Bilin=
gual Storytime Suggestions
English/Spanish songs:
A UNIVERSE OF SONG by Maria del Rey (ISBN 1-56628-207-=
1)
DE COLORES AND OTHER LATIN AMERICAN FO=
LK SONGS FOR CHILDREN by Jose Luis
Orozco (look for other recordings by h=
im as well)
Raffi's version of "de Colores"
Judy Mahoney's series "Teach Me S=
panish" and "Teach Me More Spanish"
<=
pre>
MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN'S SONGS by Ella=
Jenkins
This year I attended a workshop at the=
Ohio Library Council's Diversity
Conference which featured a librarian =
from Kentucky who has=
had much
success with a Spanish bilingual storytime. Her name is Sara Howr=
ey
(Kenton County Public Library) and she=
and her program was written about
in American Libraries October 2003.=
At the workshop she was very giving wi=
th her experiences and with her
ideas...She had told us that we could conta=
ct her to receive copies of
her<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> flyers to use for our own purposes, s=
he taught us some songs to use
etc<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>....She might be a great person to con=
tact!
Have you contacted the MN Humanities C=
ommission in St. Paul MN? They
have=
some excellent bilingual resources. www.MinnesotaHumanities.org=
Our community has a population of 19,0=
00, about 40% of which are
Hispanic. =
; Our library started bilingual storytime this fall.=
Our
director wanted to make it part of a larger ou=
treach, so the official
"name&=
quot; is Celebrate Community at Your Library with Bilingual Storytime.
So far it is not wildly popular. I believe 20 is the most who have =
attended our twice monthly evening sessions. They begin at 7. We
select two stories which are read one page i=
n Spanish then one page in
English through to the end of the stor=
y. Then we reverse and our English
reader starts the next story. It's like reading 4 books by the time=
we
get<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> done, so it pretty much fills the tim=
e (we figure around 45
minutes).&nb=
sp; Our local McDonalds franchise owner is Puerto Rican and loves
to do the Spanish. As an added perk, he brings food coupons along.
Children answering simple questions ab=
out each story receive a coupon. I
would like to incorporate music, etc., but =
haven't done that yet.
=
;
Workshop I attended this fall with the=
successful neighboring library in
SC offered the following tips:
Times: if you have an immigrant popula=
tion, evenings or weekends can be
better, because many families only have one =
car, which the men use for work.
(I unfortunately scheduled my pilot storytime for Wednesday nights, not=
realizing it was the same time the local church=
es offered free English
classes - hence the absence of Spanish-speaki=
ng attendants.)
Ages: whole-family storytimes work well; American parents are usually happy
to drop off their children for an hour a=
nd socialize as adults, but our
Hispanic patrons have been more reluct=
ant to socialize apart from their
kids=
.
Languages: reading a line or two of En=
glish and then a line or two of
Spanish worked well - and at the works=
hop they had translated their own
books (like the Helen =
Oxenbury baby books), using a native speaker volunteer
and<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> clear sticker labels to paste into th=
e book.
Attendance: Have a holiday fiesta. (See the article on the Lexington
Surenos group at
=
http:/=
/www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/9888386.htm) Inviting all
immigrants<=
/span> (and natives) to come and share their=
holiday traditions with
each=
other was a great way to invite famil=
ies into the library - and sell
them=
on future fun programs (like storytimes) at the same time.
=
For each storytim=
e, we shared most of the stories twice: first in English
and<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> then in the featured language. Other stories had the two languages=
woven together in one book (Again, easy to =
find in Spanish--stories such
as: Oh No, Gotta Go by Susan Middleton Elya AND Margaret and Margarita,Margarita y Margar=
et by Lynn Reiser). I had a student =
from a local
university<=
/span> who was able to do something similar =
for stories in French
and<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> German.
<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>
One book worked beautifully for each <=
span
class=3DSpellE>storytime: Dog's Colorful Day: A Messy Story about =
Colors and Counting by Emma Dodd. =
; We simply
translated<=
/span> the colors and numbers into the featu=
red language for each storytime. I
designed a coloring sheet the children could t=
ake home for reinforcement.
I drew dog with just the one black spo=
t on his ear, and added a list of the
different colored spots and the numbers (both i=
n English and the featured
language).&nb=
sp; I also had a big flannel board of dog and his spots that was a
big<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> hit.
I found a poem called "Hello in S=
panish and English" that we turned into a
=
song=
by adding a simple tune.
Hello, hello
Hello and how are you?
I'm fine, I'm fineI hope that you are too!
Hola, hola
Hola y como estas?
Estoy bien, est=
oy bien
Espero que tu tambien!
Hi, one good idea is to do stories wit=
h certain Spanish words or phrases to
begin with. For example, there is a really good Spanish/English story
called "Caldo, Caldo, Caldo", and i=
t includes many common Spanish words
and<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> there is a rhythm to those words that=
the kids can pick up on and
understand<=
/span>.&nbs=
p; Also for fingerplays, you could just substitute English number=
s
for<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> Spanish numbers in counting fingerplay rhymes.
My library used to have bilingual stor=
y time once a month, until we
received a grant from Wal-Mart. Now we have it weekly, and we have
hired a lady who plans the story time and c=
raft and one of our staff
members helps her do the story time. This is what they do: Opening
rhyme, in English and Spanish. Then they read a book-- one reads a pag=
e
in Eng. then the other reads a p=
age in Span., next there is a rhyme or
song=
, and another book, and finally the en=
d rhyme. Everything is done <=
o:p>
in both languages-- greetings, introduct=
ions, etc. At the end there i=
s
a craft. We have ours at 6:30 on Tuesdays b/c it seems to be the bes=
t
night for our area. The ST itself lasts about 30 minutes and it is =
billed as a family story time. Everyone is welcome.
I am in the Central Ohio area (Columbus) and I c=
onduct about 15 Spanish
a month at different public libraries=
. I'm not a librarian
by trade, but a book lover with kids and=
I speak Spanish. I started o=
ut
about 4 years ago at my local community lib=
rary and from there word got
out<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> and it exploded. The kids love it!
=
; All but one of my storytimes are directed at English-speaking
participants who have an interest in Spanish. I assume that this is the
type=
of program you'll be offering. I do host one weekly storytime for
Spanish-speaking immigrant children an=
d I've found that I cannot blend
the<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> programs successfully. If an Hispanic child attends any of my
programs in the area, I direct him/her to the =
library where a bunch of
Spanish-speaking kids gather.
=
; For my core program I start with a warm-up song "=
Hello, means hello
- cOmo estAs tU? I'd have to sing it for you. The kids then turn
<=
pre>around and sing it to their caretakers - wit=
h arm movements and
everything<=
/span>.&nbs=
p; Then we look at a book - I try to always stick with a =
theme, like this week I did body parts and =
I started with Oh No Gotta Go
by Susan Middleton Elya. Then we read En el espejo by Joy Cowley and I=
asked the kids to pretend I was their mirro=
r and to point to the
corresponding body parts. Next we do some TPR activities where I have
them=
move around with some basic SPanish words like caminen - rApido,
despacio - con pasos grande, ahora paso pequeNNos, etc. =
; I often add a
song=
in here like Cab=
eza, cintura, rodillas y pies =
(to head, shoulders
knees and toes) then typically sit them dow=
n for another book or quiet
activity - like De la cab=
eza a los pies de Eric Carle. Then we sing a
good-bye song (same tune as before, Adios mean=
s goodbye, ya me voy)and =
they=
are on their way.
I do a weekly bi-lingual storytime in English and Spanish. It is held
in the evening - because that is my one =
night a week to work.
Attendance is small but steady - 12-20=
people per storytime on average.
I always do the books in both English =
and Spanish.
I have a native speaking volunteer who=
reads in Spanish, and we do a
sentence by sentence reading. I read it first in English, she follows<=
/o:p>
right away with the same sentence in Spanis=
h or vice versa. It helps if<=
o:p>
you<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> have a good translator who follows yo=
ur lead well. In order to do<=
o:p>
it this way, you have to have the story =
in both translations. I have<=
o:p>
built up a nice collection of books in Span=
ish and try to primarily
order read-a-loud items that I already own =
in our English language
collection<=
/span>.&nbs=
p; I also recommend you do not choose really long books since
you<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> are in essence reading it twice! You don't want to lose their=
attention!
I have several folktale/fairytale stor=
ies in both English and Spanish
that=
I use with flann=
elboard pieces. The ki=
ds love these. And I use=
the<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> services of volunteer translators fre=
quently. Just make sure your<=
o:p>
translators=
are good and accurate. :)
In my storytimes<=
/span>, we do fingerplays in either Spanish or English. I try
to mix them up so I do some of each lang=
uage each storytime and the same
with=
songs. I try and have copies of song lyrics available with the
translations next to it for parents to follow alon=
g. An excellent
source for music is anything by Jose Luis Or=
ozco.
http://www.joseluisorozco.com/&nb=
sp; I highly recommend his CDs.&nbs=
p; You can
also=
purchase the written music with Engli=
sh translations to go along
with=
several of his CDs (i.e. Diez Deditos and De Colores). He has lots
of action songs that make good storytime stretchers.
I often begin with the poem about the =
bilingual dog, which I think is
From the Bellybutt=
on of the Moon (seasonal poetry books by Alarcon).
We begin with a good morning song, in =
Spanish (as an echo song).
Presented stories by alterating English and Spanish on each page; or
used=
books primarily in English with many =
Spanish words scattered (best
one<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> was "Oh No, Gotta Go" by Susan Middleton Elya); or English books
=
like=
one with counting, but we would count=
in Spanish.
We prefer a tandem approach using two =
readers each with a copy of the
book=
in English or Spanish. They read the 2 page spreads alternating
back=
and forth. We only plan for 2 or 3 books and then include some
songs and fingerplays<=
/span>. When only one person =
is available to read, they
read=
the book completely in the majority l=
anguage and then read it in
the<=
span
style=3D'font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> second language.
I tend to use books that you would use=
in toddler to reduce time on
translations; also books with repetition since the=
y are easier to grasp.
I would rather read the story out loud=
and see where the breaks fall
naturally and use those spots to switch languag=
es.
Another web site to check outis Texas State Library - Dia<=
/span> de los
ninos/Dis de los libros:
http://=
www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/projects/ninos/contents.html