I attended a church service this morning in remembrance of 9/11.  In honor of our prayers for peace, I’d like to share a few ways to say peace in foreign languages:

French – la paix

Spanish – la paz

Italian – la pace

German – der Frieden

Hebrew – Shalom

Please leave a comment and continue the languages of peace.

Everyone remembers exactly where they were the moment the towers fell.  I was a 6th grade teacher at the time.  I went home that night and wrote the following poem to share with my students the next day.  I’m not a poet, but I think it spoke to the kids at a time when they needed some optimism.

SINCE YESTERDAY

The world changed

Since yesterday,

I wish that it weren’t true.

Buildings fell,

Good people died, 

But still,

The sky is blue.

Hijacked planes

Blew up our plans

Of futures

Safe and sound.

But still,

The sun shines brightly

Over wreckage on the ground.

Terror

Washed upon our shores

In waves of evil hate.

Yet firemen rescue,

Churches pray,

Police evacuate.

CNN reports the news

That no one wants to face.

But still,

I wonder,

Is my world,

Indeed, a different place?

The world changed

Since yesterday,

Everything’s gone wrong.

But human kindness

Still prevails,

And makes our country strong.

Image Credit:  by voodoo4u2n at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1195513

I’ve recently become a fan of the award-winning Little Pim language learning dvd’s for children.  They are cute, eye-catching, and age-appropriate for the littlest language learners.  The short segments are just right for holding my 4 year old’s attention. He repeated some words in Spanish with no prompting, and then he asked to watch the dvd again. Yay!

The web site contains some free little gems, too: coloring pages, other printables, and my favorite–the Talking Coloring Book.  Check out this video by Little Pim’s creator, Julia Pimsleur Levine:

Little Pim DVD’s are available in these languages:

Spanish

French

Japanese

Mandarin Chinese

Italian

Hebrew

English/ESL

Introduce your baby, toddler, or preschooler to another language with Little Pim!

It’s hard to believe that it is almost 2009!  Time to bring out the party hats and noise makers to ring in the New Year.  Since having kids, my New Year’s celebrations have taken on a whole new vibe.  Instead of paying top dollar for a sitter and hitting the town, I like to stay home and let my little guys join in the fun.  But since I will NOT allow them to stay up until midnight, we celebrate in a different time zone.  Click here to read about my annual French New Year’s celebration.  We wish everyone a Bonne Année when it’s midnight in France, but still early here in Eastern Standard Time.  We feast on French food, as well as some original New Year’s cookies.

I’d like to wish you a Happy New Year in a dozen different languages.  Feel free to comment with a New Year greeting in other languages, too.  I’ll be taking a little blogging break until after the New Year.  May your 2009 be filled with blessings and happiness

French:  Bonne Année!

Spanish: Feliz año nuevo

German: Ein glückliches neues Jahr

Italian: Buon anno

Czech: Stastny Novy Rok

Finnish: Onnellista uutta vuotta

Portuguese: Feliz ano novo

Dutch: Gelukkig nieuwjaar

Hebrew: Shana Tova

Polish: Szczesliwego Nowego Roku

Thai: Sawatdee Pi Mai

Hungarian: Boldog uj evet

Photo Credit: by xymonau at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1123224

Dankie (Afrikaans)

Shukran (Arabic)

Dekuji (Czech)

Tak (Danish)

Dank u wel (Dutch)

Dankon (Esperanto)

Kiitos (Finnish)

Merci (French)

Danke (German)

Mahalo (Hawaiian)

Toda (Hebrew)

Shukriya (Hindi)

Takk (Icelandic)

Grazie (Italian)

Arigato (Japanese)

Grazzi (Maltese)

Xie xie (Mandarin Chinese)

Dziekuje (Polish)

Multumesc (Romanian)

Spasibo (Russian)

Gracias (Spanish)

Ahsante (Swahili)

Tack (Swedish)

Photo Credit: by cidinha28 at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/772189

Do you know the classic preschool elephant song?  It goes like this:

One elephant went out to play,

Upon a spider’s web one day,

He had such enormous fun,

That he called for another elephant to come. 

The second verse has two elephants, the third verse has three elephants, and so on.  You can find foreign language versions of this fun song on the Teach Me CD’s, as well as other sources.  I love the Teach Me CD’s, but for this particular song I just use it as a teacher resource for learning the words.  The verses go back and forth between English and the target language, which throws me just a bit.  

So, here’s how you can turn a cute, catchy elephant song into a fun and effective game.  Gather the children into a close circle and have them hold on to the edges of a small parachute.  (I find a vinyl tablecloth to be a dandy, frugal parachute substitute.)  Ta-da . . . it’s a spider’s web!

Prepare small, laminated paper elephants and number them from 1-10.  Toss Elephant #1 onto the spider’s web and sing the song as the children gently move the parachute up and down.  Kids love to see the elephant jumping up and down and having such enormous fun!  When the verse is done, everyone shouts, “Come!” in the target language.  Add in Elephant #2 and count the elephants.  Sing again.  Call over another elephant.  Count.  Sing.  Get the drill?  Continue the routine until all ten elephants have a turn.  This game is so hands on and repetitive, staying immersed in the target language is a breeze.

I just played this game a few weeks ago with kids ages 2-7.  Then we played it again later in the week.  The kids keep asking me to bring the elephants back to play.  I’m telling you, this game’s a hit with the little ones!

The Teach Me CD’s are available in ten languages:  English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, and Russian.

For more counting ideas, check out my article on Foreign Language Number Games.

If you’re looking for a fun way to introduce your child to a foreign language, start with a little music.  There’s a great little product called Teach Me Tapes.  Well, they were tapes back in the ’80′s when they were first produced. My tapes have been replaced with CD’s for quite some time, of course, but I’m still using these gems years and years later.  

The Teach Me CD’s have cute bilingual songs performed by professional musicians.  Most tracks are introduced with a short narration by a native-speaking child.  The songs are classic, traditional songs from both English and the target culture.  My Teach Me French CD is invaluable as I teach French to 3-6 year olds this summer.  The kids really like bilingual versions of The More We Get Together, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

Kids learn basic vocabulary and phrases with the Teach Me music.  Things like greetings, family, weather, alphabet, etc.  It’s not a language program in itself, but it’s perfect for introducing kids to language for the first time and for enriching a language program.  It’s such a staple of my teaching, it’s hard to imagine life without it.

The original Teach Me CD’s are available in ten languages:  English (ESL), French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Hebrew, Korean, Japanese, Italian, and Russian.

For additional reading, check out these articles:

How Music Helps Language Learning

Foreign Language Learning Materials for Kids

Want to order Teach Me CDs?  Visit the . . .

Foreign Language Fun Store