Young children thrive on familiarity!

Young children love repetition as a way to remember!

Young children flourish when they have a routine.

That is why every single time a conduct a Boca Beth music & movement class I open up with our Hola amigo/Hello Friend song off our first Boca Beth CD titled My First Songs in Spanish / Mis primeras canciones en Inglés.

Children hold their BOCA puppet (if they have one) and sing along, belting out the words in Spanish and English with the pride of a bunch of peacocks strutting their beautiful colors at the zoo!

I encourage you to begin your daily routine with this bilingual children’s song that encourages diversity among all and kindness throughout the day.  

Here is the link to the lyrics for this song sung to the tune of Frere Jacques.  The beauty of our Boca Beth songs is that most are written around a beat, a melody that you and the children already know.  We just put in totally different words, lyrics meant to teach you and the children a 2nd language.  It’s a super easy and fun way to learn!!!

Here is the link to the suggested classroom activity to go hand-in-hand with this song.  

Here is the link to the free, downloadable language cards that fit this song.  (Please note there is one for amigas – girls who are friends and amigos – boys who are friends.)

Want to win something first thing this week?  I am giving away a set of our original Boca Beth language cards to one lucky maestra/teacher.  We don’t even sell them any longer, but I have one set of 12 bilingual language cards to give one lucky winner today – Monday – February 1st!

Comment below on my blog whether you have the time to download our free bilingual language cards or comment below that it’s just too much hassle and you would rather buy them!  Seriously – that is all you have to do to be entered to win!  We will take comments up through 8 pm EST Monday night, February 1, 2010 and choose one random winner.  We just want to know if those 160 free language cards on our web site are of value to you or not.

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

Here is a very cute bilingual book titled It’s My Birthday! sold at www.Alibris.com – I shop there often for books.  Click the link below for the page to buy the book from Alibris or to just view details on it.

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch.detail?S=R&bid=10103659605&cm_mmc=shopcompare-_-base-_-aisbn2-_-na

Here at www.LanguageLizard.com  you can buy a poster for your classroom, family child care home or play room that wishes Happy Birthday in many languages – not just Spanish and English.  Hard to see the image really great from this picture, but perhaps if you click the link below you will be able to get more details:

http://www.languagelizard.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=FRBIRTH  

And lastly, who doesn’t know and love Scholastic?!?!  This My First Bilingual Little Readers book looks terrific and has a page about birthdays!  I use www.BilingualBooks.com often to find other Spanish/English resources.  Click the link below to go to the page that has this First Readers Book on the page – it is the 8th one down that has the Birthday page!  Enjoy!

http://www.bilingualbooks.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=15      

I hope I have given you many ideas to work with this week for bilingual birthday fun with young children.  It’s all about making it fun, making it easy for you as the parent and teacher and making it affordable.  Rememeber … our second Boca Beth bilingual music CD has the bilingual Happy Birthday song on it – complete with Cha-Cha-Chas!

Did you realize there are more than 13 ways to sing Happy Birthday in the Spanish Language?!?!  Follow this link to see just a few ways, and conduct your own internet search to find more!

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

P.S. (I am giving away a bilingual book from my amiga Cathy Delittle.  It’s titled Pizza Pie Parrots / Pizza para loros.  Here is how you can win this bilingual book that addresses healthy eating habits while being bright and entertaining and bilingual.  Comment below what theme or concept you would like me to focus on in upcoming weeks.  We will accept answers up through next Tuesday at 5 pm EST, and we will enter all names into a sombrero and pick one winner out!  So start suggesting!)

Since we are sharing our Spanish Fun for Everyone with Birthdays as the theme I thought I would share with you our Boca Beth Anniversary announcement – attached with a gift for you of course!  (This picture is me way back in 2003!)

I began conducting interactive, bilingual children’s classes 7 years ago this month at Playtime Express in Dunedin, Florida !!!  I remember I had one VHS tape released (now VHS aren’t even sold in our product line) and our first bilingual music CD had just landed on the US Department of Education’s linked web site called OELA which stands for Office of English Language Acquisition!  I had so much passion for introducing a second language to little kids, and thank God, I still have that same level of passion!

Here we are, 7 years later, and Boca Beth is still going strong!  Sharing way less classes of our Spanish and English music and movement fun because now we have a quality, award-winning multimedia product line consisting of 3 DVDs, 4CDs, BOCA the puppet, a 44-page coloring/activity book, and musical shakers that do the teaching help with us!  See the entire line up here. 

I still conduct once-in-a-while classes – like today’s in Clearwater, FL … click here to learn more.

Here is my gift to you as a celebration!  FIESTA/PARTY stickers free for simply commenting (in the comment section below this post) the two countries I lived in as an exchange student.  The answer is in the 50 second audio sound byte below or found here in my bio.   Please include your e-mail address so that I might e-mail you back to get your address to ship you this sheet of about 60 fiesta themed stickers (maracas, sombreros, cactus, donkeys, children, ponchos, suns and more!!!!). 

Here is a very quick, 50 second introduction to me and my program off our sample Boca Beth CD – listen in. 50 second intro

So, celebrate with us today.  Visit me on my Facebook Fan Page.  Become a Fan to win today a different prize plus win other days as I continue to share my Boca Beth fun with families around the world.  It’s free and fun to sign up as a Boca Beth FB Fan!!!

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

So easy!  So fun!  So affordable!

That is what we hear all the time about our Boca Beth Product line and the FREE resources we provide parents and teachers!

Enjoy this brand new YouTube game from me, Boca Beth, and our visiting puppet friend Ricardo who loves eating fruits!  A great game to be played at the Birthday party (or children’s play group) right after hearing our Fruit Song (found on this CD).

Now, enjoy this interactive Game (YES!!!! You play along using your computer’s mouse!!!!!)

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

Ahhh…the old days when I used to perform at children’s birthday parties!

Fond, faded memories of good times gone by!

Even though you can’t book Boca Beth for your child’s next special celebration of life, you can get so close to the next best thing by using the following party sheet I used to send out ahead of time:

Fiesta Time with Boca Beth

www.bocabeth.com

·      FOOD

Based on the age of children in attendance Boca Beth recommends the following:

Salsa and chips.

Big Fritos with sour cream, chili & cheese and/or guacamole for dipping.

Make your own taco station complete with meats (chicken or beef), tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, taco sauce and shells.

Flan, dulce de leche ice cream, Tres Leches cake (available in many flaors these days) or galletas/cookies from a local Spanish grocery store.

·      CRAFTS

Have the children make their own Mexican ponchos out of large brown grocery bags with paints, sequins, beads, feathers, foam shapes, etc to decorate.

Maracas can easily be made with two paper plates stapled together (adult supervision required), popsicle stick as the handle and rice, pasta or beans as the noise filler – children decorate the outside of the plates prior to assembly.

·      MUSIC & GAMES

Guessing Cup Game (PreK – elementary) This can be played with three non-see-through cups placed upside down over three individual objects (a blue, a red and a green plastic fruit from the kids’ play kitchen at home for example).  Play the color song from “My First Songs in Spanish” Boca Beth CD first to have fun playing and learning about Spanish words for colors.  Use props from the Dollar Store for interactive fun  that show the seven (7) colors.  This makes the song even more interesting if you can match the color with the animal name and elaborate on it a little more during the music.  Allow the children to hold the props as they say the color word correctly in both Spanish and English without shouting (guide them in saying “Please, don’t shout/Por favor, no grita”). The children begin to get competitive during this song in order to be one of the chosen ones to hold a prop, but if you stick to your rule of no shouting – they will catch on that you mean it and will stop the unnecessary noise.  After the song draw their attention to the cups and have the children sit nicely around the game area so that all children can see the cups as you mix them around for a few seconds quickly asking them to keep their eye on red (or blue or green) – trying to trick the kids.  Then ask for a volunteer to raise their hand to pick where red is.  Play again and again!

Where Are Ricardo’s Fruits?  A fun game for children ages 2-8 using a puppet named “Ricardo” who you tell the children loves to eat fruits!  Using plastic fruits from the children’s play kitchen area have a bowl of fruits for this game.  Ask the children to look at the fruit and name the color in Spanish and English.  Have them chant with you “Rojo is red!  Rojo is red!  Rojo is red!”  Then pretend to start Ricardo’s engine like a car and say “Vroom – Vroom … ¡Mira!  Watch!” and have Ricardo pretend to eat the yellow banana or red strawberry or purple grapes and chant “Ricardo eats rojo!  Ricardo eats red!” laughing and being so amazed by it.  Then have a child take the red fruit and hide it so Ricardo cannot see it.  Do this again and again for many fruits so that many children have a chance to hide a fruit from Ricardo.  Then ask at the end of the game “Where is Ricardo’s red strawberry?  ¿Donde está la fresa roja?”  (or if you don’t speak a lot of Spanish just ask where is Ricardo’s rojo?  Just a little reinforcement will work just fine!)  The children love telling on each other as far as who is hiding what where!  A great game for Spanish word repetition and just plain fun!

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

P.S. (Tomorrow we will share with you the Cup Game and the Ricardo Fruit Game via YouTube videos you can watch again & again & again & again…………………….)

This week’s theme is centered around singing Happy Birthday in Spanish, English and adding Cha-Cha-Chas!!!  Stay tuned for cool fiesta / party ideas, game ideas and free Fiesta Stickers as the week goes on.

So grab your Boca Beth mini maracas or egg shakers, get out your birthday lists, and let’s share some bilingual birthday singing that will bring smiles to everyone’s face … no matter how young, no matter how old!

I’m going to let you in on part of the prize package that we will share later this week for the Where Is BOCA? contest:

It’s going to include a LED magnetic badge that you can program to read a birthday message for the special little one in your life.  Say you are a family child care provider or part of a homeschool co-op or running a three-year-old class in a center.  You take the badge the morning of little Tommy’s birthday and program it to read on the LED Happy Birthday Tommy ~ Feliz cumpleaños and you have made this child’s day extra special!

FIRST though I want you to keep guessing from last Friday’s Where Is BOCA?  because I don’t see many correct answers.  Keep guessing by going right here!  This contest ends Wednesday night at 11 pm EST (Jan 27th).  HURRY!  Take a guess now!  Then watch this cool YouTube video:

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

P.S. (The prizes we are giving away for last Friday’s Where Is BOCA? ROCK – so hurry and enter in your guess today!)

Not one amiga or amigo guessed the Cayman Islands as the answer for the last time we played “Where is BOCA?”

I am hoping this time we have three very fast, very correct winners!

Below is the list of prize choices from which you can choose, simply for guessing what country BOCA is in at the time this photo was taken!!!

1) Boca Beth LIVE! Concert DVD plus a pair of brightly colored, mini maracas made just for little children!

2) I Like Animals / Me gustan los animales DVD plus our 44-page coloring/activity book plus a BOCA puppet!

3) Sing Praise for Children bilingual Christian music CD plus a pair of brightly colored egg shakers and a pair of mini maracas too!

Here is how you win…comment below with the name of the country!  Even if you see 20 correct answers before yours, still answer because we will choose three random winners if there are that many correct ones.

Happy Educating!  Happy Guessing!

Boca Beth

This week has been all about What Time Is It? / ¿Qué hora es? ~~ our Boca Beth bilingual song!

Below are the words to this bilingual kids’ song, suggested classroom or homeschooling co-op group activity to go hand-in-hand with this song that I wrote almost 5 years ago PLUS some additional resources you might want to use while playing with this song.

What Time Is It?/¿ Qué hora es ?
(sung to the tune of “Are You Sleeping?”)

(chorus)
What time is it?
¿ Qué hora es ?
I need to know!
¡ Tengo que saber !
It is eight o’clock.
Son las ocho.
Time for breakfast!
¡ Hora de desayunar !
Repeat chorus
It is twelve o’clock.
Son las doce.
Time for lunch!
¡ Hora de almorzar !
Repeat chorus
It is six thirty.
Son las seis y media.
Time for dinner!
¡ Hora de cenar !

Suggested activity to do with this Boca Beth song:  This is an echo song. I ask the children if they remember what an echo is. I praise the correct answer person and ask them to be my echo in this fun song about telling time in Spanish and English. If the children are old enough to get the concept, they can act out the time of day while singing about it. We hold our arms out in the position of 8 o’clock, then straight above our heads for 12 o’clock, then pointing down towards the ground for 6:30.

Telly The Teaching Time Clock ~ found at this site  It’s bilingual and fun to use and on sale!

Plus remember to get the Boca Beth CD that the What Time Is It? / ¿Qué hora es? song is on found at this link.

Today is the day to get your BOCA stickers so that you, too, might use an inexpensive wall clock decorated with the BOCA stickers we send you to then sing and dance to our What Time Is It? / ¿Qué hora es? song … found on this CD from Boca Beth!

This language amigo of ours, BOCA, is quite the popular guy you know…

Shown on The Education Channel, featured in Parenting Magazine, highlighted in the toy industry magazine Playthings, and even seen on NBC, ABC affiliate stations here in Florida!

It’s easy to get your set of 4 / cuatro / four BOCA stickers as shown here on my clock that I still use to this day to introduce our Boca Beth bilingual song!  E-mail me at my personal e-mail address of BocaBeth@msn.com .   Put the word ‘stickers’ in the subject line of your e-mail and include your mailing address for us to mail you the stickers.

It’s that simple!  That fun!  That easy!  (Just like the way we bring Spanish and English together with music and movement fun here at The Boca Beth Program!)  Hurry!  I will take all entries (up to 50 people) but only until this Saturday at 12 noon!  Tell your friends who are thinking about introducing Spanish as a 2nd language to their children too!  The more the merrier!

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

P.S.  (Tell me by commenting below what prize I should give away for this week’s Where Is BOCA? contest…I really will use your suggestions.  Which CD or DVD or Language Set or Maracas do YOU want to win?!?!)

So much for bilingual education being controversial!

So much for bilingual education making teachers and kids frustrated!

Catch these two second grade gals showing us how their English-speaking heritage does nothing to stop them from learning a little Spanish through music & movement fun!  (This YouTube lesson plays all the way through with no stops for processing.  Unlike yesterday’s lesson which was super challenging for many of us to get through ~ I hear it’s a YouTube internal problem.  Sorry / Lo siento.)

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

P.S. (Catch tomorrow’s post with a cool way to get our Boca Beth clock stickers FREE as shown in this mini lesson!)