what are the best ways to teach 3-5 year old spanish kids english?

Talk to them in English.

Read to them. Find books that are bilingual — English/Spanish. Read BOTH sets of text to them. Honor their native language as much as the language you want them to acquire.

Also, find books that have characters they see on TV or TV programs that promote literacy — Clifford, Dora, Reading Rainbow, Follow the Lions, etc.

Have them help you learn Spanish so they see that learning works both directions. If you already know Spanish, have them reinforce what you already know. Question your own learning, and let them teach you.

Memorization may actually be better for some kids. Don’t force her to go ‘by the book’ because people learn differently. I know of a 6 year old who reads better when upside down than right-side up (the book, not the kid). Eventually, she’ll straighten herself out. And while she does need phonics for words she hasn’t seen before, recognizing familiar words is a good way to learn other words. But yeah, keep her away from tv and find her books she LIKES. Even if they’re a little challenging, at least she’ll be interested. If she can’t stand the 1-sentence-a-page stories, don’t bore her. Why not take her to the library and pick out books together. And you can read together, switching off every page or so. Then you can spend time together and it builds a good family support system for when she gets older. Good luck!

All good advice so far. The only things I would add are to remember two things. You only get them for 30 minutes a day, so be sure to repeat activities often, like if you have a quick one minute welcome song, sing it several times a week. Or have a song about days of the week? Sing it every day the week you cover that.

Other thing – keep lessons in context. Don’t just give them words, have groups of words that are related/connected. make activities theme related. For example, spend a week talking about the farm, so sing songs about farm animals, read books about farmers, etc. Get the kids using the English words within that theme.

I am a bilingual teacher of 17 years in the area of Bilingual Education. I also train new teachers to become bilingual teachers. The best way to teach 3 to 5 year old children who speak other languages the English language is to teach them in songs and games and play. Lots of kinethestic movements and motions. They must have lots of fun!!!! They learn and do not realize the are learning (adquiring) the English language. Use puppets, dolls, stuffed animals and just talk to them. The kiddos are enraptured and they learn!

Watching tv is simpler but I love reading catalogs more

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while reading a book, you’re stimulating the human brain. You increase your literacy and reading skills and you simply in the process, are more literate. Despite having today’s modern technology, you should be in a position to read still.

While watching t.v. can be good fun, it is not doing anything to your brain.

You might want to try different little songs and such that we sung as kids, and then help them understand the words in it. Also you might want to suggest to the parents to have them watch English shows or movies to help them hear it at times that you are not there.

read aloud

shared reading of poems and books with repetitive parts