BOCA BETH: Bringing Spanish to Life!

Ready for a new song?  A new theme?  More teachable moment ideas?  Book resources?

Then you are at the right place amiga, amigo / friend!  This week we will help you out with the Spanish alphabet.  Read what a fellow teacher says about this song I wrote (and the fact that she is a native Spanish-speaker makes me so proud how she raves about it!):

I have found that BOCA BETH’s Alphabet song is the first song I have been able to use with my Spanish class. The song is accurate and presents ALL of the letters in the Spanish alphabet. I have never been able to use a recording of a Spanish alphabet song in class before, because the whole Spanish alphabet was not used in the song. I am so excited that I am finally able to use a Spanish Alphabet song in my classroom! I also love the ¿ Cómo te llamas ? song. My kids love it too. There are large quantities of Spanish instruction materials out there, but I am encouraged that the songs I have chosen to use from the Boca Beth Program are helping me to instruct my students in a correct use of the Spanish language. Thanks BOCA BETH!

                                                                      Anna M. Ortega-Shyne, Spanish Teacher, Florida

Enjoy the song!  Then come back as the week goes along for more ideas on how to introduce the Spanish alphabet.  Click link to the right for song:     Rappin the Spanish Alphabet with Boca Beth

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

I have been sharing some very fun and easy-to-make visual aids that bring Spanish and English together for young children with fellow educators around the country and want to share some of these with YOU!  (For FREE!!!)

From our I See Colors/Veo colores song I have seven/siete (7) color visual aids to share with you for preschool classroom fun and learning.  You will receive a red apple, a blue ribbon, a green frog, a yellow sun, a white crescent moon, a brown bear and a black car tire plus the color words in English and Spanish! 

For our I Know My Shapes / Yo sé mis formas bilingual children’s song I have five/cinco (5) shape visual aids to bring Spanish and English together whether you are a homeschooling family, ESL teacher, stay-at-home mom or preschool professional.  You will receive a circle, square, rectangle, triangle and oval plus the words of the shapes in Spanish and English! 

How do you get them?  Simply comment below which one - colors or shapes - of the visual aids you would like me to mail you!  I will reply to EVERY comment, asking you for your mailing address!  And, I am going to slip in a fun little Boca Beth item in the mailer!

So…go to our web site and read the lyrics for the I See Colors children’s song and then go to the Boca Beth web site and read the lyrics for the I Know My Shapes song … think about which one you would use more then comment below!

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

The melody I wrote our Opposites/Los opuestos song around is One, Two, Buckle My Shoe.

Here are the words to the song:

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

Here are the suggested circle time/classroom activities to bring the Boca Beth bilingual song to 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 shaking our heads for yes/sí and no/no, then we go up/arriba and 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 and the last is the most fun I tell them with big/grande and 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. 

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

P.S. (Tomorrow we will ask YOU for your ideas on teaching opposites to young children ages 2-8, and the two ideas chosen to share in our blog Spanish Fun for Everyone will provide the writer of the ideas the CD this Boca Beth song is on - More Boca Beth - plus a pair of children’s mini maracas!  Start your creative juices flowing!)

If your personal answer is “yes! / ¡sí!” then we have a fun trilingual presentation of our More Opposites/Más opuestos song from our Sing Along with Boca Beth music CD.

For the past five years a Pinellas County Public School encouraged their first graders to learn our bilingual songs - encouraging communication in the two most widely spoken languages in this county, Spanish and English!  Then, last year, they added in American Sign Language due to a student in their class who used ASL for communication!

What you will witness in this YouTube video is their sweet, young voices sharing their knowledge of how to sing the opposites in English and Spanish.  Most of the children are Anglo, English-speaking children who have come to embrace the diversity of their community.   Do you?  As an adult are you showing young children that you respect others’ cultures and their languages?  I hope so!  Enjoy!

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

Hola/Hi amigas, amigos/friends!  (Feels like I skipped a week but I was in Arkansas training and conducting a children’s concert for the Bentonville community so I was MIA for a couple of days!)

Back to the weekly fun of sharing lesson ideas, book resources, and Boca Beth bilingual beats that introduce Spanish and English to young children ages birth - ten! (Yes!  Pregnant moms should be listening to our CDs so that their babies learn in the womb.  Read this recent article on just that subject … learning languages in the womb!)

Enjoy our award-winning song about opposites from our second of four bilingual music CDs.  This one is written to the melody of One, Two, Buckle My Shoe.  Then follow us all week for additional resources to teach opposites/los opuestos to young children in the two most widely spoken languages in the United States - English and Spanish/Inglés y Español.

  Opposites / Los opuestos  (click this link on the left to get the free music download)

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

I knew when we released our bilingual Christian music CD in 2008 that it would be one of the greatest things I had accomplished during my journey as Boca Beth!  With almost 1,000 copies sold or donated to Christians across the world we were thrilled to donate $400+ to the relief efforts assisting the people of Haiti through my home church Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida this week!

Please celebrate life as we embrace the kindness and generosity of walking in the footsteps of Jesus as we share with you one of the many Spanish and English songs for children from our Sing Praise for Children / Canta la alabanza para los niños Boca Beth CD.  (Click the link below for the free music download!)

 Jesus Always Sees You

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

Every song from all four of our Boca Beth bilingual music CDs for children has at least one (if not more) suggested activity to bring the song to life in the classroom, the homeschool co-op lesson or simply in the playroom of your home!

For Singing the Seasons / Cantando las estaciones here is what is suggested at the Sample Resource area of our web site:

Using visual aides of the four seasons I choose three children for each season – one to hold the picture of the season, one to hold the English word for that season and one to hold the Spanish word for that season. The picture person stands in the middle and sways his picture back and forth during the chorus of his season. The other two children hold their word up only when it is sung. English up, then down and Spanish goes up. The other children delight in the silliness of trying to keep up with which word is being sung. 

Making these visual aides is easy! 

• Find four pictures from Clip Art, Google Images, or from the good old fashion magazine, and make a Season Picture out of each one by gluing it to brightly colored card stock paper.   (If it’s age-appropriate, have the children create their own Season Pictures or help with the development of the classroom set.)
• For the words I suggest typing the name of the seasons on the computer, printing off the words in large letters and gluing them on to the matching color for that season’s picture card stock.  The names of the seasons are spelled as follows in Spanish and English:

Spring / Primavera;  Summer / Verano; Fall / Otoño; Winter / Invierno  (I highlighted them in the suggested color stock per season!  Once a teacher, always a teacher!)  Have fun with this suggested class activity.

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

When you turn to the word piggyback in Webster’s New World College Dictionary (something I keep at my desk 24/7 because I am a stickler for misspells!!!!), you will see these words as part of the definition:  so as to be fixed to, connected with or dependent on something else, to place on or upon in piggyback fashion. 

Here at Boca Beth, when I write my songs and speak to fellow educators about this method of songwriting, we talk about how the lyrics are piggybacked on to familiar melodies of songs that you and the children are familiar with.  For instance, when I first started out as Ms. Music in local Bay Area preschools, I used the melody from I’m a Little Teapot and would teach the toddlers and preschoolers these words:

I’m a little sunshine muy amarillo,  Watch me shine, I am brillante …

Experts agree that this method, using familiar melodies & tunes that the teacher, the parent, and the children are all familiar with helps to increase retention, speed up learning, and - for young ones - make it fun for their learning styles as you add in maracas, dance, rhythm, rhyme, smiles, and new languages/new concepts!

Below are the words for this week’s song from our award-winning Boca Beth Program - piggybacked on to the melody of I’ve Been Working on the Railroad :

“Singing The Seasons / Cantando las estaciones”
(sung to “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”)

The Seasons of the year are fun to learn
When I’m singing along.
The Seasons of the year are fun to learn
When I’m singing along.
Can you sing Primavera?
It is Spring when you sing.
Can you sing Primavera?
Spring is what I sing!
Primavera, Primavera,
Primavera is S-P-R-I-N-G!
Primavera, Primavera,
Primavera is Spring!
The Seasons of the year are fun to learn
When I’m singing along.
The Seasons of the year are fun to learn
When I’m singing along.
Can you sing Verano? 
It is Summer when you sing.
Can you sing Verano?
Summer is what I sing!
Verano, Verano,
Verano is S-U-M-M-E-R!
Verano, Verano,
Verano is Summer!
(Repeat chorus)
Can you sing Otoño?
It is Fall when you sing.
Can you sing Otoño?
Fall is what I sing!
Otoño, Otoño,
Otoño is F-A-L-L!
Otoño, Otoño,
Otoño is Fall!
(Repeat Chorus)
Can you sing Invierno?
It is Winter when you sing.
Can you sing Invierno?
Winter is what I sing!
Invierno, Invierno,
Invierno is W-I-N-T-E-R!
Invierno, Invierno,
Invierno is Winter!

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

Many of you have heard me mention a FREE resource that I use often with my own daughter - OnLineFreeSpanish.com has a terrific section for introducing the seasons at this link.  Enjoy!

I found the two books below on Amazon.com - used and new from $8.75+                           Then from the Educational Company KAPLAN I found these cute flashcards on Seasons, Months, and more at this link.    It was amazing…no, actually, it was disturbing to me how little there was from Lakeshore Learning, Discount School Supply and KAPLAN in terms of bilingual classroom aids.  How is a teacher supposed to provide instruction in both languages a little bit each day if even the calendar doesn’t come with Spanish and English on the same visual aid?

Don’t worry amigas and amigos - Boca Beth will keep you in the loop!  Here is the link to the CD with the Singing the Seasons / Cantando las estaciones song on it plus 14 other easy-to-follow Boca Beth bilingual songs!

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

P.S. (Not one person has guessed correctly where BOCA is from the most recent Where Is BOCA? Contest.  Go back, study the picture, and win our cool prize pack.  HURRY!  This contest ends Tuesday, 2.9.10, at 8 pm!)

You suggest them, we try to bring them to you!  Recently I asked for some ideas from you all about other themes, ideas to teach with this fun bilingual approach!

My blog’s Music Monday brings to you our Singing the Seasons / Cantando las estaciones song from my More Boca Beth music CD found on our web site for only $14.99.  This music CD introduces more than 140 words and 30 phrases in both Spanish and English!  Lots more fun than a workbook, and we all agree that music is the universal language for learning!

Enjoy this YouTube mini lesson featuring my Boca Beth bilingual song for children:

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth