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LANGUAGE & LITERACY BLOG

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
International Folktale Characters,

INTERNATIONAL FOLKTALE CHARACTER: NASREDDIN HODJA

I’ve got a little vacation time coming up and I’d like to use it in July.  Any suggestions?   Sure!  If you’re looking for a vacation spot with a difference, look no further than Akşehir, Turkey, where they hold the International Nasreddin Hodja Fest every July. Sounds great!  Um…What is it?  In honor of this famous Sufi teacher, judge, philosopher, wit, and imam from the 13th century, his hometown throws a big party once a year, with music, comedy, and theatre performances.  There’s even............. CONTINUE READING
Classroom, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Families, Libraries, Schools, Teaching 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
Book Reviews, Classroom, Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Schools, Teaching Resources,

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

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
International Folktale Characters,

INTERNATIONAL FOLKTALE CHARACTER: THE MONKEY KING

   picture credit: Roland @ flickr.com   Name: Monkey Uh…is that it? Well, he also goes by Monkey King, Handsome Monkey King, and Sun Wukong, or “Disciple who is aware of emptiness”. And what sort of character is he? Um, the name’s a bit of a giveaway. I get that he’s a monkey, but what makes him, you know, Monkey?  It’s a bit of a long story!  He’s a trickster, a braggart and a hero from China, who got into all sorts of............. CONTINUE READING
Families, Schools, Teaching 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
International Folktale Characters,

FEATURED FOLK TALE CHARACTER: ANANSI

photo credit: Calsidyrose @ flickr.com Q: So who are we talking about this time? A:  Anansi. Q:  Bless you! A:  No,  Anansi!  Kweku Anansi the Spider, God of Stories and Mischief. Q: A spider?  That sounds horrifying. And a spider God sounds even worse. A: He’s not really so much a God of spiders, and his activities aren’t so very spidery.  He is a spider, but in most Anansi tales he behaves very much like a man.  In fact he is a trickster character, usually using his cunning............. 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, Teaching 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
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