Spanish Books for Every Child Ready to Read

I am a big fan of the Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR) parent education initiative, developed by the Public Library Association (PLA) and the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC).  As a Children's Librarian, I presented many ECRR workshops for parents in both English and Spanish.  As a consultant, one of the services I offer is helping libraries offer ECRR workshops to Spanish-speaking parents in their service area.  One of the reasons why I love ECRR so much is because it is a data-supported model which accomplishes multiple goals at once.  This is particularly true as it is offered to Latino and Spanish-speaking communities.  Not only does it reach early literacy goals by teaching and empowering parents as the first teachers of their children, it also works as an outreach tool to form new relationships between libraries and Latino community organizations and even individual families.  I am a huge advocate of the ECRR initiative and I am thrilled that the updated version will soon be available in a Spanish as well, Cada niño listo para leer.

In order to support librarians and library staff offering ECRR workshops to Spanish-speaking families, I thought I would share some of my favorite Spanish and bilingual books that support early literacy development.  These are books that are fun to share with children, are wonderful to incorporate into storytimes, and make great examples for sharing with parents during ECRR workshops.

Board Books for Babies
My Colors, My World / Mis colores, mi mundo by Maya Christina Gonzalez
This Belpré honor recipient for illustration is now available in board book form.  Explore the colors hiding in the desert with young Maya.

I Love to Sleep / Me encanta dormir / J'aime dormir and I Love to Eat / Me encanta comer / J'aime manger by Amélie Graux
Trilingual touch-and-feel board books introduce simple vocabulary.

¡Fiesta! by Ginger Foglesong Guy
Count the objects the niños buy at the market for their fiesta.

Time for Bed / Es hora de dormir and Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes / Diez deditos de las manos y diez deditos de los pies by Mem Fox
Two much loved titles for babies now available in bilingual board books featuring spectacular rhyming translations by F. Isabel Campoy.

¡Cu-cú, bebé! and ¿Dónde está el ombliguito? by Karen Katz
Spanish versions of fun lift-the-flap board books that introduce new vocabulary in an interactive manner.

Picture Books for Toddlers
Hello Night / Hola noche by Amy Costales
A gentle story that rhymes in both languages.  Perfect for bedtime.


Let's Eat! / ¡A comer! by Pat Mora
A sweet story in the "My Family / Mi Familia" series about the joy of sharing a meal together as a family.  The entire series is highly recommended; other titles are Wiggling Pockets / Los bosillos saltarines and Sweet Dreams / Dulces sueños.

Fiesta Babies by Carmen Tafolla
Rhyming English text which incorporates Spanish words introduces us to the many ways in which babies celebrate!


¡Muu, Moo! Rimas de animales / Animal Nursery Rhymes by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy
Animal rhymes that niños and parents will enjoy sharing time and again.


ABeCedarios: Mexican Folk Art ABCs in English and Spanish by Cynthia Weill
The first in a series of bilingual first concept books that feature photographs of traditional Mexican folk art pieces as illustrations.  Others in the series are Opposites / Opuestos, Colores de la vida, and Count Me In!


Picture Books for Preschoolers
Quinito's Neighborhood / El vecindario de Quinito by Ina Cumpiano
Meet the diverse folks in Quinito's neighborhood while learning fantastic vocabulary!

Ten Little Puppies / Diez perritos by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy
A traditional Spanish children's song in storybook form.  Count and sing along!

Un pez muy divertido by Jack Tickle
One of several Spanish pop-up books in the "Libros Cu-cu Sorpresa" series.  Spanish pop-ups can be difficult to find for purchase; it's really fun to be able to share them with kids in storytime or at a workshop.

What Can You Do with a Rebozo? / ¿Qué puedes hacer con un rebozo? by Carmen Tafolla
The rebozo, a traditional shawl, can be many things if you use your imagination.

Arroz con leche / Rice Pudding by Jorge Argueta
One of several bilingual cooking poem stories.  The stories are actually recipes told in poem form, which makes them excellent for acting out and talking about what happens first, middle and last.  Others are Sopa de frijoles / Bean Soup and Guacamole.

What did I miss?  This is just a sample; there are many more great Spanish and bilingual books that promote early literacy skill development and are fun to share with kids.  If one that you love is not on this list, please leave a comment and share it with us!

Mamiverse Bilingual Book Reviews

Get to know Mamiverse!  This online hub for Latina moms and families is now featuring reviews of children's books, including bilingual books.  This section covers bilingual titles, culturally relevant for Latino families, for children of all ages, from babies to young readers.  This is definitely a site to visit frequently for new content.  You can also like/follow them on various social media tools for new information.  Check it out!

http://www.mamiverse.com/life/mamiverse-books/bilingual-books/

NPR Story on Library Services to Spanish Speakers

NPR's Tell Me More recently did a story with Reformista Loida Garcia-Febo on library services to Spanish-speakers.  It is definitely worth a visit to read or listen to the story.  One of the things that I noticed is that the host mentions some libraries assisting Spanish-speaking parents with the completion of back-to-school paperwork.  This is something I did every year in my work at the Village Branch library. I know my colleagues there continue to do this not only with annual back-to-school papers, but with all kinds of forms and other types of cultural brokerage that immigrants adjusting to life in a new community need help with.  It was really great to see this issue discussed on a national level, outside of library press.

http://www.npr.org/2012/09/26/161815911/librarians-reach-out-to-spanish-speakers

"Connecting with the Spanish-Speaking Community": A Professional Development Opportunity for Library Staff

The Latino community is the fastest growing demographic in the United States.  This growth is particularly noticeable in some areas, such as the South.  Libraries and librarians who are noticing growth in their Latino and Spanish-speaking communities may face a number of challenges in their work to provide quality outreach and services, particularly if they have limited or no bilingual/bicultural staff.  I have designed a 4-week, online course offered by the Library of Virginia that addresses such challenges and helps library staff learn how to overcome them.  The next session of the course begins October 1, and all of the information for registration is provided below.  I hope you will consider participating!  State agencies and other organizations interested in offering this course to their staff can contact me directly.

Connecting with Spanish-Speaking Communities

Taught by: Katie Cunningham

Cost: $25.00 for people in Virginia and $70.00 for people outside of Virginia

Offered: October 1 - 26, 2012

Course Overview: Through this 4 week online course, participants will increase their knowledge of the general library needs of Spanish-speaking communities and will develop strategies, resources and confidence they can use to reach out to this community and connect them with library services. Small groups will work together to develop an Outreach Plan for a library. The required reading, Serving Latino Communities, by Camila Alire and Jacqueline Ayala will be provided.

Prerequisite: The free online course Introduction to Moodle, which will be offered beginning September 10, 2012 and must be completed by September 26, 2012. When you sign up for this course you will automatically be signed up for Introduction to Moodle.

Instructor: Katie Cunningham has been serving Latinos and Spanish-speakers since she began working in libraries in 2005. Katie was a participant in the Webjunction Spanish Language Outreach (SLO) training program in 2007, and her work serving Spanish-speakers was recognized by Webjunction as the best outreach project by an SLO participant in 2008. She has designed numerous presentations to aid librarians and teachers serving Latinos and Spanish-speaking families. Katie is an active member of Reforma – The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and Spanish-Speakers – serving on the Children and Young Adult Services Committee and as the 2012-13 President of the Southeast Chapter.  Katie is also an ALSC appointee to the 2013 Pura Belpré committee.  Katie now works as an independent training specialist and library consultant.  She regularly shares bilingual programming ideas, suggested books and storytelling resources on her blog " Es divertido hablar dos idiomas" available online at http://bilingualchildrensprogramming.blogspot.com/. 

Registration for this course is open.  We do require payment at the time of registration. We accept Visa and MasterCard.

For more information and a link to register for this course please contact: Enid Costleyenid.costley@lva.virginia.gov or 804.692.3765 or go to http://host5.evanced.info/lva/evanced/eventcalendar.asp and change the month to October and click on the course.

Bilingual Storytime: ¡La Piñata!

This week I humbly offer another Flannel Friday bonus, mostly because after this week it may be a while before I am able to share anything again!


A while back I shared ideas for a Fiesta Bilingual Storytime.  In that post I describe how we created our own flannelboard piñata after we read the bilingual book Piñata! by Rebecca Emberley, but I did not put up a picture or pattern at that time.  Here they are!  The "piñata" itself is too large to scan, so the pattern is just of the dulces and juguetes that we put inside the piñata.  To make the piñata, I simply cut out one very large felt circle and attached to it four long skinny felt triangles of different colors with paper streamers on the ends.    My idea was to have the flannel piñata resemble a star-style piñata.  This is a really simple and interactive technique for reinforcing the vocabulary of the specific objects in both English and Spanish, engaging mixed-age audiences in a family storytime setting (older children often help the younger children add objects to the piñata), and to bring the piñata to life with our imaginations.  I hope you have fun with it!

 

Piñata from Katie Cunningham

Flannel Friday: Vamos a la granja / Let's Go to the Farm

This flannel was originally made more me by a wonderful colleague, Maria, at the Columbus Metropolitan Library.  I used her original as the pattern for my version which I am sharing with you all today.  The flannel is for the easy reader The Day the Dog Said, "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!" by David McPhail, which is also available in Spanish as El día que el perro dijo, "¡Quiquiriquí!"  The basic premise of the story is that a terrible storm comes sweeping through the farmyard, picking up all of the animals into the air, and when they crash back to earth, their voices have been mismatched.  Pretty soon they all begin arguing over who has the best voice.  The quacking cow thinks that the mooing duck has the best voice, etc.  Eventually, they are all swept up by the storm again and when they land this time, their original voices have been restored.

This story is really fun to use with preschool and family storytime audiences.  It's sure to get some laughs!  I usually have all of the kids help me blow in the big wind and sweep the animals up into the air, crashing back to earth with the wrong voices a few times.  I skip the arguing part and instead draw out the humor of the animals making unexpected sounds.  Finally, when their original voices return, the group catches on after the first animal or two and joins in.  This story is great for bilingual and/or Spanish storytimes too.  Bilingual is especially fun because you get to say both "cock-a-doodle-doo" and "quiquiriquí."

I hope you enjoy!

Day the Dog Said from Katie Cunningham

Flannel Friday BONUS! La hormiguita

Because I feel so terribly about how long it has been since I have contributed to Flannel Friday, tonight I am adding a bonus flannel.  This is one of the first flannels I ever made for myself; my skills have improved some over the years!  But even though the flannel pieces themselves aren't the prettiest, I wanted to get this story, "La hormiguita," out there to you all.  I came across this flannel while working at the Columbus Metropolitan Library.  I know it is based on a Mexican folktale, but I have never been able to track down the original story.  I have read every "Little Ant" folktale out there that I could find, but have never found this exact one.

In this story, la hormiguita (the little ant) slips on some ice and hurts her foot on her way to take a loaf of pan (bread) to her abuela (grandma).  Her friend the grillo (cricket) tells her she should demand justice from the escarcha (ice), who says it is actually the fault of the sol (sun), who blames it on the nube (cloud), etc. until the surprise twist at the end.  The script for the story as I like to tell is is available here.

I like this story because it is a cumulative tell that builds on and repeats key Spanish vocabulary.  This means that it is an easy story to tell to incorporate a Latino folktale and some Spanish words into your storytime, even if you don't speak Spanish.

Have fun, and if anyone knows of or finds the original source for this story, I would LOVE to know what it is!

La hormiguita from Katie Cunningham

Flannel Friday! ¿Eres tu mi mamá?

Friday flannelers, I must apologize.  It's been way too long since I added anything new, and I am very sorry! Hopefully, today's contribution will be one that Spanish/bilingual programmers and English programmers alike will be able to use and enjoy.  It is a flannel version of the P.D. Eastman classic, Are You My Mother? which is also available in Spanish as ¿Eres tu mi mamá?  The story is simple enough - a little birdie hatches from his egg, but his mother is no where to be found.  He looks everywhere for her and asks a variety of creatures and objects if they are his mamá - the cat (el gato), the hen (la gallina), the dog (el perro), the cow (la vaca), a car (un coche), a boat (un barco), a plane (un avión) and a BIG thing (una cosa GRANDE) which I have made as a bulldozer for this verion (una maquina excavadora).

I have a couple of extras to go with this post.  First, as always, you will see the PDF version at the bottom of the post.  Because I am not particularly skilled artistically, but I LOVE making and using flannelboards, it is always helpful for me to have some sort of pattern to scale that I can work with.  Hopefully these PDFs are useful for others of you in the same situation.  Secondly, I found an awesome YouTube version of this story in Spanish that a super creative mom made for her child.  It's definitely worth a listen - this mom has some storytime skills!


Finally, because I feel so terribly about being out of the Flannel Friday loop for so long, look for some extras that will be coming your way this week.  Happy flanneling to all!

Eres tu mi mama from Katie Cunningham

Library of Virginia Early Literacy Conference

This Wednesday, August 29, I am presenting at the Library of Virginia Early Literacy Conference.  I am very much looking forward to meeting with Virginia librarians, and hope this information will be helpful!  For your convenience, here is the PowerPoint presentation, which can be downloaded from Slideshare.net.

Serving Latino Children and Families in Virginia Libraries from Katie Cunningham

***ALSO***  During this presentation, I discussed some resources for library staff who do not speak Spanish who are serving Spanish-speaking customers.  One that I discussed is the PDF file of a Spansh/English pointing guide available through Webjunction.  Click on the link to access a page where you can download the entire guide.  Also, Webjunction has another page full of Spanish language resources.  An additional site that may be of interest to non-Spanish-speaking staff serving Spanish-speakers is PLUS - Public Libraries Using Spanish.  This online database has many library documents in Spanish that organizations can use as templates in creating resources for your own organization.

Cinco Puntos Press: LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS LIBRARIANS

Cinco Puntos Press, a small publisher of many bilingual books based out of Texas, has recently begun a series on their blog recognizing librarians, beginning with fellow Reformista and 2012 Pura Belpré committee member Fransisco Vargas.  This story acknowledges a very moving moment at the 2012 Pura Belpré celebración in which the power of books that positively portray people of all cultures was keenly felt.  This is absolutely worth a quick read!

Cinco Puntos Press: LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS LIBRARIANS: LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS LIBRARIANS --by Bobby Byrd Note: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is that classic book with text by James Agee...

A multilingual craft blog to know!

Today I was looking around online for some Spanish craft instructions and I stumbled upon this awesome site that would be useful to any Children's Librarian, but especially to those offering bilingual or multilingual programs.  El hada de papel (Paper Fairy in English and Papierfee in German) is a blog dedicated to crafting with kids that is written in German, English and Spanish.  The instructions are very simple and each post includes great pictures.  It is pretty easy to navigate too, as each post is tagged by category.  I am excited to see if this is of value to anyone else in the Flannel Friday community!  Check out these adorable toilet paper tube owls!

Looking for help from my library amigos!

Hello all!  If you are a reader of this blog, I am asking for your help.  I have two projects in the works that are designed to help librarians learn how to offer bilingual storytime programs, even if they don't speak Spanish.  One is a book chapter for a professional development title that Reforma's Children and Young Adult Services Committee is writing together, and the other is a four-week online course that will be offered this fall through the Library of Virginia.  In each of these I plan to include a Spanish word and phrase guide that can be used to help children's librarians communicate with Spanish-speaking families.  This is where I need your help.  I'd love it if some folks could send me ideas of things they'd like to be able to say to storytime families in Spanish, either in conversation, in the program or through signage/handouts.  If you have any suggestions, please leave them as a comment or send me an email.  Also, if there are any other questions that you have or specific resources/techniques that you'd like to know more about in terms of offering bilingual programs, send that to me also.  This could help shape what I include in the chapter or course, or be used as a future blog topic.  I definitely want these resources to be practical!

Thank you for your ideas!  ¡Gracias por las ideas!

BIG Bilingual Storytime Flannel Idea - ¡Los Elefantes!

Today librarians across the country are kicking off Summer Reading programs, many of whom are using the collaborative theme - Dream Big!  ¡Sueñe en grande!  This inspired my Flannel Friday contribution this week - a prop technique for a rhyme about a BIG animal - elephants!  I learned this technique from Freda Mosquera of the Broward County Public Library at our preconference workshop on Bilingual Storytime techniques at the Reforma IV conference this past September.  It goes along to the traditional song "Los Elefantes" which many may be familiar with in English as "One Elephant Went Out to Play."  The song goes like this:

English:
One elephant went out to play
upon a spider's web one day
he had such enormous fun
that he called for another elephant to come


Spanish:
Un elefante se balanceaba
sobre la tela de una araña
como veía que resistía
se fue a llamar a otro elefante.


Dos elefantes se balanceaban
sobre la tela de una araña
come veían que resistía
se fueron a llamar a otro elefante

The song continues calling for more elephants to join in the fun on the spiderweb.  The props that I use with this rhyme are laminated elephants, numbered 1-10, a long string, clothespins and a cute felt elephant hat that I picked up at Michael's made by a company called Darice.  This rhyme is interactive, with each child getting to come up one at a time and add an elephant, so it works best with small groups.  To make the elephants, I used elephant clip art available in Word.  I found a company called The Country Porch selling these same felt elephant hats for $3.99, but I have not ordered from them before, so I cannot endorse them as a vendor.

To use the props, I hand out the elephants to the children and then hold one end of the large string and the children come up one at a time to add their elephant while we sing the appropriate verse of the song.  So the child with the elephant marked "1" comes up first.  He or she gets to wear the elephant hat and add his or her elephant to our spider web.  Then she or he holds the other end of the string and swings it with me while we sing the first verse of the song.  When the verse is finished, it is time for the child with elephant number 2 to come up and join in the fun.  "¿Quien tiene el elefante número dos?  Who has elephant number two?"  This is a great practice of counting and identifying numbers in both English and Spanish, as well as singing and rhyming using a traditional song.

There are many different versions of this song available, including José-Luis Orozco's version from "De Colores," Jorge Anaya's version from "Cha, Cha, Cha," and this YouTube version from Storyblocks.

Check out my previous post first describing this technique for more Elefantes/Elephants bilingual storytime ideas.  Good luck everyone with your Summer Reading!

Bilingualism Across the U.S. Infographic and Reforma Southeast Meeting

Recently Sarah, an ¡Es Divertido Hablar Dos Idiomas! reader, contacted me to share this Infographic created and published by Bestcollegesonline.com.  This infographic provides a concise visual representation of the the rise of bilingualism in the United States over the last 30 years, presenting the most common languages other than English spoken at home and the many advantages of bilingualism.  Thank you for sharing this with us, Sarah!


Via: BestCollegesOnline.com

I also would like to share with everyone that the next meeting of Reforma Southeast will be on June 7, 2-4 PM in the Centennial room in the Main Library of the Louisville Free Public Library.  If you are unfamiliar, Reforma is the National Organization to Promote Libraries and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking, an affiliate of the American Library Association.  The Southeast Chapter covers Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and the parts of Virginia not covered by the D.C. chapter.  Our website is currently under renovation, so please visit and join our Facebook Group!  Most of our membership is in Kentucky, which is where we often hold our meetings, but anyone in these southeastern states is welcome to attend.  If you are interested in attending virtually, we can definitely set this up using Google video chat or Skype.  Please contact me through the blog by June 5 if you are interested in setting this up.  For anyone interested in becoming a Reforma Southeast member, this would be a great meeting to attend, as we will be discussing our goals for the upcoming year.

Bilingual Storytime Flannel Friday - Los tiburones en la mar

The weather is warming up in a very summery way here in Kentucky, so I thought I would share a beachy flannelboard that is very easy and fun to use in both English and Spanish.  This is one of the first flannelboards that I ever made.  It's for the rhyme "The Sharks in the Sea" (to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus") which I translated into "Los tiburones en la mar."  Be sure to check out all of the Flannel Friday contributions for May 25 over at Mel's Desk!

The sharks in the sea go chomp, chomp, chomp
chomp, chomp, chomp,
chomp, chomp, chomp.
The sharks in the sea go chomp, chomp, chomp
All day long.


Los tiburones en la mar hacen chomp, chomp, chomp
chomp, chomp, chomp,
chomp, chomp, chomp.
Los tiburones en la mar hacen chomp, chomp, chomp
todo el día.

The remaining verses are as follows:
The lobsters in the sea go pinch, pinch, pinch / Las langostas en la mar hacen pinch, pinch, pinch
The whale in the sea goes squirt, squirt, squirt / La ballena en la mar hace squirt, squirt, squirt
The clams in the sea go open and shut / Las almejas en la mar se abren y se cierran
The octopus in the sea goes wiggle, wiggle, wiggle / El pulpo en la mar se manea, se manea
The seahorse in the sea rocks back and forth / El caballo de mar se mueve afrente y atrás
The kids in the waves jump up and down / Los niños en la mar saltan arriba y abajo

This flannel is fun to use in any beach or water theme storytime.  Potential books to include are:

I Know the River Loves Me / Yo sé que el río me ama by Maya Christina Gonzalez
¡Salpicar! / Splash! by Flora McDonnell
Bebé Goes to the Beach by Susan Middleton Elya
Bajo las olas 1,2,3 / Under the Sea 1,2,3 by Barbara Knox
Susurro del océano / Ocean Whisper by Dennis Rockill - This is a wordless book.

Of course, for any beach storytime, a fun final activity is to do a shell sort.  This allows parents and children to work together sorting various shells by their attributes, such as size or color.  Sorting in this manner is great preparation for Kindergarten, so this activity would be appropriate for a preschool age audience.  Check out this description of how sorting activities work from the Vermont Center for the Book's Mother Goose - What's the BIG Idea program. 

Here is the PDF if you are like me and prefer to have a pattern that is to scale.

Bilingual Storytime Flannalboard - Los tiburones en la mar

View more documents from Katie Cunningham.

Happy Friday to all!  Enjoy the sunshine this weekend!

Bilingual Storytime Idea - Flannel Friday!

I am a big fan of the librarians of Flannel Friday.  If you aren't familiar with this group, they are a wide variety of blogging librarians from across the country who every Friday share something super practical from their storytime toolkit with the rest of us.  Generally, this is a flannelboard story or rhyme, but it could also be a puppet story, prop story or creative dramatic.  They are all about sharing what works, and I LOVE that!  So when I saw a post from Miss Mary Liberry explaining how anyone can jump into the Flannel Friday fun, I decided to join them.  What I intend to contribute to the Flannel Friday network is material and ideas that can be used in Spanish and/or bilingual storytime programs.  I will be sharing my own translations as well as stories, rhymes, etc. that are already available in Spanish.  I will be using the flannels from my own collection, as well as creating new ones inspired by the work of other Flannel Friday contributors, if it can be modified to be used in Spanish.  I hope this will be helpful to bilingual librarians and teachers, as well as to programmers looking to make English storytime or circle time programs more inclusive of Latino culture and the Spanish language.

I follow Miss Mary's blog and really enjoy what she posts, so it's fitting that my first ever Flannel Friday contribution would be inspired by her.  Last week, Miss Mary posted a very cute flannel for the traditional song "Aiken Drum."  When I was reading her post, I started to hum the song to myself, but en español.  The first verse actually fit, and I wondered if the whole song could maintain its rhythm in Spanish.  To my surprise and delight, I found that it could!  My dear friend Raúl checked it over for accuracy, and now it is ready to share with all of you.  The only verse that is modified from the original version shared by Miss Mary is that I changed meatballs to chorizo - a spicy, smoked sausage!  For anyone unfamiliar with the tune to this song, you can listen to an audio file of another version at Songs for Teaching.

Vivía un hombre en la luna, en la luna, en la luna,
Vivía un hombre en la luna,
se llama Aiken Drum.

El tocó un cucharón, un cucharón, un cucharón
El tocó un cucharón,
se llama Aiken Drum

The remaining verses are as follows:

Con pelo de espaguetis...

Con ojos de chorizo...

Con orejas de brécol...

Con una boca de pizza...

Con una nariz de queso...

Please be sure to check out Miss Mary's original post as well as all of the other amazing storytime ideas being contributed weekly by the bloggers in the Flannel Friday network!  You can find all of the ideas being contributed this week at Notes from the Story Room.  Also, one of the things I am going to do with my flannels is to include PDF versions in addition to pictures.  This makes it very easy to recreate what you see to scale by printing the PDF version and using that as patterns for your own version of the flannel.  You will be able to find the PDF's on my SlideShare account.  Happy flanneling!

Aiken Drum Flannelboard

View more documents from Katie Cunningham.

Books for Bilingual Storytime! ¡Libros para el programa de cuentos bilingües!

Looking for some libros fantásticos to add to your bilingual storytimes?  I've made a shelf in my Goodreads account that may be useful.  It's a list of books that I love sharing either as they are or in some modified way in my programs.  Many are bilingual, but some are English only or Spanish translations of books originally written in other languages.  There's currently over 75 titles to explore, and I will keep adding more.  Come on over and check it out!  While you're there, friend me on Goodreads too, so I can keep track of the great books that you are finding!

      Katie's Bilingual-Storytime-Books

   

Katie's favorite books »
 
What is your favorite book for bilingual storytime?

Bilingual Storytime Idea - Opening Song

Every storytime needs a canción para empezar and I wanted to quickly share this cute one that I learned from my colleague Kelly Lamm while working on a job swap at the Beaumont Branch of the Lexington Public Library.  In this song, each child gets to say his or her name which is then used in the song as the group claps out the syllables in each name.  It goes like this:

Her (His) name is _____, _____, _____,
Her (His) name is _____,
What's your name?

This song could very easily be used as an opening song in bilingual storytime as well.  It is so short that you could sing it twice, once in each language.  Or you could blend the languages, singing the first line in one language and the final two in the other.  Here is a Spanish translation for the song:

Se llama _____, _____, _____,
Se llama _____,
Es su nombre.

This opening song could be enhanced with flannel board letters or numbers to make the early literacy component more overt, such as putting the number of syllables being clapped on the flannelboard or identifying the first letter of the child's name.  This would be an appropriate extension for preschool age groups.

I could not find an online file or recorded version of this tune to share, so I quickly (and messily - my apologies!) made my own sheet music for it.  This may be helpful for those of you who can tap it out on a keyboard.  If you'd rather use a PDF version one is available through my Google Docs.

What opening songs do you use for bilingual storytime?

Cuentos y más - Arlington, VA Bilingual Storytimes on YouTube!

I am currently teaching an online course offered through the Library of Virginia called - Connecting with the Spanish-Speaking Community: What You Need to Know Before Offering a Bilingual Storytime in Your Library.  I wanted to get a better idea of what various libraries in Virginia are doing to serve Latino children and families and in digging around, I came across Cuentos y Más - bilingual storytimes on YouTube, brought to you by the Arlington Public Library.  I'm blown away!  Way to go Virginia, and way to go librarian/host Maria Aguilar!  This is super innovative and the videos are very high quality.  On demand bilingual programming that families can access as their schedule allows.  I love that in the one that I saw, in addition to storytime, the program was exposing families to an educational resource available in the community.  The format is fantastic - fun, stories and exposure to community resources.

I would love to hear more about successful and innovative strategies in Virginia or elsewhere in the Southeast for connecting Latinos and Spanish-speakers with libraries.

Bilingual Storytime Idea - ¡Arroz con Leche!

What's my professional New Year's resolution? 

To embody the spirit of Día and help foster a culture of literacy throughout the year at the Village Branch library.  How am I doing this?  Well, one way involves our Bilingual Family Storytime program.  I am tweaking the format of this program a bit so that it is a monthly family literacy event, drawing on themes relevant to the Latino community.  Our first program is Wednesday, January 11 at 6 PM on the theme of "Arroz con Leche" - ¡que sabroso!

We will be sharing The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred by Samantha Vamos and illustrated by Rafael Lopez along with Jorge Argueta's Arroz con leche / Rice Pudding, which is a bilingual recipe/poem illustrated by Fernando Vilela.  We'll be turning this book into a creative dramatic to further narrative skill development as we move through each of the steps in the recipe, as well as practicing some math concepts as we measure the appropriate amounts of the ingredients.  This activity will exercise our imaginations as well!  Of course we will also be sharing the traditional song "Arroz con leche."  We will be using the version on the CD Juguemos a cantar as we sing and dance and play musical instruments.

Following the program, parents and children will have the opportunity to interact together at three discovery centers designed to reinforce further skill development in fun ways.  One station will be a tasting of real arroz con leche - a table top poster will prompt parents to ask their children specific questions as they try the tasty treat.  The other two are activities from the "Para los Niños" program out of the Houston Children's Museum.  And the cinnamon on top?  Every family who comes will get to take home their very own copy of Arroz con Leche: Popular Songs and Rhymes from Latin America by Lulu Delacre, courtesy of the Friends of the Lexington Public Library and Scholastic Literacy Partners.

I am so very excited for this tasty program and hope to see many families in attendance.  ¡Nos vemos en la biblioteca!