October marks Celebrating the Bilingual Child Month! This month is designated to recognize and celebrate bilingual children and the incredible gifts they bring to the classroom. In addition to enjoying the cognitive, social, and emotional benefits of being bilingual, these students act as a bridge between cultures, promoting understanding and empathy. With them, they also bring a unique perspective to classroom discussions, challenge themselves and others to think in new ways, and broaden everyone’s worldview.
Here are some interactive activities designed to celebrate the varied ways of looking at things and the importance of commemorating diverse children. These exercises are perfect for Celebrating the Bilingual Child Month either in the classroom or at home. (Don’t forget to sign up for our special October giveaway to win bilingual books!)
We See Things Differently
Using the illustration below from Language Lizard’s book, Who Are We?, ask the children to “spot the differences” between the two paintings (e.g., colors used and the height of the vase).
Next, ask the children what it means to “see things differently.” For example, explain how the famous artists’ Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin painted the same sunflowers on the same day, but their finished pieces were very different. Finally, discuss how people can see/experience/react to things differently based on their experiences and background.
The Laundry Challenge
For older children, invite them to participate in “The Laundry Challenge,” also known as the Getty Museum Challenge, which involves recreating famous works of art using household objects.
First, the students can research well-known works of art by famous artists (e.g., Da Vinci, Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso, and Cezanne, to name a few) that they would like to recreate. (It might help to show examples to the students, and there are plenty of examples online or several examples created by students found at the end of the lesson plan linked below).
Next, ask the children to take a photograph of their completed work. Then, create a collage containing the pictures of the children’s recreated artworks and discuss how everyone sees things differently.
These activities and many more ideas for supporting a diverse classroom are in the Language Lizard lesson plan for the book Who Are We? To access all of Language Lizard’s lesson plans, signup here.
Please share pictures from The Laundry Challenge, as we would love to see them!
About Language Lizard
Language Lizard, LLC (www.LanguageLizard.com) is a leading supplier of bilingual products in over 50 languages. The company provides award-winning bilingual books and audio resources to schools, libraries, literacy organizations, and bilingual families. Language Lizard offers culturally responsive teaching materials, multilingual posters, and free multicultural lesson plans to support diverse classrooms and homeschooling families.
Language Lizard Idiom Books are available as English and bilingual paperbacks at www.LanguageLizard.com, Ingram, and bookstores worldwide. eBooks are available on major eBook platforms and on Overdrive and are 32 Full Illustrated Color Pages for Grade Level K-5.
