Check out our new bilingual offering for older language learners, perfect for the new school year!
Continue reading Bilingual Book Sets for Older Language Learners
Check out our new bilingual offering for older language learners, perfect for the new school year!
Continue reading Bilingual Book Sets for Older Language Learners
In the West, we call it the Chinese New Year. In the East, they most commonly refer to it as the Spring Festival ( 春节 ). Whichever way you choose to say it, this celebration will take place from Tuesday, February 1, 2022, until Tuesday, February 15, 2022. At Language Lizard, we put together a lesson plan to pair with our bilingual book, Li’s Chinese New Year.
Check out these fun activities to bring Earth Day to your classroom! We also have a 10% discount on Errols’ Garden and The Biscuit Moon through April 30th. Use coupon code EARTH21 for these bilingual books!
Language Lizard is pleased to announce new multilingual “talking” charts that allow students to hear explanations of key terms in English, geography, math & science in many different languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian.
These charts are invaluable resources for teachers who support a linguistically diverse student body. Using these charts with the PENpal Audio Recorder Pen, newcomers and English Language Learners (ELLs) can hear key terms explained in their native languages, allowing for a better understanding of subject matter content.
Students simply select the language that they want to hear from the right side of the chart with the PENpal, and then tap a subject term to hear an explanation of the word in the selected language. Teachers and students can also use “talking labels” (recordable stickers) to add their own recordings of additional information to the chart.
There are four new Talking Charts, and they can be purchased separately or in a value pack of 4 Multilingual Charts.
The English Multilingual Terms Chart includes explanations and examples for terms such as alliteration, apostrophe, conjunction, differentiate, figurative, imagery, narrative/narrator, onomatopoeia, personification, preposition and synonym.
The Geography Multilingual Terms Chart includes explanations for erosion, estuary, habitat, infrastructure, landscape, latitude, longitude, pollution, settlement and much more.
The Math Multilingual Terms Chart includes terms such as adjacent, circumference, coordinate, decimal, denominator, diameter, equilateral, fraction, isosceles, perimeter, perpendicular, radius, ratio, symmetry and vertical.
The Science Multilingual Terms Chart includes absorb, amphibian, circulation, condensation, combustion, evaporation, friction, nutrient, organism, particles, respiration, vertebrate and more key terms.
These new charts work alongside our popular Multilingual Phrases for School Talking Chart which allows teachers and administrators to communicate more easily with student language learners as well as parents who do not speak English well.
The following languages are available on the charts: Arabic, Czech, English, Farsi, French, Lithuanian, Mandarin Chinese, Panjabi, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovakian, Somali, Spanish, Sylheti, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese and Yorub
You can get more detailed information on these multilingual “talking” charts, and also check out all of our PENpal products and literacy value sets.
The Muslim holiday of Ramadan is the 9th and most sacred month in the Islamic calendar. Traditionally, it’s a time of fasting from sun up to sun down each day. Children aren’t required to fast until they’re teenagers, but may fast for part of the day to help them appreciate the significance of the holiday. Fasting is meant to help Muslims practice self-discipline, self-control, sacrifice, and empathy. Ramadan is a time of spiritual reflection, growth, and religious devotion.
Language Lizard offers a free, standards-based lesson plan that introduces students to Muslim customs and cultures, new languages and texts, and promotes acceptance of diversity. The lesson plan pairs with the bilingual storybook Samira’s Eid. Samira and her family get a surprise visitor during Ramadan who brings a special gift for them. The story teaches kids about the holiday’s traditions, and the meaning behind them, through Samira’s eyes.
Samira’s Eid is currently available with English and your choice of the following languages: Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, French, Kurdish, Panjabi, Somali, Turkish, and Urdu.
Each night at sunset, families gather for the fast-breaking meal known as iftar. Get in the spirit by trying some traditional dishes served at iftar with your classroom or family. One quick and easy dessert that the kids can help make, and will love to eat, is this traditional mango, pistachio and cream dessert.
Ramadan can also be a time of beautiful decorations. Lanterns, in particular, have become symbolic of the holiday. Kids can make simple paper crafts, including lanterns, or try out more complex projects like this drum.
Find kid-friendly Ramadan photos online to look through together, and discuss how Ramadan is experienced by the littlest Muslims. The PBS Kids website offers a free, interactive book about Ramadan and its traditions. Or check out this multilingual Ramadan poster that includes illustrations of the call to prayer, fasting, sharing an evening meal, and family time.
Will you be learning about Ramadan with your classroom or family? Share your ideas by commenting below!
Kids love Halloween: the costumes, the candy, the parties! The excitement and holiday spirit surrounding Halloween provide an ideal opportunity to inject some multicultural education into the mix. We know that American children don costumes, carve pumpkins and go trick or treating, but where did this holiday start and what do other countries do to celebrate?
Also called Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve, Halloween is observed in various countries every year on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day. Devoted to deceased souls including martyrs, saints (hallows), and faithful departed worshippers, the festival starts with a three-day religious observance and ends with evening prayer. Many scholars believe that the celebration of “All Hallows’ Eve” developed from Celtic harvest festivals, whereas others contend that it originated independently of Samhain (the Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season). Early traditions included carving jack-o’-lanterns out of turnips or winter squash, and wearing costumes to ward off evil spirits.
In the 19th century, mass transatlantic immigration popularized Halloween in the United States and Canada. Gradually, commemorating Halloween expanded to places including South America, Australia, New Zealand and continental Europe.
How people celebrate Halloween differs from country to country. In Scotland and Ireland, children dress up traditional costumes, host parties, light bonfires, and enjoy fireworks. In Brittany, France, lighting candles in skulls in graveyards is a popular tradition. In some countries, people attend church services and light candles on the graves of the dead. In other parts of the world, these solemn traditions are less popular and people are more focused on wearing costumes, attending parties, and “trick or treating.”
When preparing for Halloween parties, teach students about the origins of the holiday and some of the unique traditions in other countries. You also can use it as an opportunity to teach about related holidays, such as Mexico’s El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a three day celebration that begins on October 31st. Consider having some of your students talk about any similar holidays in their home country or asking older students to do research on how Halloween is celebrated in another part of the world.
Make the fun multicultural!
For additional suggestions on celebrating global traditions in Autumn with your children and students, please see our earlier blog post: Traditions Around the World: Celebrate Autumn.
For more information on how Halloween is celebrated in other countries, you can visit the following sites:
– www.novareinna.com/festive/world.html
– www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/halloweenglobal.php
Share how you celebrate Halloween by commenting below.
(photo credit: hin255)
Now that the New Year has arrived and school is back in full swing, students are sure to be filled brimming with enthusiastic stories of what they did during their winter holiday. Ice skating in the park, opening gifts at the fireplace, lighting candles in beautifully wrought candelabras are just a few activities that children might share with an overjoyed twinkle in their eye. How could they not?!
As we all know first-hand, getting students to engage in conversations works best when they are inspired and excited about the topic. This is particularly true of bilingual students, especially those who may still be mastering the community language. What better time than now to get your bilingual students talking with you and one another? Their minds are so full of wonderful memories from the holidays, they will most likely want to share as much as possible.
Here are 5 tips on how to help your students direct their holiday excitement into fun language opportunities:
Continue reading Bilingual Students: Using Holiday Celebrations to Promote Language Development in Multicultural Classrooms
By Colleen Miller
Photo credit: vasta
Have you noticed that about halfway into the school year, new ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students, who once seemed excited and energized, seem to hit a wall? Students who once were bright-eyed and cheerful come to school looking listless and detached. More than just the mid-year doldrums, they may be in the crisis stage of the powerful phenomenon of culture shock.
What is culture shock?
In the 1950s, a diplomat named Karl Oberg first used the term “culture shock” to describe the difficulties both he and his fellow expatriates experienced as they adjusted to their new lives overseas. He suggested that people depend on cues given by their familiar groups to define who they are and to support their self-concept. Without these cues, people are prone to anxiety and frustration, which can lead to physical ailments. Continue reading How to Help Students Survive Culture Shock
Do you remember dreading group projects when you were in school? Inevitably, our teacher would pair us up with someone we hardly knew and begrudgingly we participated in the activity. Of course, by the end of the project we knew our classmate better than ever while having had a wonderful time.
For English Language Learners, cooperative learning activities have been shown to help improve academic performance as well as increase motivation, strengthen self-esteem, encourage student bonding and promote literacy skills. Of course, there is always the fear that a shy student won’t participate fully when paired with more outgoing students. To solve this, teachers can create more equitable groupings or create activities that encourage participation from each student individually. When paired well, a student who has stronger language skills can help a student with weaker language skills improve through cooperative learning activities.
Below are 5 ways teachers can make cooperative learning an integral part of their curriculum: Continue reading The Value of Cooperative Learning Activities for English Language Learners
Chinese New Year is almost here! Chinese families around the world are already celebrating this exciting event which lasts for fifteen days. The celebration begins on the night of a new moon and culminates with the Lantern Festival, a celebration that takes place under the light of the full moon. Families join together in the streets carrying lighted lanterns to create a beautiful light display.
Before the Chinese New Year begins, homes are cleaned from top to bottom. The goal is to sweep out ill fortune and encourage the good fortune of the new year to enter. The evening of Chinese New Year is a big event celebrated with traditional feasting and ending with a fireworks display. Each of the fifteen days of Chinese New Year has a special significance: friends and families share traditional feasts, honor ancestors and deities, exchange gifts, visit extended family members, give children red envelopes with good luck money, and enjoy traditional music and special celebrations.
To share this wonderful event with your students, we encourage you to download our free Chinese New Year lesson plan which takes students on a journey through the Chinese New Year by utilizing geography, crafts and discussion. Continue reading Chinese New Year: Lessons to Help Children Appreciate Cultural and Linguistic Diversity