At Home, Book Reviews, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Families, Teaching Resources,

YOUR SPRINGBOARD & CHEERLEADER: ‘FAMILY LANGUAGE LEARNING: LEARN ANOTHER LANGUAGE, RAISE BILINGUAL CHILDREN’ BY CHRISTINE JERNIGAN

February 12, 2015

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Family Language Learning: Learn Another Language, Raise Bilingual Children Written by Christine Jernigan, PhD Paperback and ebook Review by Sue Kwon Inspired by her experiences with foreign language learning, in professional settings and in her own family, Christine Jernigan, PhD, set out to write a unique guide for parents who want to raise their kids to speak more than one language. Specifically, Family Language Learning is designed for parents who are still in the process of learning a second “target” language themselves, or who are............. CONTINUE READING

At Home, Classroom, Community Support, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Families, Holidays, Lesson Plans, Schools, Teaching Resources,

CHINESE NEW YEAR & DENTAL HEALTH MONTH: DISCOUNTS & RESOURCES

January 13, 2015

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Plan early – the month of February brings two great events to enjoy with the kids: Chinese New Year and Dental Health Month. Read on for discounts and free resources that will add a bilingual twist to your celebrations! (Read about other New Year celebrations around the world here.) Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is on February 19, 2015. Also known as Spring Festival, Chinese New Year is the country’s most .......... CONTINUE READING

At Home, Classroom, Families, Holidays, Teaching Resources,

5 KID CRAFTS THAT ADD MULTICULTURAL TRADITIONS TO YOUR THANKSGIVING

November 19, 2014

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Bring cultural diversity and international flavor to your Thanksgiving with these five easy kid crafts. The best part? They can all be made with materials you probably already have. Plus, they involve minimal mess and are simple enough for most kids to complete on their own. (You can also check out our previous posts for ways to celebrate a bilingual Thanksgiving, at home or in the classroom.) Thanksgiving: Here and Around the World The first Thanksgiving............. CONTINUE READING

Classroom, Lesson Plans, Schools, Teaching Resources,

NEW (FREE) LESSON PLANS SUPPORT MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

November 11, 2014

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Just when you’re looking for new ways to bring more multicultural education to the classroom while meeting the Common Core Standards, we are thrilled to announce that we have another wonderful lesson plan to share, created by our friends at West Chester University. This newest unit uses two popular and beautifully-illustrated books, Handa’s Hen and Handa’s Surprise, to teach students about Kenya and, at the same time, to help them identify and use descriptive writing. Using this............. 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, Schools, Teaching Resources,

USING THE ARTS TO TEACH BILINGUAL CHILDREN

May 23, 2013

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  by Lizzie Davey Because language learning is a creative process, it makes sense to incorporate the arts when teaching languages, especially to children, who are very visual. Using different art mediums, such as music, visual arts, and film connects the left brain (the creative side) to the right (the logical side). This can speed up learning because as new information is being collected, it is being “pattern matched” to what is already stored in the brain. For example, a child may hear the word............. CONTINUE READING