Bilingual App for Outreach Storytime, by Carissa Christner
This past week, I wanted a few more stories to add to my outreach storytime visit to a local Spanish-immersion daycare center. I didn’t have time to run to the library to pick up more books before the visit, but I remembered that a few of the new apps I’d tried recently had Spanish options. I quickly reviewed DADA Company’s story app, “Four Little Corners” and found it charming and the perfect length for the attention span of this group (as a bonus, the themes of the story even supported their weekly theme of “Amor y Amistad” (love & friendship)!).
The kids loved the story and it was nice to have the story read by a native Spanish speaker (my Spanish isn’t fluent, but I usually stumble along in hopes that the kids will take hope that if I’m brave enough to try, even when my Spanish isn’t perfect, maybe they can too). I did wish that there was the option to turn off the narration (there wasn’t, unless you count the mute button on the iPad), but other than that small complaint, I loved using this app!
I also brought out “Count the Animals” by Appracadabra which has options for charming illustrations for counting in 21 different languages. The Lite version counts only from 1-5, but that would have been plenty for this particular situation. Now I’m hunting for other great Spanish titles to bring on the iPad next time!
Carissa Christner is a librarian in Wisconsin.Posted on February 17, 2014, in Apps and tagged Carissa Christner. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.
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