I was training in Minnesota after conducting my morning inspirational keynote, and a fellow early childhood professional was reminding me that for our adult brain to really process a new concept we need to see it, say it, and write it!
So today’s lesson is thanks to that new amiga from Dakota County Family Child Carereminding me of the basics of adult learning. (I will provide the last part of the Spanish alphabet later this weekend!)
I have two different audio links in this blog post: one is to hear the Spanish alphabet all the way through and one is to hear and repeat after me the letters A - Ñ. My suggestion would be to then use the last audio link again to write the letters as you hear them (the Spanish alphabet letters used are listed below as the alfabeto Español is just a bit different than the English alphabet).
Repeat Letters A - Ñ I would suggest you listen and repeat, then listen and write the letters.
a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ
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 coloressong 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 formasbilingual 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!
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!)
Have you visited our See It! Say It! section of our Boca Beth web site? It’s fairly new and gives you audio clips of vocabulary words and phrases in both English(I list the English words in blue) and Spanish (I list the Spanish words in red). Check it out sometime soonin our Sample Resources area. In the meantime, I brought some directly to you today for Valentine’s Day coming up! Read it, See it, Say it, Learn it!!!!
Every song from all four of our Boca Beth bilingual music CDsfor 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!
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 Pictureout 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.
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:
I loved the idea of adding audio links to our web site as an additional free resourceprovided by the company I started almost 8 years ago. Eight years…WOW! Whether you are new to Boca Beth or have been following along our journey for a long while, I am so glad you are here.
Enjoy these two new audios (located at the very top of the page). The audios feature the vocabulary from the two greeting songs we have enjoyed so far this week here on Spanish Fun for Everyone. I truly do want to help you create a bilingual home the fun and easy way!
This week it’s all about helping the children connect in circle time, in the start of the day, and incorporating Spanish and English into your daily routine!
Did you know that experts agree the once-a-week-classes are truly not enough to help a child become truly bilingual and biliterate?
It takes daily interaction with the new language to develop the neural pathway connections for language learning! In other words, we applaud you for at least trying with once a week Spanish class for your child, but playing our Boca Beth CDsor watching one of our interactive bilingual DVDswith your child every day for just about 10-20 minutes (the time difference is based on the age of the child) will surely be more effective in creating a lifetime language learner.
This Boca Beth bilingual YouTube video for children is another way to get the kids greeting one another each day:
Happy Educating!¡Sea feliz educando!
Boca Beth
P.S. (Visit us tomorrow for new audio clips that match these songs from our See It! Say It! Free Resource section of our web site …follow this link to get there!)
Children hold their BOCA puppet (if they have one) and sing along, belting out the words in Spanish and English with the pride of a bunch of peacocks strutting their beautiful colors at the zoo!
I encourage you to begin your daily routine with this bilingual children’s song that encourages diversity among all and kindness throughout the day.
Here is the link to the lyricsfor this song sung to the tune of Frere Jacques. The beauty of our Boca Beth songs is that most are written around a beat, a melody that you and the children already know. We just put in totally different words, lyrics meant to teach you and the children a 2nd language. It’s a super easy and fun way to learn!!!
Want to win something first thing this week? I am giving away a set of our original Boca Beth language cards to one lucky maestra/teacher. We don’t even sell them any longer, but I have one set of 12 bilingual language cards to give one lucky winner today - Monday - February 1st!
Comment below on my blog whether you have the time to download our free bilingual language cardsor comment below that it’s just too much hassle and you would rather buy them! Seriously - that is all you have to do to be entered to win! We will take comments up through 8 pm EST Monday night, February 1, 2010 and choose one random winner. We just want to know if those 160 free language cards on our web site are of value to you or not.
