Learning with Children’s Melodies/Aprende con Melodías Infantiles

About the Book

The focus of Learning with Children’s Melodies/Aprende con Melodías Infantiles is to recognize the need to transition children of Hispanic heritage into an English-speaking school system by building a classroom culture that not only recognizes the bilingual reality of its students but uses the language difference of the students as a vehicle to create linguistic empowerment. Each of the lessons is based on children’s songs from various ethnic cultures that make up the United States of America, including Latin American traditional songs. Literacy is accomplished more rapidly if reading materials have cultural relevance. If the protagonists of a story are Hispanic, the Hispanic students will be more attentive to the lesson. In the first lesson song, “Los Pollitos” (the little chicks), there are personifications of children with attributes of all children. The embodiment of childlike personality traits into the little chicks catches the interest of students that are English-speaking and Spanish-speaking. Repetition of vocabulary learned in the morning circle and in the other learning centers throughout the day will increase retention. Happy learning to you and your class!

About the Author

The author and artist, Yvette T. Barrett, was born in Los Ebanos, Texas, a rural border town along the Rio Grande River, whose population is Mexican American. She grew up in Hialeah and Miami, Florida, in a multicultural population that included Americans from various ancestries reflected all over the USA, but mostly Hispanic. Inclined to study the arts from an early age, she received a BA in Arts from FSU. At Chapman University, she received an elementary K–8 classroom teacher certification. She was certified to teach in the states of Arizona and New Mexico and was a classroom teacher for nine years. As a children’s case manager for a mental health facility for two years, she assisted the psychologists in linking their clients to community services and helped the children with individual education plans to improve academically and socially.