Sunflower Books is dedicated to publishing resources which can assist teachers who work with young children who speak a language other than English. All of the resources are developmentally appropriate for three to five year olds.
Ten Read Alouds Adapted for ELLs is designed to help preschool teachers support ELLs by developing vocabulary and language structures during the read aloud time. The book shows the teacher how to present the new vocabulary from the story in a fun and interactive way. The book gives pre-reading activities to do before reading the story so that when you do read the story the ELLs will understand what it is about. Then the book suggests how to present the story when you read it for the first time. It also gives theme-related activities to set up in the centers. Below is a sample of one of the pre-reading activities and a sample of one of the extension activities.
Sample: The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle Pre-Reading Activity A. To help students understand the words silky thread show them a piece of embroidery floss and tell them "This is a silky thread". Encourage them to repeat the words by singing a song as students take turns holding the thread. She has a silky thread, she has a silky thread, Maria, Maria, has a silky thread. Extension Activity B. Extend the language into the math center by putting out colorful floss and peg boards or pot holder frames. Help the children use the silky thread to create spider webs.
Most of the stories and materials recommended in the book are already part of a preschool classroom. A teacher can choose a read aloud story and gather the recommended props with little preparation. If you are a preschool teacher with no training in ESL you can follow the lesson steps and be able to take the child through an ESL activity. If you are an ESL teacher with no training in early childhood you can follow the lesson steps to provide a developmentally appropriate activity.
The activities are designed to be used with the whole class, native English speakers and ELLs. The activities are interactive using props and chants and songs. Everybody will enjoy them!
FIRST STEPS
O.K. so I have an ELL in my class, now what?
1.Have the parents fill out a Home Language Survey.
2.Find out the family's country of origin so you can do some research about the culture.
3. Begin setting up language supports. (see ELL Classroom above)
4.Place books in your library which represent the child's culture.
5.Learn a greeting in the child's native language and greet him and his parents in their home language each day.
SURVIVAL ENGLISH FOR PRESCHOOLS is designed to help students who come into class speaking no English. For the teacher who does not have bilingual support in the classroom this book is an absolute necessity. This book is a series of lessons which teach the very basic English phrases a child must know in order to express his basic needs. There are four lessons on survival phrases, three lessons on personal hygiene, and four lessons on personal information which every child should know like "What is your name? How old are you? Are you a boy or a girl? " These seem like simple questions but if you don't know the language you can't answer them. As in the other book all the lessons are interactive and fun for the whole class. They are presented in a step-by-step format. There are also recommended extension activities.
Sunflower Bookswill be publishing a CD to accompany the Survival English for Preschoolers
book. The CD will be available at a later date.
There will also be concept books to accompany some of the lessons. Sale dates will be announced later.
The Who Is Jesus? series is a set of books designed to teach the gospel to children who speak little or no English. Sale dates to be announced later.
