Dual Language Linky Love - 3/18/13 Edition

I'm back on the blog and wanted to share some of my favorite links that I have found in the past few months in case you missed them on my Facebook page:

• California has posted their Common Core Language Arts Standards in Spanish.  The standards that are specific to the Spanish language are noted in blue.  There is a lot of emphasis on the use of the accent in reading and writing.
• At The Dual Trio, three dual language teachers share some of the Spanish songs they have created to teach content in Spanish.  These songs are so easy to find in English but Spanish ones can be challenging!  I have posted some of my song creations here and here.  Don't judge.  It's hard and I'm not a musician so please share your own ideas!
• Calico Spanish's YouTube channel has a growing list of Spanish music videos available that include introductory Spanish language for SLLs but also include content-based songs that would be great for native Spanish speakers in the primary grades (days of the week, vowels, weather terms, etc.).
• Do you have a parent meeting or open house coming up?  This site has lots of fun tips with appealing graphics in Spanish to encourage parents and child to READ!   
• Spanish Playground has free printable bookmarks with rhyming phrases along with a whole list of more rhyming phrases that would be great to incorporate into your daily routine.  With my preschoolers at home, I have found that incorporating fun rhyming language into the activities we do every day makes us feel like we have lots of inside jokes AND it naturally trains their ears to hear the rhymes.  My youngest just turned three and she is a rhyming machine!

Thanks so much to all of you for continuing to visit I Teach Dual Language!  Visit me on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/iteachdl/  I follow some amazing teachers and try to gather as many great resources for you as I can!  Stay tuned for more blog posts coming soon!

Have a great weekend and Spring Break week (for some of you)!

Ask the Readers: Transitions & Attention-Getters in Spanish

Last week, I received a question from one of the "I Teach Dual Language" Facebook readers.  In case you aren't on Facebook, I thought I would share it with you!

I'm teaching Kindergarten Spanish for the first time and I need transition songs in Spanish.  Does anyone know some good and easy ones?  Also, I'm used to attention-getters such as 1, 2, 3, eyes on me..."  What can I use for an all Spanish class?  

I reposted this question on my Facebook page and here are the ideas that were shared by all of the AWESOME readers!  Thanks so much to everyone who contributed.  

Attention-Getters

• Sung to the tune of the Addams Family:  Ojos aquí (snap snap), ojos aquí (snap snap) ojos aquí, ojos aquí (snap snap).  Escucha a tu maestra y pon atención.  Cierra bien la boca y pon los ojos aquí.  Ojos aquí (snap snap)…and repeat to finish the song.  
• Teacher:  “Respeto.”  Students:  “Tratar a los demás como quieres que te traten.”  While they say the words, their arms go out in front and then across their body (kind of like the Macarena) so that when they finish speaking their arms are crossed and now they aren’t playing with anything, waiting for further instructions.  Like this:  “Tratar (right arm straight out) a los demás (left arm straight out) como quieres (right arm to left shoulder) que te traten (left arm to right shoulder).”
• Teacher:  Dáme cinco.  Students:  Boca cerrada, miro y escucho (holding up one finger for each word until they were showing 5).
• Teacher:  Uno, dos, tres, ojos aquí
• Teacher:  Uno, dos, tres, ojos a mí.  Students:  Uno, dos, tres, ojos a tí
• Teacher:  ¿Qué te pasa, Calabaza?  Students: Nada, nada, limonada.
• Teacher:  Hola, hola.  Students:  Coca cola.
• Teacher:  Si escuchas mi voz, aplaude dos veces.  Si escuchas mi voz, aplaude tres veces.
• Teacher:  Uno, dos, tres, mírame otra vez.
• Teacher:  Uno, dos, tres.  Students:  A la vez.
• Teacher:  ¡Clase!  ¡Clase!  Students:  ¡Sí!  ¡Sí!
• Teacher:  Atención.  Pon atención.  Abre los ojos mirando hacia acá.

Transitions

• Dr. Jean has a Spanish version to her songs.  The CD is Olé,Olé, Olé Dr.Jean en español
• Teacher:  A guardar, a guardar.  Students:  Vamos todos a limpiar.  

I LOVE all of these suggestions!  If you have more, please share in the comments below.  Thanks again to everyone that shared their ideas!

I like to move it, move it!: Using music for transitions

My husband took my girls to see Madagascar 3 last weekend and they have been singing "I like to move it, move it!" ever since!  

 

One of the hardest parts of being a bilingual/dual-language teacher is keeping the schedule moving because there is just not a minute to waste.  Am I the only one who ever considered other purposes for the cafeteria spork when hearing a monolingual teacher complain in the teachers' lounge that there is just not enough time? :)

A classroom video from Debbie Miller (Reading with Meaning) gave me the idea to use music to cue my students about transitions throughout our day.  Here are some of the songs that I had on my classroom transitions CD:

• "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong - Put morning work away and come to the floor by Calendar
• "Put Your Happy Face On" by The Coles - Leave Calendar board and get pencils and problem solving journals out
• "Zip a dee doo dah" - Clean up math games, get dry erase board, marker, and sock and go sit in front of Word Walls
• "Do the Moo Shoo" by The Veggie Tales - Arrive back to class from PE with just 10 minutes before we had to leave again for lunch.  We usually worked on handwriting at this time so this silly song was just long enough to get to our seats and get supplies out.
• "New World Coming" by Mama Cass Elliot - Back to class from lunch and recess, this song was the cue to sit at the rug with buddy for reading mini-lesson.
• "Up, Up, Up!" by 2Play - Get reading dialogue journal and books from book box and find a place to read independently or with a partner.
• "Hey Now You're a Rockstar" by Smash Mouth (Shrek version) - Put journals and books away and come to reading circle before beginning Writing Workshop.
• "I Can Be Your Friend" by The Veggie Tales - Come back to circle to debrief from Writing Workshop.
• "This Land is Your Land" by Woodie Guthrie - Get ready for Science or Social Studies.

There was one more song on a different CD that was our end-of-day song to get backpacks ready to go home, put chairs up, pick up trash, and get in line.  I can't remember what it was but it was my students' least favorite song.  Maybe because they were just so sad to leave! Ha! 

This is such a random and old list of songs that I am NOT recommending you use these specific ones BUT you may want to spend the summer finding some songs you and your kids would enjoy hearing every day.  I found that the predictability of the songs really helped my severely ADHD student.  Before, I would nag him to follow directions and get where he was supposed to be.  With the songs, he knew exactly how much time he had and he would roll in right at the last second...which was just fine with me!  

The songs are also helpful for newcomers and kids with limited language on either Spanish or English days.  They can use the music as their cue for what to do instead of just relying on the teacher's instructions.

More than anything, it just made our classroom a more fun place to be.  It's hard to be grumpy when there is music playing!  Have you found a way to incorporate music into your daily routine?

BOMBA: Una canción para redondear

Now I have said before that I am not much of a singer, but I should also add that I am not much of a dancer either...in public!  Put me by myself in a room and close the door and I can have some really good moves! :)

All of this makes what I am about to share even more funny.  But, this is all in the name of education, right?  In the summer of 2003, I was on staff with Teach for America at their summer institute in Houston, Texas.  That same summer, a song called "La Bomba" was very popular on the radio.  Being a part of Institute is like being in a teaching incubator.  I learned so much from my fellow TFA staff and was so inspired to return to my classroom and try out some new methods for helping my students achieve.  

One afternoon, as I heard "La Bomba" for like the thousandth time, the lyrics about moving your body up and down made me think of rounding numbers.  I'm telling you...it was HOT in Houston in 2003!  I decided to rewrite the PG-13 lyrics and created a song to help my third graders remember the key concepts about rounding numbers.  Here are the lyrics I came up with:

BOMBA (una canción para redondear)

Versión Matemática por la clase de Miss Bounds

(Bomba) Un movimiento inteligente

(Bomba) Un movimiento muy fácil

(Bomba) Un movimiento muy fácil

Y aquí se vienen los alumnos con el baile que es una bomba

Para estimar esto es una bomba

Para contar esto es una bomba

Para sumar esto es una bomba

Y los alumnos lo bailan así, así, así, así

Todo el mundo

Una línea en la decena

Una línea en la decena

Un movimiento fácil

Un movimiento fácil

Un círculo a la derecha

Un círculo a la derecha

Un movimiento fácil

Un movimiento fácil

Y ahora empiezo a redondear

4 o menos para abajo, para abajo, para abajo

5 o más para arriba, para arriba, para arriba

4 o menos para abajo, para abajo, para abajo

5 o más para arriba, para arriba, para arriba

(Bomba) Un movimiento inteligente

(Bomba) Un movimiento muy fácil

(Bomba) Un movimiento muy fácil

Y aquí se vienen los alumnos con el baile que es una bomba

Para estimar esto es una bomba

Para contar esto es una bomba

Para sumar esto es una bomba

Pero este problema se acaba, acaba, acaba, acábalo.

Now tell me you aren't singing this to yourself and dancing!  My students loved it and rounding was truly "un movimiento muy fácil"!

Science and Songs: Los Planetas

While I took piano lessons for many years, I am not what you would call a natural musician.  Still, I have seen over and over the positive impact that music can have on students' learning.  It has that "Velcro" factor that helps the content stick to the brain.

I spent the summer of 2002 working on staff at Teach for America's summer institute in Houston.  I was amazed by all the ways the Corps Members found to integrate music into the content learning with amazing results.  Ever since, I have been inspired to try it myself.  Below are some examples of the products my bilingual second graders created after a library research study on the planets.  We created "La Tierra" together (to the tune of "La Cucaracha") and then the students worked in small groups to create subsequent verses for their assigned planet.   They had so much fun and were so proud of our song!  It's kind of catchy too!