A highlight of yesterday was a group singalong of “Los Elefantes,” a tune that’s perfect for Spanish and bilingual storytimes. Abigail Morales was showing “Every Child Ready to Read en Espanol” attendees how to enrich “Los Elefantes” by clothespinning paper elephants to a string to visually reinforce the counting component of the song.
Abigail, Ana Elloa Pavon, and Saroj Ghoting provided many tips on how to implement ECRR into libraries serving Spanish-speaking communities. A handy kit helps librarians share reading, writing, playing, writing, and singing literacy tips and is available through the ALA Store.
Not sure if the kit meets your needs? Abigail shared how the San Diego Library personalized the kit, making it more culturally relevant to the families her staff serves. In addition to “Los Elefantes,” she demonstrated a cool interactive multi-sensory activity using oranges.
Ana shared a detailed bibliography of Spanish and bilingual books that can serve as a guide for collection development.
This was a very useful program that will help us serve our growing Spanish-speaking populations.