Nibi is Water is a beautiful picture book written and illustrated by Joanne Robertson and translated intoAnishinaabeKwe by Shirley Williams and Isadore Toulouse. This book was written for babies and toddlers and is a wonderful resource for preschool and kindergarten world language classes too. By bringing this book to your classes, you are not only sharing the powerful message of protecting water and what nibi (water in AnishinaabeKwe) means for the Ojibwe but also to use it as a tool to provide authentic language input for your students. And the most important thing! Buy the book if you can to support the author. It’s also great when you can add it to your own classroom or school library.
I highly recommend that before engaging with the book to give input to your students, you give some background information about the author. I believe this short clip is great to do so. The clip is obviously in English, but it is important for students to understand why the book was written and help the author spread the message about the connection between water and her culture. Remember that world language classes should be a space not only limited to learning about the culture of the target language you are studying and learning day to day, but to connect with the world as a richly interwoven tapestry of languages, cultures, and traditions. Our classes should be a space to nurture global citizenship!
Some suggestions for using this book:
1. After watching the video with your students, read the book to provide additional context. I added the high frequency word “puedes”. For example:
Page 1: La lluvia es agua.
Page 2: La nieve es agua.
Pages 3 & 4: En el agua puedes chapotear y remar.
Pages 5 & 6: En el agua puedes nadar. Puedes tomar el agua.
Pages 7 & 8: Puedes hacer crecer las plantas o hacer encoger un suéter.
Pages 9 & 10: Con el agua te puedes bañar y cepillar.
Pages 10 & 11: Puedes lavar los platos o bajar (descargar) el baño.
Pages 12 & 13: Puedes salpicar o tomar.
Pages 14 & 15: Puedes darle agua al perro y al gato. Puedes ver al oso en el agua.
Pages 16 & 17: Puedes dar gracias y respetar.
Pages 18 & 19: Puedes dar amor y proteger.
Page 20: Nibi es agua.
Page 21: Nibi es vida. El agua es vida.
I use painter’s tape(Amazon affiliate link) to add text to any book I want to adapt and make it comprehensible for my students. This type of tape sticks to the book without damaging it if you decide to remove the tape in the future.
2. The illustrations are just amazing! Use them to talk about the different animals and colors in the book.
3. Print some pages of the book and use them like movement cards. There are some great illustrations that go well with TPR (Total Physical Response).
I had a lot of fun making this sock puppet book so I thought it was a good idea to share with you here the template I used. I printed the pages on stock paper, and it was easy to create. What took the longest was the puppet, but there is no science behind it.
I included in the video below a quick tutorial on how I made my puppet, but there are more elaborate ones on YouTube – just search “How to make sock puppets,” and you will get tons of results.
I included a blank template you may use to add more emotions in the book. You can also write a story about the puppet. Ready to make your book? Click HERE to download the files.
Finding literature that promotes bilingualism is not an easy task, but if you are in search of some of the best, BookLingual is a great resource for you. Their e-books are perfect for beginner readers and will challenge students to use both languages. The stories are written in both English and Spanish. Their books also do a nice job of inviting parents to become active participants in a child’s learning process and development as a bilingual person. Each book is presented in a way that helps out parents that might feel frustrated or inadequate when they don’t understand the story in a book, and gives them a figurative pronunciation (let’s face it, a lot of the challenges our children face come from parents’ own feelings of inadequacy or fear, conscious or not). Each book also includes animated audio in English and Spanish to read along. Their books come in four levels and can be used with children ages 2 years to 8 years old.
The characters in the stories are fun and invite children to continue reading the stories to learn more about each of them. Some of the books use real pictures – a plus when teaching young learners. Many of the stories are based on everyday situations will can help children make connections and comparisons with real life. Some of the situations could have been experienced by the children, which will make each book even more meaningful.
One of my favorite books in the set is this guessing book. I think it is a good way to play with language and get everyone involved, plus the pictures are just amazing!
Each book also includes games where children have to guess words, find what could be wrong in pictures, and respond to basic questions. The set also comes with a parent guide that will give you support and ideas on how to explore and use the books. It also includes a pronunciation guide and basic grammar for parents and educators who are interested in expanding their knowledge.
The best is that the books can be used anywhere and on any device with the right app: iPods, iPad’s, iPhones, smartphones, tablets, Nooks and Kindles, etc.. You can even print each book!
Whether you are an educator or a parent, BookLingual will support your interest and wish to raise bilingual children. To learn more about BookLingual, visit their website or/and like their Facebook page to stay tuned.
Here is also an opportunity for you to have their fantastic materials! BookLingual is giving away their Complete Spanish for Kids Set – 32 E- Bilingual Books . Just enter below to participate. The winner will be announced on June 19th, 2013. This giveaway is open to anyone world wide!
Nothing is more exciting than finding great resources for Spanish class (okay, other than maybe traveling to Spain or Latin America on an extended, stress-free vacation …). Conversa books will get any teacher ready to teach Spanish and will help you present the language in a fun way. What I like the most about Conversa books is that the language is not presented as several isolated vocabulary words. Conversa does a great job of presenting the language in context. This helps teach students to identify main and important words in a sentence and learn how to decode them to find meaning. These books are good for classroom use or to extend learning at home. They can be used with children who are exploring the language or with native speakers. The sets are divided into elementary and middle school levels which will help you transition and have a consistent program. The program starts in 1st grade and goes all the way up to 8th grade. The illustrations are clear, fun and engaging.
This is a teacher’s dream! Every story in these books invites movement and taps clearly into TPR. Each book includes a teacher’s guide with tons of ideas and games that will save you a lot of time when planning for your classes. The teacher’s guide states the objective for every lesson, the materials needed, how the lesson should be introduced, gestures for each story, engaging activities, questions to ask while presenting the story, cultural information, simple crafts to make, and a lot of learning and fun! It also suggests songs for every lesson. The books provide a lot of repetition and model the Spanish language to invite students to later create their own compositions and stories.
Another important feature about this program is that there is no need to be an experienced storyteller or know everything aboutTPR to use these books in your classroom. Conversa Books will show you everything and will guide you through every step!
Visit Conversa Books to learn more about the program. Stay connected on Facebook to receive updates about sales, freebies for teachers, teaching tips and more!
Giveaway Time!
I know you would love to have this set for your classes. Here is an opportunity for you to have it! Conversa Books is giving away their Elementary Teachers’ Starter Kit. Just enter below to participate. The winner will be announced on June 12th, 2013. United States only.
I always love bringing literature to support my lessons during the middle of a unit or to end a unit. I have found it difficult to find books that are well written in English and Spanish. Sometimes the translations are not very relevant to the original text in Spanish which makes it lose flavor when reading in class. These books are well written in both languages and the author, Adriana Pacheco, wrote both the Spanish and English versions.
The stories in each book are simple and easy to understand. The colorful illustrations represent accurately what is being expressed in the text and place the readers in the settings of the story. Many of the characters make multiple appearances in various stories, helping readers become more familiar with them, and many of the situations are very relevant to the day to day life of young learners. Each book includes a CD, and these are perfect to support listening skills in Spanish and English. What’s best, the speakers in the CD’s are native with very clear pronunciation! In each CD you will find the stories read in Spanish and English with time for the children to read along with the speaker. Even though these books are bilingual, the languages are not mixed together in sentences, a major bonus that is too often ignored by teachers and curriculum developers who think that a child needs immediate translation, forgetting that a young language learner’s mind is very different than their own! I love the idea of having bilingual books with audio because it is a tool that children who are learning or exploring the language can take home to invite their parents into their process of learning a new language.
2. Share the love with other friends! Let them know about Fun for Spanish Teachers andHeritage Language Booksand encourage them to join as fans of each of our sites. 3. Stay tuned and check back often! The winner will be announced on July 21st, 2012. You will have 24 hours to contact me to claim your prize.
4. The book will be sent as soon as you contact me with delivery details.
5. Enjoy reading and exploring the wonderful world of language learning!
Have fun reading in Spanish!
Carolina
WELCOME
¡Hola! I'm Carolina, a Colombian Spanish teacher with over 20 years of experience. I'm here to support you on your journey as a language educator!
