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MULTICULTURAL LESSON PLANS

The Language Lizard BLOG offers a large numbers of articles related to language learning, bilingualism, bringing multiculturalism to the classroom, celebrating international holidays, and much more. See the Articles List below or browse the BLOG to find lots of helpful information!

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ARTICLES LIST

Below is a partial list of articles that are on our BLOG or have appeared in our newsletter. We hope these articles will help you raise and educate language learners and promote cultural awareness. The articles are grouped into the following categories below: Bilingual Books and Resources; Bilingualism / Dual Language Children; Partnering with Parents / Strategies for Bilingual Families; Libraries / Story Times; Holidays / Celebrations; and More Articles.

Use the search tool on our BLOG to find many more articles. And if you have ideas for new articles that you'd like to see, let us know!

BILINGUAL BOOKS AND RESOURCES:

10 Ways to Use Bilingual Books with Children
(Click here for pdf version)

Top Ten Games to Play with Bilingual Children's Books
(Click here for pdf version)

From Hiccups to Tuk-Tuks: Our Selection of Culturally Appropriate Bilingual Children's Books (Click here for pdf version)

Using Multicultural Resources to Support Language Learners and Enhance Diversity in the Classroom (Click here for pdf version)

Grants and Funding for Bilingual Classrooms (Click here for pdf version)

No Kidding! Bilingual Books Help Prepare Dual Language Learners for Kindergarten, says New CECER-DLL Report (Click here for pdf version)

New (Free) Lesson Plans Celebrate Multicultural Education

A Child's Place in the World - PART I: Using dual language books as a tool for teaching social studies in elementary school

A Child's Place in the World - PART II: Using dual language books to initiate social studies learning at home and at school

Bilingual Books in Bilingual Classrooms

Bilingual Books Open Up A World of Communication and Confidence

Think Back to School, Think Bilingual Books

Promoting Language and Cultural Diversity with Dual Language Books

World Folktales and Fables: Effective Teaching Tools to Educate and Entertain Children

The Best of Both Worlds
Reading Under the Trees

Bilingual Books to Boost Reading Comprehension

The Same but Different: Another Way of Looking at Book Sharing

Top Bilingual Books for Summertime Reading

BILINGUALISM / DUAL-LANGUAGE CHILDREN:

Time to Celebrate your Dual Language Learners!

Building Baby Brains with Two Languages

How to help students survive culture shock

Twelve Common Myths And Misconceptions About Bilingual Children

Bilingual Children: Benefits of Learning to Read in the Home Language

What's the Real Home Language Story? Making Your Head Start Classroom Welcoming for Multilingual Kids

Bilingual Children: 5 Tips for Using Language in Context

Teaching Children Languages: Benefits & Strategies

Bilingual Students: Preparing for the Coming Year

Bilingual Children and the First Days of School

8 Tips to Protect English Language Learners from Bullying in Your Classroom and School

Bringing up Multilingual Children with Less Common Home Languages

Why Your Children Should Learn a Less-Commonly-Taught Language

5 Tips to Help Bilingual Children Shine in the Classroom

The Value of Cooperative Learning Activities for English Language Learners

6 Reasons Why Children Should Learn Languages As Early As Possible

Bilingual Students: The Benefits of Narration

Learning Foreign Languages: 5 Reasons Why a Small Amount of Language Exposure is Beneficial

What is Bilingualism Worth

Promoting Cultural Awareness in the Classroom

PARTNERING WITH PARENTS / STRATEGIES FOR BILINGUAL FAMILIES

Relationships and Bilingual Families

Partnering with Families Equals Success

Parents Partnering With Teachers to Bring Up Multilingual Children

Supporting Bilingualism: 4 Reasons Parents Should Speak Heritage Languages at Home

Using the Arts to Teach Bilingual Children

Using Music to Help Children Learn Languages

Expand a Child's World: Involving bilingual families and English language learners in the classroom and at home.

5 Ideas to Incorporate Language and Cultural Learning Into Your Family's Plans This Summer

Your Bilingual Staycation Starts Here!

From Summer Slide... To Reading Pride

Bilingual Children: Summer Travel Activities

Bilingual Children & Summer Literacy Programs

LIBRARIES / STORY TIMES

The Multicultural Library: How Librarians are Responding to the Needs of Ethnically Diverse Communities

Bilingual Story Time at Your School Library

Bilingual Storytime: 5 Different Types

Bilingual Children: Make Storytime Their Favorite Time of the Day

HOLIDAYS / CELEBRATIONS

Bilingual Students: Using Holiday Celebrations to Promote Language Development in Multicultural Classrooms

Celebrate Holiday Foods from Around the World

A New Year's Resolution for Language Learners

New Year Celebrations Around the World

Chinese New Year: Lessons to Help Children Appreciate Cultural and Linguaistic Diversity

Celebrating World Folktales and Fables Week

Springtime Language Learning Activities: Scavenger and Treasure Hunts

The Bilingual Child Month is Here Again!

Celebrating Halloween Around the World

Thanksgiving and Immigrant Cultures

3 Ways to Celebrate Thanksgiving... Bilingually

Teaching Thankfulness in Bilingual Classrooms

5 Kid Crafts that Add Multicultural Traditions to Your Thanksgiving

Traditions Around the World: Celebrate Autumn

International Education Week - An International Celebration in and out of the Classroom

10 Tips on Celebrating Cultural Diversity in the Classroom this Winter Season

Language Lizard's Bilingual Gift Guide for the Holidays

Multicultural Gift Ideas

MORE ARTICLES ON OUR BLOG:

- Language Profiles
- Fun explanations about international folktale characters including: The Monkey King, Anansi, Curupira, Finn McCool, Mamy Wata, Nasredin Hodja and Baba Yaga
- Book Reviews

Below are some sites, books and organizations that support parents interested in language learning and introducing their children to other cultures and traditions.

FOR BILINGUAL FAMILIES

MultilingualLiving.com
www.MultilingualLiving.com is a great place to find information about raising children in more than one language and culture. You can post comments and find inspiration and encouragement from other families raising bilingual/multicultural children.

Bilingual Monkeys
Bilingual Monkeys provides ideas and inspiration on raising blilingual kids, information on bilingualism in children, and resources to promote bilingual development.

The Bilingual Zoo
The Bilngual Zoo is a forum for parents and teachers of bilingual (and multilingual) children. Here you will find ideas and inspiration for even greater success and joy raising bilingual kids (without going bananas).

Bilingual Kidspot
Bilingual Kidspot is an informative blog offering practical advice for parents seeking to raise bilingual or multilingual children. Created by an educator, and mother, it is a place offering inspiration, tools, and support; with strategies based on experience as a parent, and as a teacher of foreign language to children.

Jolly Baby Club
Jolly Baby Club is a new YouTube channel offering fun videos of children's songs from all around the world. Currently all videos are in English, but they are planning to upload videos in German, Spanish, Portuguese and other languages as well. Great to engage young children during a long car or plane trip!

LANGUAGE ORGANIZATIONS

National Network for Early Language Learning (www.nnell.org)

The Center for Applied Linguistics (www.cal.org) CAL also runs the CAL also runs the web site for foreign language learning in Grades pre-K to 8 at http://www.cal.org/earlylang/index.html.

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (www.actfl.org)

The National Association for Bilingual Education (www.nabe.org)

Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (www.tesol.org)

ESL / DUAL-LANGUAGE RESOURCES

Language Castle www.LanguageCastle.com provides teaching tips and techniques as well as great resources for preschool teachers working with English Language Learners and teaching in diverse classrooms.

Ana Lomba www.AnaLomba.com is an award-winning author, leading language educator, and a tireless advocate of early language learning. Her blog provides valuable information on early language learning, and she offers consulting and feedback on curriculum as well as teacher training.

ESL Teachers Board www.eslteachersboard.com is a great resource for ESL teachers, providing free teaching materials, jobs and resumes.

EverythingESL (www.EverythingESL.net): Run by ESL teacher, author and speaker Judie Haynes, this site includes lesson plans, teaching tips and more.

iTeachBilinguals.com is a site that aims to support teachers of bilingual students with resources they can use in their classrooms.

Learn English (www.learnenglishguide.com): A site with information about learning and speaking English.

"I Teach Dual Language" blog (www.iteachduallanguage.blogspot.com). Managed by a former district elementary Bilingual Facilitator, this blog provides teachers in dual-language classrooms information and inspiration to help them succeed.

ESL Teacher Resources compiled by Perdue University's Online Writing Lab can be found at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/586/1/

BOOKS

Many Languages, One Classroom: Teaching Dual and English Language Learners
Even the most experienced teacher can feel a bit unsure about meeting the unique needs of children from different language backgrounds. In Many Languages, One Classroom, education specialist Karen Nemeth applies the latest information about best practices to all aspects of a preschool program. From using lists of key words and visual aids to using body language and gestures, the strategies you will find in this book are adaptable and easy to put into practice. Designed to fit any preschool curriculum, Many Languages, One Classroom addresses state standards and benchmarks of standard quality programming. To purchase this book through Amazon.com, click here.

Spanish for Preschoolers E-Guide
This is a great guide to help teachers who want to start their own language program or enhance their current one. Written by NNELL-NJ Representative Ana Lomba, this guide provides an overview of current language learning theories and methodologies in their application to young children; an introduction to Ana's methodology focused on learning naturally using everyday phrases, games, songs, fairy tales and other stories; as well as explanations of program curriculum, day-to-day classes and sample activities. You can learn more about and purchase this e-guide at http://www.analomba.com.

Languages and Children: Making the Match, Third Edition
With a focus on communicative language teaching as it reflects cognitive and second language acquisition theory, this classic in the field provides a wealth of strategies and activities ready to use in the K-8 classroom. Languages and Children: Making the Match, Third Edition, has been thoroughly revised and updated. Standards-based planning and instruction are the guiding principles throughout the book. This long-awaited third edition provides extensive new information that is not easily accessible to the field. Publishing this information in one source provides a tremendous service to methods instructors and teachers, as well as to students. To purchase this book through Amazon.com, click here.

Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability: Ideas and inspiration for even great success and joy raising bilingual kids
This book provides a roadmap to greater success and joy raising bilingual kids in this practical and comprehensive guide for parents and teachers. A longtime practitioner of bilingual development in children, author Adam Beck shares the best of his personal experience as an educator and parent, offering a wealth of actionable advice for parents. This book is available at Amazon.com.

Teach Your Child Spanish Through Play
This book is a valuable resource for parents, home educators and teachers. It includes tips for parents who don't already speak Spanish, creative games and activities that cater to each learning style. Also contains a guide to teaching culture, ideas for building and maintaining bilingual communities and a useful resource directory. To purchase this book through Amazon.com, click here.

OTHER LANGUAGE / CULTURE RESOURCES

Creative Bridges for Language Learning Institute: For teachers who want to soak up language, music and culture in person, Creative Bridges for Language Learning Institute has received much praise about its summer immersion program in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The program offers a unique, fun-filled hands-on/theory immersion program for Spanish, Bilingual and ESL educators. To find out more about this program, visit www.SpanishImmersionArgentina.org or contact founder Liliana Attar at CreativeBridgesInstitute@Yahoo.com.

Spanish for Families: Based in Granada, Spain, Spanish for Families offers active language programs designed for families with children that combine culture and nature tourism and have a focus on intercultural discovery.

Blog to encourage parents to read in Portuguese with their children: ICSportugues.blogspot.com

Learn German Learn German guide, all about how to learn German and how to speak German.