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We love October for many reasons, but our favorite is that it’s Celebrating the Bilingual Child Month! According to the Migration Policy Institute, more than 11.2 million young children, or 33% of all U.S. children under the age of 9, are dual language learners. So October is a perfect time to celebrate the extraordinary contributions of the many bilingual children in the U.S. and worldwide.
“To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world” ~ Chinese Proverb
One way to honor Celebrating the Bilingual Child Month is to foster a classroom based on respect, equality, and diversity using the free lesson plans and activities that Language Lizard has created to accompany many of our books. These lesson plans and activities help children discover and celebrate one another’s uniqueness while highlighting their commonalities.
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FLAG OF THE WORLD
A great exercise is the Flag of the World activity from Language Lizard’s book Who Are We? — available in numerous languages — and its accompanying lesson plan.
Using the above illustration depicting flags of the world:
- Ask the children to identify the flag(s) they know.
- Have the children research a flag of their choice. In addition to describing the flag, children could write the historical underpinnings of the flag and include information about the symbolism of the flag (i.e., what the color(s) and icon(s) represent).
- Perfect for older students, they can undertake a research project on the country of the flag they choose. Areas of research could include the location/geographic features of the country, a brief history of key events, the country’s climate, traditional food and drink, culture, and famous people.
- For fun, ask the students to create a flag representing something about themselves, their family, or whatever makes them unique. Then, display the flags around the classroom!
Are you looking for more ideas? You can look back at some of Language Lizard’s blog posts for additional ways to celebrate the month, like this one that features games and food from different parts of the world. Also, Language Lizard is extending their bilingual book giveaway; click here to enter!
Have fun Celebrating the Bilingual Child Month!
Related Posts
10 Childhood Benefits of Being Bilingual
Five Easy Hacks for Raising Bilingual Kids
Raising Multi-literate Children: Four Lessons and Five Reminders
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Language Lizard
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