Editor’s note: We continue with our week of Sylvan Dell Publishing Spanish-language book reviews. Check out the book review below and don’t forget to enter our GIVEAWAY for each book reviewed, but also the GIVEAWAY on Friday for a one year subscription to the Sylvan Dell eBooks iPad app Fun eReader!

BOOK DESCRIPTION/REVIEW

In ¿Hay alguien en casa? by Marianne Berkes, Zara Zarigúeya is looking for a home where she can raise her expected baby possums. The reader learns that some animals are diurnal (awake during the day), while others are nocturnal. Each animal has a different type of house that is perfectly suited to them: the bees living in the colmena so they can take care of their queen, the nido of the birds, high in the trees to protect the babies from predators. In the end Zara does find a home perfectly suited for her in time for her babies.

This was a wonderful book for my nature-loving kids, and compliments their lessons in school about animal homes. Whether in English or Spanish, I especially appreciated the vocabulary presented because even the newer terms were easy to understand with the colorful illustrations and detailed text. My four children (ages 5-9) and I highly recommend this book for elementary-aged kids.

BOOK DETAILS

Title: ¿Hay alguien en casa?

Author: Marianne Berkes

Illustrator: Rebecca Dickinson

Ages: 4-10 years

Publisher/Year: Sylvan Dell/2013

ISBN: 978-1-60718-7141

Price: $17.95

Website: Sylvan Dell Publishing

The Giveaway!

We are giving away one copy of ¿Hay alguien en casa? to one lucky winner. All you have to do is leave us a comment letting us know why you think your child will enjoy this book.

You can also enter to win one of the other three Sylvan Dell Publishing books we’re giving away, plus an annual subscription to its Fun eReader for iPad and computer devices. To enter each one, visit this link.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BOOK DESCRIPTION/REVIEW

When I learned that Sylvan Dell Publishing publishes award-winning picture books about math and science in Spanish, I was immediately interested in checking them out. At 7 years old, Vanessa is enthralled by anything related to the ocean, jungle animals, space, the planets and how things work, so I knew the review book we got would be a hit.

The book is called Un día en la profundidad and this is what my daughter had to say about it: “I liked learning more about the animals in the deep. The pictures are cool because they told me more about what I was reading.” In fact, she was so impressed by the illustrations, that she made two drawings based on what she had seen and read!

Personally, I enjoyed the realistic images, the wealth of information and the impeccable Spanish translation. Each books comes with an additional educational section, which is perfect to continue the exploration of the topic discussed.

We liked Sylvan Dell Publishing books so much, that we’ll be reviewing — and giving away — all four of its Fall 2013 titles in Spanish as well as its iPad app Fun eReader this week!

BOOK DETAILS

Title: Un día en la profundidad

Author: Kevin Kurtz

Illustrator: Erin E. Hunter

Ages: 4-9 years

Publisher/Year: Sylvan Dell/2013

ISBN: 978-1-60718-7185

Price: $17.95

Website: Sylvan Dell Publising

The Giveaway!

We are giving away one copy of Un día en la profundidad to ONE lucky winner. All you have to do is leave us a comment letting us know why you think your child will enjoy this book and enter the rafflecopter below.

You can also enter to win one of the other three Sylvan Dell Publishing books we’re giving away, plus an annual subscription to its Fun eReader for iPad and computer devices. To enter each one, visit this link.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A new study from WestEd has found that engaging low-income parents and their preschool children with PBS KIDS content and games improves math learning and helps prepare kids for kindergarten. The study examined improvements in preschool kid’s math knowledge and skills by studying families that use online games and at-home activities from the PBS KIDS Lab which features well-known character such as Curious George, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, and Sid the Science Kid. The study showed that kids who were exposed to these PBS KIDS games and media outscored peers who hadn’t been exposed on the Test of Early Mathematics Ability. 

To read more about this study click here.

We already love PBS Kids resources, especially since so many are also available in Spanish.  In honor of this great resource we have put together a list of our favorite 10 educational PBS Kids math-centered games. Check them out below:

Curious George Games

The Curious George games focus around George’s busy day and how he uses math to get through it. There is something for every kids’ taste at George’s Busy Day. Check out our favorite three games below and then explore all 17 games with your kids!

The Curious George Game Maker is a perfect resource for our bilingual kids. Parents can create a game of their own using all of the tools available in the game maker, and then explain the game to their child in their language of choice. The game maker provides objects, math symbols, grids, and frames. You  are free to creative missing number games, sorting games, counting and graphing, or write out simple math problems.

Curious George train station is the game  your train obsessed niños will love. It’s an interactive math game that prompts kids to do simple math by asking them to match the train lengths in the station.

Apple Picking with George is a mathtastic game. While kids help George pick the right apples they are learning number sequences to identify the missing number.

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! Games

The Cat’s Math Safari includes nine different math themed games that all feature familiar Cat in The Hat characters.

The Huff-Puff-A-Tron game encourages kids to identify two-dimensional shapes, patterns, and colors. In order to make the kite fly kids have to correctly match shapes and patterns that go into the huff-puff-a-tron which then makes more wind for the kite. The patterns get more complicated as the game progresses.

Sketch-a-Mite encourages dimensional shape recognition, drawing, and simple physics. The goal is to draw or select shapes to build a tower faster and taller than the termites. There is also the option of simply making the tower without having to beat the termites to it.

 The objet of Beaver City is for kids to help the beavers build their home. To do so they have to compare lengths.

Sid the Science Kid Games

This series of games focuses on games that are all about weather, temperature, and math. Check out all nine Sid the Science Kids games here.

In the game Weather Surprise kids help Gerald match items with the environment with the right temperature.

In Vegetable Harvest kids help Gabriela pick the vegetables in her garden and count them.

 In Vegetable Planting  kids follow Gabriela’s instructions to make sure the seeds go into the right box. Kids practice measuring and measuring vocabulary.

{First photo by  ShashiBellamkonda }

All other images Copyright © 1995 – 2012 PBS. All rights reserved.

Kellogg’s Froot Loops are not only a yummy breakfast or snack, they’re also a lot of fun to play with! We realized that they are ideal to use in busy bags or activities because the round shape and size are so easy for little hands to handle, plus the rainbow colors give you so many possibilities. Busy bags usually include simple materials to keep our kids imaginations flowing as they make up their own fun on rainy days.

Below are three simple and educational busy bag activities for toddlers and preschoolers that incorporate Spanish vocabulary and math. The best part is that you can create these activities with only five materials you most likely already have around the house.

Materials:

• color markers
• egg carton
• string
• scissors
• a box of Kellogg’s Froot Loops

Color Sorting Activity

 1. Cut your egg carton in half so it looks like a half dozen carton. Save the other half for the next activity.

2. With a black marker write the word in Spanish for the six different colors in a Froot Loops box: naranja, violeta o morado, azul, verde, rojo, amarillo.

3. For younger kids write the words in the corresponding color to help them match the Froot Loops, or color in each pocket with the corresponding color.

4. Have your niños match a handful of Froot Loops with the word in Spanish for each color.

Egg Carton Math Activity

 1. Take the other half of your egg carton and write the numbers 1-6 in the pockets.

2. Spell out the number in Spanish above each pocket.

3. Have your child put in the corresponding amount of Froot Loops in each pocket.

4. For older kids you can put one Froot Loop in, close the carton, shake it up, and have your child identify the number. For more advanced math you can put in two Froot Loops, shake the carton and have them add the two numbers the Froot Loops land on or even multiply them! Can they say that number in Spanish?

Froot Loops Rainbow Necklace

This idea is simple but has many possibilities.

1. Take a piece of string and string the Froot Loops through it.

2. You can also grab the sorted Froot Loops from the “color sorting” activity and create patterns in your necklace.

3. Or create a rainbow effect by sorting your Froot Loops by color and number, then loop them into your necklace!

We invite you to check out more Froot Loops busy bag ideas on Pinterest and Tumblr or to share your own in the comments below and we’ll pin them to our Pinterest board!

Disclosure: We are proud to be part of the Kellogg´s Champions of Great Starts bloggers and grateful to have Kellogg’s as a SpanglishBaby sponsor.

PBS KIDS Lab is a free website from our friends at PBS Kids which offers “more than 50 cross-platform games designed to help children ages 2-8 build critical math skills.” – Now PBS has announced the addition of bilingual translations of parental instructions and resources, activities, and a new blog series with content related to kids and media.

Start out at the PBS Kids Lab in Spanish and from there you can navigate the site.

Click “Todos los juegos” and you’ll be taken to the game page where your child’s favorite characters, such as Curious George, await. While actual game play is still in English, the games are organized into categories such as “habilidades”, “edad”, “dispositivo” and “programa.” Each game also includes a description and the objective written in Spanish.

The “Actividades para hacer en casa” button will take you to crafts and activities to do at home while the “Actividades para hacer en el salón de clase” page is designed for classroom and group activities. Both pages include complete and comprehensive directions in Spanish.

Another great page is their Ideas to Go page – (“Ideas para el camino”), which features over 50 creative ideas on how to incorporate math into your niño’s every day life, whether you’re in the bathtub (durante el baño) or at the zoo (en el zoológico.)

My favorite part of the website was the encouragement offered on the “Actividades Caseras” page:

I think a lot of women and mothers out there are like me – they’re used to thinking of themselves as being “bad with numbers” – but just because math isn’t necessarily your best subject, doesn’t mean you’re incapable of teaching your kids what you do know, and you can even have a little fun while doing it, too.

For more about PBS Kids Lab in Spanish, visit their about page. PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) are partners on this project, which is part of the Ready To Learn Initiative, a U.S. Department of Education-funded effort that aims to help kids build the skills they need for school success.

Tracy López is a writer living outside the D.C. Metro area. Her blog, Latinaish.com, examines cultural differences she discovers as she navigates life in a bicultural, bilingual family. She can also be reached via Twitter @Latinaish.

I really don´t want to pass along that fear of numbers to her.  Ingenio´s Math-o-matic manages to make learning numbers fun by disguising it as a colorful puzzle/game.

You can start out using it just to teach your kid numbers from 1-20 using the individual cards.  They´re all two-sided and bilingual.  On one side there´s just a large, colorful number.  On the flip side is the word for that number in both English and Spanish as well as objects to count.

Once your child is ready to start learning basic math concepts you can introduce the 22 math cards which are basically a rectangle with an equation that´s missing one number or sign.  Your child needs to use her budding math skills to “fill in the blank.”  In the process, she’ll be learning number sequencing, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  Just like that.

Y mamá?  Well, she gets a little, and much-needed, brain boost along the way.

All of Ingenio´s bilingual toys are available only via Amazon for now.  Of course, the best way to get them is via La Tiendita.

The Giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner:  Christa Marteny!!

Ingenio, the first educational bilingual toys and games brand in the U.S., has chosen you to be the first to get a chance to win every single one of their ten toys.  Today is the last day of the Ingenio giveaways.  You can enter to win Math-o-matic, awarded the Creative Child Magazine 2009 Seal of Excellence, simply by leaving a comment telling us which of the 10 bilingual Ingenio toys we reviewed these last two weeks is your favorite and why. You can find them all here.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway.  If you want to up your chances at winning, then click here to learn how to get additional entries.

This giveaway ends tonight, Friday, September 4th, at midnight EST.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

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