Let me ask you a question: how many children’s songs and nursery rhymes do you know in a language other than English? How often do you sing them to children?
If you answered none and none, don’t worry – today is the day to start learning multilingual and multicultural songs with children. The best way to do it is by collaborating with the families.
Nursery rhymes are an excellent tool for introducing young learners to different languages and cultures.
For example, I learned this song from one of my French colleagues
This one is in Italian and I learned it from my Italian student
My favourite one – is Incy – Wincy Spider in German.
The key idea is to learn the words from the language speakers, whether they are the families, your colleagues or children. You can also watch some Youtube videos and sing along. This is how I have learned two little tigers in Mandarin.
