Bilingual Story Time (Online) – Fish and Friends! / ¡Peces y amigos! - Fondulac District Library

Hi, everyone! My name is Miss Haley, and I’m so happy you’re joining me for story time today. This story time will be bilingual, which means in more than one language. So that means today I’ll be reading and singing songs in both English and Spanish.

Today’s story time is all about animals that live in water for most of their lives, like fish, whales, and turtles. For our first story, I’m going to need your help to count all the fish swimming around in the book, and along the way we’ll get to learn some new words that will help us describe the fish by size, shape, and more. Our second book is an Elephant & Piggie book where we discover that a big swimmer has taken Piggie’s ball away! Do you think Gerald the elephant is big enough to get the ball back for his friend? We’ll have to read and find out!

Before we get started, let’s get ready for story time by singing our welcome song, called “Buenos dias (Good Morning).” This song has some hand movements that go along with it, and I would love if you would do them along with me. Are you ready? Let’s sing it in English first and then in Spanish.

**Song: “Good Morning / Buenos dias”**

(Tune: “Frère Jacques” or “Are You Sleeping?”)

English Lyrics:

Good morning

How are you?

Very well, thank you

Very well thank you

And you?

Spanish Lyrics:

Buenos dias

¿Como estas?

Muy bien, gracias

¿Y usted?

Credit: Jack Hartmann Kids Music Channel

Book: 10 little fish = 10 pececitos

Written by Harriet Ziefert, illustrated by Elliot Kreloff, and read with the permission of Blue Apple Books.

Thanks for helping me count all those fish! We’re getting much better at counting to ten in English and Spanish. And now we know all sorts of words we can use to describe different fish, like short (corto), long (largo), big (grando), small (pequeño), spotted (manchado), and striped (rayado). Caregivers, simple books like this one are great for widening your children’s descriptive vocabulary, which will help them be able to communicate better about the world around them.

Flannel Board: Three Little Fish / Tres pececitos

(Tune: “Three Blind Mice”)

English Lyrics:

Three little fish, three little fish

(hold up three fingers)

See how they swim, see how they swim

(make swimming motion with arms)

Round and round and fast they go,

Ellos van rapidos

(“swim” fast — sing fast)

Now they are going very slow

(“swim” slow — also sing slow)

Three little fish, three little fish

(hold up three fingers again)

Spanish Lyrics:

Tres pececitos, tres pececitos

(levanta tres dedos)

Mira cómo nadan, mira cómo nadan

(finge nadar moviendo los brazos)

Están nadando rápido

(“nadar” rápido — cantar rápido)

Ahora van muy despacio

(“nadar” despacio — también cantar despacio)

Tres pececitos, tres pececitos

(levantar tres dedos de nuevo)

Credit: Miss Meg’s Storytime

Muy bien, great counting! Have you ever wondered how fish can breathe underwater? Humans have lungs that let us breathe air, but fish have special organs called gills that filter air out of the water so they can breathe. Isn’t that crazy? The big guy in our next story is an animal called a whale, and even though he lives in the ocean and looks like a giant fish, he has lungs like a human and has to come up for air to breathe just like we do. Let’s see if we can help Piggie get her ball back from this great, big whale.

Book: A Big Guy Took My Ball! / ¡Un tipo grande se llevó mi pelota!

Written and illustrated by Mo Willems and read with the permission of The Wernick & Pratt Agency.

Wow, I was really surprised by that ending! The big guy seemed scary at first, but it turns out he just wanted to play with someone! I’m so happy Piggie and Gerald realized they were wrong about the whale being mean and scary and asked him to play.

Caregivers, whenever you’re reading with your kids, it’s a great idea to ask them what they think will happen next in the story. This will help them make meaningful connections while they read, understand the story better, and learn to ask themselves questions when they read other books.

**Take-and-Make Craft: Pom-pom Turtle (Tortuga pompón)**

Pick up a craft kit at the library, available in the Youth Services Department or from the drive-up window while supplies last.

Supplies needed at home:

Liquid glue
Scissors
Pencil
Black washable marker

Included in library supply kit:

12 pom-poms
1 googly eye
Green cardstock

Instructions:

Use a pencil to trace the child’s RIGHT hand on the piece of green cardstock.
Cut out the tracing of the hand, and also cut out the outline of the turtle’s head printed on the paper.
Flip the hand cut-out upside down and glue the pom-poms everywhere but the fingers to create the turtle shell.
Glue the neck of the turtle’s head to the back of the turtle shell on the side with the pinky finger.
Glue the googly eye to the turtle’s face.
Use the black marker to draw toes on your turtle’s feet (the four fingers of the hand cut-out are the feet, and the thumb is the tail). You’re all done!

Credit: RedTedArt.com

More Spanish-English Books about Aquatic Animals:

Bilingual Books:

Tiburón toro = Bull Shark written by Deborah Nuzzolo

Turtles Up Close = Las tortugas written by Katie Franks and Ma Pilar Sanz

A Dolphin Is Not a Fish = Un delfín no es un pez written by Betsey Chessen

Pairs of Books in English & Spanish:

At the Aquarium / De visita en el acuario written by Kerrigan King and translated by María Cristina Brusca

The Pout-Pout Fish / El pez pucheros written by Deborah Diesen and illustrated by Dan Hanna

Don’t Worry, Little Crab / No tengas miedo, cangrejita written and illustrated by Chris Haughton and translated by Salvador Figueirido and Luis Amavisca

The Foolish Turtle / La tortuga tonta written by Anna Wilson and illustrated by Mike Gordon

I hope I’ll see you at our next bilingual story time on Thursday, December 3rd. And you can join us next week for another fun story time with Miss Sharon! We’re just about done now, so thank you all for joining me today! Let’s sing one more song together to say goodbye for now. This one is a call and response song, so when I point to you, repeat after me, okay? Here we go! ¡Ahí vamos!

Song: Goodbye Song

English Lyrics:

Goodbye

So long

To you

My friend

Stay well

And fine

Til we meet

Again

Spanish Lyrics:

Adios

A ti

Mi amigo

Cuídate

Muy bien

Nos vemos

Otra vez

Credit: Burlington Specials

– Haley, Youth Services Assistant