Teach me something about Día de los Muertos, por favor!

October 26th, 2008 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

Nicaraguans did not much celebrate Día de los Muertos where I lived, and since I have not spent much time in Mexico, where the tradition originates and is most practiced, I’m pretty ignorant about the upcoming festivities. I would therefore like to request links and suggestions on how to teach Día de los Muertos to my Spanish students, ages 7-13. I believe our high school Spanish teacher will have an altar for childrens’ souls that we can visit. Other than that, the only thing I’ve found so far is  one (admittedly very rad, but not helpful to my situation) video. Por favor, send me to your songs, sites, and skeletons in the comments below. Gracias.

Jose Luis Orozco—one of my new Spanish children’s song heroes

October 8th, 2008 | By Joshua | No Comments »

My new job requires me to learn (and invent) a steady stream of songs in Spanish. I’m teaching to ages 7–13, and they are ripe for lively songs, especially those tied to games, movement, puppets, and anything else that reaches the various senses of the students. Songs that tell stories are also successful at engaging my students. Jose Luis Orozco offers all of this—the music and the movement—in his many books and CDs, which have been a huge part of my daily lessons as I teach myself how to teach Spanish. Enjoy the samples on his site:
[LINK]->

Putumayo Records Releases Round-the-World Sesame Street Disks

September 19th, 2008 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Putumayo Records has produced some of my favorite world music compilations. Ever. (Their Kids’ division’s recent release, African Dreamland, is particularly amazing and tranquil.) Sesame Street is a global phenomenon that has entertained and educated children in 120 countries and scores of languages. I can’t wait to hear what this collision of goodness brings. I just ordered Sesame Street Playground, a two-disk CD/DVD of Sesame Street productions from Brazil, France, China, India, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, Palestine, Russia, South Africa, Tanzania, and the U.S. We’re talkin’ “Rubber Ducky” in Chinese and “Galli Galli Sim Sim” in Hindi. I just love that it’s now part of my job to track this stuff down. I’ll let you know how it sounds when it gets here. In the meantime:

[LINK]: Making-of “Sesame Street Playground” video

[LINK]: NYT article on Sesame Street going global

[LINK]: Putumayo Kids

[LINK]: Putumayo Presents Music Videos from Around the World