Bilingual Storytime Flannel Friday - Los tiburones en la mar

The weather is warming up in a very summery way here in Kentucky, so I thought I would share a beachy flannelboard that is very easy and fun to use in both English and Spanish.  This is one of the first flannelboards that I ever made.  It's for the rhyme "The Sharks in the Sea" (to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus") which I translated into "Los tiburones en la mar."  Be sure to check out all of the Flannel Friday contributions for May 25 over at Mel's Desk!

The sharks in the sea go chomp, chomp, chomp
chomp, chomp, chomp,
chomp, chomp, chomp.
The sharks in the sea go chomp, chomp, chomp
All day long.


Los tiburones en la mar hacen chomp, chomp, chomp
chomp, chomp, chomp,
chomp, chomp, chomp.
Los tiburones en la mar hacen chomp, chomp, chomp
todo el día.

The remaining verses are as follows:
The lobsters in the sea go pinch, pinch, pinch / Las langostas en la mar hacen pinch, pinch, pinch
The whale in the sea goes squirt, squirt, squirt / La ballena en la mar hace squirt, squirt, squirt
The clams in the sea go open and shut / Las almejas en la mar se abren y se cierran
The octopus in the sea goes wiggle, wiggle, wiggle / El pulpo en la mar se manea, se manea
The seahorse in the sea rocks back and forth / El caballo de mar se mueve afrente y atrás
The kids in the waves jump up and down / Los niños en la mar saltan arriba y abajo

This flannel is fun to use in any beach or water theme storytime.  Potential books to include are:

I Know the River Loves Me / Yo sé que el río me ama by Maya Christina Gonzalez
¡Salpicar! / Splash! by Flora McDonnell
Bebé Goes to the Beach by Susan Middleton Elya
Bajo las olas 1,2,3 / Under the Sea 1,2,3 by Barbara Knox
Susurro del océano / Ocean Whisper by Dennis Rockill - This is a wordless book.

Of course, for any beach storytime, a fun final activity is to do a shell sort.  This allows parents and children to work together sorting various shells by their attributes, such as size or color.  Sorting in this manner is great preparation for Kindergarten, so this activity would be appropriate for a preschool age audience.  Check out this description of how sorting activities work from the Vermont Center for the Book's Mother Goose - What's the BIG Idea program. 

Here is the PDF if you are like me and prefer to have a pattern that is to scale.

Bilingual Storytime Flannalboard - Los tiburones en la mar

View more documents from Katie Cunningham.

Happy Friday to all!  Enjoy the sunshine this weekend!