Just saw this on Facebook from the ladies at Spanglish Baby. Sign up for Club Read to receive a free bilingual book monthly. For ebook versions and summaries of some of the past titles visit this page. (The program is sponsored by Infinity Insurance.)
There’s even a great deal for educators. Go visit Spanglish Baby to find out more!
Well, this is a neat “discovery” and I didn’t find it through Twitter 
this time. Actually my younger son showed me the book, Baby Owl’s Rescue by Jennifer Keats Curtis. As we were looking through it I noticed that there were resources and teaching activities on the publisher’s site.
I visited the site and was very pleased to see support materials in both English and Spanish. For example if you visit the Baby Owl’s Rescue page and click on For Creative Minds (en Español), you’ll find Great Horned Owl fun facts, a matching activity, owl life sequencing activity and information about what to do if you find an injured bird.
You’ll also find ebook previews in English and Spanish – look over the books and listen as it is read aloud in either language. You’ll find just part of the text available, but you can listen to the entire book.
From what I gather from the site, the hardcovers and paperbacks are only available in English, but you can purchase ebooks – actually licenses for 1, 3, and 5 years or lifetime - in English or Spanish.
Where to go:
Sylvan Dell Publishing
Ebooks in Spanish from Sylvan Dell Publishing
As I was going through my Facebook statuses this morning, an event on the MisCositas.com page caught my attention. They’re 
asking for suggestions for a new Niko Spanish vocabulary video. The prize is a copy of Languages and Children: Making the Match by Helena Curtain and Carol Ann Dahlberg. All you have to do is post a suggestion or comment between now and April 30, 2010 to be automatically entered.
Where to go:
MisCositas Facebook Page
April Giveaway – Languages and Children: Making the Match
MisCositas.com YouTube Channel
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Just received this in my inbox this morning from CASLS (The Center for Applied Second Language Studies at the University of Oregon):
From http://readingrockets.org
Eric Carle's classic picture book is celebrating 40 years of delighting young children and adults with its simple concepts and brilliantly colorful illustrations. Reading Rockets has created a new family literacy bag inspired by the Hungry Caterpillar — activities that invite parents and kids to explore together the book's themes (in English and Spanish).
Read about the Family Literacy Bags at http://readingrockets.org/article/27935 .
Download the activity kit in English from http://readingrockets.org/content/pdfs/literacybags/Caterpillar_English.pdf or in Spanish from http://readingrockets.org/content/pdfs/literacybags/Caterpillar_Spanish.pdf .
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¡A Prepararse Para Kindergarten! (Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten!) is packed with information in both Spanish and English for your up and coming kindergartner. Some of the early childhood skills your child may acquire in both languages include learning the alphabet, recognizing your left and right hand, knowing the basic colors, shapes and numbers 0-20, using positional words and more.
Stacey Kannenberg is the co-author and publisher (Cedar Valley Publishing). According to her bio, she is a nationally renowned 
education expert and award winning author with an expertise in children’s education. For the Spanish translations, she enlisted the help from native speakers and educators alike.
As a Spanish-language teaching tool for someone who is a native speaker or someone who is very familiar with the language, I think this book could be quite useful. It covers many of the basics from numbers, the alphabet, colors, shapes, parts of the body, days of the week, months of the year and so on. Quite handy to have in one book. Another thing I liked is that you can use dry erase markers on all the pages, so that makes it more interactive for your child.
On the other hand, if you’re not very familiar with the language, I’m afraid this book wouldn’t be as useful. Some of the words have the phonetic pronunciations included, but not the majority of them. I realize space was probably at a premium, but I would’ve liked to have seen this throughout the book. Additionally, some of the pages were very busy with the graphics and text. For example, the frequently used words page is quite confusing. Perhaps if the words had been organized in a table, it would've been easier to digest. Also, with the Spanish vocabulary, I would have liked to have seen the definite articles used where applicable.
Overall, I think it would be fine for a teaching tool for those who are knowledgeable in the language. Personally, I probably will not use it with my younger child only because I prefer the immersion method as opposed to translation.
Where to go:
Cedar Valley Publishing: http://cedarvalleypublishing.com/proddetail.php?prod=CV-SK
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First Spanish Words
Illustrated by David Melling, Compiled by Neil Morris
Oxford University Press
November 2008
48 full color pages
Ages: 4-8
ISBN: 978-0-19-911004-9
From the publisher:
"… each volume takes the reader on a picture-book journey through a child’s typical day. There is a bird’s eye view of an early morning at home. the journey to school, inside the classroom, at a birthday party and even a trip to the museum and the beach. Aside from the useful everyday items, these books also incorporate many children’s favorite things; airplanes, dinosaurs and even fairy tale characters… These books also include supplementary material—a picture/word matching game, a learning to count page, identifying shapes, opposites, the weather, time, and a comprehensive index.”
When I looked through First Spanish Words my initial thoughts were that this book was doable and not so overwhelming. On each page you’ll find a large, two-page spread illustration based on a theme with vocabulary words on both sides. For example on the Nuestra clase page there are only 18 vocabulary words. In similar books I’ve seen as many as 35-40 which can be quite overwhelming to a child learning a new language. (In total there are over 400 words with English translations.)
Also, I really love the illustrations which invite you to use the new vocabulary—either make up stories about the characters and scenes or play games. For instance, I could see a parent and child playing ¿Dónde está… ? (Where is… ?), ¿De qué color es… ? (What color is… ?) or Veo-veo (I Spy). For more advanced students, you could even make up an entire story to go along with the illustration… Había una vez…
In addition to Spanish, Oxford Press offers the First Words Series in French and German as well.
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If you have any tips or advice for other TLSB readers, you may send me an email and I will post them. ¡Gracias!
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Another book I like to use is La oruga muy hambrienta (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) by Eric Carle. Using this book, you can cover the days of the week, different types of foods, small/big, to be hungry and other themes.
This past year in my preschool class we talked about opposites (los opuestos) using the book Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Ricitos de oro y los tres osos) by Ana Lomba.
