BOCA BETH: One Song at a Time

With all of the highs and lows of the Holiday Season, I sometimes feel like an opposite!

Just the other night I was on the phone with one of my good girl friends (don’t you just LOVE having friends who are females and can relate to you?!?!?!). I was sobbing like a baby over the death of my mom and experiencing our first Christmas without her soon. Yet, just last night I enjoyed a fire in the fireplace (yes! Even in Florida we light fires to warm up by!) with two of my three children and luxuriated in the warmth of our home and our family love.

In honor of all of the roller coaster ride emotions life takes us on, I bring to you some bilingual lesson fun for young children on Opposites/opuestos.

 

“OPPOSITES/OPUESTOS”
(sung to the tune of “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe”)

Sing opposites in Spanish & English
Canta en Español e Inglés
Sing with me! It’s easy, you’ll see!
¡Canta conmigo! ¡Es facíl, verás!

Sí es yes, yes is sí.
No es no, no is no.
SI – NO! YES – NO!
Singing opposites!

Repeat chorus

Arriba es up, up is arriba.
Abajo es down, down is abajo.
ARRIBA – ABAJO! UP – DOWN!
Singing opposites!

Repeat chorus

Día es day, day is día.
Noche es night, night is noche.
DIA – NOCHE! DAY – NIGHT!
Singing opposites!

Repeat chorus

Grande es big, big is grande.
Pequeño es small, small is pequeño.
GRANDE – PEQUEÑO! BIG – SMALL!
Singing opposites!

Repeat Chorus

Suggested circle time activities to bring this Boca Beth bilingual song to life for you and the special children in your life!

I ask the children if they have enough energy to help me with my opposite song. (I speak in both languages back and forth as much as possible when asking questions like this. I realize if you only have command of one language that part is impossible, but it’s nice to do if you are bilingual.)

I have them practice the four sets of opposites ahead of time with me. We practice nodding our heads up and down for yes/sí and shaking our heads side to side for no/no. We reach up high with out-stretched arms for up/arriba and squat down low to the floor like frogs for down/abajo. Then we make a sun over our head for day/día and pretend we are sleeping on our folded hands for night/noche. Lastly, and I tell the children that this is the most fun set of opposites of all of them, we use wide arms opened up like for hugging a bear for big/grande and hands so close together it looks as if they are squashing something in between their palms for small/pequeño.

I remind them that it is a sway dance song so let’s “baila juntos/dance together.” We sway dance all the way until a set of opposites. I cue them as to which one is next. The children beg to do it again and again which is why I wrote a song about more opposites on our third CD called Sing Along with Boca Beth.

If you a part of our Boca Beth Educator’s Club you will recognize the following two lesson ideas for opposite fun with young children. If you are not a member, you should check into it for only 5 cents a day you get cool resources monthly!

There is an adorable Board Book - Bilingual Edition: English & Spanish for age range: For infants or children in preschool The Rainbow Fish series / El pez arco iris. Here is their description of the book: This is the latest addition to the Rainbow Fish bilingual board books that teach basic concepts in English and Spanish to very young children. Come and explore Rainbow Fish’s undersea world of opposites from big / grande, to little / pequeño, fast / rápido, to slow / lento, and more! New $4.99; used on amazon.com for less

Science Fun for Opposite Learning:

Lesson Plan for Opposites and Science: Heavy & Light

Age level: Ages 2 & up

Number of students: small to large groups depending upon number of

scales available and adult helpers

General subject area: Science

Materials needed:

• Balance scales

• A variety of heavy and light objects (examples of light objects: cotton balls,

ping pong balls, pencils, feathers, small Happy Meal toys; examples of

heavy objects: tennis balls, scissors, metal matchbox cars, small board

book, small piece of fruit)

Introduction: We have sung our Boca Beth opposite songs; we have read

some of our fun opposite board books, and are now ready to experiment with

hands on science fun related to opposites!

Stated objectives: Students will be able to orally predict and discuss the

difference between the weight of heavy and light objects.

Procedure:

1. Gather together the materials you have chosen to weigh on the balance

scales.

2. Discuss with the children (prior to weighing them) their predictions on

which items would be the lightest and the heaviest.

3. Ask them to explain their predictions.

4. Using the different objects – one heavy and one light – place them on

opposite sides of the small balance scale, allowing the children the

opportunity to observe heavy and light.

Closure: After clean up of the items the children could be instructed to fold a

piece of paper in half and draw one heavy object and one light object from the

experiment on opposite sides of the paper.

There are even FREE bilingual language cards available on our web site - and if you click here and look for September’s you will find opposites of Happy and Sad to use. All Educator Club members received many more of these cards as part of their membership.

Happy Educating! ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

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