Bilingual Storytime Flannel Idea - ¡Música!

Recently I observed a colleague use Raffi's "Ha Ha Thisaway" song in storytime and I was inspired.  I came up with a Spanish version of the song in which the singer learns to play different musical instruments as we place them on the flannelboard.  The rhythm of the song is the same, but the words are totally different, making it a movement song that build vocabulary specific to a theme, in this case music.

Keeping the tune, in place of the English chorus we sing:

"Muévete así, muévete acá

Muévete así, ¡Muévete!"

You can move from side to side or back and forth while singing, and clap out the final three syllables as you sing "¡Mué-ve-te!"

We put the flannel pieces up on the board before each verse to learn the name of the instrument, and pretend to play it and make its music.

"Cuando era niño(a), niño(a), niño(a)

Cuando era niño(a), aprendí mucho.

Aprendí a tocar piano, piano, piano,

Aprendí  a tocar piano, PI-A-NO.

                                              

Aprendí a tocar trompeta…

Aprendí a tocar guitarra…

Aprendí a tocar tambor…"

Again, you can clap out the syllables of the final word, reinforcing phonological awareness.

El piano y la trompeta

Here are pictures of the flannel pieces that I made to go with our version of this song.

La guitarra y el tambor

Bilingual Storytime Idea - Thanksgiving

¡Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias - Gobble, gobble!  This week the Village Branch will close early on Wednesday night, so we celebrated Thanksgiving early at Bilingual Family Storytime.

A colleague, Lowena Latiff, shared a song called "Mr. Turkey" with me which I translated into a rhyme to use with our beautiful Folkmanis turkey puppet.  I know that all children's librarians already know this, but Folkmanis puppets are truly the best.  We used our turkey friend for a fun fingerplay too.  Thanks to Raul Garces for helping me edit my translations.

Mr. Turkey                                   
I heard Mr. Turkey say                    
"Gobble, gobble, gobble.              
Soon will be Thanksgiving Day,    
gobble, gobble, gobble.                  
You may think that it is fun                
But I think, I will run                        
And hide until the day is done      
Gobble, gobble, gobble."              

Señor Pavo                                                                                     

Oí a Señor Pavo                                                                               

Dice “Gobble, gobble, gobble,                                                  

El día de gracias viene pronto                                                    

El día que me asusta tonto                                                          

Para tí es divertido                                                                         

Pero me da mucho miedo                                                           

Entonces voy a esconderme                                                      

Hasta que este día termine                                                        

Gobble, gobble, gobble.”

Y se fue el Señor Pavo.

I found this cute turkey glove pic at
Learningand Teaching with Preschoolers.

                                                     
Five Little Turkeys                                           
Five little turkeys standing at the door,                  
one waddled off, and then there were four.      
Four little turkeys sitting near a tree,                      
one waddled off, and then there were three.          
Three little turkeys with nothing to do,                    
one waddled off, and then there were two.            
Two little turkeys in the morning sun,                    
one waddled off, and then there was one.              
One little turkey better run away,                            
For soon it will be Thanksgiving Day.

Cinco pavos                                                               

Acerca de la puerta son cinco pavos                                       

Uno se salió, y ahora son cuatro.                                              

Cuatro pavos gordos huelen a los postres                            

Uno se salió y ahora son tres.                                                    

Tres pequeños pavos saltan unos saltos                                               

Uno se salió y ahora son dos.                                                     

Dos pavos nerviosos esperan su oportuno                          

Uno se salió y ahora solo hay uno.                                           

Un pavo queda este día importuno                                        

Cuando el se sale, ¡no hay ninguno!                        

We merged the theme of Thansgiving with family, as there are not a lot of good bilingual read alouds on the theme of Thanksgiving.  The book that works the best, of course, is Pat Mora's Gracias = Thanks, which is what we read first.  We then read We Are Cousins = Somos primos by Diane Gonzales Bertrand.  After all, for close-knit families, your cousins are your default best friends, and for other families, Thanksgiving may be one of the few times of year when you visit with your cousins.  Then we had a lot of fun singing and dancing to José-Luis Orozco's version of "La tía Mónica."  I was hesitant to use this book at first (even though it is very interactive and builds body part vocabulary) because it is so long (about 5 minutes).  However, I am so glad that I did.  The families had a blast!  This is definitely one to work into your regular bilingual storytime music rotation!  We closed with Juanito Counts to Ten = Johnny cuenta hasta diez by Lee Merrill Byrd.  In this cute story, Juanito counts out kisses to the various people in his family and daily life, and we practice our counting in English and Spanish, helping to develop important Kindergarten Readiness skills.

So even though I will be enjoying my Thanksgiving with a Tofurkey instead of a turkey, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday spent relaxing with the ones you love in however many languages you live.

Para los Niños - A resource to know for bilingual storytime!

As part of the "Growing Up Bilingual" workshop at the Reforma National Conference IV, I was introduced to the "Para los Niños" program.  This is too great a resource to keep to myself!  The program was developed by the Children's Museum of Houston.  Tiffany Fontenot of CMH and Freda Mosquera, who has implemented the program at Broward County Library in Florida, gave us an in depth demonstration.  The great thing about this program is that all of the materials are available to download and use in English and Spanish.  Also, all of the materials needed for the learning activities are very cheap, making the activities easy for families to replicate at home.

So what is "Para los Niños"?  It is a family learning program developed for Spanish-speaking families, though available in English as well.  There are 8 workshop themes, such as "Math at Home," "Raise a Reader" and "Self-Esteem."  Each theme has at least 5 activities that accompany it, and most of the activities tie back to picture book that the families can share together.  There are multiple ways that this program could be implemented.  For example, Freda Mosquera shared how her library offered these workshops at a community center that served many Spanish-speaking families.  The course of the program was 8 weeks, one theme each week.  The programs would start with a storytime for the families, and then the families could work together on each of activity stations.  I plan to implement parts of this program into my Bilingual Family Storytime program, setting up two to three activity stations each month for families to explore together following our stories and songs.

So go check this program out!  Do you know of other great ready-to-use resources for bilingual storytimes?  Share them with us here!