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At Home, Community Support, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Families,

3 WAYS TO CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING…BILINGUALLY!

    Thanksgiving is one of the only times during the year when we can all come together and celebrate the beauty in our lives that we experience for free.  We can enjoy our friends, neighbors, and families while avoiding the stress of some other holidays.  Best of all, everyone of all faiths and backgrounds can participate in this truly American holiday. So how can you use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to promote bilingualism? Reconnect Thanksgiving is such a special time, perfect for getting back in touch............. CONTINUE READING
Classroom, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Families, Libraries, Schools, Teacher Resources,

A NEW WAY OF ORDERING BILINGUAL BOOKS!

  Language Lizard is thrilled to announce a new way of ordering your bilingual books: we now offer Language Book Sets! Tailored to meet the language needs of teachers and librarians, they make ordering easy and eliminate the work of trawling through our site to find the perfect books for your classroom or library. We’ve hand-selected groups of books based on our site’s most popular choices to support learning in each domain.  With just one click, you can even choose between sets of five and ten to match............. CONTINUE READING
Families, Schools, Teacher Resources,

THINK BACK-TO-SCHOOL, THINK BILINGUAL BOOKS!

  Exciting news! Language Lizard’s got a Best Educational Website award from Howtolearn.com! We’ve been hand picked for inclusion in the list of Top 101 Back-to-school Websites, and we couldn’t be more proud. We know that bilingual books are such an integral part of quality education for children, and it’s great that Howtolearn.com are helping us to get the word out there so that DLLs/ELLs can start the year off right.   Check out www.howtolearn.com to see our listing and all of the other fantastic entries.       .......... CONTINUE READING
At Home, Community Support, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Families, Libraries,

FROM SUMMER SLIDE…TO READING PRIDE!

photo credit: KOMUnews @flickr.com “ is what reading is all about: yes, it will make kids smarter and give them a better start in life than non-readers, but for me that’s not the point. The point is that reading is fun…” This is a quote from a recent article in British newspaper The Guardian by Charlie Higson, author of a variety of YA fiction including the Young James Bond series. Sure, as a writer he might have a vested interest in promoting reading, but............. CONTINUE READING
Book Reviews, Classroom, Dual Language, Families, Libraries,

HOW BIG IS YOUR DADDY? BOOK REVIEW OF MY DADDY IS A GIANT

www.languagelizard.com Book Review: My Daddy is a Giant Written by Carl Norac Illustrated by Ingrid Godon Ages 1-5 Available in paperback and hard cover, depending on the language Review by Maureen Pugh The first thing I noticed about My Daddy is a Giant was its dimensions (8 ½ inches wide by 12 inches tall) and its sturdy cover and quality binding. The vertical format and large pages provide an ample backdrop for the illustrator to portray a little boy and his playful, larger-than-life father. The simple, yet boldly-drawn illustrations............. CONTINUE READING
Classroom, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Families, Schools, Teacher Resources,

BILINGUAL BOOKS OPEN UP A WORLD OF COMMUNICATION AND CONFIDENCE

Our last blog posting focused on how teachers can use bilingual books to create preschool links to the K-12 Common Core Standards, specifically in listening and reading (click on the link if you missed this piece). In this article, we will focus on another key area in which bilingual books can help in the preschool to kindergarten transition: interpersonal skills. Reading seems like such a solitary activity;............. CONTINUE READING
Classroom, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Families, Schools,

NO KIDDING! BILINGUAL BOOKS HELP PREPARE DUAL LANGUAGE LEARNERS FOR KINDERGARTEN, SAYS NEW CECER-DLL REPORT

    photo credit: woodleywonderworks @ flickr.com A scary new building.  Big kid chairs.  A terrifying new teacher whose smile may or may not be genuine.  Swarms of giant children rampaging around an unfamiliar playground.  And my daddy’s just gone off and left me… The first day of kindergarten is tough! …Now imagine how much tougher it is for dual language learners (DLLs), lost in an aural fog of language they don’t understand.  Not to mention that they will now be expected to meet a whole............. CONTINUE READING
Community Support, Dual Language, Families,

BRINGING UP MULTILINGUAL CHILDREN WITH LESS COMMON HOME LANGUAGES

On a sunny day in London, when the streets are crowded with people enjoying the rare warmth, you can hear an abundance of different languages from the majority migrant groups in the city: families discussing the school day in Somali; teenagers gossiping in Turkish; imams greeting each other in Urdu.   But passing by the shop fronts boasting posters in languages from Polish and Bengali, you won’t hear German or Cape Verdean creole – not unless you go to Andrea and Xaxa’s for............. CONTINUE READING
At Home, Classroom, Families,

WORLD FOLKTALES AND FABLES: EFFECTIVE TEACHING TOOLS EDUCATE & ENTERTAIN CHILDREN

Reading world folktales and fables is not only a wonderful way to entertain and bond with children, it is also an effective way to educate them. The stories in classic folklore offer both social lessons as well as an opportunity to teach about cultures and languages. World Folktales and Fables week is celebrated the third week of each March, so be sure to enjoy a good folktale in your classroom or home! Children love folktales and fables. With their simple characters and............. CONTINUE READING
At Home, ELLs / DLLs, Families,

BUILDING BABY BRAINS WITH TWO LANGUAGES

By Karen Nemeth, Ed.M. Photo credit: christine (cbszeto) Learning to talk is one of the biggest jobs a baby has to do – so wouldn’t learning two languages be confusing? The answer is: No! According to the latest research, babies’ brains are so well prepared to analyze, absorb, and make sense of language, that learning in two languages simply comes naturally. Through their research, Dr. Patricia Kuhl of Washington University and her colleagues have found that infants who grow up bilingual maintain............. CONTINUE READING
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