Dive into Diversity: 6 Spanish Children’s Books for Your Classroom Library
In recent years, classrooms across the country have seen a marked increase in Spanish-speaking students. This demographic shift reflects the growing diversity of the population, with Spanish becoming one of the most prevalent languages spoken in homes across the United States.
Data from the Census Bureau revealed that Hispanic learners comprised 28% of the entire U.S. student population in 2021. Additionally, Spanish is the native language for over 70% of English language learners (ELLs or ELs).
As we strive to meet the needs of our evolving student populations, the use of Spanish children’s books in the classroom has emerged as a valuable teaching tool.
In this blog, we’ll discuss the benefits of bilingual books for kids in the classroom, how to incorporate them into instruction, and our top picks to add to your classroom library.
Benefits of Bilingual Children’s Books
No matter how many English learners you have in your class, all of your students can experience the benefits of interacting with books in a different language.
Develop Classroom Community
Each year, you welcome a diverse group of students into your classroom. Your students have unique backgrounds, interests, personalities, and languages. As a teacher, you play a crucial role in creating a strong classroom community that welcomes all students.
When it comes to creating a sense of belonging, representation matters. Multicultural literature can offer “mirrors” into students’ own lives, reflecting their experiences and language. It can also provide “windows” into the realities of others—offering opportunities to find commonalities and develop empathy for their classmates.
Strengthen Family Partnerships
When parents and teachers don’t speak the same language, family engagement can be a challenge.
By providing bilingual books for families, you can strengthen home-school connections. Offering a home-lending library with Spanish children’s books can reinforce learning and demonstrate to families that you value their language and culture.
Improve Language Learning
Research has consistently shown that strong native language skills positively influence second language acquisition. This data has important applications both in and out of the classroom.
Even if you aren’t fluent in your students’ native languages, you can foster their home language development. By including bilingual books for kids in your classroom, you can reinforce students’ native language while also building important English language skills. Quality bilingual books will build a strong vocabulary in both languages.
As you focus on language development, bilingual books are an excellent addition to resources like vocabulary flashcards and picture dictionaries. They offer the added benefit of introducing new vocabulary words within context. This type of exposure to authentic language is crucial for language acquisition.
Ideas for Teaching with Bilingual Books
There are many different ways that you can incorporate bilingual books into your instruction. Keep reading to discover a few of our favorite ideas for using multicultural literature in the classroom.
Build a Spanish classroom library.
If you teach Spanish speakers, you may consider creating a Spanish classroom library or dedicating a section to classroom library books in Spanish. If those aren’t feasible, consider creating bilingual text sets in your library to feature throughout the year.
A well-curated Spanish classroom library can empower students, enrich their learning experiences, and create a more inclusive and supportive classroom environment.
Invite a guest reader for a special read-aloud.
Inviting guest readers who share a home language as your students can provide them with a valuable opportunity to hear their native language spoken fluently and authentically—which can build confidence and a sense of cultural pride.
Guest readers from your community can serve as role models, demonstrating the value of bilingualism and encouraging students to maintain their home language. They can enrich students’ understanding of their own culture by sharing their insights and personal experiences.
You can build strong relationships by inviting family members to be your guest readers as well. Be sure that parents have access to the book ahead of the read-aloud so that they have time to read it and become familiar with the story.
Learn new vocabulary with context clues.
Many bilingual children’s books provide the story in both languages, side-by-side. This is a great opportunity for students to use context clues to introduce new academic vocabulary words.
Depending on the age of your students, you can do this as a large group or have them work with partners. Before students read, give them a list of a few vocabulary words that you’d like to highlight in the text. At the end of reading, have students do a “Quick-Draw” or “Quick-Write” to explain what they think the words mean.
Compare and contrast English and Spanish versions of stories.
Fairy tales are a great way for students to compare and contrast stories from different cultures.
This activity can be adapted to your students’ age and ability levels. If your students are younger, consider doing this as a whole group. Some older students will be able to complete this activity independently.
Provide students with two versions of a similar fairy tale from different cultures. (It’s helpful if your students are familiar with the fairy tale. If not, make sure you read aloud with the whole group beforehand.)
Working in pairs or small groups, have students identify the similarities and differences between the two versions. Students can use a Venn Diagram to record their responses.
Create stories with students.
No matter what grade level you teach, students can create their own stories.
Students can foster a sense of pride and ownership over their work as they express themselves creatively in their first language.
Creating stories helps students develop important language skills, such as vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure.
There are many apps and websites that students can use to create and publish their own stories:
If you teach older students, they may not feel comfortable sharing their stories with their peers. Consider having them read their stories to younger learners, instead. This can boost their confidence and self-esteem, as well as encourage younger students to see themselves as capable writers.
6 Spanish Children’s Book Recommendations
However you choose to incorporate bilingual books into your classroom, it’s important to be mindful in choosing authentic, quality literature. Books del Sur suggests the following tips:
“Have conversations with your students about where a book’s author is from…See if anyone in your class is from that country or knows someone from that country. Return to this idea throughout the book when you meet words, phrases, sayings or structures that don’t match your own dialect.
If you can spend some time researching some key words or phrases that are unfamiliar, great! If not, then it’s a perfect opportunity to model how you infer meaning when you come to a word you don’t know.”
Below we’ve listed Spanish children’s books for every age level, including authentic authors and bilingual translations:
- La rebelión de las verduras by David Aceituno
Best for kindergarten–grade 2
A colorful picture book that’s sure to entertain your youngest readers.
- Spanish Readers Collection by Continental Publishing
Best for kindergarten–grade 2
Continental’s Spanish Readers Collection features a variety of engaging nonfiction and fiction stories—all titles are available in English as well.
- Adelita by Tomie dePaola
Best for kindergarten–grade 3
A Mexican twist on the classic Cinderella story, this story features Spanish words as well as English text—making it perfect for highlighting new vocabulary words.
- Magia: En una tierra muy lejana by Mirelle Ortega
Best for grades 1–4
This beautifully illustrated story reminds readers of the beauty that can come through change.
- Una tormenta llamada Katrina by Myron Uhlberg
Best for grades 3–5
Described as, “An important story of survival and small victories during devastating times,” this story is an excellent example of realistic historical fiction.
- Casa Dividida by Chris Mercer
Best for grades 9–12
Based on real-life events, this thought-provoking novel takes place during the Cuban Revolution.
Incorporating Spanish children’s books into the classroom offers numerous benefits for students. By integrating these books into your lessons and activities, you can create a more engaging and inclusive learning environment for all learners.
For more Spanish classroom support, check out Continental’s collection of resources for PreK–8.
This collection of leveled books is ideal for use in bilingual programs or classrooms where students are enriched by the Spanish language.
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