www.CountryOfTheMonthClub.com

Easter is right around the corner.  Use this springtime theme to get your French and Spanish learners hopping . . . and talking!  Here are some materials and ideas to use both at school and at home:

• Spanish Easter Bingo
• Spanish Easter Games & Activities
• Spanish Easter Tic Tac Toe
• French Easter Fun
• French Easter Customs:  Flying Bells

Easter Egg Games: Fill and hide plastic Easter eggs for a variety of fun activities. The eggs can contain candy, vocabulary words/pictures, questions, clues . . . the sky’s the limit! Find matches, play relay games, and go on scavenger hunts. Check out this article for more ideas.

Jelly Bean Math: Count, sort, graph, measure, estimate, add, subtract, multiply, and (of course!) eat some jelly beans.

Make an Easter Bunny Lunch: Turn lunchtime into language time by munching healthy rabbit food with your child. Check out this article and make a salad “anybunny” would love.  Teach your child how to say favorite salad foods in French or Spanish, such as:

lettuce – la laitue – la lechuga
tomato – la tomate – el tomate
radish – le radis – el rabanito
pepper – le poivron – el pimiento
carrot – la carotte – la zanahoria

To mix the salad, instruct your little language learner to put all of the ingredients in a ziplock bag, then then jump like a bunny! Saute! Salta!

Word Searches: Find FREE French and Spanish Printable Easter Word Searches at Kaboose.com

Coloring Pages: Check out these free French and Spanish printable coloring pages:

Free French Coloring Pages from Tete a Modeler

Dora’s Easter Coloring Book from Nickjr.com

Cultural Crafts: Easter is an important holiday in the French and Hispanic world. In France, all of the church bells fly away to Rome on Good Friday. On Easter Sunday, the French bells joyously return, dropping chocolates for children on the way. Make this simple French church bell craft to fill with goodies.  For a fun and festive Mexican Easter craft, why not make your own cascarones, or confetti eggs? Kids will have a blast both making and breaking them!

Finally, here are some French and Spanish Easter children’s book recommendations from Amazon.com

Joyeuses Pâques!

Feliz Pascua!

Photo Credit:  by Robert Gyopos at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1143399

To this day, the French continue to be up to something “fishy” on April 1.  The lighthearted celebration is known as le poisson d’avril, or April Fish Day.  Why fish?  No one really knows.  It could have something to do with the zodiacal sign of Pisces.  It just is what it is:  a day to tape paper fish onto the backs of the unsuspecting.  Juvenile?  Maybe . . . but it’s FUN and harmless (no “kick me!” signs SVP.)

I’ve gathered some online resources to help you celebrate an authentic French April Fool’s Day with your kids:

Here’s my classroom packet of activities, games, worksheets, and printables that you can purchase at TeachersPayTeachers.com.  Le Poisson d’Avril:  April Fool’s Day Activities for Novice-Level French Learners

Print colorful poissons d’avril at Tomlitoo

Make a tricky “pop-open” fish at Bonjour les enfants

Find a variety of poisson d’avril crafts and coloring pages at Tête à Modeler

Learn a poisson d’avril French rhyme at Momes and a song at Chansons Nettes

Send a free French poisson d’avril e-card at CyberCartes

Here’s the fish my kindergartener made for tomorrow.  I suspect I’ll be wearing it

Image Credit: Public Domain from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cartes_postales_poissons_d%27avril.jpg

Languages help children develop cultural understanding to live in a multi-lingual society. There is no denying the fact that we live in a pluralistic society and a global community. According to the National Virtual Translation Center, we are far from a being monolingual country. There are, in fact, 311 different languages spoken in the U.S. A language other than English is spoken in 14 million U.S. homes, and one fifth of the population over the age of 5 speaks a language other than English. English-only households account for just 82.1% of the population. Cultural understanding is a vital skill children will need throughout their lifetimes. Piaget found that at about the age of ten, children begin to perceive nations and groups as “other.” Information received before this time is more easily accepted. (Lambert and Klineberg 1967.)

Exposing learners to new cultures is the most fascinating, valuable, and enjoyable part of being a language teacher. A quality foreign language course can drastically broaden a student’s worldview, compassion, and understanding. At the elementary level, children have the opportunity to experience culture in a hands-on way: holidays, crafts, foods, music, picture books, and authentic stories. I like to include what I call “kid culture,” such as jump rope songs, hand clapping games, and playground games that I picked up from kids in France and Quebec. My young learners practice greeting people in France by kissing a puppet or shaking its hand. They learn about geography by playing on a shower curtain map. Simulations are another powerful way to bring culture to life. Tapping into kids’ natural propensity for imaginative and pretend play is a powerful tool. Countless students have traveled to France with me solely in their imaginations.

Language and culture are intertwined. Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Native American educator and social activist, expressed it well: “Language and culture cannot be separated. Language is vital to understanding our unique cultural perspectives. Language is a tool that is used to explore and experience our cultures and the perspectives that are embedded in our cultures.”