Spanish words that introduce brand new concepts.

You know the beat!  Here are the words!  Put them together with my FREE suggested language fun activities found on our web site, a little Judy Clock for fun and you have a fiesta/party full of time-telling niños/children!

“What Time Is It?/¿ Qué Hora Es ?”
(sung to “Are You Sleeping?”)

(chorus)
What time is it?
¿ Qué hora es ?
I need to know!
¡ Tengo que saber !

It is eight o’clock.
Son las ocho.
Time for breakfast!
¡ Hora de desayunar !

Repeat chorus

It is twelve o’clock.
Son las doce.
Time for lunch!
¡ Hora de almorzar !

Repeat chorus

It is six thirty.
Son las seis y media.
Time for dinner!
¡ Hora de cenar !

This is an echo song. I ask the children if they remember what an echo is. I praise the person with the correct answer and ask them to be my echo in this fun song about telling time in Spanish and English. If the children are old enough to get the concept, they can act out the time of day while singing about it. We hold our arms out in the position of 8 o’clock, then straight above our heads for 12 o’clock, then pointing down towards the ground for 6:30.  We rub our bellies in a circular motion while singing “Time for breakfast” and “Time for lunch” and “Time for dinner” as if we are content with the thought of eating soon!

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

p.s.  (If you really want to go to the next level then join our Boca Beth Educator’s Club (about 5 cents per day at our $19.95 per year membership fee).  This cool club gives you language cards - ones on clock and watch for this theme - formal lesson plans that center around a monthly theme that include several of the following:  Science experiments, snack fun, arts & crafts ideas, story time books to tie in, extra language cards, activity sheets and more and more and more!)