Hispanic children

[tamara]

I am a teacher at a Head Start Program- I teach three year olds. A BIG part of Head Start is providing multicultural activities in the classroom especially if you have children from a different cultural; I have two Hispanic children in my room this year. I need ideas, activities, suggestions..... for our room.

[Chef Dave]

Teach the children Hispanic songs. Buy Putumayo's "Latin Playground" CD. Songs include:

1. Guantanamera
2. Anna
3. Cielito - Colibri
4. El Reino del Reves
5. La Arcana Picua
6. Viva Vargas Torres
7. Chispa Tren
8. Mardi Gras Mambo
9. Fusion Natural
10. Hanal Weech
11. Bomba Le Le

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) - Mexican Independence Day.

Teach your students some Spanish vocabulary words: Hello ... goodbye ... please ... thank you ...

Enjoy some Mexican food during snack time: nachos and cheese, quesadillas, burritos
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/mexicanappetizerrecipes.htm

Tell Hispanic folktales.
http://dpi.state.wi.us/rll/wrlbph/latinofolktales.html

[tamara]

Thanks Dave-- are the songs on the CD familiar English songs/tunes? I also thought about making a simple word wall.
Do you know of a web site that I can go to help me learn simple words as well as commands like- Be quiet, sit down- listen, time for breakfast- time for lunch......

[mopar]

I do like a word wall but don't just use Spanish/English. Include some other languages present in your school as well.

Also, there is multicultural paint that you can buy. Then you use it to assign each child a color. It rarely happens that any children are the same color and no one is white. This works for showing the children that we are all different.

Also try a glyph. Pick activities that most of the children will like and have them draw simple shapes.
Make a large circle is you like apples, make a square if you don't.
Draw two triangular eyes if you like to sing, make round eyes if you don't. Etc.
Then display these pictures with how many of the children are the same.

[MissBittny]

Hi there!,
I am also a Head Start teacher. I have been working for them for a year total and have been an infant toddler teacher for about 6 months. My program is literacy based and all our children and parents are Hispanic, with the exception of 1 Arabic child. We incorporate both English and Spanish songs into our lesson plans and translate our newsletter and other material in Spanish so that the parents are informed.
If you have not already done so, I would label your classroom in both English and Spanish. (Table,Mesa) etc. We also have our parents teach us songs in Spanish.
Hope this helps!!!

[Boxcar]

I agree that parents are one of your greatest resources. Ask them to share things about thier culture.

Another suggestion I thought of is this: make sure to have dramatic play items from the various cultures. Play food is a good example. Have boxes and bottles that are from Hispanic foods too.

I have a lovely book from Borders that has songs and fingerplays in English/Spanish. I don't remember the exact name right now, but go on Amazon.com and look around. There are lots of books on the subject. One good book is something like "Everyone Eats Bread". This isn't a English/Spanish book, but it talks about different cultures.

You can get an electronic translator from Walmart or Target. These are made for travellers, but they work well in classrooms. You don't want to have to rely on it, but it will be helpful in a pinch.

There are also language translator pensticks that you can buy online. You run these over English/Spanish/French words and they translate them. All the children might enjoy these when looking at books.

Remember this also: not all Hispanic children are alike. Those from Mexico have a different culture than those from Spain. In addition to this, not all families have the same devotion to cultural customs. Not every family is going to eat traditional foods or celebrate the same holidays simply because they are from Puerto Rico.

Good luck.

[busbus]

Thanks Dave-- are the songs on the CD familiar English songs/tunes? I also thought about making a simple word wall.
Do you know of a web site that I can go to help me learn simple words as well as commands like- Be quiet, sit down- listen, time for breakfast- time for lunch......

Hi tamara,

I read this post to Chef Dave and thought that you might want to look at this site - Songs for Teaching: http://www.songsforteaching.com/

Also, there are several translators online, Babel Fish is one: http://babelfish.altavista.com/

If you type in the command that you want in English, then you can have it translated into Spanish. In addition, there are CDs for learning a language that you might investigate. I happen to have a kit that has a CD for teaching young students Spanish.

I hope that this helps.

[SLP]

US Toys & Constructive Playthings carries a nice variety of toys foods from various cultures. Also, be sure your dolls & doll clothes represent a variety of cultures.
World Food Toys:
http://www.cptoys.com/cgi-bin/cptoys_cgi.sh/WService=cptoys/cptoys.com/school/product.htm?stateInfo=badfhajizmxyHgia6668|10&dept_id=&pf_id=CPX-627&parent_id=variety
Spanish/English Board Books:
http://www.cptoys.com/cgi-bin/cptoys_cgi.sh/WService=cptoys/cptoys.com/school/product.htm?stateInfo=badfhajizmxyHgia6668|8&dept_id=&pf_id=LB-6&parent_id=

[tamara]

thanks everyone- I have asked a high school Spanish teacher if her students could translate my newsletters, etc... teach songs to my class.She is all for this- an excellent way for the students to be involved in a community project and earn an extra grade.

[dtsmith21]

Are there any secondary esl teachers on board?

[suziwollman]

I taught ESL in Ukraine and Russia.

[dallerinxa]

Thanks Dave-- are the songs on the CD familiar English songs/tunes? I also thought about making a simple word wall.
Do you know of a web site that I can go to help me learn simple words as well as commands like- Be quiet, sit down- listen, time for breakfast- time for lunch......



I don't speak spanish but taught spanish preschool for years. Helpful phrases:

Sit down: Sientete.
Stand up: Parate
Time for breakfast: Es la hora de desayuna or time to eat: Es la hora de comer
walk: Camina
Calm yourself: Calmense, Ponganse en paz.
Do you need to use the bathroom: Necessitas ir al bano?
Wash your hands. Lave las manos. Tallate.
slow: despacio. Gentle: Suave. despacito, Careful: cuidado. Come here: Ven aqui or Ven para ca. Let go: Dejalo. Many, many others. talk to parents for words and phrases because the way you talk to children is different than how you talk to the adults.