| Note concerning
the "Mini-Geography & Multi-Cultural Ed" sections of my website:
I'm embarking on a research project to gather tidbits of information on various cultures and countries around the globe. My hope is that from this material, we can introduce preschoolers to the "world." I'm really excited about this, but like the rest of my website, information will come gradually as I get time to do it. If you'd like to help with the research, or have specific activities or children's books to share, or can tell us where to get posters and/or other related information, just e-mail me at stormie@preschoolbystormie.com. |
MINI-GEOGRAPHY AND MULTI-CULTURAL
ED: Saying Hello and Good-bye Around the World
From Stormie:
We, as teachers, can learn to say "hello" and "good-bye" in several languages, then teach those words to the children throughout the month. For example, how about greeting and saying goodbye to one another every day in French for one week, in Swahili another week, and so on? Or, better yet, use and review various language greetings throughout the school year, not just in October.
By way of introduction, place a small sticker on your classroom map or globe showing the children where the country (or continent) is located. Go to the library and get books, find pictures/posters of towns and people (especially children), animals of the region, etc). At Group Time, discuss commonalities, not just differences reflected in the pictures and/or books.
I received the following wonderful little song from one of my website visitors. I decided that because it is so wonderful, I would use it to kick off this section of my website and do some follow-up research on the pronunciations of the languages mentioned in the song in order to provide more information for planning preschooler multicultural mini-lessons. If any of you reading this can suggest related children's books for countries around the world that detail culture, or tell us where to get pictures/posters or anything else that's related, please e-mail me.
*Hi Stormie. I'm Rochelle, from Manila. I teach 4-5 year olds. This month, our module is "Children of the World." We write new songs to the tune of familiar ones to fit whatever module we are teaching. My co-teacher, Cecile, created a song on saying "Hello" in different languages. Here's how it goes:
*Stormie's
Follow-Up:
Using
the rather inadequate glossaries/dictionaries I currently have access to, I wasn't
able to find English pronunciations in print for all versions of "hello" and "good-bye."
Can you help?
(Factual
tidbits below are meant only as random interesting information. The material
isn't meant to be comprehensive. Please let me know if you find something
that's factually incorrect.)
*Spanish:
Hello: "Hola" (pronounced "OH-lah") Good-bye:
"Adiós"
*To
name just a few, Spanish is the official language of the countries of Spain, Mexico,
and Cuba.
*Arabic:
Hello: "Salam" Good-bye: "Maasalaama"
*To
name just a few, Arabic is the official language of the countries of Egypt, Iraq,
Syria, Qatar, and Oman.
