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

THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT: ANOTHER WAY OF LOOKING AT BOOK SHARING

August 26, 2014

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photo credit: Mary Ann @ flickr.com “Come here, little huggy bear!” “Are you ready for bed, my little coconut candy?” “Let’s put your coat on, my flea!” If you’ve ever used any of these terms of endearment with a child, English probably isn’t your first language! And if English is your first language, you probably can’t imagine calling your baby a “tiny elephant”, like they do in Thailand, or “breadcrumb”, which is popular in Finland. Whether you are used to calling your loved ones “pumpkin”,............. CONTINUE READING

Book Reviews, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Giveaways, Libraries, Schools,

SMILE! YOU’RE ABOUT TO GET A FREE BOOK!

May 20, 2014

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With spring finally here, it’s hard not to SMILE! And did you know that NATIONAL SMILE POWER DAY is just around the corner on June 15th, 2014? (Yes, this is also Father’s Day… another reason to smile!) With this in mind, we’ve decided to GIVE AWAY our favorite bilingual book about SMILING: Augustus and His Smile. This award-winning book – available in over 20 languages* – teaches children that happiness can be found all around and within us (see review............. CONTINUE READING

Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, International Folktale Characters, Libraries, Schools,

INTERNATIONAL FOLKTALE CHARACTER: MAMY WATA

April 16, 2014

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    Woohoo!  It’s almost summer!  Let’s go SWIMMING! Did you bring your bathing suit?  Oh yeah…um…I totally left it at home…plus you know, I ate less than half an hour ago…I don’t want to get a cramp… You’re looking decidedly shifty. What’s the real reason you don’t want to go swimming?  Ok, to be honest, it’s because I’ve been doing some reading up on popular African deity Mamy Wata. Who?  Mamy Wata, which means “Mother Water”.  She’s a water entity worshipped by many people in............. CONTINUE READING

At Home, Classroom, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Families, Libraries, Schools,

OUR PERSONAL SHOPPERS ARE AT YOUR SERVICE!

March 5, 2014

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We are pleased to announce that Language Lizard is now offering a complimentary Personal Shopper Service to simplify ordering of bilingual books, multilingual posters, and teacher resources. You gave us your feedback, and we heard you!  Many of you are trying to support language learners but don’t have the time to look through our site to select specific titles. Now you can make your life easier by working with one of our Personal Shoppers, who will listen to your requirements, find the right products,............. CONTINUE READING

Classroom, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Schools, Teaching Resources,

TOP TEN GAMES TO PLAY WITH BILINGUAL CHILDREN’S BOOKS

December 4, 2013

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  Using flash cards and rote learning to teach an additional language is like looking at pictures of a turkey dinner instead of sitting down to eat the wonderful meal.  There are so many more interesting ways to experience learning and using a new language! And bilingual books are a great place to start. In April of this year, ScienceDaily.com ran an article supporting what we already know: “playing simple games using words and pictures............. CONTINUE READING

Classroom, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Families, Libraries, Schools, Teaching Resources,

A NEW WAY OF ORDERING BILINGUAL BOOKS!

October 17, 2013

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  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

Book Reviews, Classroom, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Schools, Teaching Resources,

FROM HICCUPS TO TUK-TUKS: OUR SELECTION OF CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE BILINGUAL CHILDREN’S BOOKS

October 1, 2013

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photo credits: Farah Aria @ flickr. com, Anir Pandit @ flickr. com, Jensen Chua @ flickr. com Picture this: you’ve recently moved to a new country where you are just learning the language, and you are feeling a bit overwhelmed and lost. One day, a colleague approaches you with something she thinks will remind you of home. It’s a book in English, and it’s all about “American culture”! Excited (and homesick), you open the book and read a sweet story all about............. CONTINUE READING

Families, Schools, Teaching Resources,

THINK BACK-TO-SCHOOL, THINK BILINGUAL BOOKS!

August 11, 2013

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  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

Classroom, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Families, Schools, Teaching Resources,

BILINGUAL BOOKS OPEN UP A WORLD OF COMMUNICATION AND CONFIDENCE

June 18, 2013

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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

June 4, 2013

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    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